How To Train Intensely Without Wrecking Yourself In The Process

I’m encouraged by what appears to be an increase in public awareness and media discussion of the high risk of orthopedic injuries and dangerous medical conditions like rhabdomyolysis with popular exercise programs like CrossFit and many so-called “boot camps”, however, it bothers me that ignorant trainers and journalists frequently blame exercise intensity for problems caused by things like poor exercise selection and bad form.

High Intensity Versus High Risk

In the context of exercise intensity is best defined as relative effort; how hard you are working relative to how hard you are capable of working at the moment. For example, if you are capable of exerting one hundred units of force in an exercise and perform it with a level of resistance which only requires you to exert sixt units, at the start of the exercise your intensity of effort will only be sixty percent. As you fatigue the force you are capable of exerting gradually decreases so the sixty units of force you exert gradually becomes a larger percentage of your momentary capability. When fatigue has reduced your momentary capability to sixty units of force you will be working at maximum intensity.

Injuries occur during exercise when tissues are exposed to more force than they can withstand, which can be due to any one or a combination of of several factors. The higher the force relative to your tissue strength the higher your risk of injury. While training with a high level of intensity requires a high relative effort, it does not require relatively high levels of force. By consistently applying the following guidelines you can train as intensely as you are capable of without wrecking yourself in the process.

Use a slow, controlled speed of movement

You should move slowly enough during exercise to be able to do three things:

  1. Reverse direction smoothly and with little acceleration during both the lower and upper turnarounds
  2. Maintain proper positioning and path of movement over the full range of motion
  3.  Focus on intensely contracting the target muscles.

Reversing directly smoothly, gradually slowing to a stop and gradually starting the positive or negative without bouncing, yanking, or jerking the weight reduces the peak force the target muscles encounter. This is especially important during the lower turnaround, because more force is required to slow the weight to a stop and to begin the positive, and in many exercises the target muscles may be at or near a stretched position where they are weaker and more vulnerable to injury.

For most exercises this means taking at least four seconds to complete the positive (lifting) phase and another four seconds to complete the negative (lowering) phase, but moving even more slowly improves control of body positioning and movement and minimizes acceleration during the turnarounds.

Contrary to uninformed opinion it is not necessary to move in a fast, explosive manner during exercise to improve your speed or explosiveness in other activities or to accomplish any general fitness goals, and doing so unnecessarily increases your risk of injury. Regardless of the speed of movement used to develop strength, if you get stronger, you will able to move faster and more explosively.

It is also not necessary to move quickly or perform a high rate of mechanical work during exercise to improve metabolic and cardiovascular conditioning. As long as your metabolic work is high you will stimulate improvements in these, and this can be accomplished moving slowly, or even not at all with isometric high intensity training methods and by minimizing your rest between exercises. Avoiding a high amount of mechanical work done in an explosive, high-force manner also reduces your risk of rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle releasing muscle fiber contents into the blood which can be harmful to the kidneys), a condition which occurs with alarming frequency in people doing CrossFit.

Maintaining proper positioning and path of movement prevents you from moving into or through positions where the joints or other tissues are exposed to potentially harmful levels of force due to compression or stretching of tissues. Maintaining proper positioning also ensures the target muscles are being efficiently loaded, rather than offloading to other muscle groups. This prevents you from generating a lot of force with other larger muscle groups that must be transmitted to the weight through smaller muscle groups, which increases your risk of injury.

Exercise is not about using your muscles to lift weights, it is about using weights to work your muscles. When performing an exercise your focus should be internal rather than external, focusing on intensely contracting the target muscles rather than what you are doing to the weight or the handles, pedals, or pads on a machine. It is much easier to do this when you are moving slowly.

Avoid movements or positions which cause excessive stretching or compression of joint tissues

Your muscles and tendons can only stretch so far, and your joints can only move so far in any direction before tissues start to be compressed and/or stretched to a potentially harmful degree. While a moderate stretch is desirable in some exercises an extreme stretch puts the muscles under load in a weak and vulnerable position increasing the risk of strains or tears and can be harmful to your joints.

Sifu Floyd Jackson performing a knee crank and "surf board" arm lock on Drew Baye

If you study ju jitsu, chin na, dumog, or any other style of grappling which involves joint locks and breaks, you learn how to position and apply force to a threat’s joints to cause pain or damage, and how to prevent them from doing the same to you. The basic principles are the same for almost every lock; you move the threat’s joints into a position at the end of their range of motion and apply force in that direction using a position which gives you leverage. You need both for it to work. During exercise the principles are exactly the opposite; you want to avoid positioning your joints at the end of their range of motion if the weight and leverage results in excessive stretching or compression of joint tissues in that position, and removing either of those two – extreme stretch or excessive force –  significantly reduces your risk of injury.

A good example of this is the dumbbell pullover. When your upper arms are moving in the sagittal plane parallel to each other your shoulders can only flex so far before ligaments in the shoulder restrict further movement.  This can be tested by standing with your back flat against a wall and slowly raising your arms in front of you while keeping your elbows shoulder-width apart. During the dumbbell pullover, as you lower the weight approaching this position the horizontal distance between your shoulder and the center of gravity of your arms and the weight increases, increasing the lever and the resistance force. If you allow your shoulders to flex as far as you can using a heavy enough weight you can damage the ligaments or capsule. To avoid a shoulder injury you can do one of two things. Either only lower the weight until you just begin to feel a slight stretch in your lats and shoulders, avoiding an extreme stretch, or perform the exercise using a cable with an overhead pulley, minimizing the lever and force against your shoulders near the stretched position.

Use a weight you can perform at least a moderate number of reps with in good form

Assuming you have healthy muscles and joints you’re not likely to get hurt using heavy weights if you follow all of the above, but heavy weights are not necessary for effective training and some research even shows moderate loads can be more effective for stimulating muscular strength and size gains.

My personal preference is to start people at a weight they can perform an exercise with in good form for a time under load (TUL) of sixty to ninety seconds, and adjust from there if necessary (for more on determining the optimal rep range see High Intensity Workouts). On the low end I do not have anyone using more weight than they can use with good form for at least around thirty to forty seconds, since form tends to break down much faster with weights heavier than this.

If your form on an exercise is even a little questionable, reduce the weight enough that you can perform your upper target rep number or TUL in perfect form, and gradually increase from there. Only good reps count. Do not increase the weight on an exercise if your form with your current weight is poor.

Proper Mindset

As I mentioned earlier, exercise is about using weights to work your muscles, not about using your muscles to lift weights. This is not just a matter of semantics, it is an important difference in how you think about exercise, a difference that has a tremendous impact on how you go about it. When you think of exercise as something you do to the weights with your muscles, you will tend to move in a manner that makes it easier to accomplish the assumed objective of making the weight go up and down, which tends to make the exercise both less effective and more dangerous. When you think of exercise as a process of using weights to accomplish the real objective of exercise, which is to efficiently load the target muscles, you will tend to move in a manner which more effectively accomplishes this, and reduces your risk of injury.  I’ve already written quite a bit on mindset elsewhere, so I’m not going to repeat myself here, but I strongly recommend reading Focus On Your Muscles Not The Numbers and Intellect Versus Instinct for a more detailed discussion of this.

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  • Bryan Oct 9, 2014 @ 15:41

    Great article.

    I just got done with a big 5 work out using Atlantis machines (if it matters) and I’m concerned that I’m not reaching “real failure.” I always feel like I have more in me and my TUL’s vary startlingly for the same movements. Would it ever be appropriate to perform a second set to that “fake failure” point on movements I don’t feel were “all I’ve got?”

    Secondly, as a truck driver I never train in the same gym twice in a row. I’m always using different machines or free weights or some weird pneumatic compression machines– whatever I can find when workout day comes around. Its difficult to say with with certainty what I can train with because it varies greatly between equipment. Would it be better to push the workout further and go to a big box gym I know I can always get to that might have consistent equipment or will the disparities in weights work itself out over time?

    Also, how can I be sure I am using correct form absent a trainer? Might it be worth hiring a trainer for this alone? Is this a service a big box could provide or is there a lot of folklore in form in the big box gyms?

    Thanks Drew, I know that’s a lot of questions.

    • Drew Baye Oct 13, 2014 @ 22:03

      Bryan,

      Rather than add sets, which usually does not improve results and can even be counterproductive, I recommend working on pushing yourself to train more intensely. For more on this read Are You Training Hard Enough? and Mental Preparation for High Intensity Training.

      If you are unable to work out at the same gym consistently I recommend sticking with free weights and bodyweight exercises like chin-ups and dips, since barbells, dumbbells, and chin-up and dip stations are practically the same everywhere you go.

      If you’re not sure about your form it is definitely worth hiring a trainer if you can find a good one. Unfortunately, most trainers haven’t the slightest idea what they’re doing. Let me know the area you’re in and I might be able to recommend someone.

  • Roger Oct 10, 2014 @ 3:00

    While everything you say here is true, I think it’s important to stress that even when carefully following these guidelines the possibility of a minor injury still exists.

    I had started my wife on a “Big Five” routine using Nautilus Nitro machines a couple of months ago using a moderate 4/4 rep cadence (between 8-15 reps), and made sure that she was reversing direction smoothly, maintaining proper body positioning, and focusing on intensely contracting the target muscles for each exercise. Everything was going just fine for about 3 workouts (once-per-week), and then 4 days or so after her last workout she started complaining about her upper back (trap/lat) area being in quite a bit of pain. I thought that sounded strange, as she hadn’t complained about any pain the day of the workout or the few days following. But all of a sudden she was in quite a bit of pain and could barely get a good night’s sleep. She had a massive knot right in the middle of her upper back that wouldn’t loosen up even after several days of trying to massage it out. To make a long story short, she ended up going to the doctor, and it turned out that she had quite severe soft tissue damage and was referred to a physical therapist.

    Unfortunately, both the doctor and the physical therapist told her that the type of workout she was doing (pushing each exercise to positive failure) was inherently dangerous and likely the cause of her injury. They recommended that she take up Pilates or Yoga instead. And now she’s convinced that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and want’s nothing to do with HIT weight training! That’s really too bad, as I know she’ll get much better results by following a proper HIT routine. But I doubt I’ll ever be able to convince her otherwise after this…

    • Drew Baye Oct 12, 2014 @ 11:35

      Hey Roger,

      No physical activity is completely risk free. You can even get hurt just walking if you trip or take a bad step off a curb. If your wife didn’t experience any pain during the workout I would suspect either something else contributed to it, or it may have been pre-existing and the workout aggravated it. I’ve trained some very frail people over the years, and have never had an injury caused during workouts, but I have had to be careful with people with pre-existing injuries to avoid this kind of thing. I hope she has recovered and hope she will reconsider HIT. You might want to have her give SuperSlow a try.

      • Roger Oct 12, 2014 @ 21:03

        Hi Drew,

        Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I believe that she probably re-aggravated an injury from about 10 years ago when her car was rear-ended (whiplash). I’d completely forgotten about that to tell you the truth. That’s the only other time that she’s been referred to a physical therapist, and the injury was in the same area of her upper back.

        If I can talk her into trying HIT once again, I’ll have her slow down the rep cadence even more. Do you have any other tips to avoid this type of problem in the future? My guess is that it was the seated Nautilus Row machine that caused the problem. Perhaps I should have her stop a rep or two shy of MMF for the rows and pulldowns for a month or two, and then slowly increase to full intensity after that. What do you think?

        • Drew Baye Oct 13, 2014 @ 21:43

          Hey Roger,

          I would have her start with a weight she can easily handle for five 10/10 reps stopping short of failure, and increase it gradually in very small increments (depending on which line of Nautilus machines it is you may need to bring in add-on plates to do this). This way she has time to perfect her form and regain confidence in her ability to perform the exercise safely.

          When she starts training again, I also recommend only introducing one exercise for any muscle group at a time. I usually start new clients with only three exercises, the squat or leg press, chin-up or close underhand-grip pull-down, and the bench press or chest press, then only add one new exercise every workout until they’re doing the whole routine. This makes it easier to determine if a particular exercise is causing any problems than if you have her do all of them from the start.

  • Don Matesz Oct 10, 2014 @ 15:27

    Another quality article. I am bugged by the same issue, particularly with Crossfit. Neither Olympic lifting with improper technique or coaching, nor doing dozens of kipping pullups or kipping muscle ups, provides high intensity training for the musculature. This is just high stupidity training, or, rather, high stupidity display. Ego wins over intelligence.

    • Drew Baye Oct 12, 2014 @ 11:32

      Thanks Don,

      I think “high stupidity training” describes CrossFit and similar programs perfectly.

  • Bruce Weber Oct 10, 2014 @ 16:51

    Drew,

    Thanks for this article. I have been using HIT for the past 2 years. I have had no joint injuries and I am confident that my joints are doing much better than before I started.

    In the past I have tried more traditional weight lifting, running, and cross-training. From all of these activities, I fought with joint pain and discomfort, strains, and sprains.

    BW

  • Lifter Oct 10, 2014 @ 16:58

    Great stuff Baye! If I feel fortunate about one thing it is Mike teaching me the value of lifting with my muscles, at the sake of momentum, from when I was a young impressionable teen. Thanks to his guidance I have suffered very few injuries over the years/decades. Those I have had were out of stupidity, where I used to do anything to eek out an extra rep, including torquing my body.

    As longevity is a crucial part of training, as it should be if trainees hope to continue this endevour indefinitely, learning to lift using the intended muscle/s during each and every set is crucial. Which means forgoing “ego-lifting” to ensure maximum stimulation.

    • Drew Baye Oct 12, 2014 @ 11:30

      Hey Lifter,

      I wish I’d found out about Mike Mentzer years earlier than I did. It would have saved me a lot of wasted time in the gym and a few injuries.

      When a client appears to be compromising their form for the sake of getting more reps I tell them how you perform each rep is more important than how many you do.

  • Donnie Hunt Oct 12, 2014 @ 10:45

    Very motivating article as usual Drew. “Using weights to work to your muscles, not about using your muscles to lift weights.” This line speaks volumes in my opinion. The resistance is there to “help” me contract my muscles with a high level of effort. Or to help engage the mind/muscle connection.

    • Drew Baye Oct 12, 2014 @ 11:22

      Hey Donnie,

      Exactly! Developing the proper mindset for training requires as much mental effort as HIT requires physical effort, but it makes a big difference in the safety and effectiveness of your workouts.

  • Steven Turner Oct 12, 2014 @ 17:30

    Hi Drew,

    Great article. This might be slightly off topic

    Nothing suprises me today in relation to exercise especially with all the so-called fitness experts out there.

    Lately I have noticed that in a lot of sports the high incidence of hamstring tears. I have read a lot of articles on hamstring tears one being “How to prevent hamstring injuries”. The article goes through all this complicated figures and reasons why it hamstring occurs and goes onto prescribe all these different types of exercise which focus on the frontal thigh muscles.

    Go back a few decades an article Arthur Jones wrote, “In sports, this is probably occurs most frequently when hamstrings are torn..and this is frequently a result of programs that devote too little attention to the muscles of the back of the thighs while heavily working the front of the thighs.” Arthur also mentioned the ..most neglected muscles are the large muscular structures of the hips and lower back.

    But the so-called experts all say that machine training is no good including machines exercise that target the hamstrings directly. I think that most of the exercises that the the so-called experts prescribe for the hamstrings greatly increase the risk of injury.

    An exercise program that has 8-10 different exercise will sufficently train all the major muscle groups and provide balance of muscle groups. Whilst I think that you can use many different types exercises and exercise equipment in your program, be it body weight, barbells, dumbells, kettlebells or any other form of resistance.

    This is where so many of the so-called experts go wrong they don’t how to prescribe/instruct “proper exercise”. And the so-called experts do not know how to apply the proper mindset.

    But than exercise machines aren’t functional “so they say”.

  • Jim Lavan Oct 17, 2014 @ 16:32

    Hey Drew

    I am alternating my workouts between SuperSlow with MedX one week and then a combo free weight, machine, body weight at my big box gym on the other. Would you still recommend just 1 working set if performing an exercise with DB’s or Barbells or even different machines for that matter. I perform a DB chest press for my horizontal push and usually struggle to get 10 good reps, then I alternate a bw pull exercise like a pull up and then do another 2 sets, one slightly heavier and one back-off set with a weight that is lighter than the first set because otherwise I wouldn’t get more than like 4 reps. On the next pushing exercise I would go to a vertical push with Hammer or Nautilus XPLoad seated Shoulder press. And I do the same thing there. Now I know the performance rep cadence is different, 10/10 for the SS and maybe 3 to 4 on the pos and neg for the free weight and XP Load because of the resistance curves. I just cant seem to get away from wanting to do more sets versus SS. One set doesn’t feel on the FW and XPload doesn’t feel the same as on SS. Do I need to do more sets with this or is it just in my head?

    • Drew Baye Oct 20, 2014 @ 13:34

      Hey Jim,

      Yes, you can train just as intensely with dumbbells and barbells and different machines as on MedX, so you would still only need a single set.

  • Oscar Oct 18, 2014 @ 20:17

    Excellent article Drew. I’ve had your website bookmarked for weeks now and finally had some time to read. A lot of great content in just this one post and very well articulated points. My only concern now is finding time because you have so much content.

    • Drew Baye Oct 20, 2014 @ 12:48

      Thanks Oscar,

      I’ve been writing online since around 1997, so there is a lot of material to cover. I recommend starting with the articles on the home page, as these cover most of the basics, then using the search feature to find articles on topics you’re interested in.

  • Steven Turner Nov 4, 2014 @ 21:58

    Hi Drew,

    I have been reading training material from strength and conditioning training course throughout the reading material it is clear that their objectives/mindsets are to move weight. All the various olympic lift techniques are about how to move weight in ‘explosive manners.

    I think that to some extent a lot of people get sucked into this style of training as it can look impressive when someone moves a lot of weight. You than have Personal trainers who undertake these courses start having all their clients training in the same manner.

    I have the greatest respect for olympic lifters but they spend years refining their technique and skills and it take years to learn how to coach olympic lifts.

    Most PT’s that undertake these strength and conditioning course in 2 days and all of a sudden they are experts at olympic lifts.

    My take: Olympic lifts are only good for olympic lifts and nothing else. If want to be an olympic lifter than be an olympic lifter.

    • Drew Baye Nov 5, 2014 @ 18:45

      Hey Steven,

      Exactly. There is no good reason for anyone who does not want to compete in Olympic lifting to perform the Olympic lifts. They offer no general strength or conditioning benefits that can not be achieved more quickly, safely, and efficiently with conventional barbell and machine exercises performed at a slow cadence.

  • John Oct 15, 2015 @ 7:23

    Hi Drew

    Do you have any recommendations/guidelines for exercising after a hernia operation? Are some exercises better? Eg is a wall squat safer than a normal squat in relation to a hernia?

    I’ve just been diagnosed with an inguinal hernia and am waiting to see a consultant so have stopped exercising (have tried to but can feel the bulge expanding). Websites say aerobic is the way to go (too keep weight down, no surprise there!!) such as static cycling or swimming.

    I’m keen to do some sort of activity but think I may just have to stop and wait until I recover from the operation. To be honest resistance training is what I enjoy so won’t have a great deal of enthusiasm for something else. Plus this has really messed with my mind, it makes a big difference to my lifestyle and has made me nervous about any sort of movement.

    Enjoyed the last video you posted, realized I was not working to full intensity, bit of an eye opener.

    Thanks

    John

    • Drew Baye Oct 16, 2015 @ 13:48

      Hey John,

      I would wait until you have completely recovered from the surgery and have your doctor’s clearance before working out, then when you do I recommend you resume each exercise with a conservative load and effort and be extremely strict about breathing properly and avoiding Val Salva’s maneuver.