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Table of Contents What Are Models?
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Why Models?
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The Power Law Distribution of Non-Stressful Inputs
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Curvilinear Effects of Stressful Inputs
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General Adaptation Syndrome
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Impulse Response Model (Fatigue Masks Fitness)
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Fatigue and Intensity/RPE
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Technique and RPE/Weight
49
Work Capacity
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Deloads and Responsiveness to Stress
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Strength vs. Mass Gains
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Specificity of Adaptations With Training Experience 80 Pyramid of Nutrition Priorities
85
Different Calorie Levels’ Effects on Muscle and Fat
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Minimum Effective Dose vs. Maximum Tolerable Dose 94 The Science of Lifting
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Copyright 2015, Greg Nuckols and Omar Isuf All graphics by Lyndsey Nuckols and Jewelya Williams
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CHA P TER 1
What Are Models?
Y
our body is insanely complex. Humans, with all of our scientific knowhow and the aid of vast compu-
tational power from supercomputers, have just reached the point of being able to model a single cell of the world’s simplest organism. We’re still a long way from having a comprehensive model for a single human cell, let alone modeling, from the bottom up, how individual cells interact, or how entire organs signal back and forth with each other, or how the human brain works in its entirety, or how it interacts with, influences, and is influenced by the other tissues of the body, and how we interact with other complex organisms (each other) and our environment. We, as a species, know a lot, and we’re quickly learning more every day. But we still have a long way to go to understand all of the workings of a single one of our cells. Just let that sink in for a moment.
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A nihilist, when faced with this realization, would throw his hands in the air and lament: “Compared to how much there is to know, we know effectively nothing. There’s no way to understand all of this stuff, so why even try?” Luckily, I’m not a nihilist, and I think that response is nonsense. Not knowing EVERYTHING doesn’t mean we don’t know anything. Far from it. We know enough to treat many diseases, put a man on the moon, and split the atom. Heck, hundreds of years ago, Isaac Newton could describe, with stunning accuracy, how the planets move the way they do with nothing but a telescope and some calculus. We, as humans, are really good at doing a lot with astoundingly little (relatively) information. But, because we don’t know everything, we have to construct models. Models are our way of wrapping our minds around complex systems that we don’t know everything about, distilling them down to their most important features, and being able to have a basic idea of how they work and predict how they’ll respond to various challenges (stimuli or stressors). A good model has three main features: 1) It captures enough of the system’s complexity to be useful in describing how it works and how it will respond. 2) It accounts for few enough factors to actually be user-friendly. 3) It actually works.
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CHA P TER 2
Why Models?
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s an athlete, coach, or fitness professional, you have to know a lot about a lot. Programming, biomechanics, recovery modalities, nutrition, sup-
plements, athlete psychology, and the list goes on. There are people who specialize in every one of those specific subjects – who get advanced degrees, do research, and devote thei