How Intensity Affects Your Training & The Results You Get

How Does Intensity Affect the Results You Get From Your Workouts?

If it isn't clear by now, it's really important to understand that intensity is king. Without intensity we cannot push the boundaries of our physical limitations, we cannot force adaptation, and we cannot make real progress towards our training goals.

There's a lot of controversial topics flying around about the word "intensity" and how it relates to physical fitness. We've got outspoken people on Instagram telling the masses that training too hard will lead to injury, inability to recover, and decreased quality of life outside of the gym. And on the other hand, we've got people who preach that you need to go all out in every single workout, absolutely crush yourself day after day or you won't achieve anything.

So what do we do? Do we refrain from training hard and stay comfortable all of the time out of fear, or do we put ourselves through endless beat downs week after week?

The reality of it is, we need intensity. We need to train hard, we need to train with intent, and we need to do so in a manner that will not negatively affect our lives outside of the gym.

I'd like you to consider this, think about the progress you're making inside of the gym, are you seeing the results you want to see, are you happy with what you're getting out of your training? If you find yourself questioning whether or not you're getting the most out of your training, it may be a matter of intensity. It's not the program, you're not a "hard gainer", it's not your metabolism holding you back, the list goes on and on. If you aren't seeing the results you want to see, you need to work harder.

Here are some benefits of Intense Training:

• Physical Adaptation - forcing the body to perform difficult tasks promotes adaptation, this can be through lifting heavy weights to build strength or by moving at faster paces to build capacity.
• Increase in Energy Expenditure - the more intense your training is, the more calories we burn (everyone loves a workout that burns a lot of calories!).
• Increased Physical Performance - training at higher levels of intensity will result in improved physical ability, we can run faster, lift heavier loads, train longer, and handle more total work.
• Altered Body Composition - increased amounts of lean muscle mass, that "chiseled" look you see on the pro athletes and Hollywood actors, that's all a result of intensity.

When you apply proper intensity to your training you can guarantee that you will continue to see results from the work you put in at the gym. As soon as you remove intensity from your training, that's when everything comes to a halt. Putting in a little extra effort in your conditioning, or adding that extra 5 lb to your Back Squat sets might just be exactly what you need to kick start that forward progress again. So before you throw in the towel and give up, think about what some good old fashioned hard work will do for you.

Now, how do we ensure that we can continue to train at high enough intensity levels to continue seeing results? We can't just walk into the gym and pound ourselves into oblivion every day and expect to feel good all of the time. It just doesn't work like that. If you want to maximize the efforts you put in inside the gym, we need to consider a few things outside of the gym.

Here are some things to consider for recovery from your training:

• Maximize Sleep - we recover best when we are sleeping. A wise man once told me "Sleep as often as possible without the risk of getting fired from your job or divorced from your significant other."
• Eat to Support Your Training - if you want to train hard, you're going to have to support it. Gone are the days of the 1,500 calorie diet. Pack your diet with high quality, nutrient dense foods, without proper fuel you're going to suffer.
• Take Your Rest Days - if you skip your rest days, you don't allow your body to recover. Without recovery from the demands of physical activity you will never be capable of sustaining high levels of intensity in your training. Remember, you do not need to train 7 days/week for 3 hours every day to see results, rest is your friend (and if you are training 7 days per week, there's a good chance you aren't exerting yourself enough in your training to cause any physical adaptations).

As humans, we can sustain hard work. Our body's are much more capable than what our minds lead us to believe. And the results we want to see out of the gym are much more attainable than what we often think they are! Apply the right intensity to your training, prioritize recovery outside of the gym, and you'll be seeing exactly what you want I can guarantee it.

The TrainRx Performance Programming Platform offers a wide variety of training methods geared towards guiding you to maximized results in the gym. So whether you're looking to get stronger, increase your overall endurance, or change the way you look, there's a program on the platform for you. Check out these sample workouts below and see how intensity will affect the results you get from the training.

 

Applying Intensity to Maximize Physical Adaptation & Body Composition Changes

If your goal is to build some muscle and change the way you look, your work sets need to be hard. You shouldn't get done a set of Back Squats and immediately think you can do some more. Here's a few ways to ensure that you apply the right amount of intensity to your training sets to see the results you want:

• Apply the right loads - This can be Percentages of your 1RM, WMR, or it can be achieved through progressive overload on weekly basis.
• Work closer to failure - a great way to ensure that your work sets are intense enough to cause physical adaptation is to train closer to failure, this is a great way to squeeze out every last drop of effort you can to really maximize the quality of your work sets.
• Increase the number of repetitions you perform - Just like Progressive Overload tactics, we should be paying attention to the number of reps we perform on a weekly basis, if you want to keep using the same weights for your working sets, you need to make sure you do more total repetitions than previous weeks to ensure forward progress.

On BuildRx we prioritize Strength & Hypertrophy Training. Every single training day is designed to help you build lean muscle mass and get seriously strong. Check out these two sample training pieces, each showcasing a different way to apply intensity to your work sets.

"Work Closer to Failure"
Every 3:00 Minutes x 5 Sets; Each Set for Max Repetitions; Start at 70% of 1RM and Build Each Set
Max Unbroken Repetitions: Back Squat; 20X1
Set 1: At 70% of 1RM
Set 2: At 75% of 1RM
Set 3: At 80% of 1RM
Set 4: At 85% of 1RM
Set 5: At 90% of 1RM

In this example intensity comes from the loads used for each set, but also from the repetitions we perform. By taking each set to failure we can ensure we get the most out of each work set instead of stopping a few reps short.

"Applying the Right Loads"
Every 3:00 Minutes Until 40 Total Repetitions; At WMR8 - Max Weight for 8 Unbroken Repetitions
Max Unbroken Repetitions: Close Grip Bench Press; 20X1

In this example, we are using the heaviest weight we can possibly use for 8 unbroken repetitions of the Close Grip Bench Press, and we are completing sets of "Max Unbroken Repetitions" until we have accumulated 40 total reps. By using WMR8 we can ensure that the total volume we perform will be plenty to drive forward strength progress and to build some lean muscle mass.

 

Applying Intensity to Increase Physical Performance

So you want to increase your physical performance. In this example we're going to focus on improving overall endurance as the factor we are looking at. If your goal is to increase your overall performance, then intensity needs to be applied to push the boundaries of your current physical capabilities. Here's how we can do it:

• Train at challenging, but sustainable paces (be capable of repeating your efforts). 

StrengthRx is designed to help you increase your overall capacity, build strength endurance, and guide you through extremely effective strength & conditioning protocol. Check out this sample training piece that is designed specifically to help you build overall work capacity.

Every 5:00 Minutes x 5 Sets; For Max Calories; At Sustained Effort
7 Power Clean
7 Shoulder to Overhead
7 Box Jump Over
AMRAP In Remaining Time: Airbike (Calories)

The example above showcases one key factor for building capacity and increasing overall endurance - the AMRAP set on the Airbike after your other work sets. Instead of taking the remains time in the 5:00 minute interval as rest, we put in a low impact, concentric movement to keep you moving, to force you to perform more work at a pace that you can maintain and repeat in each individual set.

 

Why is CrossFit such a popular training method and how does it produce some of the best results in the physical fitness world? The answer is simple, workouts are designed to be completed at high intensities. CrossFit requires hard work. When we go after a training regiment that does not follow standard progressions, and relies solely on intensity to produce results, we need to prioritize how hard we work on a daily basis. So if you're looking to follow a CrossFit program, or really enjoy the constantly varied methodology, buckle up. As soon as you remove intensity from CrossFit you remove any chance of seeing the results you want to see. Here's how we can use Classic CrossFit to burn a ton of calories while applying intensity:

• Move at the fastest pace you are physically capable of without "blowing up".
• Minimize rest - energy expenditure sky rockets when our heart rates are elevated, by minimizing rest we can keep our heart rate elevated and burn tons of calories.
• "Sprint Mentality" - treat every single workout like a sprint, the faster you go, the better off you're going to be. Excess Post Oxygen Consumption is the by product of high intensity interval training, meaning that we continue to burn excess calories for an extended period of time after performing high intensity work. If we want this to work, we have to push hard.

WODRx is a daily 60:00 minute "Mash Up" of Classic CrossFit formatting. Each training day is designed to take you through some of the most popular CrossFit workouts like AMRAPs, Chippers, & For Time Circuits. If you love the Old School CrossFit Blog, you need to check out WODRx. Here's a sample workout below to demonstrate how high intensity training can help you burn a ton of calories.

For Time; At Sustained Effort; 18:00 Minute Time Cap
30 Dual DB Box Step Over
50/40 Calories Airbike
50 Toes to Bar
30 Burpee Box Jump Over
50 Single Arm Alternating DB Hang Power Snatch (Total); 50/30 lb

In the sample workout above, speed is king. The ultimate goal is to complete the prescribed workload as quickly as possible. And if we treat this like a sprint, we'll burn a ton of calories in an extremely short amount of time. Remember, CrossFit is all about intensity, if you remove it, you remove any chance of seeing the results you want.