Training gets derailed all the time by illness, injury, lack of drive, and even weather. The unforgivable sin of the athlete, however, is to derail one’s own progress through training badly. Bad training comes in many forms, but today we’re going to talk about the “duty cycle,” or work-to-rest ratio of training.
Once you’ve decided to do an exercise, you need to determine what kind of load you’ll use and what length of time or number of reps you’ll use that load. A critical follow-up is the rest period you’ll pick between those load cycles. This might seem too elementary to matter, but in truth, we almost always tend to miss optimum training loading because of errors in planning.
For example, say I can do ten pull-ups at bodyweight. I choose to work out at my 10RM (bodyweight for 10 reps), but only do 8 repetitions per set. This slightly-lower-than-max rep scheme will allow me to do multiple sets, and give the muscles multiple good overloads in one workout. Given enough rest, this can be a very effective training session.
If I use shorter-than-needed rests, say, 40 seconds between sets, the fatigue build-up will outpace my ability to perform, even at the lighter-than-possible load. My first set will be 8 reps, then maybe 7, followed by maybe 6, then 5...and so on. I’ll be wrecked. My muscles will be screaming. Less good work will have been completed.
The lie is that I will have thought the training session good because it wore me out. Not so.
If I took 3 minutes between sets instead, I might get five sets across at 8 reps. Over time, I’ll get stronger, and I probably won’t be all that tired from any given session in this phase.
The “Tabata” timing cycles has gained popularity over the last few years because of the high fatigue one can develop in a relatively short time. If you’re not familiar, a typical fitness “Tabata” will feature eight rounds of 20 seconds’ work followed by 10 seconds’ rest, a 2:1 work-to-rest ratio.
Whether it’s squats, swings, burpees, or push-ups, by the end of 4 minutes, you’ll be really fatigued. Certain markers of endurance and buffering ability will have improved. But will you be really well-trained?
The key to gaining fitness, which is the underlying goal of training, is to accurately simulate and overload the needed physical characteristics for sport performance. Just getting wiped out by some hard intervals will only lead to fitness gains if:
