SAID Principle - ELITETRACK

Tim Sullivan wrote the following in response to my Rules for Robots post from yesterday:

My understanding is if you keep bending it like a credit card or hotel card eventually it will break or law of repetitive motion… to this rule only applies to a small amount of the training program, when heavy superficial external loads are place on the body… to this is another way of saying isolate them out.

Of late I keep hearing this law of repetitive motion quoted. Who wrote this law? Sounds like another guru platitude. The body is not rigid piece of plastic, nor is it a machine. These kind of inane comparisons and analogies do not do justice to the body. The body is designed to solve moment problems, sure it adapts to certain patterns if repeated whether they are loaded or unloaded. Think of a stoop worker in the fields? The body is highly adaptive. In sport situations and in fact life and work situations that are highly repetitive that is why we find appropriate means to strengthen and lengthen. Sure there are time when it beaks, that’s life. A good training program that is mutli-joint, multi plane, proprioceptively demanding and mindful will address this. I believe Logan and McKinney addressed this on page 149 of their book Kinesiology. “The mature athlete tends to have a posture which is related to his particular sport if he has trained for years to become expert at his specific position or event. The reason for this phenomenon is the fact that the body tends to adjust or adapt to the various stresses or demands imposed upon as a result of prolonged muscular activity. Wallis and Logan have called this the SAID Principle: SAID is an acronym for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands.” In my book nothing more needs to said (If in doubt go to Logan & McKinney, they have stood the test of time.

PS Tm, I wish GAIN was sponsored by Honda.

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Vern Gambetta

Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.