I'm Kevin Don, the get-fit guy. I'm a coach with over a decade of experience and all aspects of strength and conditioning, and I'm here to bring you the best fitness information every week. Today, I want to make a case for a distinction that some people see as pure semantics, but for which I will be making a case for both being very different.

That is, what is the difference between exercising and training?

Let's look at two non-fitness scenarios and see if we can draw some comparisons.

So, you decide one day that you finally have time in your schedule to develop a new skill.

You've always wanted to learn to play the piano.

So you sign up for lessons.

You buy a piano keyboard, some books, and practice for an hour every day for a month.

Do you think at the end of a month you'll be better at playing the piano?

I think the answer is obvious and it's a resounding yes.

Now, what if instead of investing the time into piano lessons and specific equipment and dedicated practice, you joined a music club?

Each day for a month, you were exposed to a different instrument.

At the end of the month, you'll have had time on the piano, but also the harp, the guitar, the flute, the saxophone, the oboe, the sitar and the xylophone.

How good would your piano playing be? Or your guitar, flute, obo or saxophone playing?

Fitness training follows the same logic. We all evolved from more simple organisms by external

stress.

The environment placed demands on the organism and over time the organism adapted to the new stress.

We're dependent on stress, recovery and adaptation to require any new skills.

But the stress has to be designed properly.

It has to be sufficient to force a biological response and it has to be repeated. Your squat doesn't adapt and improve according to the number of times

you walk through the front door of the gym. It adapts to the stress imposed upon it by performing the

squat. Not only that, but it adapts to the specific stress opposed upon it. If you only train

sets of 15 reps, you'll become very good indeed at performing sets of 15 reps, but if you perform

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