Intensity Matters: How to maximize your training sessions
Remember being a kid, coming in from playing outdoors. Stinky, sweaty, probably covered in mud or grass stains, depending on your sport and roughhousing preference.
Chances are, your parent probably marched you right up the stairs and told you to bathe, getting all that filth off you before daring to join the dinner table or go to bed.
Maybe you really did put effort into the suds and scrubs.
Or maybe you were like me (a smartass), and tried to get away with “rinsing off” without soap or shampoo, very quickly getting caught by my mother for being stinky, and sent right back into the bathroom.
Turns out “rinsing off” doesn’t check the “showering” box. Hygiene takes a little more elbow grease.
(Better to learn early than late - aka during Corona!)
This applies to training and results too.
Okay, not the hygiene. Although showering should take place daily and washing hands is the key to life, let’s transfer this analogy into the gym and onto the pitch for a second.
You show up to train. Your strength coach hands you the program for the day or you pull up your protocol on your fancy little app (I say, as the strength coach still dedicated to Excel!).
(2021 Update: we are no longer in Excel, but, indeed, the TrainHeroic App - and our programs are actually sick.)
You roll through your warmup. You get the speed stuff done. You do the heavy-ish lift and rest (kinda). You get the pumpage in. You leave and return to the outside world. Boom - workout complete, assignment complete.
You treat each part of your session like you treat your grocery list: you just check it off. Nothing spectacular.
Let’s real-talk though.
If you are serious about your sport, your fitness, and your health, then you know that’s not enough
It’s not enough to skate through a session just to check it off. Marking something as “complete” doesn’t mean it was done well or according to instruction even. It just means it was done.
(Throwback to college, when everyone wrote 5k-word papers in 2 hours the night it was due and get something with 5k words submitted by midnight was literally the goal. Yeah, that grade was usually stank.)
Training “to get it done” doesn’t take you to the next level. That does not continually drive your threshold of mental and physical performance.
HOW TO TRAIN WITH INTENSITY:
When you step foot on the pitch during a match, I bet you give your best. You actually give your best effort, bring your game face, try to perform at your highest level.
You know it matters. You bring the heat. The intensity. The intention.
So why don’t we train for that? Why should we train at 80% and expect to perform at 100%?
We can’t. It’s unrealistic. We perform how we prepare. Thus, we should prepare how we want to perform.
Set intentions. Before starting a session, decide the following: What’s your goal for this session? What are you trying to improve and how? What is the purpose of this and how will I use this session to get me closer to it?
(For more on goals and how to set them effectively, get caught up with this video.)
Follow the plan. We strength coaches program intensity into your plans. For us, this is how much weight we tell you to put on the bar and for how many sets/reps, and how quickly to lift it. Pay attention to what is prescribed - we already gave you the recipe for progress that you just have to execute! Does it say 100% sprint? Then give 100%. Does it say RPE 10 3x10? Don’t pick an easy weight or skip reps. Do the thing.
Rest. Contrary to popular belief - because Sexy will always seem cooler and more believable than Science - we actually improve in and through rest! During your prescribed time off, make sure you are actually resting, not adding in another exercise or current rest times short. No cheating. Rest & recovery ensure that you can give maximum effort and intensity to your next match, set and rep.
Results are earned, you see.
Train how you want to perform. Earn the 1% increases. Stick to your program. Don’t just check the box because that shit is stank!
This videos is one of my favorites ever, in which legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt talks about taking a “sense of urgency” into play. It sums this article up nicely.