Despite the many hours spent exercising, large numbers of people fail to make significant progress from their workouts. Lack of intensity may be the major culprit.
I was watching a guy training in the gym the other day. On the surface he appeared to be working quite hard, but a closer examination revealed that he was not utilizing the three key principals that underlie all successful strength training - Intensity, Failure and Adaptation. Result? He was wasting a whole lot of time and effort.
The workout he was doing covered all the major upper body muscle groups, but I was struck by three things, all of which are related:
- The length of his workout (well over an hour).
- The number of sets he was performing (at least fifteen per muscle group).
- How easy each individual rep was (nothing above 6 or 7 out of 10 for intensity).
Of the three pillars of resistance training - Intensity, Failure and Adaptation - he was ignoring every one. And the more I watched, the more I looked around the gym, the more I realized that probably 90% of people ignore these crucial principles.
