Intensity Over Volume
The summer before I started junior high school, my mother bought me a guitar and a beginner’s guide to learn the basics. I was so excited, I started playing immediately. By the end of the night, my fingers were red and throbbing. The next day I had blisters on most of my fingers. Guess who wasn’t playing guitar for a while?
We’ve probably all had a similar experience. We get really excited about a new thing, jump in headfirst and then overdo it. If some of a good thing is good, then more of a good thing must be better, right? If a 15-minute workout, 3 times a week gets me breathing hard and noticing some changes, working out for 40 minutes, even 60 minutes will get me to my goals even sooner!
Not so fast!
One of the defining features of CrossFit is intensity. What is intensity? I’m so glad you asked!
Under pre-COVID-19 circumstances, the common issue was people thinking that a workout going beyond the 25 minute mark was better than a short and dirty 7 min all out effort. With gyms closed, most people have less access to a variety of equipment and an emphasis has been placed on a large volume of repetitions because what else are you supposed to do? Just like running a 5k won’t make your 400m sprint faster, piling on high-rep bodyweight exercises, every workout is going to start to work against your fitness goals too. Here are some considerations when evaluating your at-home workouts.
Injury and Imbalance. Are you constantly repeating the same movements like squats, push-ups or sit-ups/ab flexion at a high volume? Not only can this create an opportunity for a repetitive use injury, you can also start to develop muscular imbalances. Workouts that constantly call for abdominal flexion, think sit-ups, crunches, Russian Twists, etc. but don’t also incorporate back strengthening work can lead to development of the abdominals but at the expense of strengthening muscles in the upper and lower back that are likely already weaker and stressed from increased sitting and poor posture.
You are getting workouts, not necessarily coaching. If you signed up for an online program, you likely don’t have someone watching your movement. If you aren’t moving as well as you could, you are likely reinforcing poor quality movement patterns by performing 100’s reps a week. Depending on your proficiency, it might make more sense to curb the volume of repetitions in exchange for focusing on quality of movement.
Missing customization. Some programs to do a great job of offering scaling options and movement substitutions, others not so much. There are plenty of ways to adjust and scale movements and to make weight feel heavier than it is. You shouldn’t have to figure it all out on your own.
Are most of the workouts 20 minutes are longer? If so, you are likely missing out on intensity. Remember, intensity is where the rubber meets the road. Constantly training in one time domain, especially a longer duration time domain is training you to move slowly.
If you find that you are burned out with the same workouts and need some ideas, we offer online coaching and programming and would love to help you make it through this quarantine!