The right amount of "Umph"

If you are training for peak performance or to stay fit and healthy, a toll is taken on your body. By definition exercise is a stress on the body , which forces a change and a process of adaptation making your body stronger and more capable or tolerating more challenge - improving its overall capacity. Our bodies are so adaptable that the goal of this change in capacity can look many different ways to different people. You may want to lift more weight , run longer and/or faster, climb a mountain, lose body weight or have a lower resting heart rate. Whatever it may be your body will adapt to the stress that you give it, it will become more capable for any given task and the individuals desired outcome. The tricky part is determining how much stress, for how long and when. What happens when we push too hard for too long , is that the stress no longer leads to adaptation but leads to maladaptation , injury or over reaching response can occur. Always thing about how you are feeling, how much training you have done and consider that rest is an equally important aspect to training as the exercise is.