How to Change your Intensity

Functional Training, Healthy Lifestyle

Over the course of an exercise program, you change different variables in order to progress the program and maximize benefits. So what exactly can we change to alter the intensity of a workout?

    1. Load: The easiest variable to manipulate is load. Just grab a heavier weight.
    2. Load holding position: You always want to start with the easiest, most stable holding position (i.e. Bear hug) and then progress to the most challenging (i.e. Shouldered). Changing how you hold the weight changes the demand on the core and other stabilizers.
    3. Body position: This changes our base of support, which can change the intensity of the movement. Easiest to most challenging for upper body movements would be: feet parallel, staggered, tall kneeling, half kneeling. For lower body movements it would be: parallel feet, staggered feet, rear step, lateral step, forward step, and cross behind step. This is why we start with reverse lunges and progress to curtsy lunges.
    4. Plane of motion: Our bodies move in 3-D so we should train them in 3-D. If we just train in one plane of motion (i.e. squatting with feet parallel), we won’t be strong and reactive when real life requires us to catch ourselves in a fall/trip when hiking. Real life is 3-D. Our three planes of motion are sagittal (up and down), frontal (sideways), and transverse (rotational).
    5. Speed: Making the movement faster will increase the power demand of the muscles. It will also require you to lighten your load. If you go up in speed, you go down in load. That’s how power is developed. Strength is a heavy load at a slower speed. The speed of movement changes the demand and intensity.
    6. Time intervals:Changing the work to rest ratio will change the intensity. How you determine the ratio depends on your goal for that workout. For example, I want more cardio – more work, less rest (30:15). I want more strength – less work, more rest (20:40).

When you change a variable, your body adjusts, it gets sore, and then you repair and recover. Anything new introduced to your body needs an adjustment – that’s also why we do each workout for two weeks before we change any variables in our program. This way your body can adjust & you can develop better at form.

Progress your exercise program over time to allow your body to adapt and to get the most benefits from your workouts.