Do You Have to Train Hard to Get Results? | Hardworkout Magazine

Key takeaways

- You do not need to train at maximum intensity in every session to make progress in strength or endurance.

- Finishing many strength sets with one to three repetitions in reserve reduces fatigue without necessarily costing muscle growth.

- Easy zone 2 cardio builds aerobic capacity through more mitochondria and greater enzyme activity, while interval training mainly challenges the heart's pumping capacity and raises VO2 max.

- Planning which sessions are hard, and leaving recovery between them, lets you keep the quality of your training over time.

- Progress in weights, repetitions and pace over several weeks is a better measure of results than how exhausted you feel after a session.

It can be satisfying to finish a workout with the feeling of having given it your all. Whether you are lifting heavy weights or running intervals, it is often the most demanding sessions that provide the greatest sense of achievement. At the same time, the desire to perform better can lead you to want to train hard in every single session.

To have consistent progress, it is important to know when you should train at high intensity, and when it pays off to hold back a little.

What happens in the body after a hard session?

After a demanding workout, the ability to perform is temporarily reduced.

In strength training, this is partly due to muscle fatigue and a reduced ability to generate power. Unaccustomed training, especially exercises with a lot of eccentric muscle work, can also lead to small injuries in the muscle fibers.

In prolonged endurance training, reduced glycogen stores can contribute to your inability to maintain the same intensity. How quickly you recover after training is influenced by factors such as training volume, sleep, and sufficient intake of energy and nutrients.

If you perform repeated hard sessions without enough recovery, fatigue can accumulate. This can lead to reduced performance and make it harder to increase training volume or intensity over time.

Do you have to train to failure to build muscle?

To build muscle, you need to train with sufficiently high effort, but it is not necessary to push each set to the point where you cannot perform any more repetitions.

Training to full exhaustion often leads to a greater degree of fatigue than when you finish the set a little earlier. This can affect how many repetitions you can perform in subsequent sets, without necessarily resulting in better muscle growth.

How many repetitions should you leave in reserve?

A good starting point is to finish many of the sets with one to three repetitions in reserve (RIR). This means that you stop when you estimate that you could still perform a few repetitions with good technique.

In isolation exercises like bicep curls and leg curls, you can train closer to exhaustion. In heavy compound exercises like squats and deadlifts, it may be more appropriate to hold back a bit, especially when performing several heavy sets.

What does zone 2 training do that intervals do not?

Easy cardio training, preferably in zone 2, is important for developing aerobic capacity.

This type of training contributes, among other things, to more mitochondria in the muscles and increased activity in the enzymes responsible for aerobic energy production. Over time, the ability to produce energy using oxygen improves, allowing you to maintain a higher pace for longer periods.

High-intensity interval training particularly challenges the heart's pumping capacity and can lead to significant improvements in maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max). At the same time, interval training also contributes to adaptations in the muscles that enhance aerobic capacity.

By combining easy sessions with intervals, you can develop both endurance and the ability to maintain high intensity. The distribution should be adjusted according to the training volume and the distances you wish to improve on.

How should you spread hard and easy sessions across the week?

When you train multiple times a week, you should plan when to train hard so that you get sufficient recovery between the most demanding sessions.

With four weekly strength sessions, for example, you can distribute the training between upper body and lower body. This allows you to train the same muscle groups several times a week without doing heavy sessions for them on consecutive days.

If you run four times a week, you can combine one interval session with three easier runs, where one is typically longer. This provides a good combination of aerobic training and high intensity, while also maintaining a consistent training volume.

The planning should also take into account sleep, stress, and other physical activity. During periods of less energy, it may be wise to reduce the training volume or intensity of certain sessions.

How do you know if your training is working?

To assess whether your training is yielding the desired effect, it is useful to record progress over several weeks.

In strength training, you can monitor weights, repetitions, and number of sets. If you gradually manage to lift heavier or perform more repetitions with the same weight, it indicates that strength has increased.

For endurance training, you can compare pace, heart rate, and perceived exertion during similar sessions. If you can maintain a higher speed with approximately the same heart rate, it may be a sign of improved aerobic capacity.

If progress stalls for an extended period, it may be necessary to consider whether the training volume, intensity, or recovery should be adjusted.

You do not need to push yourself to the maximum in every session to achieve good results. The most important thing is to train with sufficient intensity to develop, while also having the capacity to maintain the quality of training over time.