Intensity Is So Played Out
A daily 6:45 AM wake up off seven hours of sleep, fitness at 7 AM, and then a Personal Training schedule that includes 8-12 clients throughout the day with 15 minute breaks between clients. The athlete’s diet is perfect, he understands the importance of carbohydrate, and he even allocates some time in his morning to meditation. The guy is basically Superman. From 6:45 AM until about 9, he is operating at a level that most people cannot achieve. He is interactive with his clients, mindful of their needs, and when he gets home at night he is back on the computer studying, learning, and honing his personal training skills. So what is there to talk about?
A daily 6:45 AM wake up off seven hours of sleep, fitness at 7 AM, and then a Personal Training schedule that includes 8-12 clients throughout the day with 15 minute breaks between clients. The athlete’s diet is perfect, he understands the importance of carbohydrate, and he even allocates some time in his morning to meditation. The guy is basically Superman. From 6:45 AM until about 9, he is operating at a level that most people cannot achieve. He is interactive with his clients, mindful of their needs, and when he gets home at night he is back on the computer studying, learning, and honing his personal training skills. So what is there to talk about?
This is your typical Type A personality. They are constantly on the hunt for more; there is never enough work to do, and definitely not enough time in the day to accomplish these things. But, this is 2015 and the whole world is running around, working, grinding, and their bodies and brains just do not stop. And, to add to the mix, you have the TV and Instagram and CrossFit screaming intensity, intensity, intensity. How about, NO? The last thing these overachievers need in their day is more intensity. When your brain and body operate at a 10 every minute of every day, my prescription for your fitness life is to operate at a 6. That is right, your goal is to lift weights at 60%, do not focus on conditioning, and PLEASE, for the love of everything, do not try to max out a lift or PR anything.
A little research will get you some common knowledge on the stress hormone, Cortisol. For the sake of this blog, we will just leave Cortisol at a very basic level. When you operate at a 10 all day, you have Cortisol streaming through your body for pretty much 15 straight hours. No, not at the same levels as if you were in a life or death scenario, but low levels, consistently, all day. You wake up in the morning and instead of casually getting ready for the day, you spring out of bed and instantly start thinking of the zillion things you have to do, Cortisol. You get home at night and you have a hard time falling asleep because your brain will not stop, Cortisol. You turn the TV on to mindlessly stare at something that isn’t work, Cortisol. It is just stress on stress on stress.
So why is your workout even more stressful? Why are you putting even more of a burden on your body to physically recover after you have been mentally beat down, emotionally drained, and have difficulty sleeping? Please, do less. Please.
When you enter the gym, be aware of your current state. Did you sleep well? Did you eat well? Are you able to focus on the task at hand? Is your brain wandering off about the things you need to do after your workout? If this is you, please, slow it down, lift at about 60% of your max, and please do not try to PR your Fran time – you are crushing your body.
As we laid out fitness goals in our consult, we spent a great deal of time discussing down regulation. My advice was for him to attend the Fitness classes but to only lift heavy if he could check off 2 of 3 boxes: 8 hours of sleep, good diet, less than 12 hour work day. If we can check 2 of those three boxes, he is allowed to push the weights and the conditioning. If he only gets 1 check mark, we slow it down, operate at 60%, and the conditioning portion is to be done as additional strength work. We also are adding in 30 minute walks at night, 3 times a week. You have to find ways to slow your body and mind down, recover, and understand the bigger picture of training.
Your time in here should be spent balancing your lifestyle. If you live a sedentary life, adding intensity can be a huge benefit. If you are constantly stressed, finding some down regulation through low level strength training can be the answer. Intensity can be detrimental to your health if all you know is stress. The benefits of most things are found through balance.
