Must have rest if you want to have intensity, must have intensity if you want to have results.”
-Chris Spealler
“Don’t be intimidated by volume, be intimidated by intensity.
-Greg Glassman
Whether you’re a coach in charge of a team or coaching yourself, chances are a year from now, your approach to fitness will be entirely different than what you stand for today. Fitness as a sport industry has taken a boom over the past years, revolutionizing the coach’s approach towards their athletes in training. In some cases, it has changed how athletes approach themselves in garage gyms all over. For instance, acceptance of movement standards that were once ridiculed, derision diets that are giving results (KEEPING them), and exercises that were once feared because of their complexity are in most cases beginning to become norms. All these are pros to the fitness augmentation. Unfortunately, one thing is still stalling athletes and teams. On paper, the program could quite possibly be the best balance and application of every physiological demand that the athlete undergoes. However, intensity is in complete neglect and disregard.
Let’s begin at the collegiate level and use football as an example for the sake of its popularity. The common practice of two week speed camps are a complete misunderstanding by the coaching staff on how speed is developed. What about two week preseason conditioning camps? Possible, but conditioning should still be in place to some degree relative to the time of season. This in no regards is an article on proper applications to training to improve speed, but the example is given to note the importance of intensity. Running 120 yards with 60 seconds rest is not speed training! Speed not only should be taking place at the beginning of the session but recovery needs to be main priority! Take Olympic weightlifting for example, a power dominant sport. Weightlifters don’t train in 30+ seconds of lifting effort with the clean and jerk or snatch to become more powerful. Is speed not relative to power Intensity is king and as soon as technique and intensity have diminished, it’s time to move on.
Now, lets look at another scenario and our target audience. CrossFit is growing as a fitness program and as a sport every day; one of the most popular areas I see with the intentions and motive of this writing. Popular blogs with world renowned coaches collecting hundreds of thousands of results are posted day to day religiously. To train someone in this sport of fitness the best blog to follow is the one you’re not doing because you must do every aspect of fitness possible! In other words, being prepared for the unknown is the ultimate goal all while being as strong, powerful, and metabolically conditioned as possible. If you are concerned that your fitness blog was the best or your program was the best, we would all be at the CrossFit Games, but that’s not the case. A lot of these blogs are a work of art, but the load is way too much for the 99%. All the time I get asked, how come I’m not seeing results, I’m doing everything it says? Or my favorite, I’m getting stronger but my conditioning just sucks. What’s the answer
Currently, new training methodologies based on high intensity interval and strength exercises are showing major adaptations to different organic systems and greater efficiency than traditional training models based on continuous and low intensity training (Lemente-Suarez, 2015). Intensity and recovery go hand and in hand and if one of these are suffering it’s a direct correlation to the other. Now I’m not by any means disregarding the importance and benefit of the over reach method. Without it, our CNS would never adjust and a stronger CNS is the best adaptation we could have. But it’s been said many times many different ways; training is digging a hole and we must fill the hole back up. To many times, especially in the ever so popular sport of fitness, everyone wants to dig and dig without any time dedicated to filling. But Joe digs 2-3 times a day and still recovers. Well congratulations to Joe, because he found out what works for him! Now it’s your turn to find out what works for you and/or your athletes.
Whatever your program is, stick with it whole heartedly and don’t be afraid to adjust volume or talk to your coach. If you come in and program for yourself based of feel, believe in it whole heartedly. Ultimately, whatever we believe to work and allows us to hit every day with 110% will work the best. As previously stated, if there was a “best program”, we would all be at the games. Program or programming for yourself; get after it and listen to your body because anyone can just walk through the movements, so move in the gym with some real intentions and purpose. Address weaknesses daily and never be ashamed to scale. Lemente-Suarez (2015) said. High intensity interval training has shown higher efficacy than continuous training, significantly increasing the cardiorespiratory fitness by almost double than moderate intensity continuous training. Intensity over everything. Intensity is King.
References
Lemente-Suarez, V. J. (2015). The importance of intensity in the prescription of health training. Revista Internacional De Ciencias Del Deporte, 11(41), 192-195.
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