Accommodation: A New Perspective

The Law of Accommodation isn’t a largely discussed topic, particularly from the viewpoint of how it can impact human performance, not only in weightlifting but in the outputs required over the course of a competitive season for any athlete in any sport.

What is it?

The Law of Accommodation is a biological law that simply states that if we do the same stimulus over and over again that stimulus becomes less of a signal for change.

Meaning:

If you are not pushing adaptation, you are pushing accommodation.

Zatsiorsky ¹ discusses accommodation, however only devotes one paragraph to the topic showing exactly the lack of information and perhaps the misunderstanding of the law in the realm of training for sports. This difficulty stems from the fact that accommodation has only been applied to plateaus in training for strength using weightlifting as the means of change.

It is for this reason that all of the information on how to mitigate the effects of accommodation are solely the manipulation of weight training variables. For many, this means making necessary and relatively frequent alterations in both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of lifting. Quantitatively, lifters often change the volume or intensity of their lifts. Qualitatively lifters often change the exercise, substituting a major lift for a modified version or for an accessory lift of some kind.

In fact, many coaches advise that the only way to avoid accommodation is to change the selection of exercises. By varying the exercise the body has to undergo a new “movement pattern” such that new or different muscle groups will be worked and a new level of coordination will be required thus challenging the human system in a new way that requires adaptation to occur.

Even further, it is suggested that these overhauls of the training program are only advisable in elite athletes as those with less training experience will not undergo the process of accommodation as quickly or as thoroughly. This is the main driver of different types of periodization, whereby straight linear periodization is often most strictly used with novice athletes.

At Absolute, we feel that this view of accommodation and its effects are misguided and fraught with inconsequential information concerning the understanding of accommodation and its effects on performance.

A Change in Perspective

First and foremost, it is stated very clearly that the Law of Accommodation is a biological law. This doesn’t mean that it is just a law determined by science, it means that any and all of its effects will be manifest in the biological system of the athlete.

The biological system entails the connective tissues and muscle tissues that exert effects on joint tissues and their movement. This necessitates a more specific perspective into how to mitigate accommodation. Simply changing exercises or volumes or intensities but using the biological system in effect the same way is too broad of an application to effectively continue to push adaptation while minimizing performance decrements.

Secondly, accommodation is not a plateau in training or performance as is typically understood. Again, this is too broad of an understanding of what it is. Plateaus in training and/or performance are the result of stagnation of the nervous system and its representation of performance. Frankly, it gets bored. Realistically, when exercises are changed to represent a new movement pattern but use the same joints and tissues within the same ranges of motion it is not effectively changing the biological system as intended, it is simply inducing the nervous system to become accustomed to a new movement challenge and temporarily become less bored, inducing the thought that accommodation has been nullified.

The Accommodation Curve

To completely comprehend the Biological Law of Accommodation, we must think in an ecological fashion.

Thinking Ecologically About Accommodation

The study of ecology is a biological science that uses relevant data to understand the relationship between an organism and its environment.

By definition, the ecosystem is the largest unit of biological organization within which, there are smaller and smaller ecological niches that all have inter-relationships that will influence the larger ecosystem as a whole.

Using this lens, one ecosystem, the athlete (a complex system) has numerous specific niches that underpin the function of that ecosystem. Tissue quality, size, stiffness, available joint range of motion etc. are all specific niches that will determine the adaptation and continued success of training for that athlete.

In addition, there is another ecosystem (a complex system) that is defined by the external environment and the boundaries that shape the outward performance of the athlete. This could be the performance of a lift or the sporting environment that the athlete must thrive in.

Simply then we can state that there are two major ecosystems. An internal one (the athlete) and an external one (the environment).

It is important to mention that in the study of ecosystems they do not have a single equilibrium - there is no optimal, they have multiple equilibria that define different states of the system as a result of all of the smaller ecological niches within. This allows the (eco)system to have multiple feedbacks to generate and modify behaviour. At any one time a certain feedback may be more “important” to determining system behaviour, but this is changing dynamically over time, which is the need for many. As a result, the ecosystem is more adaptable under varying contexts over longer periods of time

Application of Ecological Thinking

Taking a step back, we have been previously informed that accommodation and its effects are occurring or have occurred as soon as performance has plateaued (or slightly diminished). To continue to drive adaptation (and minimize accommodation) a variation of the exercises that are used in the training must occur.

This will only be observed externally. Meaning that to this point our understanding of accommodation has only been from one ecological perspective, that being the external ecosystem. This totally disregards the internal ecosystem, where all of the complexity of the interactions of all components of the (eco)system are supposed to be occurring and where all of the biological implications of accommodation are taking effect.

In weight training, the implication is to make only external ecological changes to hopefully influence the internal ecosystem, however systems only respond to logical intervention aimed at the appropriate leverage points. This brings forward that the internal ecosystem and its ecological niches must be evaluated as leverage points in the pursuit of continuous adaptation.

The application of ecological thinking allows us at Absolute to make two very important statements concerning the Law of Accommodation.

1. Accommodation does not occur in the external ecosystem. This performance decrease is the result of neurological stagnation.

2. Accommodation only occurs in the internal ecosystem. If external stagnation is witnessed it is a DEFINITE sign that the internal ecosystem is breaking down at a biological level.

Further, this will have long started before the performance decline, unfortunately, and will often consist of many internal signs that are missed or not even assessed for - which include: joint range of motion, tissue access and quality, joint health and function, necessary physiological muscle function, etc.

This is evident in the shoulder of baseball pitchers. Often, we are warned of impending negative consequences when a performance output changes (velocity decreases or control decreases). This is stagnation. It is witnessed externally but is always associated with an internal system change. There is a great deal of evidence that one of the major ones is a change in joint health and function - i.e.: a lack of shoulder rotation, a lack of elbow rotation, and a lack of hip rotation.

Biological accommodation of baseball pitchers.

Training Ecologically to Avoid Accommodation

Thinking ecologically allows for a nice framework to start implementing training ecologically - this is a topic that we will continue to expand upon at Absolute in the future.

With this ecological lens, we can divide training for strength into two different ecosystems and by focussing on the emergence of strength both internally (using internal strength methods) and externally (using external strength methods) it allows the athlete to succeed in each environment and that success is cumulative across each environment. In this way, training is used as the means to drive multiple feedbacks in both ecosystems but more importantly between ecosystems. By understanding the interplay of the human system and focussing within specific training environments (internal vs external) and the training of strength in each environment it creates a multitude of inter-related connections between the internal and the external that allows for complex behaviour with less probability of performance stagnation.

It should be the motive of training to build an internal (eco)system that will be resilient enough to weather shocks in the external (eco)system that would be defined as the sporting environment.

This is the importance of internal training and its role in minimizing the effects of biological accommodation.

1. Zatsiorsky, Kraemer and Fry. Science and Practice of Strength Training.