Rather semantic question on progressive loading

Defining “training stimulus” as the nuts & bolts of a program (sets, reps, load) and “training stress” as the resultant load placed on the individual based on fitness level, performance potential, etc., does training stress ever truly need to increase to continue to drive further fitness adaptations, or is the stimulus simply being modified to apply the necessary stress?

The amount of training stress may need to change in order to drive fitness adaptations, yes. Sometimes it is too much and needs to be tempered and other times it is too little and needs to be increased. Other times the amount of stress is fine, but the type of stress needs to be altered.

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