— bottom line. Training intensity is a fundamental and irreplaceable compo-
nent of making progressive poundages a reality, but that is all.. It is too simple a solution to tell people that the reason why they are not gain-
ing is because they are not training hard enough. While insufficient effort
is certainly a big part of most underachievers’ problems, there are plenty
of people who make minimal or no gains despite training hard enough to
stimulate good gains.. Before you go making a big deal of training intensity you must get other
factors of training success in good order. It is an appalling situation that
someone with dedication to their training should get no gains from it.
at was exactly what happened to me for a number of years. And plenty of
people are guilty of this same mistake today. ey train too much, too often,
have too few days between workouts, eat too little, rest too little, and sleep
too little.. I can vividly recall, in the early eighties, taking sets to failure followed by
having a training partner help me to squeeze out a few forced reps, followed
by a few negative-only reps. I truly crucified my muscles. Not only did they
not grow fast like the intensity-zealots said they would, they did not grow
one iota over that long period of intensity fixation.. So long as you increase your exercise poundages slowly and steadily, using
consistently good form, then whatever training intensity and volume you
are delivering, is working (at least for strength training, and probably but
not necessarily for muscle building too). Do not feel you have to train to the
point of exhaustion to realize poundage progression. Remember, you want
the minimum quantity, frequency and intensity of training that will produce
progressive poundages and muscle growth for you.. While delivering high-intensity training is the hardest part of the formula
for training success, there are a substantial number of people who are deliv-
ering it but while giving short shrift to one or more of the factors of recovery.
What an irony it is that some people deliver on the most difficult to satisfy
area, but fail to deliver in the areas that are, relatively speaking, easy to sat-
isfy.. If you are not gaining in the gym, do not immediately conclude that you are
not training hard enough. ough insufficient training intensity may be part
of the problem, it is more likely that the major problems are elsewhere. But