Why Adjusting Training Intensity Can Unlock Better Results

  •  in Training
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Intensity is perhaps the most misunderstood & misused word in mainstream fitness terminology.

Most people use it subjectively:

  • “Wow, that workout was really intense!“
  • “I didn’t get in a good workout. It didn’t feel intense enough.”
  • “High-intensity interval training provides the best results for time spent in the gym!”

Any time I’ve heard a permutation of any of those statements, the speaker typically means that “the best” workouts are those that leave them with burning muscles, panting heavily, and lying on the floor in a pool of their own sweat—and possibly tears—at the end of the session. That is, they’re subjectively intense!

Occasionally performing workouts like that certainly provides some benefits:

  • Stress relief
  • A healthy primer to normal cellular apoptosis (a normal, genetically regulated process leading to the death of cells and triggered by the presence or absence of certain stimuli)​
  • Modest improvements to strength, conditioning, and body composition (assuming that nutrition is appropriately aligned)

However, overusing such workouts also leads to some rather undesirable effects:

  • More stress in anticipation of the expected post-exercise exhaustion
  • Injuries or a loss of strength or conditioning due to incomplete recovery
  • Weight gain due to overtraining and subsequent sleep issues as well as overeating because of extreme hunger

Don’t feel bad if you’ve previously used the term subjectively or overused workouts like that. I certainly don’t know everything there is to know about fitness, but when I knew even less than the tip of the iceberg that I think I know now, I did those workouts far too often as well.

Defining Intensity

In any case, the proper use of intensity isn’t subjective but rather objective:

Intensity is simply a percentage of your maximal capacity.

For example:

  • If you can lift 100 lbs. for a single repetition in a certain exercise, lifting 80 lbs. for a single rep is 80% intensity for that exercise. Alternatively, if you can lift 80 lbs. for 10 reps in a single set, then lifting 80 lbs. for 5 reps in any given set is 50% intensity.
  • If your theoretical maximum heart rate is 180 beats per minute—the simple, somewhat outdated formula is 220 minus your age—doing some form of cardio training (e.g. hiking, jogging, biking, swimming, step-ups) at a heart rate of 125 bpm is about 70% intensity.
  • If the average wattage over your best 500m row is 400 (about a 1:38 pace), rowing at a power output of 200w (about a 2-minute pace) is 50% intensity.

In most cases, how you feel at the end of a set or at the end of a training session—however that may be defined based on the activity you’re performing—is relatively unimportant.

What you actually need to get from this

Exercise programming is a detailed and nuanced subject with too much information for a single tip or even a single book. But if you learn and implement only two intensity-related points—whether you train at TNT or on your own—you’ll experience both faster results over the upcoming months and more enjoyment from your training time.

  1. Remember the proper definition of intensity, and perform some tests or approximate calculations† to determine your maximal capacity. († If you’re a beginner to training, it isn’t necessarily the safest idea to test out your maximal capacity without first getting some practice under your belt. For the time being, you can go by how you feel or, preferably, seek out more-specific advice from a coach!)
  2. Vary your intensity from session to session. A good rule of thumb is to alternate between the following:
    1. Light (40-70% intensity). For recovery.
    2. Medium (70-80% intensity). Where most of the magic happens.
    3. Heavy (80-85% intensity, with a very occasional bump up to 90%). A good neurological primer.

Putting it into practice

If you train on your own, pick one exercise that you regularly do. Test your max (e.g. weight, reps, speed/pace, heart rate) or make an educated guess. Then implement weekly light, medium, and heavy days using the percentages above over the next six to eight weeks of training for that exercise. Finally, re-test your max, be amazed at the results (😉), make any necessary adjustments to your numbers, and do the entire process again.

If you train at TNT, you should already realize that we build these percentages into training sessions. Your job for the upcoming weeks is twofold:

  1. Be honest about your current capabilities. For some, that might mean sometimes going lighter than what you think you can or should. For others, that might mean going a little heavier and recognizing that you’re occasionally going to feel a bit more uncomfortable than normal during training.
  2. Trust the process. You’ve either seen it work for long-term members or experienced it yourself if you’ve been training here for awhile. Still, it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone; but that’s not where growth happens. Re-commit to task #1; then execute!