Why the Stimulus and Fatigue of an Exercise Matters

How the stimulus-to-fatigue ratio affects our training and how to optimise it.

In the pursuit of our fitness goals, exercise can feel like a constant battle between progress and beating our bodies up. The truth is, if you have never felt burnt out from your workout routine, you need to train harder.

And that is the trade-off.

To improve our fitness or physique, we must provide a strong enough stimulus that we force our bodies to adapt. But we do not want to smash ourselves that hard, day in and day out, that our bodies cannot recover from the fatigue that this generates, AND we risk injury.

There is a fine line between pushing our physical boundaries and avoiding overexertion. It is not straightforward to achieve the right balance between stimuli and fatigue.

This article explores the importance of providing the stimulus to improve whilst effectively managing exercise-generated fatigue.

What is stimulus

In fitness circles, also known as lifting tin, making gains, getting swole etc., stimulus refers to the stress or workload placed on the muscles during exercise.