More Isn't Better: Why a Harder Workout Isn't Always a Better Workout
There are a lot of ways I can make you tired.
Give me an hour and I can probably have you sweating, breathing hard and wondering why you voluntarily signed up for this.
That's actually pretty easy.
But making someone tired isn't the same thing as making someone better.
And that's an important distinction.
One of the biggest misconceptions in fitness is that the harder a workout feels, the more effective it must have been.
More exercises.
More sets.
More reps.
More sweat.
More soreness.
More calories burned.
More exhaustion.
There seems to be an assumption that if you leave the gym completely wiped out, something productive must have happened.
Maybe.
But maybe not.
A workout's job isn't to prove how hard you can work. Its job is to create the right stimulus for the adaptation you're trying to create.
That's training.
And there's a difference between training and simply working out.
Making Someone Tired Is Easy
If my goal as a coach were simply to exhaust you, I wouldn't need to know very much about you.
I could have you do burpees until you hate me.
Then some kettlebell swings.
Then push a sled.
Then jump on a bike.
Then finish with something unpleasant because apparently we haven't suffered enough yet.
You'd probably leave tired.
You might even leave thinking:
“That was a great workout.”
But what did we accomplish?
That's the question I care about.
Making someone tired is easy.
Deciding what that person actually needs is harder.
What are we trying to improve?
Strength?
Muscle?
Power?
Work capacity?
Movement?
Cardiovascular fitness?
The ability to tolerate more physical work?
The ability to perform a specific activity?
The ability to live everyday life with greater capacity?
Once we know the answer, we can decide what belongs in the program.
And just as importantly, what doesn't.
Nothing Is Added Just to Make You Tired
This is one of the simplest ways I can explain how I approach programming at Regenerate Strength.
Nothing is added just to make you tired.
Every exercise should have a reason for being there.
Every set should contribute something.
Every progression should move us toward something.
That doesn't mean every exercise needs to be complicated or that every program needs to look sophisticated.
Usually the opposite.
Good programming can look surprisingly simple.
But simple doesn't mean random.
If we're squatting, I should know why.
If we're carrying something heavy, I should know why.
If we're doing intervals, I should know why.
If we're doing another set, there should be a reason for that too.
“Because it makes the workout harder” isn't enough.
The Three Questions I Ask
There are three questions that guide a lot of the decisions I make when programming for a client.
1. Can You Express It?
Can you actually perform what I'm asking you to do?
That doesn't mean the movement has to look perfect.
Human beings aren't machines, and I'm not interested in forcing everyone into one supposedly ideal movement pattern.
But you need enough control, coordination, mobility and strength to express the movement we're trying to train.
If you can't, we adjust it.
Maybe we change the load.
Maybe we change the range of motion.
Maybe we change the exercise.
Maybe we build another quality first.
That's not making the workout easier.
That's meeting your body where it actually is.
2. Can You Recover From It?
This one gets ignored all the time.
You don't get better simply because you trained hard.
You get better when your body can adapt to the training you did.
Training creates a stress.
Recovery allows your body to respond to that stress.
If the amount of work you're doing continually exceeds your ability to recover from it, adding more isn't necessarily making the program better.
Sometimes it's doing the opposite.
Your ability to recover also isn't fixed.
Sleep matters.
Nutrition matters.
Stress matters.
Training history matters.
Age matters.
What you did yesterday matters.
What's happening in the rest of your life matters.
The appropriate training dose for you isn't necessarily the appropriate training dose for the person standing next to you.
And it may not even be the appropriate dose for you six months from now.
Good programming changes as you change.
3. Does It Serve a Purpose?
This is the filter that keeps everything else honest.
Why are we doing this?
If I can't answer that question, we probably don't need it.
Sometimes the purpose is building strength.
Sometimes it's muscle.
Sometimes it's learning a movement.
Sometimes it's power.
Sometimes it's conditioning.
Sometimes it's simply building confidence doing something your body hasn't done in a long time.
But there should be an answer.
The challenge should serve the goal. The challenge shouldn't become the goal.
Soreness Isn't a Scorecard
Another misconception worth getting rid of:
Being sore doesn't automatically mean you had a good workout.
Sometimes you'll be sore after productive training.
Sometimes you won't.
Neither one tells me, by itself, whether your program is working.
Soreness can happen because you did something unfamiliar.
It can happen because you significantly increased volume.
It can happen because you emphasized a different type of muscle contraction.
Or because you haven't trained in a while.
You can create soreness pretty easily.
That's not the objective.
I'd much rather look at what happens over time.
Are you getting stronger?
Can you handle more work?
Is your movement improving?
Are you building muscle?
Are you recovering well?
Are things that used to feel difficult becoming easier?
Can you do something today that you couldn't do three months ago?
That's progress.
Whether or not walking downstairs hurts two days after your workout isn't particularly high on my list.
Sweat Doesn't Tell Me Much Either
Sweat is another one.
People sometimes use how much they sweat as evidence of how effective their workout was.
But sweating is primarily your body's way of regulating temperature.
You can sweat sitting in a sauna.
That doesn't mean you just completed an incredible strength-training session.
You can also have a very productive strength session without leaving a puddle underneath you.
Same goes for calories burned during the workout.
If your primary measure of training quality is how many calories your watch says you burned in the last hour, you're looking at a very small part of a much bigger picture.
I care far more about what your training is helping your body become capable of doing.
More Volume Isn't Automatically Better
Volume is simply the amount of work you're doing.
And yes, we need enough training volume to create an adaptation.
But there is a point where adding more work stops providing meaningful benefit.
You're not trying to see how much exercise you can survive.
You're trying to determine how much productive training you can adapt to.
That's different.
Let's say ten sets provide the stimulus we need.
If I give you twenty simply because twenty is harder, I haven't necessarily doubled the benefit.
I may have just increased the recovery cost.
And if that additional work interferes with your next training session, your sleep, your joints, your motivation or your ability to consistently train, it may actually move us in the wrong direction.
This is why the question isn't:
“How much can you do?”
It's:
“How much do you need?”
Hard Training Still Has a Place
None of this means I think training should always feel easy.
Absolutely not.
There are times when training should be hard.
There are times when you need to lift something heavy.
There are times when your heart rate should climb.
There are times when your muscles should burn.
There are times when I want you uncomfortable.
Your body needs sufficient challenge to have a reason to adapt.
But there's a difference between using difficulty strategically and treating exhaustion as the objective.
Hard is a tool.
It isn't the program.
The Best Workout Is the One You Can Build From
A single heroic workout doesn't accomplish much.
Adaptation happens through repeated exposure over time.
Train.
Recover.
Adapt.
Train again.
That's why consistency matters so much.
I'd rather have you complete productive training sessions week after week than destroy yourself on Monday and spend the rest of the week trying to recover from it.
Good training should create something we can build on.
Maybe you add load.
Maybe you add repetitions.
Maybe you improve your technique.
Maybe you increase your range of motion.
Maybe you tolerate more work.
Maybe the same workload simply starts feeling easier.
Those are all opportunities to progress.
And progression is where training becomes powerful.
Your Program Should Change as You Do
This is also why I don't believe in handing someone a generic workout and telling them to repeat it forever.
The person who starts training today won't be the same person six months from now.
At least that's the idea.
You get stronger.
Your work capacity changes.
Your movement changes.
Your confidence changes.
Your goals may change.
Your life may change.
So the program needs to respond.
Sometimes that means adding more.
Sometimes it means doing less.
Sometimes it means pushing harder.
Sometimes it means backing off.
More isn't better. Less isn't better.
Appropriate is better.
This Is Why We Assess First
At Regenerate Strength, I don't want to guess what kind of training you need.
That's why every client begins with an Assessment.
Before I decide what belongs in your program, I want to understand your goals, your training history, your current capabilities, how you move, your work capacity, your lifestyle and what you actually want your body to be able to do.
Then we can start answering the questions that matter:
Can you express it?
Can you recover from it?
Does it serve a purpose?
Because I'm not trying to see how tired I can make you in an hour.
I'm trying to determine what your body needs today so it can become more capable tomorrow.
Sometimes that's going to be hard.
Sometimes it might surprise you how simple it is.
Either way:
Nothing is added just to make you tired.
Not Sure What Your Training Actually Needs?
You don't need to show up knowing which exercises, program or type of coaching is right for you.
That's what the Assessment is for.
We'll start with where you are, what you want your body to be able to do, and what kind of training will actually help you get there.
Coach Dave Downey
Owner & Head Coach, Regenerate Strength
Strength & Conditioning Coach, Regenerate Health Medical Center
