Part 4 of 5 - Fitness Fundamentals Series
By: Jason Bungo, CSCS
How do I know if it is challenging enough? How do I know if it is easy enough? Frequently asked questions and common with starting our fitness journey in both the strength and endurance realms. In this article we will break down the basic intensity zones for both our strength/resistance training and our endurance/cardio training. We will also scratch the surface of more advanced versions of these intensity zones.
Strength/Resistance Training Intensity Zones:
We will start by taking a look at the intensity zones for our strength training. For our beginners just getting back into it and depending on goals, long into our development. We want to stick in the 8-15 rep range each set. For our purposes, this is great zone to be in each set and will develop both our muscular strength and endurance. In the beginning for rep tempo/speed, we want it to take about "1" second each direction for a rep of a given exercise. This will help us learn movements and develop quality movement patterns.
As to being able to tell if the set was challenging enough, at the start we should feel like we are able to complete an additional 2-5 reps with decent movement quality at the end of a set. But we want to progress to more like an additional 1-3 reps. If we feel we are able to complete more we need to increase the challenge. To increase the challenge at this point we will mostly focus on increasing the resistance by the smallest amount possible and progressing in this manner. As we get more comfortable with both the intensity and movements we are doing, we will be more comfortable taking it right to the limit. And it is completely acceptable to go right till we cannot complete another rep or even fail a rep, provided we are maintaining proper form as we fail. You may feel it the next day though.
As we progress in our strength training journey we will start to vary our set, rep, rep speed, and range of motion to add challenge and variation to our routines. For our more intermediate clients we will divide our strength training intensity zones into "3" primary rep ranges for each set.
Less than "6" Reps: Strength training zone, we will be primarily focused on increasing how much weight we can move or force we can produce. This rep range will primarily be used with our fundamental/compound movements as well as our intensive explosive movements. In this rep range, with resistance training, we will move the weight slowly, even though we are trying to move quickly, due to the challenge.
"6-12" Reps: Hypertrophy, muscle enlargement, building muscle to help increase our metabolism and create the lean figure we are looking for. This range can be used with all of our movements including isolation movements. We will however not generally use this rep range with more intense explosive movements.
"12-20" Reps: Muscular Endurance, we will use this rep range to increase the endurance of our movements, this range will also be used with all movements except our more intense explosive movements.
With our most advanced athletes we will look at other intensity methods such as drop sets where we complete multiple sets to failure with successively lower weights, using bands and chains (accommodating resistance) in conjunction with our fundamental strength movements, and circuits involving strength and explosive movements back to back (complex training). However this is a topic for a future discussion.
Endurance/Cardio Training Intensity Zones:
When it comes to developing our endurance we will primarily be looking at a "3" zone system the majority of the time. Essentially, easy/moderate, prolonged harder efforts, and short intense efforts like sprints.
To start with our beginners, just beginning their fitness journey, or even our endurance athletes trying to build up their base, we will want the majority of it in this "easy" zone-1 area. Now how can we tell if it is easy? Generally we will be able to speak a few sentences to someone if we are in this zone. For those of you using a heart rate monitor, it could be referenced as about "65-75% of our max heart rate. Using certain methods, like the Maffetone method, from Dr. Phil Maffetone, it could be approximated to "180" minus our age, with some additional other health caveats. Point being is our heart rate should be elevated, but it should not feel too uncomfortable. After training for extended periods of time in this zone we will start to notice things like increased speed, pace, watts, or challenge at the same intensity or zone or heart rate.
As we get more comfortable and build up a base of endurance fitness we will start to incorporate more of our other "2" intensity zones into our training. In our progression of endurance we will start to incorporate prolonged efforts of about "3-10" minutes at about an effort we could only sustain for "20-30" minutes if we had to. This could be gauged as about or 5k-10k pace for runners. If we are looking at heart rate in this zone, it could be about "75-85%" of our maximum heart rate. This zone would be referred to as "Zone-2". During this part of our training we will also incorporate "Zone-3" training, or efforts that we could only sustain for about "10-120" seconds. And complete intervals of these efforts with set amounts of rest in between. Consider "Zone-3" a sprint, and we will do some, but generally very little of this in our training. This is all most individuals will need with regards to their endurance/cardiovascular training. Do note the majority of training will still be in "Zone-1" when considering warm ups, cool downs, and rest intervals.
But, for our most advanced endurance athletes, more than likely with endurance specific goals we will start to break down even more complex training zones. Some endurance athletes use "5", "7" and even "9" different training zones based on variable such as heart rate, pace, speed, wattage, and perceived effort in their training. The most advanced will even using a blood drop to look at blood lactate. However, a great deal of the time it will just involve greatly increased volume or time in the "3" different zones we started with, but possibly with some sub-categories in the "2" more intense zones. And just like our intermediate athletes, the majority will still be "Zone-1" training.
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