You know the saying about overestimating what you can do in a year and underestimating what you can do in 10? Here’s something similar: you adapt well to stresses when they’re added incrementally. But you can get absolutely hammered by doing too much too soon.
Especially with new exercises
There’s something extra that comes with novel physical activity. It’s a combination of loading your tissues in new ways AND not necessarily knowing how to relax or be efficient. It’s kind of a paradox with exercise but we’re doing the most work when we don’t know what we’re really doing. Flailing, as it turns out, burns a lot of calories.
All personal trainers should have solid movement coaching skills. Many default to pushing hard — but with varying safety track records. The best personal trainers — in Toronto and beyond — know how to find the sweet spot between improving exercise technique AND creating functional adaptations AKA gainz. And wizard-level personal trainers? They know how to find legitimate physical challenges that move your technique forward.
As a quick recap, if you’ve been doing an activity for a while and modestly increase (maybe 10%) your training load — maybe taking a run from 10 km to 11 km — you’ll most likely do great.
Back to workload:
There’s a trend I see in strains and sprains. Tell me if this sounds familiar:
A slight increase in workload (or novelty) during familiar exercises
PLUS
A novel physical activity (new — or something you haven’t done in a while)
So, for example, you bump your training volume from 10 sets to 11 set AND play a game of badminton (not necessarily in that order) with your nine year-old cousin. Later, you’re surprised to find yourself rocking a pulled a muscle.
Here’s the thing: Either one of these challenges is no big deal. However… when two different stresses join forces in a tag-team situation, it can feel like you just got pinned against the turnbuckle and double-teamed by the Road Warriors — a universal reference that everybody gets and relates to.
I’m not saying that you should avoid activity. The idea of trying to optimize everything is a real killjoy and the truth is your cousin needs to know who’s boss on the badminton court. However, you can:
Take it easy there, Mboko. Let him have this one.
Here’s a model we’ve taken from research on athletic performance and have found to work across the board (see below). Note that there’s no fixed workload here… No global standard. Just addition relative to what you’re used to. If you’ve ever overdone it on a run or some other activity, I would be curious to hear how well it maps onto this model.
Workload Monitoring and Athlete Management by Tim Gabbett
Think about your past two weeks of average exercise (how much, how intense, how novel) and then plan your next workout accordingly. A long layoff indicates starting gently. A two week-long string of consistency is a good base if you want to swing for the fences (by about 10%). This all assumes reasonable recovery and stress loads).
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