Training: Pushing the Intensity

Every story has a beginning

114kg starting point

When I first started training with Your Shape I was an overweight, out of shape 32 year who quickly found that every exercise in this "game" was tremendously difficult. "How is this a game?" i thought. Lunges and squats hurt my legs, shadow boxing seemed to hurt everywhere, you name it - it hurt me somewhere new every time!

At first I was constantly sore from the previous workout, but over time that changes. Soon you stop feeling sore after every workout, your body quickly adapts to this new routine, and what once left you sore for days soon no longer hurts much at all.

I think I must have misunderstood one of the fundamental components of training and competition from an early age. I always thought that you trained so that you could compete more easily on the day, that the increased level of fitness meant that you wouldn't have to work so hard to run the race or play the game. What I now understand is, in fact, the exact opposite. We train so that we can push ourselves even harder when it matters most, on game day or during the big race.

Twisting the dials

Jillian taught me a lot

What I have learnt from the numerous sources that I have watched, listened to and read during my fitness journey thus far is that you always need to be pushing the intensity, always striving to make things more difficult in training.

In that light here are some of the simple ways I have learnt to increase the difficulty of any exercise or a workout:

• do it longer
• do it faster
• add weight
• unbalance yourself

If you were running, try running for a longer distance, run at a quicker pace, wear a weighted vest. If you are doing CrossFit or weights you could do more repetitions, complete the workout quicker, wear the same weight vest or do some of your exercises using gymnastics rings or a balance ball to force you to both stabilise yourself and perform the usual movement.

A tough road

10km personal best

Keeping the intensity up and really pushing yourself is difficult. I personally find it really tough to give 100% during my training. When I push myself really hard I tend to hit that uncomfortable spot, that point where your lungs start to really hurt and I don't push any further. What I need to do is push past that uncomfortable spot and into a painful place and learn to live there in the "pain zone"!

When my legs or arms or shoulders are hurting and I feel like I am breathing fire, that is where I have to stay. At that point my body is screaming at me to back it off just a little, just to the point that it can start to recover and allow me to catch my breath. My body always wins, at least for a moment, until I notice I have slowed down just a little. Then I have to try and push back into the pain in little surges, I push and then my intensity falls against my will, so I push it again. Up and then it falls little, up and then it falls again.

From what I understand this is how you progress; this is how you lift a little more, run a little faster, keep going a little longer, be a little better. While it is always a thrill to get a new record time over a certain distance or lift more than you have before for a certain movement, when you are in the middle of that pain it sure is tough!