Practical Programming for Strength Training

by Mark Rippetoe

Stress is any event that produces a change in the physiological state of the organism. Stress disrupts homeostasis, the stable physiological environment that exists within the organism. Recovery from the stress event is the organism’s way of perpetuating its survival, by returning to its pre-stress condition plus a little more, just in case the stress happens again. This adaptation to the stress is the organism’s way of surviving in an environment that subjects organisms to a variety of changing conditions.