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Understanding training intensity to avoid overtraining

Want to know how to gain weight and build muscle? Eat big and train hard. This is the formula for success. But you want to make sure that you have a good understanding of training intensity to ensure you are getting enough recovery time between each workout to avoid overtraining.

When we talk about training intensity it's important to realize that there are two types. There's relative intensity, which refers to how much weight you're lifting and is measured as a percentage of your 1 repetition maximum (1 RM), and then there's perceived intensity, or, how hard you feel that you're working. For example, if you're benching a weight that is equivalent to 90% of your 1 Rep max you're considered to be working at a relatively high intensity. Despite the fact that the set may be over rather quickly, you're still putting a tremendous amount of effort into lifting that weight.

By contrast, let's say you're doing a set of squats with only 50% of your 1 rep max; only this time, instead of doing 1 or 2 reps, you're doing 20! Is this any less intense? Well, if you go solely by the amount of weight on the bar, the answer would have to be yes. However, as anyone who has ever performed a set of high rep squats will attest, that burning sensation in your legs coupled with the labored breathing you experience during the last 5 reps or so makes this feel like anything but a walk in the park.

Therefore, when referring to intensity, it's important to distinguish between the two; because each has a different affect on your capacity to recover. Generally speaking, the heavier you train, the more rest you need between workouts. This is mainly attributed to the fact that training with heavy loads (anywhere from 85 to 100% of 1 RM) places a tremendous demand on your central nervous system (CNS) through the stimulation of your high-threshold motor units.

Although the metabolic demand of this style of training may not be high (minimal lactic acid accumulation or usage of muscle glycogen), it can severely compromise the ability of your CNS to recover between workouts. When this happens, the transmission of signals that stimulate your muscles to contract becomes impaired; owing to decreased strength levels. Making matters worse, unlike metabolic fatigue which can take anywhere from several minutes to a couple of hours to recover from, neural fatigue can sometimes last for as long as several days, which is a problem that is only exacerbated by repeated use of advanced training techniques like forced reps and negatives.

Without question, failing to account for the impact of neural fatigue is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make in planning their weight gain program. For example, on a typical bodybuilding split routine a person might train legs one day and chest & back the next. Now, to the untrained eye this does not present a problem. Since these two workouts are seemingly completely unrelated, the previous day's leg workout, no matter how intense, should have absolutely no bearing on the upper body workout that follows, right? WRONG! Assuming that you hit your legs hard with lots of heavy compound movements like squats and deadlifts (is there really any other way to train them?), there's absolutely no way that your CNS will recover in time for the next day's workout. Never mind the fact that you're working different muscles, following such intense activity your CNS's ability to recruit high-threshold motor units will still be impaired. This problem is only magnified when the same muscle group is worked on consecutive days; like say when an arm workout follows back, or you train your shoulders the day after chest. Either way you're looking at reduced muscle fiber recruitment, which will undoubtedly limit your gains.

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