HOW INTENSE IS TOO INTENSE?


   The intensity of a workout refers to how hard your body is working during physical activity. It's a measure of the effort required to perform an exercise and can be influenced by factors such as speed, resistance, duration, and overall energy expenditure. Here's how it's typically understood:

Intensity in Different Contexts.

  1. Cardio Workouts: For activities like running, cycling, or swimming, intensity might be measured by heart rate, speed, or perceived exertion

    • Example: Running at a pace where your heart rate is 70-85% of your maximum heart rate would be considered high intensity.

  2. Strength Training: In weightlifting or resistance training, intensity often relates to the amount of weight lifted, the number of repetitions, and how close you are to muscle failure.

    • Example: Lifting heavy weights for fewer reps with higher resistance is high intensity.

  3. Endurance Activities: For long-duration exercises like marathon running or long-distance cycling, intensity can be monitored by pacing and heart rate.

    • Example: Maintaining a steady pace that you can sustain over a long period without overexertion would be moderate intensity.


Common Methods to Gauge Intensity.

  • Heart Rate: Using a heart rate monitor to stay within a target zone.

  • Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE): A subjective 1-10 scale of how hard you feel you're working.

  • Reps In Reserve (RIR): Counting how many reps you could still perform before hitting failure.

  • Talk Test: Assessing whether you can talk comfortably during exercise.

  • Pacing: Monitoring the speed at which you completed a specific distance or exercise.

Reps in reserve (RIR) versus Rate of perceived exertion (RPE).

I bet, most advanced lifters have heard or seen the terms stated above. They are both crucial when aiming to gauge how intense a workout session was. Most people confuse the two but there are a few distinctions to it.


Reps in Reserve (RIR) is a concept used in strength training to measure how close you are to reaching muscle failure during an exercise. It represents the number of repetitions you believe you could still perform before reaching the point where you can't complete another rep with good form.

How It Works

  • Example: If you're doing a set of squats with a weight, and you complete 10 reps but feel like you could do 2 more before you'd have to stop, then you have 2 RIR.


  • Application: It's used to gauge the intensity of your sets. Training with 1-3 RIR can be effective for building strength and muscle while minimizing the risk of injury and overtraining.

Benefits of Using RIR

  1. Customized Intensity: Allows you to adjust the difficulty of your workouts based on how you're feeling on a given day.

  2. Prevents Overtraining: Helps you avoid pushing to failure too often, which can lead to fatigue and injury.

  3. Promotes Progression: You can gradually reduce the RIR over time to increase workout intensity as you get stronger.

RIR in Practice

  • High RIR (3-5): Useful for warm-ups or light training days.

  • Moderate RIR (1-3): Common for most working sets aimed at strength and hypertrophy.

  • Low RIR (0-1): Typically reserved for more experienced lifters or during specific phases of training.


Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a subjective measure used to evaluate the intensity of physical activity based on how hard you feel your body is working. It allows you to assess your effort level during exercise without relying solely on objective metrics like heart rate or weight lifted.

RPE Scale

The most common RPE scale ranges from 1 to 10, with each number representing a different level of exertion:


  • 1: Very light activity (e.g., sitting)

  • 2-3: Light activity (e.g., walking at a leisurely pace)

  • 4-6: Moderate activity (e.g., brisk walking, light jogging)

  • 7-8: Vigorous activity (e.g., running, heavy lifting)

  • 9-10: Very hard to maximum effort (e.g., sprinting, lifting near-maximal weight)

Using RPE in Training

  • Adjusting Intensity: You can adjust your workout intensity based on your RPE. For example, if you aim for a moderate-intensity workout, you might target an RPE of 4-6.

  • Tracking Progress: By consistently using the RPE scale, you can track how your perceived exertion changes over time as you get fitter.

  • Preventing Overtraining: RPE helps you listen to your body, ensuring you don’t push too hard and risk injury or burnout.

Example Application


Let's say you're doing a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session:

  • Warm-up: RPE of 3-4 (easy pace)

  • Intervals: RPE of 8-9 (near maximum effort)

  • Recovery: RPE of 2-3 (light activity)

  • Cool-down: RPE of 3-4 (easy pace)






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts