Getting into (or back into) training? Here’s some thoughts on intensity.
Here’s an (anonymised) email I wrote to a client this morning. This person is getting back into training after a long furlough and they’re doing blended strength and cardio workouts with me.
“Hi Marmaduke*,
I’m emailing to provide some guidance on intensity during training. Generally speaking, I apply the goldilocks principle: “just right” – not too little, not too much.
Some PTs take pride in “smashing” people and making them sore and fatigued. Not me – and I regard this as a counterproductive viewpoint and practice.
Given you’re training somewhat infrequently, it is good for it to be at a relatively high intensity (for you). Here’s some thoughts on how it should or should not feel:
What you should feel
Your subjective perception of the effort should be “somewhat hard to hard/vigorous” but no “extremely hard”.
You should be getting your heart rate and respiration rate quite high but it should not feel like an all-out sprint (100 meter, 200 or even 400 meter race)
The exercises should feel challenging and tiring but you should never feel like you’re physically blocked or your muscles can’t contract any longer
What you should not feel
You should not feel excessively fatigued or sore the day or two after a session (some muscle stiffness and soreness is to be expected, but nothing which makes it really hard to move around).
You should not feel faint or extremely short of breath during the session
You should not feel like your technique is deteriorating a lot or the movements are hard to execute properly
If you’re in the sweet spot (as defined above) – great! If you’re feeling really, really spent during the sessions, or excessively sore and fatigued after the sessions, we need to wind back the intensity/load/weight. I’ll keep an eye on you to make sure you’re where I think you need to be, but please feel free to let me know if you think you are working too hard or not hard enough 😊
Tim”
*Clients real name is not Marmaduke