What is Intensity?

[Loco]

I have heard this word used, but I don't know what it means to train with intensity. I think it would be helpful if anyone could clarify this for me.

[inflated]

Originally Posted by Loco

I have heard this word used, but I don't know what it means to train with intensity. I think it would be helpful if anyone could clarify this for me.

One can increase the intensity of their workouts in a variety of ways--simply it is making the workout more difficult or challenging. Increasing the weight being lifted, increasing the speed at which the weight is lifted, decreasing rest between sets, decreasing the speed while keeping perfect form also increases the intensity--there are so many ways.

[Loco]

Thank you for your reply!

I was also wondering if it would be better to do my exercises slowly or if it better to go faster? For example, if I am doing 10 reps of barbell curls...should I slowly go up and down...or would it be better to go quickly or are they both good to do?

[inflated]

slow perfect form is probably better especially if you are first starting out, you will develop good form and avoid injury.

[Aielyn]

A combination of both faster and slower movements is generally best.

This is because there are two types of fibres in your muscles - so-called "Fast-twitch" fibres and "Slow-twitch" fibres (NOTE: This is very much a generalisation, there are far more than two types, you can just categorise into these two, which covers the vast majority of fibres). Varying the speed helps to maximise the growth by impacting different fibres to different degrees.

Having said that, inflated is right, slow movements with perfect form are best if you're starting out. When it comes time to introduce faster movements, remember that you still want perfect form, you don't want to be jerking the weight around.

[Benedict]

Hi dear,,,
I have the some meaning of train with intensity but not deep concept of this word... There is a website which provide you detail information regarding that is
http://WWW.buildleanmuscle.com/high-...-training.html..

[inm]

Its not intuitive, but in bodybuilding etc, intensity is defined as the ratio between weight you're lifting and your 1-rep max (1RM).
High intensity=lifting heavy.

[billwilson]

Intensity based on how sweaty you are or how loud you're screaming in the gym. Runners define intensity based on how high the heart rate is. The problem is that neither of these are strong correlates to what intensity actually is

[gregsashinsky]

As mentioned, when it comes to physical fitness, you should be more concerned on intensity training. This is, after all, the standard. When one speaks of intensity training, he or she is referring to the level of difficulty in performing a particular set or repetition. It may differ depending on what exercises you are trying to do. For example, if you are doing cardiovascular exercises, intensity would be a measure of how fast you run on the road or on your treadmill. If you are into powerlifting, intensity is the measure of how much weight you can lift without feeling any fatigue or exhaustion.

Intensity is often measured in terms of percentage. For example, if you are able to carry a weight that is 50 pounds, and at the particular point in time, you are carrying 30 pounds, your intensity level then is 30 x 100/50. This means that your actual intensity level is just 50 percent. It is obvious that you are not using your maximum capacity at this point.

[monstermusclebe]

I don't believe there is one "thing" or one "way" to be intense in the gym. It isn't a thing to do. Rather, it's something to feel and experience.

I know intensity when I feel it, when I experience it.

Intensity means I've given everything I've got... in whatever way I've chosen to give it.

If I'm doing high reps, it means I keep repping and pumping the set until I absolutely cannot raise the weight, even a tiny bit. In fact, if I'm doing low reps I still do that... I just do it with heavier weights that then force me to stop sooner.

In addition, I nearly always do several partial reps after I can no longer do the full reps... sometimes even more than several. I sometimes do sets where I end up doing more partials than the actual full reps. That doesn't mean I sacrifice form during the full reps. No, I do that with strict form. But once I've completed the "official" set ~ i.e. where I cannot raise the weight again with good form ~ I then relax certain aspects of strict form, most especially the full range of motion, in order to keep pushing my muscles to the absolute limit that they can handle safely.

Further, when my body is in great shape and is ready to really get really intense, I'll follow up my initial set with one or more supersets, where after I take one set to complete and utter failure I will then immediately lower the weight by 50% and go at it again until absolute and complete failure. I might lower the weight again by 5% and go again to absolute and complete failure.

Most of what I describe are basic techniques to get to that sense, that feeling, of intensity. But there are other ways to get there, too.

You know you've been intense when you feel exhausted.

There are different forms of intensity in the gym. There is the intensity of the set, as I've described above. There is also the number of sets, the types of exercise, and more.

But for me, the basic comes down to that moment at which your body is actually moving a weight.

Are you giving your all in that moment? Are you fully committed to that act? Are you willing to go beyond what you think you can do (as long as you remain safe i.e. don't cause lasting harm to your body in the process)?

I once ran a marathon. The race took place in 100 degree weather, with 99% humidity. Half the people who began the race failed to complete it. I finished it... taking twice as long as I had expected to take. That experience taught me one thing: that my body can do far, far more than I think it can.

All of our bodies can.

So... are you distracted and unfocused? Are you stopping at 8 reps because the workout program you are on tells you to only do 8 reps, max?

Or are you stopping the set because your muscles are so strained and have fully efforted to the point where they simply cannot do another rep ~ or even another partial rep ~ unless you lower the weight?

Are you stopping because the muscle feels a little sore and it's where you've always thought your should stop? Or can you sense that you could put just a bit more effort into it and rack out one more rep. Even stop for a second or three, and then rack that one more rep?

When you truly work out intensely, there is an awesomeness to it. A "holy shit, I'm doing something I didn't think I could do" quality. Especially when you first start working out that way.

There is such a thing as being overly intense. Of straining your muscles past the point they can handle (which leads to tendon or muscle tears), or of being too intense for too long for too many workouts, leading to an exhaustion of your entire body.

So intensity is something to approach respectfully and with awareness of its power, its gifts (muscle growth and the elusive "pump"), and its pitfalls.

For me, working out with intensity versus working out without it, is the fundamental difference between making real progress and muscle gains, and NOT making real progress and muscle gains. The difference between the men and the boys.

I can do EVERYTHING else right in and out of the gym... and what I will end up with is a extremely fit, tight, firm and relatively muscular body. A boy's body.

But I won't become the man, the beast, I want to be, that way.

To become a muscle beast, you gotta become intense.