So, I’m a huge fan of Makaveli Motivation on Instagram. I love listening to their videos while I’m working out. I usually don’t need motivation because I’m a high intensity person but these videos take me to a whole new level. I love one video in particular with Jay Cutler where he discusses his mindset when training and how he says it’s hard for him to train easy when he’s in the gym. Watch it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-ha6nYJm72/
This is an attitude that I can totally relate to. I rarely ever give less than my maximal effort in the gym unless my program specifically tells me not to. Even then I sometimes get carried away and do too much and then get in trouble with my coach (Sorry Tony!). Besides experiencing the wrath of my coach, this can be bad on another level in that I get burnt out quickly. When you bring maximum intensity to every single training session without necessary relenting of any sort, you can head quickly into overtraining and chronic fatigue. I have noticed this over the past couple years, especially when training with multi-joint exercises such as the deadlift. The deadlift is already a taxing exercise on your Central Nervous System, so adding my over-aggressive personality does not make us a match made in lifting heaven. You see, I start off fresh with a deadlift program and everything feels really good. However, the feel good vibes slowly deteriorate as I get further along in the program because my body can’t sufficiently recover from the amount of stress that I place on it. I understand that fatigue creates fitness, but I definitely overdo the fatigue part by trying to set PR’s every time I deadlift and taking too many sets close to failure. This, naturally, affects subsequent workouts in which high threshold motor units can’t be maximally recruited because of a combination of peripheral fatigue, central fatigue, and mainly muscle damage.
Below, you can see how the Fitness-Fatigue Model lays out the interaction between the two. Performance is Fitness minus Fatigue. If fatigue is not sufficiently recovered from over the course of one’s training sessions due to excessive workload and intensity, performance will be negatively impacted. Therefore, it is important that a periodized program with proper deloading be utilized in order to fully maximize one’s performance.
As a result, what is recommended for the impassioned lifter who needs some restraint like me in their workouts?
To begin, I think you need to list the weights and reps you want the high intensity lifter to use instead of telling them to use a certain percentage of their one-rep max or go for a repetition max. For example, when I was given a certain amount of free reign in terms of what I could do, I always wanted to beat whatever my previous records were. I didn’t care how much fatigue it caused me, I just wanted to see immediate progress with my lifts. And, of course, this was detrimental to the end result. Consequently, if you want to hold in check the over-aggressive lifter, tell them exactly what you want them to do! This will (hopefully) keep them from digging a big hole of fatigue.
Next, you need to incorporate rating of perceived exertion (RPE) or repetitions in reserve (RIR) into their workouts. These are measurements used to calculate intensity of effort. RPE is based on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being very light exertion and 10 being maximal effort. A 10 RPE would mean that you couldn’t do any more reps, a 9 RPE would mean that you could do 1 more rep, an 8 RPE would mean you could do 2 more reps, and so on and so forth. Similarly, RIR can also be utilized to minimize overtraining. 1 RIR would mean that you could do 1 more rep, 2 RIR would mean that you could 2 more reps, 3 RIR would mean 3 more reps, etc. Accordingly, if too many 9’s and 10’s for RPE (or 1 or 0 RIR, respectively) are continually showing up, especially on the multi-joint lifts, you know the time will be quickly coming for the intensity to be decreased so that adequate recovery can take place. This might take a little time to master these estimates if you are relatively new to training, but can eventually be a solid restraint for those who need to be checked before they get wrecked.
Nevertheless, I do think fervent lifters need an outlet for their Type A personalities. I think that’s where training to failure with isolation exercises comes into play. If the individual is a powerlifter, for example, you don’t want them to train to failure on squats because 1) it could be dangerous and 2) the systemic fatigue would be too great to recover from since it is a total body effort. However, adding a burnout set or two on leg extensions (after squats) would be a solid way to get their aggressive energies out without compromising the goal of the program due to its mild recovery cost. The key to using failure in your workout plan is to use it strategically and not randomly without regard to its after effects.
Overall, thanks for reading! I hope this was a little bit enlightening in regard to how intensity needs to be managed so that progress can be steadily achieved without too many (unnecessary) recovery detours. Be on the lookout for part 2 on this topic in which I discuss specifics related to intensity during training and how much is necessary (in conjunction with other factors) to get STRONG! Anyway, take care and as always…SETTLE DOWN, SLACKERS!!!
Sources:
Beardsley, Chris. “How does muscle damage lead to central nervous system fatigue?” Medium.com January 24, 2019. https://medium.com/@SandCResearch/how-does-muscle-damage-lead-to-central-nervous-system-fatigue-93f36e1cbaa3
Beardsley, Chris. “What is the fitness-fatigue model?” Medium.com March 15, 2018. https://medium.com/@SandCResearch/what-is-the-fitness-fatigue-model-6a6ca3274aab
Helm, Eric, et al. The Muscle & Strength Pyramid Training. Middletown. Muscle and Strength Pyramids, LLC. 2019.