SAID is an acronym you will see in the world of fitness and strength and conditioning that really sits alone as the most both basic and valid central dogma in all of training.

You adapt to the demands you impose. Period.

And that is exactly what SAID means.

Specific adaptations to imposed demands.

This literally just means that you adapt, and therefore have a potential to get better at, the things you do because of the ways you respond to the stress that thing applies.

This means a few things that are important to understand to get the most out of this concept.

First of all, you respond to the demands imposed, and if we are discussing the demands of a sport or really any complex multi-part consideration that means you are responding to the cumulative demands required. There are multiple systems contributing to most demanding tasks we would undertake. Adapting in multiple ways and directions is an important reality for a coach or anyone writing (or executing) a program should understand.

Why is it important to understand these adaptations broken down into their basic elements for getting the best progress possible? Well, simply put, if you can break it down, you can identify places with the highest ROI, you can identify potential vulnerabilities and get to work on them ahead of time—before they slow you down. Even though specificity is important, being able to break the specific demands you want to train for down to their parts allows you to do things like running skill drills, building up athletic deficits, just like successful coaches in literally any other sport would do. Sure, playing lots of soccer makes you a better soccer player. Playing lots of soccer is definitely the most important part of becoming a better soccer player. Same with basketball. Or football. Or anything…

But can you imagine being a part of a team that only scrimmaged the whole time? Nobody practiced foul shots unless they were at the line. Nobody worked on dribbling, passing or layups unless it was in a game or pickup game? We all know those teams.

They killed it in middle school.

What about the teams who hammered the fundamentals? Who had beautiful textbook passing? Who had drills that taught them how to move to make the bigger things operate right when it mattered?

Obviously playing is crucial to incorporating everything you learn in the drills, but imagine if you limited yourself to that only. If Kobe Bryant didn’t stay on the court for hours all alone practicing different pieces of his game systematically, would we have even known his name? If you or your kid showed up to an MMA gym and they didn’t do drills they only did full contact sparring, would that make sense?

No, SAID does not mean you limit yourself to SBD if you are a powerlifter, or just traditional bodybuilding work if you are a bodybuilder, etc. A proper application of SAID means that you can select specific tools (movement, volume, intensity, frequency, exercise order, etc) to meet the specific demands that you or your client needs to be prepared for. So if their primary goal is to bring their squat or deadlift up, you definitely need to squat and deadlift. You cannot neccesarily say they need to do more or less, heavier or lighter squats or deadlifts, or if they need other more precision tools to bring up what they need relative to everything else. The big movements cover the most bases at once, and you can use variations of them to hit areas you need to bring up much of the time as well, but finding a happy medium of movement variety for your client/self is the goal. You want to train movements frequently enough to master them, track them and progress them, and you want to implement enough variety that you don’t end up leaving gaps in athletic capacity that hold you back from pushing as hard as you could as long as you can.

Moving better is always a good thing, and being strong all around is always a good thing. Different levels of priority may be placed on each, but in general you should train to be strong and fast, able to go hard for a decent amount of time, and able to pace yourself and go as long as you need. Strength, speed, power, strength endurance and aerobic endurance essentially.

You should also train the super 6 movements: squat, press, pull, hinge, SKIP, and lunge at a top priority and some variation should be in there for most everyone. Rounding out the Obligatory Octo would be loaded carries, and running, in that order. Pretty much everyone can and should carry things too, and most people should at least have the capacity to run.

To further map out and guide exactly what you or your client needs, you map out the specific demands for your primary goals, your strengths and weaknesses and contributing factors to your primary goal. For example, a squat for a powerlifter. Sure it is a squat movement and quad dominant. But we don’t want that to let us overlook the potential that stronger hamstrings or a stronger low back may be the ticket to a bigger squat if that is the case. So maybe we want to bring our squat up, but we begin by breaking down our strengths on different movements that contribute to a squat. Good pause squat? Probably not technical if it is relatively close to your normal squat. Lunges feel good, and good on several variations? Probably pretty even then, adductors are probably pretty strong, ankles are probably pretty mobile, glutes and glute med are probably plenty strong. Front squat and Good Mornings are way lower than expected? Low back might be weak, core might be weak. Front squats are good, but nordics and goodmornings are tough and squats are also unstable? Hamstrings may be weak.

It is not a crazy concept to be more precise with our programming than just changing the sets, reps and weight of a few movements, but just like there being long standing resistance to change in many sports on many things, and I am sure many of you can remember coaches doing things that seem INSANE now, some people are still commited to building a house with just a hammer and nails. My appeal here is to get a full toolkit, and build the home you actually want! Take a well rounded approach, and cover all your bases. Also, don’t just use SAID in one direction and repetitively do the thing you want to get better at. Apply that same logic deeper and break down specificially what you need, then do things that make you better at that!

This all allows you to prioritize work to not only cover all your bases, but allows you to make the most progress. The ultimate goal of anyone in sports performance is simple. Do everything we can to improve performance and reduce chance of injury.

The same concept is true in any field though.

Brief aside, this is not only true in every field, but it is true of your brain as well. This is why good habits are so important. This is also why in today’s world we have to be more mindful than ever about the stimuli we train our brain to adapt to. In college I wrote a paper about technology overuse causing ADD and ADHD like symptoms in people who did not truly have either, and that exact thesis was backed up by literature at the time. I think we all have felt the impact as few people, if any have avoided the effects entirely on a personal level, but even those people have noticed in their interactions with others. The literature has continued to support the FACT that our brains adapt to what we expose them to.

They used to say use it or lose it about both brain and muscle, but it has never been more true than now that we must focus on using the immensely powerful tools as allies for our existence. We have AI, google, and so much power at our fingertips. That should allow us to be less chaotic so our time acting is based off well forumulated thoughts from a place of cool calculation rather than a scramble. Also, equally if not more important, choosing good habits that keep our brains healthy too allow those ideas to come from a HEALTHY brain that is supported in it's positive development as well and a healthy brain works better.

So by all means, use the phenomenal resources we have at our disposal to stay connected, both with each other, information and even entertainment… but with great power comes great responsibility, so make sure you are in a healthy relationship with ALL the things in your life. Everything is connected, and although that can be scary to acknowledge sometimes because it takes away anywhere to hide or deflect…the sooner you accept it, the sooner and further you can chase your potential in all walks of life. So get away from the screen some, interact with people doing hands on stuff, problem solve, play games, read, do stuff that is good for your brain. SAID means specific adaptations to imposed demands, and that goes way beyond the weight room.

Coach Josh April 8, 2026