Podcast 34

The Dose-Response Relationship in Exercise

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SHOW NOTES

Learn how a little-known principle in exercise determines whether you get the fitness results you are looking for, or you just spend some time moving weights up and down at the gym. Find out why the dose-response to exercise is what you should really be paying attention to, and how it can guide you to easier fitness gains in a shorter amount of time.

• More exercise is not necessarily better. The dose-response relationship applies not only to medication and stressors but also to exercise.
• It describes the magnitude of the response the body has in response to a stressor, in this case exercise and the response is the result that we are looking for.
• Your body is what produces the results and adaptations that you want, not the exercise. If the stress is of sufficient intensity or quality, you will get the response that you want. Just going through the motions of exercise won’t necessarily produce an adaptive response in the body.
• You also need to give the body enough time and resources to produce the response you are looking for. Exercising too often is actually preventing your body from adapting and growing. This is how athletes experience overtraining.
• The adaptations occur after the exercise session is complete, and only if the stimulus is of a high enough intensity and quality.
• Exercise is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Just putting in time exercising isn’t necessarily a good thing. A lot of what passes for exercise is just enjoyable activity, and it won’t trigger adaptations or reverse the effects of aging.
• Exercise impacts every system of the body. For every single exercise session, you should be able to measure the improvements in fitness level. This is a key component of the program at the Exercise Coach.
• When you don’t see improvements between sessions, it means one of two things. Either you need to increase the intensity of the exercise, or increase the amount of rest and recovery between sessions.
• Your dose-response is very individualized. The amount of stimulus you need to generate an adaptation will vary. At the Exercise Coach, client’s individual abilities are measured and programs are designed to be just the right fit for them.
• At the end of the day, the right intensity for one is different from the right intensity for another.

It’s only going to serve as a stimulus if it’s of a high enough quality, meaning a high enough intensity. And so this is why we like to talk about at the Exercise Coach, exercise as a means to an end.

Welcome to the Strength Changes Everything podcast, where you will get information on living a healthy lifestyle. I’m Amy Hudson, along with my co -host, Brian Saigon, CEO and co -founder of the Exercise Coach. So today we are going to talk about this little principle that has big implications called the dose response relationship of exercise. A spoiler alert is in this episode, you’re going to learn why more exercise is not necessarily better and why better quality exercise delivers more. So, hey, Brian, how are you?

I’m doing great, Amy.

Awesome.

So yeah, talk to us today about the relationship between the dose of exercise exercise that somebody gets and the response that they may get in their body and why less is sometimes more.

Sure will.

I think we might’ve broken up there for just a second. So I’ll kind of repeat that a little bit. We’re going to talk about the relationship that exists between the dose of exercise applied and the response from someone’s body. And again, this is called the dose response relationship of exercise. That’s what we’re talking about, but it’s applied. to other things like medications and really any stress, any exposure to a stressor, the dose response relationship can actually be applied to because it’s really about the magnitude of response from our body or from an organism, a biological organism as a function of its exposure to a certain stressor.

And when we talk about the dose response relationship of exercise, I like to just explain that we’re, again, we’re talking about exercise really being a stress, a stressor, and it’s applied to the body. In this case, that’s the organism or the body that is exercising. And we’re looking for a certain response from our body. And The response that we’re looking for really are the results that we want from exercise. And they come in the form of what are known as effects and also exercise adaptations. But what’s really important to understand is that it’s the body that will produce these results.

The response we want from exercise, the adaptations are produced by the body in response to what’s perceived as a demanding or threatening stimuli or stressor that serves as a stimuli. So it’s not the exercise that is actually directly causing the results that we want, whether it’s bigger, stronger muscles or a better metabolism or lower blood glucose, all the results we want from exercise. It’s not the stressor that’s directly causing it, the stressor or the body’s being exposed to the stressor and will produce those results or response if the stress is of a sufficient intensity or quality. When it comes to exercise, it’s really about the intensity of the exercise. So that’s the first if, and that just means that if we just go through the motions and we don’t exercise at a high enough intensity, there might be a stressor there, but it doesn’t act as a stimulus, meaning it doesn’t trigger the body to produce an adaptive response or the results we want from exercise. And the second big if is that the body will produce these results if we give it enough time and recovery resources to actually produce the response that we’re looking for.

If we apply an intense exercise stimulus one day and the next day come back and do it again, and we don’t give the body the time it needs, to recover or the resources it needs to recover, sleep, nutrition, then it won’t actually even produce a beneficial response. And in fact, we’re just experiencing overtraining.

When you’re talking about that, Brian, so what you’re saying is it’s not the exercise session itself or the stressor on the body itself that is creating these adaptations, but it is the body’s response to that stressor that after that exercise session, the body actually is receiving this whole host of benefits. And as it adapts to what you did, what that stressor was on your body. Is that true?

That’s right. Again, if the exercise was intense enough and if you give the body time to rest and recover. So it certainly is the exercise session that has the potential to serve as a stimulus. And what I’m saying is that’s not a given. It’s only going to serve as a stimulus if it’s of a high enough quality, meaning a high enough intensity. And so this is why we like to talk about at the exercise coach exercise as a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

This is what’s underlying that statement. What we mean by that is that just going through the motions, just being active, just putting in time exercising isn’t actually necessary. that good. It’s really good when we do it in a manner that stimulates the body to produce adaptive responses. That seems to go without saying, but a lot of what passes as beneficial exercise is really enjoyable activity, but not really a stimulus that will trigger a whole body adaptation, reversing the aging process, and really optimizing health and fitness.

Absolutely.

And it’s pretty cool because we actually have an article available at exercise coach . com on this, where we say there’s immediate benefits of exercise. Just one bout of right intensity exercise triggers a cascade of effects, including cardiovascular, hormonal, physiological, neurological, endocrinological, biological, Every system of the body, right? Every system of the body. It’s like you leave your exercise session and your body just is enjoying these incredible benefits throughout every system as a result of what you did. And it’s available even after one bout of right intensity exercise, which is so exciting.

That’s right. That’s that exercise session is a means to an end. It’s triggering the body to get better every system of the body to get better. And that’s what we should see when we come back from even someone’s first meaningful exercise session. And each one that they perform after that we should consistently come back and see that there’s a measurable change in their fitness level from last time. we should see that they’re getting stronger, they’re getting more enduring, they’re getting more fit.

And we use technology at the exercise coach that enables our coaches to actually measure the response and actually show that this individual is actually experiencing the results, the response that we want from exercise, because that exercise session, that strength training session is sufficiently intense and they got the right amount of recovery. And when we see that someone might hit a plateau or they’re getting a little weaker, or they’re not getting any stronger, we know that we need to do one of two things, either increase the intensity or allow more time for them to rest and recover between sessions. So it’s really a very information enabled approach. But what we’re really applying is this dose response principle.

Yes, that’s so awesome. And clients love to get that feedback within their physical body, but also on that screen showing the progress that they are making. There’s a lot of joy when they begin realizing even in the first two, three, four or five sessions, they start feeling the difference and they’re starting to see the quantifiable difference of their abilities and their strength going up. And it’s a result of this proper dose and response that we should expect when delivering the right type of exercise with the right amount of recovery, like you just said.

Yeah, which is totally individualized, right? I mean, people come to the table at different fitness levels, different experience levels with exercise, etc. And so that dose is different for each person. Relative to each individual, it needs to be of a high enough intensity, like you said, it needs to be the right intensity, which means intensity that’s just precisely enough to trigger the body to change. But what it’s going to take for different individuals to be exposed to a powerful stimulus or the right intensity varies. And so another thing that we do at the exercise coach is actually use technology to measure

each client’s individual abilities. And based on that, provide them with an exercise prescription with workouts designed to be just the right fit for them. But again, what I mean by that is the right fit in terms of guiding them into the effort level that we know for them will actually trigger every system of the body to get better.

Absolutely.

At the end of the day, the right intensity for me is different from the right intensity for you, because you’re at a different place. And it’s different from from us to a woman who’s 65 coming in for the first time who hasn’t exercised in many years. We all have various levels of intensity that are right for our body to get the proper dosing of exercise that will trigger all these benefits and help us to get stronger right from where we are at. And that’s why we love having this baseline. Great, well, if you are a person who would love to realize all of the benefits, the immediate benefits to every system of your body that are available from the right intensity exercise designed specifically for you and where you’re at today, we encourage you to check out exercisecoach . com and visit a location near you to try it out for two, three sessions.

You can meet with a coach, you can get your personal perfect exercise program designed for you so you can experience how it works and see the progress that you’re making each and every moment that you’re working out. And we encourage you to do so if you’ve never done that before. We will see you next time on the podcast. And remember, strength changes everything.