High Intensity Weight Training

High intensity weight training has developed quite a following over the years and a high level of intensity has become an accepted important part of any weight training program.

However, how high that intensity level of effort needs to be is still being debated even today.

Hotly debated, I might add.

Some in the industry are so entrenched in their position that nothing, not even scientific fact, will make them change their minds.

They've preached volume training over high intensity weight training for so long, that they absolutely refuse to alter their position on the subject.

Unfortunately, the person this hurts is you. You are looking for the truth, and not many are willing to give it to you. But you can find it. You just have to look and think and you will get the answers you are seeking.

What is training to failure? What is high intensity weight training?

And how will it help you make the fast progress you are looking for in your weight training program? (continued below)

One popular measurement of high intensity weight training is how it relates to the percentage of your one repetition maximum in an exercise.

For example, this definition would consider a set with 90% of your one rep max for 3 reps to be more intense than a set of 15 reps with 80% of your one rep max. Think about that for a minute. What is you can complete 8 reps with 90% of your one rep max and 15 is the absolute most you can do with 80%?

Well, of course, the 80% set would be much more difficult, i.e., more intense than the 90% set.

How could a set that is well within your capabilities be considered high intensity weight training just because the absolute weight is heavier, even though you worked much harder (i.e., more intensely) on the set with the so called lighter weight?

It couldn't.

In addition, your muscle fiber make up is your muscle fiber make up, not anyone else's.

What I mean is, the number of reps someone can perform with a given percentage of their one rep max varies from individual to individual.

It even varies from body part to body part on the same person.

In other words the level of your high intensity weight training effort could be much greater or less than someone else's, using the same percentage of 1 RM for the same number of reps.

One person may be able to do a set of bench presses for 6 reps with 90% of their one rep max while you may only be able to complete 2 reps with the same 90% of your one rep max, due to a different muscle fiber make up and a better or worse degree of neurological efficiency.

If you both only did a set of 2 reps with 90% of your 1 RM, it would be a much more intense set for you!

This would definitely be high intensity weight training for you, as far as your degree of effort is concerned.

For someone who could actually complete 6 reps with this weight, doing only 2 reps would hardly be a high intensity training effort, as the set would be well within the trainee's capability.

In my long winded way, I'm trying to tell you, this is not an accurate or helpful way of describing intensity of effort as it relates to weight training or body building.

In other words, periodization programs based on a percentage of your 1 RM are not much more than worthless. The programs call for a varying percentage of your 1 RM for a different number of reps.

One periodization stage may have you performing a set of 6 reps with 80% of your 1 RM max.

The problem is, this could be so intense for one body builder that they can't even complete 6 reps whereas someone else may consider this nothing more than a warm up because they can do 18 reps with 80% of their 1 RM.

We'll talk more about Periodization Programs in a future article and discuss how you can adapt them to your workouts to help you make continual progress.

So How Should We Properly Define Intensity?

Within high intensity weight training, intensity refers to the percentage of momentary muscular effort being exerted.

If you can curl a 100 pound barbell for 10 repetitions and an 11th is impossible, you have trained with 100% intensity and to the point of momentary muscular failure.

This is the key to high intensity training.

Again, the question being raised is whether or not this is necessary to make optimal progress.

One of the most important principles in exercise physiology is the “Overload Principle”.

The Overload Principle states that in order to increase a muscle's size or functional ability, the muscle must be taxed toward its current capacity.

In other words, there is a threshold point that must be exceeded before an adaptive response will occur in the muscle.

Thus, your intensity of effort, ie, high intensity weight training, must exceed this threshold level so an adaptive response is triggered: muscular growth and strength. If this threshold is not surpassed, no adaptive response will take place, leaving you with little or no strength or muscle gains.

Now, very few people will argue that a high intensity training stress is necessary for stimulating growth. To quote Mike Mentzer, “As a first step toward refuting the theory, one would have to prove that the principle of intensity is invalid; that the 1st rep of a set of 10 reps to failure is more likely to stimulate an increase in muscle mass, than the last, or 10th rep.”

I don't think anyone would argue that the 10th rep of a set of 10 reps to failure is more likely to stimulate a muscle mass increase when compared to the 1st rep of the same set.

Those who refute this theory will tell you that you don’t have to go to failure on each set but that you must workout “hard” and “progressively“. However, they can’t support this because they can’t properly define “hard” as it relates to intensity of effort or what is considered hard enough to stimulate an increase in strength and muscle mass. With high intensity weight training, your intensity level is directly related to the amount of muscular fatigue that is produced. There are only 2 levels that can be measured - 0% intensity and 100% intensity.

So maybe it does only take 90% intensity to trigger the adaptive response mechanism. But in order to make sure that you exceed the threshold level at each and every workout you must train to muscular failure with 100% intensity.

You must practice high intensity weight training, combined with progressive overload to make sure you've triggered the adaptive response mechanism.

You may have heard this advice a lot - stop 1 or 2 reps short of failure. There is a problem with this advice. Do you know what it is?

Although stopping 1 or 2 reps short of failure may trigger the growth mechanism, you can not know how many reps you will do training to failure until you actually do so. Thus, you can never accurately stop a set 1 or 2 reps of failure.

Again, only 0% and 100% levels of intensity can be measured.

Now, before you yell and scream, yes I agree, there is one circumstance where you could know.

If, for whatever reason, you are not training to failure for a specific period of time, you can stop a couple reps short of the number you performed the last time you did train to muscular failure on that particular exercise.

Fair enough? Good.

A sub maximal effort will result in sub maximal results. Train each set of a high intensity weight training program to momentary muscular failure and you will assure yourself of surpassing the threshold necessary to trigger muscular growth. If you don’t, and just continue to train “hard” your progress will be a crap shoot. Some workouts you may trigger the growth mechanism and many others you will not.

So yeah, you can make progress without high intensity weight training. However, the rate of progress will not be rapid or optimal and you'll never know which workouts are actually productive.

In order to make consistent and optimal progress in your bodybuilding workouts, there is no question that high intensity weight training to momentary muscular failure is an absolute requirement.

Keep in mind, truly training to muscular failure is not the same as training to perceived muscular failure.

Most of the time people who think they are training to failure most likely have another rep or two in them.

Hey, it happens to me, too. High intensity weight training is not an easy way to train. Which brings me to another important point.

While high intensity weight training is the optimal way to train, physically, it is also very taxing mentally. It is not easy to take a set of squats to actual muscular failure each time you train legs.

This means, that optimal training for you, may mean having some workouts where you don't train to failure.

Just bear in mind that this is mental strategy to keep you from burning out or quitting your training.

It does not mean that high intensity training and training to failure is not the best approach.

I train to failure the vast majority of times but I do need a mental break every once in a while. Usually i get it by completely training my routine every so often. This accomplishes two things.

One, it gives me a mental break.

Two, by changing exercises you don't lessen the intensity as much as you might by backing off on the exercises you were doing.

If I am dreading my next squat workout and feeling like I'm about to burn out, I may switch to leg presses for a while. However, I may still likely training to failure but I am unburdened of the thought of stepping under a heavy squat bar yet again.

If you want to make optimal progress, learn to enjoy high intensity weight training as often as possible.

For more high intensity weight training articles