Are You Taking Too Much Pride in Volume?

In order to understand my message for you today, you’re going to need to understand the basic measurement for output. It’s called power and is synonymous with intensity. It’s one important way that we measure work capacity.

Without losing 80% of the audience by including the formula for it, let’s just simplify. When measuring power we have very few notable variables. Essentially we can ask two important questions:

1. How much work?
2. How fast?

Here’s why were talking about this. When it comes to training, volume can be important. For most goals, however, it’s almost never the most important.

Let’s use a silly example. Did you know I’ve run the equivalent of several one hundred plus mile ultra marathons? Impressive, right? Well, it’s not impressive when I tell you that I just added up all the running I’ve done since I was born. The volume of running a couple hundred miles isn’t impressive or relevant when I tell you it took thirty-two years to do it and never ran more than twelve miles in a row.

Power as a measurement of intensity provides context. It’s more specific and important than just volume. If someone runs a hundred miles in twenty-four hours or less, now we’re talking. Similarly, moving eight hundred pounds over the course of an afternoon is one thing. Moving it in four seconds is the difference between a novice and world-class in the weight room.

The burden of responsibility to relative intensity will never go away. In fact, it’s here that most fitness hopes and dreams go to die. Even CrossFit can get you stuck if you aren’t subscribing to a proper amount of intensity. If you think your job is done here because you’ve completed the workout of the day, think again.

The adaptation you want from training isn’t a matter of how much work, it’s just as much (if not more) about in how much time. Increase power output and you’ll increase the change you want to see from your training.

 

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach