Dial It Back To Drive Progress Forward
April 12, 2023 | Words by Gabe Yanez
The Max Out Mentality
Who doesn’t love chasing PRs and climbing the leaderboard? This is why maxing out on a lift or going RPE 10 on a benchmark workout is often what athletes look forward to the most.
But how often should you be maxing out a lift or besting a score? Can having this max-out mentality be the reason your progress has plateaued?
Dial It Back To Drive Progress Forward
Intensity is a necessary piece of the puzzle if you want to progress toward your goals.
Progressive overload in your lifts is how you get stronger and how you build muscle. Hitting high RPEs in your workouts is how you burn fat and build your work capacity. But how often can you realistically hit RPE 8s, 9s, and 10s?
That's where utilizing periods of lower-intensity training can be incredibly beneficial.
By using RPE 4-7 for a period of time, you can dial in proper mechanics and increase time under tension, which can lead to better muscle activation and, ultimately, better results in the long run.
Additionally, taking a step back from high-intensity training can give your connective tissues and muscle fibers time to adapt and strengthen, reducing the risk of injury. By focusing on lower-intensity training for a period of time, you can build a solid foundation of strength and fitness that will allow you to safely and effectively push yourself to higher levels of intensity when you return to it.
Ultimately, incorporating lower RPE training can help you achieve your goals more effectively and prevent injury along the way.
This is why we are focusing on mechanics and tempo in the current lifting cycle for the NCFIT Workout track. This cycle is NOT meant to be excessively heavy. It is there to reinforce positions and prime everyone for our 6-week Wendler cycle that is coming next month! Until then, we are in the “slow and steady” mentality during our lifting sessions.
We are dialing it back today for big gains down the road!
One Thing To Try This Week
Get With The Tempo
It is not too late to jump into the new NCFIT Tempo / Strict Strength Cycle we are running on the NCFIT App. Use the next few weeks of training to build a strong base and gear up for a 6-week Wendler cycle coming next month!
