Intensity: The Key To Optimising Results And Minimising Injury Risk

• Intensity

/ɪnˈtɛnsɪti/

Definition of intensity

1 : The quality or state of being intense especially : extreme degree of strength, force, energy, or feeling.

Above is what google defies as intensity, like any other millennial google is the first place I go for a straight forward answer, but, this doesn’t necessarily correlate to what intensity means within a workout.

• What does intensity mean for a workout

  Typically when we use intensity in the sense of working out we like to think of how hard a workout/set/exercise is or feels. The reason I chose to write a blog on intensity is that although intensity prescription is easy to get right (with some tricks I will show you later) it is also very easy to get wrong. Unfortunately when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong…

• What are the downfalls of bad intensity prescription

  Training at a high intensity for continues periods of time simply isn’t fun… if someone made me go to the gym 3/4/5 times a week and thrashed me every time I would last at max 2 weeks before my intrinsic motivation expired. Furthermore, there is only so much external stress our bodies can take before something breaks. As humans in the twenty first century we are usually over worked and under recovered before we even step foot into the gym, throwing down an expresso shot and workout out until you look like the picture below will eventually catch up with you leaving you injured (unable to train) or sick of training (not wanting to train) neither will produce you results.

• Why intensity is usually badly prescribe

  Today’s culture is spent in the fast lane, from social life, business, tech and everything in between we are moving at a far greater pace than ever before. The fitness space is no different. The consumer wants results faster than ever, if I had £1 for every person who enquired to me asking them to get beach ready for their holiday to Marbella in 4 weeks I could probably buy a beach house in Marbella! Sure, I could test my luck, convert my enquire to a sale and destroy the person for 4 weeks in the hope they gain some muscle mass, reduce body fat and stay injury free and get away with it. This would be a bad and irresponsible way to prescribe intensity. Every good trainer knows there are no short cuts to achieving results (cliché, I know) but certain fitness companies will take on 10 enquires like above, 5 clients might get away with it, 5 will either get injured or stop early as it’s unsustainable. Guess which 5 clients will then be marketed as success stories on said fitness companies socials so the wheel keeps spinning…

  You might be asking yourself, if I can achieve results in 4 weeks with high intensity why is it bad?

  If we take away the fact that continues amounts of high intensity for prolonged periods can leave you in a far greater risk of being injured, it simply isn’t a sustainable practise. The habits that brought you to a trainer will eventually kick back in and you will find yourself back to square one. The correct prescription of intensity can make the process more enjoyable and manageable meaning you will stay on your routine for longer thus achieving better results in the long run.

• How can you monitor intensity and simple principles to correct application

  RPE scale

  The RPE scale is an acronym for ‘Rate of Perceived Exertion’. In essence a fancy way of using a 1-10 scale on how hard an exercise should be. With my in person and online coaching clients we have 3 sections after an exercise:

  1) Sets

  2) Reps

  3) RPE

  The RPE will always vary within the workout on different exercises, in a very simple format, the first exercise will usually be at a higher RPE (7,8 or 9) as the client will have the most energy, the reps will usually be lower too. From there the RPE could filter down into the lower figures (6,7 or 8) as the workout progresses and the exercise complexity could become easier to help with avoiding technical failure. Without getting too in depth, the RPE never stays the same, nor does it stay at the higher end of the scale for too long.

  RIS

  An acronym for ‘reps in reserve’. This method is great too, it’s utilised very well with online clients as I’m not there to physically monitor RPE. In essence I will tell the client what weight I want them to use and use a scale of 1-10 for RIS. If I prescribe someone with Bicep curls at 20kg with RIS of 3 this means I want them to do as many reps as they can and stop the set when they feel like they have 3 more reps left before they fail. Similar to what RPE 7 would be but the difference is RIS will allow the client to have a better idea of when to stop rather than wondering ‘‘ Was that an RPE 7 or 8?’’

  Both methods are simply a coaches personal preference but what is the same is the systematic approach to monitoring intensity, this delves even deeper when looking into periodization but that is a topic for another day…

• Summary

  Intensity is often overlooked and badly prescribed in todays fast paced society of wanting results fast. Bad intensity prescription can leave you with unsustainable fitness practises and in worse cases, injured. Intensity is a factor that can be controlled and with a good coach in your corner they will give either prescribe intensity changes for your workouts or give you the tools to help you understand and implement the right protocols.