Should every session be flat out?

This blog will continue to look at a collection of common myths around fitness and health. These are called myths but some may turn out to have some truth behind them! So read on and find out….. 

Every session should be flat out!

This has been a question throughout my career. ‘Surely, if I’m not a sweaty mess at the end of a session I haven’t achieved anything.’ This is common but there are some extreme people suggesting the whole session was a failure and they’d train ‘properly’ later on.

This I can confirm is a myth. Every session does not need to be flat out. Yes there should be sessions which you push yourself, get your heat rate up through intensive conditioning or weight lifting. The stress caused by these sessions is great and will really improve fitness and health in so many ways it’s a whole series of articles in their own right.

However, if every session pushes more intense and harder there is no time for adaptation. The bout of exercise causes stress on the body. The body then needs time to recover and adapt to this stress. The adaptation is you getting fitter and stronger.

If there isn’t enough time to recover and adapt between each exercise bout then the body never recovers enough to adapt, it won’t get fitter as efficiently and usually ends up with an injury or long layoff with illness. Then that person stops exercising and it’s really hard to get back to start again. Not good.

The opposite can happen too. Not providing enough stress from the exercise ie not working hard enough doesn’t provide enough to need to recover or adapt to. So the body does not become fitter.

So what’s the answer? Mixing up light, medium and hard session. For example someone who trains 4-5 times per week I would suggest has 2 really intense sessions, a medium and 1-2 light sessions. Although this could change from week to week, one week may contain more intense sessions but that would probably be followed by a week of lighter sessions. Don’t worry if you can only do a couple of session per week. The sessions could keep on changing between the 3 intensities or the weeks could change.

It can be hard when doing the lighter sessions to get a sense of what the aim of the session is if it’s not to work really hard. Working at lighter intensities on bikes, treadmills or running etc can focus on the aerobic system making sure the oxygen exchange and mitochondria (energy recycling centres) are working efficiently. This is true for weights too but I personally see them as mobility sessions making sure movement patterns and joint range is where I expect. Also a lighter session can be self myofascial rolling and stretching with supportive muscle strengthening like pilates and yoga.

So don’t worry about going flat out for every session. Take time to go lighter and aid recovery and adaption, but then make sure the intense sessions are really pushing your abilities.