workout intensity

[adammysiuk]

I cosider myself to be a pretty well rounded fitness guy. I recently read two books,one on macrobolic nutrition ,one on NO2. Both books talk about workout intensity,training really hard and minimal cardio. What is a god measure of your intensity?? Heart rate,duration,fatigue,soreness the day after. I agree w/ minimal cardio if you work out intensely enuff. Give me your thoughts on how to determine intensity that is adequate, thanx

[Lift2Live]

This is just how I personally gauge my intesity. (Disclaimer) lol

I personally have to fail on the last reps of my sets. I go past the pain barrier and what my muscle "wants" to do. When I am on that last rep and my muscles go numb, face turns red and the weight will absolutely not move, I then feel I have accomplished what I wanted for that rep, set, exercise. It's when you think you can't do one more rep and you go for it anyhow. Hence my tagline... I DO have a lifting partner though and if he wasn't there to spot my last rep(s) to fail I would have to tweak my workout a hair.

[adammysiuk]

Originally Posted by Lift2Live

This is just how I personally gauge my intesity. (Disclaimer) lol

I personally have to fail on the last reps of my sets. I go past the pain barrier and what my muscle "wants" to do. When I am on that last rep and my muscles go numb, face turns red and the weight will absolutely not move, I then feel I have accomplished what I wanted for that rep, set, exercise. It's when you think you can't do one more rep and you go for it anyhow. Hence my tagline... I DO have a lifting partner though and if he wasn't there to spot my last rep(s) to fail I would have to tweak my workout a hair.

Thanx ,that answers probably 60% of my quest. It is always talked about that cardio is unnecessary unless......you are an endurance athlete in training or trying to lose fat and inches while being more than 15% body fat,if you train w/ hard intensity as you spoke of,is it true that cardio is just a small supplement to the gaining of lean mass while losing fat simultaneously thru more muscle to fuel,and only supplemental and not needed,basically,if you dislike cardio,do something about it w/ freakish intensity allowing for max. growth. also using clean well thought diet,necessary supplements,greayt workout scheme. thanx,i appreciate your thoughts

[Todd]

Cardio exercise, is important to your overall health and cardio vascular system. All of that aside, yes, it can be specifically implemeted as a means to help shed unwanted fat, and up your overall conditioning. It is up to you on how you want to implement it, if at all, depending on your current goals. If you need cardio, then implement it, if you don't feel you need it and are happy with your current health, conditioning and body fat %, then don't. Simple as that. Nothing is necessary, if you don't have a need for it. Whether you have a need for cardio is up to you, and your current level of fitness and your current/future goals. Everyone is different...you decide for yourself! :

As far as intensity is concerned....you should be giving each rep of each set all of your energy, focus and concentration, as well as making sure to use a load when lifting that will elicit a greater demand on your muscles than your previous workout. You also need to create and be able to tap into your mind-to-muscle connection, which is so ultimately important for creating and releasing high intensity for each rep of each set for each body part. Once you can do this, you need to milk each set for all you can. That is intensity...and it should always be raised.

[MostMuscle]

To piggyback on Todd's post, while you should always shoot for an intense training session, keep in mind there are a variety of ways to raise intensity other than the traditional "add more weight" program. Making use of other methods (forced reps, slow reps, supersets, plyometrics, rest-pause, circuit training.....the list goes on.......), is a good way to keep the body guessing (and growing) as well as limiting potential injury and mental burn-out.

Heavy weights still do have their place and gaining overall measurable strength should be your focus, especially if you are a beginner.

[adammysiuk]

Originally Posted by MostMuscle

To piggyback on Todd's post, while you should always shoot for an intense training session, keep in mind there are a variety of ways to raise intensity other than the traditional "add more weight" program. Making use of other methods (forced reps, slow reps, supersets, plyometrics, rest-pause, circuit training.....the list goes on.......), is a good way to keep the body guessing (and growing) as well as limiting potential injury and mental burn-out.

Heavy weights still do have their place and gaining overall measurable strength should be your focus, especially if you are a beginner.

In ref. to heart rate,does that play into intensity? Should you also vary your rest in between set to confuse/shock your body.......30 sec to 2 min range, I could be wrong but as long as you are completing your w/o with thwe above as long as you are still standing,your intensity was good and where you need to be. ex-if your hr is 200 b4 you do your last set of heavy chest,adequate oxygenated blood flow to the area will be compromised,but you will be intense. adam

[MostMuscle]

Definetly altering the rest-periods between exercise bouts is extremely powerful means of increasing intensity, but if you are indeed a beginner, I would recommend adequate rest periods (at least 90-120 seconds) between bouts in order to maximize performance with the assigned exercise. In weight-training, the most limiting factor is not "adequate oxygenated blood flow to the area", but creatine levels within the muscle. Research has shown that it takes 3 minutes after an intense exercise bout for local creatine levels to be restored to 85% of maximum. After the 3 minutes, restoration rates drop significantly (e.g 87% after 4 minutes), that it no longer becomes practical (time wise) to rest for longer periods.

P.S. Just another reason that creatine supplementation rocks! :

[mesomorph]

Do not use HR as a measure of intensity when working with heavy weights. Unlike aerobic activities, where HR measures are vital indicators as to training zones and getting O2 to areas of most need, anaerobic activities, specifically heavy weight training, have far more meaningful measures of w/o intensity as already mentioned - weight/rep/sets/frequency/form/rest. HR after a heavy lift set is irrelevent (usually 90+% of max HR) As MostM has indicated, it's the "fuel available" that is critical like creatine levels or glycogen that is present and available to fuel anaerobic activities.
To my mind, cardio is a totally different way of approaching a training scheme. Personally I do not use cardio as part of my training. My main objective and cardio type exercises are completely at odds.