SAID Principle and Bodybuilding
Whether you believe in Adam and Eve or evolution, it's obvious our bodies are built to survive. From the way our immune system protects us to the way our muscles grow bigger, we are built to survive. The SAID principal attempts to quantify that survival ability, it stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID).
The process of building muscle starts with the breaking down of the muscle by resisting stress that was placed on it, which the muscle did because its built to survive. Protein synthesis which is the chemical process describing how the new, repaired muscle is formed, it is a result of our ability to repair in order to survive.
The explanation is that when we are training, certain movements will produce specific adaptations to that movement. For example, a gymnast develops upper and lower strength, size, explosiveness, agility and balance, all improved simultaneously.
Just like the tennis player gets better by playing more tennis, the marathon runner improves his times by running more marathons. The SAID principal is what measures this adaptability of the human body. The demands placed on the central nervous system need to be sustained to see any permanent change.
For example, trying to improve one's explosiveness would require one to use specific training methods to increase explosiveness. The same as increasing 1RM means using heavier weights with lower reps. It's the process of adaptation that takes place on a cellular level.
Dr. Fred Hatfield (Dr. Squat) wrote 7 laws on strength development and one of those laws is the SAID principal. It makes for interesting reading and should be read by all bodybuilders, weightlifters and powerlifters. His 7 laws on strength are:
Law I: The Principle Of Individual Differences
Law II: The Overcompensation Principle
Law III: The Overload Principle
Law IV: The SAID Principle
Law V: The Use/Disuse Principle
Law VI: The Specificity Principle
Law VII: The GAS (general adaptation syndrome) Principle
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