Have you been training for days, months, or even years only to achieve minimal goals? This is not a lack of willpower or physical performance- but rather a lack of knowledge. This article aims to cover the universal problem of sub-maximal training improvements and bringing your goals closer.

What is the SAID principle?

his universal problem can be solved with a simple but effective acronym, the “SAID Principle” or Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. This principle basically states that the body will best improve and adapt by a closely related and specific mechanisms. The body does far better at focusing on a type of training for one goal in mind rather than multiple types with every goal in mind.

This can be best illustrated with the ever-popular goal to increase muscle and lose fat at the same time. It just isn’t possible and quite hard for most to understand. Your body can do one at a time and this is due to the simple calorie equation: calories in must be greater than what you burn everyday to gain weight. To lose weight calories must be less than what you bring in everyday.

So your body is naturally inclined to use the SAID principle to improve, and in this case is the only possible solution.

SAID Principle for Training

Using the above example, say you wanted to lose fat. It wouldn’t make sense to lose maximal fat by lifting for strength. If fat loss is your pure number one goal, you will achieve far greater results by increasing cardio parameters and repetitions during weight training.

On the other hand if you want to build maximal muscle and don’t care as much about fat, you would train with lower reps and minimal cardio. This is to preserve calories and train in that classical muscle building rep zone of 8-12 reps. Keep in mind some will build more muscle on the lower end and some on the higher end and 8-12 is a simple rough estimation only.

Now I know by now many of you are saying that most bodybuilders or athletes would train for a blend of both. This is true and even though they may be very successful in what they do they will never be as conditioned for one over the other. (Fat loss over muscle building).

Bodybuilders and athletes train this way because their professions require a blend of skills and not just one. Bodybuilders need maximal muscle mass while maintaining trim waistlines. Athletes need multiple field skills and agility while also maintaining size (in most sports).

Understanding the SAID Principle

If we breakdown the SAID principle we can better understand how to utilize it effectively. The “S” stands for specific. This has been the main topic of this article thus far and means that the more specific the activity or closer related to what you want to improve in- the better. For instance, if you wanted to become really good at playing basketball and in particular, dunking a ball, than no other substitute for the real deal will help you better. Weight lifting, running, or any other activity will not help you achieve the goal faster than if you practiced actually jumping and dunking a ball- even if you fail at first.

The “A” stands for adaptations which simply mean that your body will adapt to the stimulus you place on it. If you ran to boost your jumping ability as stated above, you would not have much adaptation occurring in your body. This is because you need to stress your body in a specific way to get results. Practicing a vertical jump would cause a greater adaptation effect for dunking a ball rather than running- but again nothing can replace actually practicing the movement of dunking a ball. The closer the exercise resembles the real thing, the better the adaptation and results.

The “I” and “D” tie into each other and are the final part of the SAID principle. These basically state that you must place a stress to the body that passes it usual threshold through Imposed Demands. If you were to jump everyday trying to get better at dunking but only jumping 50% of your maximum height, you will not improve. Imposing demands to the body causes it to adapt and improve.

See a connection between all of the components of the SAID model? So in any activity, trying your best really does reach you closer to your goals- even if you fail the first few times.

Conclusion

As you can see the SAID principle affects everything we train for. It may seem like a very simple and vague principle but still many discover that they actually do not follow the SAID principle when they sit down and think about it. These are often the people who see no improvement and thus are not specifically adapting to imposed demands. So really be honest and judge yourself (don’t be too harsh) as to whether you follow these principles. Make the change and you cannot fail in your future goals.