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No Pain No Gain: Lifting Intensity Article
Yeah I know, horrible trite title. I even googled it to see just how many fitness articles have this as a title with a question mark. Surprisingly enough I couldn’t find one. Not to say it doesn’t exist but maybe in a way this says something about the topic I am about to discuss.
Often I hear or get asked the following questions…
-Is soreness a good sign of a workout?
-I push hard, I get sore and hurt, I push easy I feel nothing
-I never break a sweat, am I working hard enough?
Basically what they are saying is…
How do I know if I got a good workout?
This is a very popular and very important question. How many times have we seen a woman pump away with 5 pound dumbbells for 3 years or a guy splitting his muscle open with weight to heavy to be of any use to him? Finding the right balance to achieve your workout goals is a very daunting process for many people.
Adding to the confusion of how much to lift is how many times, how often, sets, reps, training styles, supersets, HST, Poliquin, it is endless really. Even if you understand a good style of training and how many sets and reps you do most people lack the concept of why we have sets and reps. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen somebody set up their routine of 3x12 and just blindly follow it with a comfortable weight and don’t understand why nothing is changing. Sets/Reps are the basic building block to any routine. I mean how many times you lift the weight you are using is pretty important, so why is it one of the most overlooked and under educated areas (next to nutrition of course) in weight lifting? If you’re reading this and saying to yourself you are not sure if you know, realize that it’s a pretty simple breakdown. Let’s say your routine is that 3x12, you do 3 sets of 12 reps. Now I will get into 1RM % and all that but essentially it boils down to this. If you can’t lift it twelve times, it’s too heavy for this routine. If you can lift it more that 12 times then it’s to light. Yep that’s really the jist of it. You may have a hard time figuring out what that is though; if you do you can at least narrow the field some by using the 1RM (1 rep max, also known as how much you can lift one time) formula and then working at the proper percentage of that number. Here is the table formula for it, though you can find online calculators that do this for you.
Say a routine you are working with is calling for 3 sets of 10 reps (3x10). You want to test out your bench press. But let’s say you don’t even know what your 1RM is (which a lot of people don’t) but you do know that you can bench 100 pounds 5 times before failure. Failure means you couldn’t possibly lift it again and had to struggle a heavy amount to knock that 5th time out. Using the chart below we see that for 5 reps we will use .856 as our division number.
Reps Coefficient
1 1.00
2 .943
3 .906
4 .881
5 .856
6 .831
7 .807
8 .786
9 .765
10 .744
11 .723
12 .703
13 .688
14 .675
15 .662
16 .650
17 .638
18 .627
19 .616
20 .606
So it looks like this-
Weight Amount / by Rep Variable = 1RM
100 lbs/.856=116.8
Your 1RM is 117 (I like to round)
From this number we can figure out by percentage what we can lift 10 times or at least get in the ball park. Remember this isn’t exact, but it gives us a range to work in. Now we take our 1RM and times that by whatever percentage we are trying to achieve. As far as what percentage to use well 3 sets of 8 roughly work out to about 50% of our 1RM. From there you can kind of judge as it’s a good middle ground to work with. Here to figure out 10 reps we will use 45%.
So 1RM x 45%=Weight amount needed for 10 reps
117x.45=52lbs
Again this is a rough estimate but should eliminate some of the guesswork. You could also find the weight by just playing guessing games, but that becomes less accurate due to the muscle fatigue of all the “test” lifting. So make it easier on yourself by getting a jump-start.
Okay so now that you get how much you should lift the rest is pretty simple because you have 1 area that you are pretty much guaranteed is dead on. Now we get into form, intensity and understanding your program design.
First your program design. Whatever program you pick out try to pick it out based upon your needs. What is your goal? Say that to yourself, what do you want? This after all is about you and only you; that is the great thing about getting into shape. You can always best yourself. If your goal is strength well that is one program. Endurance, well that’s a different program. Power, well that is another program. Is that to say you can’t get all those things from one program? No of course not, however some programs focus on one more than the other, and sometimes as to not burn the candle at both ends it is easy to do one at a time or pair them properly. Like strength, power, and speed can all work great together, but it may be hard to throw that into a single bulking program. Select what you desire most or need most. Once you pick your program execute it with diligence. If it calls for 3 sets then do those three sets. If 5x5 do all five, don’t get to 4 and say “eh that’s good enough, I mean I did it 4 times all ready!” Your will of execution is just as important as the style of training you pick.
Now we have 2 steps complete, the right amount of weight mixed with the drive to lift it. Take it up a notch by making sure that your form is perfect. When you use a pre-set program or design your own program, make sure you research or ask the proper form of each exercise. If you are recruiting the wrong muscles you aren’t getting the full benefit of your training and could possibly cause damage. Here I will use a squat as an example. If you are new to squats I highly recommend starting off at least a few times with Chair Squats. This will get you used to the motion in a safe way and gives your stabilizer muscles a wake up call. This will also prevent your knees going beyond your toes naturally. When you feel at ease with that, advance to Chair Squats with dumbbell weights. Then no chair with DB’s and then you should feel good to go right to the squat rack for the Barbell Squats. Form is everything, watch videos, read instructions and take care not to do it wrong. Doing it wrong can mean some serious time off or serious injury.
Last but not least is intensity. Your focus and drive while lifting is your key to breaking through new levels. You have to tote that fine line of a little bit of crazy. I mean we are for just the sake of doing so squatting more than our body weight, which is a little nutty. So go with it, get in that zone and lift as if someone you love is depending on that object to move for life. A deadlift should be done with the intensity as though someone where trapped under a car. That last rep should be a moment were you think twice about being that crazy to lift it again. Be safe of course, lift it right, lift a weight within the bounds of your body’s means, but go hard! Here is a basic intensity chart, check it out and see where your normal intensity levels fall.
1-no effort required
2-minimal effort required
3-small effort required
4-some efforts required
5-focused effort required
6-focused effort with some strain required
7-becoming difficult to sustain
8-lungs reaching limits of capacity
9-deep hard breathing
10-severe effort required for completion
On that last movement you need to be a 9 or 10. You can even have some fun with it and write down your intensity numbers for each lift. Lets take a 5x5 movement and break it down. You should move up each number of intensity with each lift. Have it go 5,6,7,8,9/10.
Remember all these things the next time you go lift, and I assure you if you weren’t breaking through before, you will be now.
-Leigh Peele
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