How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right?
overcomplicating things much?
[quote]Doober wrote:
How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
When you squat you shouldn’t be able to walk out of the gym at all, you should drag yourself by you arms on your stomach while your legs trail behind you like spaghetti. When dealifting you should let out tons of farts and continue until you get a case of temporary Tourrette’s Syndrome and swear haphazardly.
Hope that give you some insight!
It’s a serious question. I came on this site to learn, not be messed with. Please if you don’t want to help, don’t post. It’s quite simple, actually.
Then try the search bar up top right corner. Type in “INTENSITY” and see what you get. MOST questions/topics have multiple threads already. Try adding to one of them, it helps with the clutter. When you can’t find the right answers it in the search, then by all means post away. Theres so much info to read, between the threads and articles, new threads should be a last resort!
I appreciate the answer.
[quote]Doober wrote:
How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
Training hard and gasping for air etc… doesn’t mean your workout is at a high intensity. Training at a high intensity means you are training close to your 1 rep max. So training with triples ,doubles and singles is high intensity training.
Training with 5 sets of 10 is low intensity training. It has nothing to do with whether you puke after squats or not.
You may be referring to intensive training. In that case then yes you should puke after your squats as training should be highly intensive 
[quote]Doober wrote:
How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
Are you doing cardio?
Doober, being cofused at first is OK. The search tool is really powerfull it is truly offering tons of answers. Some call pushing a set to failure HIT or high intensity training. Some mean real heavy weight/load for you by intensity level. Failure might have about 4 different meanings.
Your goal(s) suggest how intensively you should push yourself.
Reading from this or other sites or librairy books can also answer many questions.
You might also find a thread with people with common goals as yours and a reflex of answering questions as club members helping each other. It might have sounded direct but he was right if we all ask questions who will answer?
[quote]Angus1 wrote:
[quote]Doober wrote:
How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
Training hard and gasping for air etc… doesn’t mean your workout is at a high intensity. Training at a high intensity means you are training close to your 1 rep max. So training with triples ,doubles and singles is high intensity training.
Training with 5 sets of 10 is low intensity training. It has nothing to do with whether you puke after squats or not.
You may be referring to intensive training. In that case then yes you should puke after your squats as training should be highly intensive [/quote]
I suppose that’s one definition.
I take high intensity to be maximal effort, regardless of how many reps/sets you’re doing. For instance, doing the maximum amount of weight I can do on a given day for 8-10 reps. OP, if you’re going balls to the wall every training session, that is high intensity. You empty whatever is in your tank when you start training that day(sweating your ass off, hard breathing after every set, dragging your ass out of the gym regardless of what muscles you worked). That is how I train.
Uh, yeah…this is one of those things you actually have to learn IN A GYM. No matter how poetic someone can write about how they lift, the bottom line is, you learn how to train with insanity by training with people like that…and more than anything, that drive to push for more comes innately. You can’t exactly “learn” a desire for taking your body to new limits over and over for life.
To paraphrase Katt Williams, if you have to ask how to workout with intensity, you probably don’t workout with intensity.
[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:
[quote]Angus1 wrote:
Training at a high intensity means you are training close to your 1 rep max. So training with triples ,doubles and singles is high intensity training.
Training with 5 sets of 10 is low intensity training.[/quote]
I suppose that’s one definition.
[/quote]
It is more than just one definition.
Volume and intensity, with regard to weightlifting, have had a specific definition for over 50 years. They are quantifiable/measurable variables. Things like effort and desire are perceived. In casual conversation people may understand what you mean, but effort and intensity are two different things.
I always get confused by the term ‘intensity’…
Does it really just mean how low you choose your rep range, or does it determine how close to failure you come on any set regardless of rep range?
For example, I’d call an 8 rep set where you just barely grind out that 8th rep more ‘intense’ than a 2 rep set, where you could have probably got 4 reps but you stopped at 2.
Heck, if intensity just meant picking a low rep range, someone could be doing doubles with their 12 rep-max and call it an intense workout.
So what is the ‘formal’ definition of intensity, then - picking a low rep range, or getting close to failure in a given rep range?
Let’s say i have a long day at work and i say so. My friends, family members, co-workers understand what i mean. They know me, they are aware of the kind of work i do, etc…
Let’s say anyone around the world read my email saying so.
Without knowing about me they will likely interpret my writing/words relating to their culture etc…
Power lifter mean 100% of the weight they can lift/press 1 time only without rest or close to that like 95, 90% wich limits them to 1 or 2 or 3 repetion, the next attemppt will or would fail if they tried it.
Others use the same word meaning something different. Just like i can say clean and there is more than 1 potential meaning.
Most choose a goal wich will suggest a load wich will come with a maximum rep range they can do before failure or rest. Some allways push themselves some have a different approach.
[quote]Doober wrote:
How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
I am pretty exhausted after most of my heavy sessions. After a while you learn how much is enough, when to take it easy, and when to pin your ears back and fucking kill shit.
[quote]Angus1 wrote:
[quote]Doober wrote:
How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
Training hard and gasping for air etc… doesn’t mean your workout is at a high intensity. Training at a high intensity means you are training close to your 1 rep max. So training with triples ,doubles and singles is high intensity training.
Training with 5 sets of 10 is low intensity training. It has nothing to do with whether you puke after squats or not.
You may be referring to intensive training. In that case then yes you should puke after your squats as training should be highly intensive [/quote]
I think this is very bad information.
Do Widowmaker squats and tell me that shit’s not intense.
[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
[quote]Ripsaw3689 wrote:
[quote]Angus1 wrote:
Training at a high intensity means you are training close to your 1 rep max. So training with triples ,doubles and singles is high intensity training.
Training with 5 sets of 10 is low intensity training.[/quote]
I suppose that’s one definition.
[/quote]
It is more than just one definition.
Volume and intensity, with regard to weightlifting, have had a specific definition for over 50 years. They are quantifiable/measurable variables. Things like effort and desire are perceived. In casual conversation people may understand what you mean, but effort and intensity are two different things. [/quote]
I was not aware of this. Is it a lbs x reps type of thing or strictly the amount of weight you’re putting up like Angus mentioned?
intensity is training at/near failure
at least if you look at HIT programs that is what it means (rest pause, static holds, heavy negatives, etc.)
so doing heavy(1-3RM) would be intense, or doing 8 reps to failure + bunch of RP sets
and widowmakers are high intensity even though its your 10RM (10 + 10 rest pause reps)
[quote]SSC wrote:
[quote]Angus1 wrote:
[quote]Doober wrote:
How intense are your workouts? Are you gasping for air after every bench press, every deadlift, or every squat? How do you know what intensity is right? [/quote]
Training hard and gasping for air etc… doesn’t mean your workout is at a high intensity. Training at a high intensity means you are training close to your 1 rep max. So training with triples ,doubles and singles is high intensity training.
Training with 5 sets of 10 is low intensity training. It has nothing to do with whether you puke after squats or not.
You may be referring to intensive training. In that case then yes you should puke after your squats as training should be highly intensive [/quote]
I think this is very bad information.
Do Widowmaker squats and tell me that shit’s not intense.[/quote]
A marathon will wear you the fuck out…but there is nothing intense about it.
FTR…I love 20 rep squats, but in weightlifting itensity is relative to 1rm.