Thoughts on Antifragile, Stress, and Aging

I can’t say enough about Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book Antifragle: Things That Gain From Disorder. Too many takeaways to write in one post. But In the book Taleb explains different states of systems or structures as...

Fragile: Handle with care. Weakens under any stress or disorder.

Robust: Neutral - doesn’t matter whether there is stress or disorder. It’s built to last. Doesn’t weaken or get stronger.

Anitfragile: Strengthens under disorder. Taleb references the greek myth Hydra ‘'Cut off one head, Two more shall take its place”.

Our goal is to make Antifragile systems within the body.

It’s common to think of this as athletes preparing for a competition - with their new found antifragility improving his or her performance in competition. But for our general population clients, couldn’t an increase in quality of life be a favourable outcome as well?

As we age, our life is the ultimate time-under-tension. The longer we are alive the longer we are subjected to disorder, stress, caos. If we - as health and strength coaches can make our athletes/clients ironclad to not only competition stressors but to life stressors, would that not be a noble pursuit?

We believe so.

Stress

Even seeing the word “stress” can summon negative connotations. Yet as strength and conditioning coaches, stress is our tool to elicit change -- systematically applying stress to an organism to elicit a positive adaptation.

There is duality within stress (Fragile / Antifragile) explained as a fundamental law called hormesis in biology.

“Hormesis is a biphasic dose-response phenomenon characterized by low-dose stimulation and a high-dose inhibition.” -Edward J. Calabrese

By applying just enough of a dose - for this example stress induced by strength training - we will see a positive response (strength/hypertrophy).

An inadequate dose might not perturb the system enough -- therefore the response might not move from the control (no gainz).

There is also a third possibility: not dosing at all - or the complete absence of a stressor (deterioration).

This is ever present in coaching as we try to fit our nicely planned (though at times faulty) periodization schemes (such as Block or Linear periodization) into a competitive season, dedicating blocks of work towards certain qualities while completely disregarding others in the cycle - and yes I understand residual effects and tertiary work. But isn’t that just lowering certain biomotor qualities “overall volume or intensity” in a vertical integration or a complex model? (Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant)

This lack of stress is also the root cause of aging - “use it, or lose it”. We already have enough evidence that muscle mass can be maintained to a certain degree and even in some cases gained as we age. Brain plasticity is still functioning as well. So what gives?

As we age we seek out comfort. Life without disorder. This leads to fragility.

You just exist.

Growing up in the heart of the midwest, I became accustomed to watching elders of mine. Retire to La-Z-boys --their sharp minds wasted away from the white noise of the TV. I have seen 15 years go by in this existence.

The goal as we age is to seek a bit of disorder. To challenge our body, mind, and soul - and not lose the ability to adapt.

By:Aaron Davis