After a long long time, another small article.
1. Training at 90% of max:
This is one thing that you hear very often. What this means is you train at 90% intensity, not 90% of the weight. If say a guy can squat 135kg for 1 rep, then doing 122kg for 3 reps isn't training at 90% intensity, doing 122kg for 1 rep is. If his max squat is 135kg for 3 reps, then squatting 122 kg for 3 reps is training at 90% max.
Why training at 90% is so famous is, it has been empirically found that that weight requires just about 1-2 days of time for a decent recovery. Time required for recuperation and recover kind of grows exponentially with the training intensity (the entire article talks only about intensity and it relates to exercises being done in the 3-6 rep range. For 10-15 reps, its an entirely different issue altogether). If you train at just some 50-60% of intensity, then you can even workout some 4-5 times a day for some days without any problem at all. But the time gap between two attempts of your max should be a lot more. Our coach (the Olympic Weightlifting coach of our insti) says atleast a 15 day gap is needed between consecutive attempts of our max, but I guess something around 7-10 days should be fine, though it varies from person to person. But training at 90% does not need a 10 day break, 1-2 days is just enough. And then there's the funda of super compensation (google it up) that can be obtained in a planned cycle of over-reach and under-reach and training at 90% max for an extended period of time is a good way to over-reach.
If all the above is too much for you to read, 90% max is heavy enough to make you fight through the reps and it is light enough to allow for good recovery.
2. Use of muscle relaxants
I've seen a lot of people use sprays (volini, volitra, etc) and other muscle relaxants when they feel some pain. I'm going to argue against using them.
1. Pain is a mechanism by which the brain knows that something's wrong somewhere in the body.
2. When the brain knows there's something wrong, it responds and initiates some repairing process.
3. The whole funda of strength and muscle gains is nothing but adaptation- when you load more than what you usually lift, the muscles get sore (or in case of low rep heavy training and Olympic Weightlifting, its the nervous system that has to adapt) and they tell the brain something needs to be done.
4. If the brain doesn't know something's wrong, it won't respond.
Take blood clotting for example. First something goes wrong (a cut in the skin), then there's a signal that something's wrong (some process happens at the place where the skin's cut) and then there's the response (blood platelets rush to create a clot).
All muscle relaxants/ pain killers/ etc.. They can do one of two things-
1. Suppress the pain
2. Initiate some healing action.
If it suppresses the pain, i.e., if it acts on the nervous system and doesn't let the brain know that there's a pain, the brain won't initiate any healing process (and obviously every muscle relaxant does this). If this is the only thing that it does, then it is totally useless coz it doesn't help in healing.
If it suppresses the pain and initiates some healing action too, then, since the pain signal doesn't really reach the brain, the action it takes won't be what it is supposed to take. I'd rather trust my brain and its natural way of healing (which has worked quite well for 20 years) than the chemical formula that some manufacturer has developed.
Bottomline, use muscle relaxants and any other way of treatment only if it is totally necessary. It must only supplement the natural healing process, not replace it. The only time use of such stuff is totally justified is just before a competition, when you want your brain to allot as much resources as it can to just the lift and not to any pain in the back or the shoulder. During training, if you train 3 days a week and on 2 days you have to apply some spray or gel on your back before you train, you have some serious problem with your back and need to attend to that immediately. Take some time out, strengthen it through stretching and light training and then hit the gym again.
1. Training at 90% of max:
This is one thing that you hear very often. What this means is you train at 90% intensity, not 90% of the weight. If say a guy can squat 135kg for 1 rep, then doing 122kg for 3 reps isn't training at 90% intensity, doing 122kg for 1 rep is. If his max squat is 135kg for 3 reps, then squatting 122 kg for 3 reps is training at 90% max.
Why training at 90% is so famous is, it has been empirically found that that weight requires just about 1-2 days of time for a decent recovery. Time required for recuperation and recover kind of grows exponentially with the training intensity (the entire article talks only about intensity and it relates to exercises being done in the 3-6 rep range. For 10-15 reps, its an entirely different issue altogether). If you train at just some 50-60% of intensity, then you can even workout some 4-5 times a day for some days without any problem at all. But the time gap between two attempts of your max should be a lot more. Our coach (the Olympic Weightlifting coach of our insti) says atleast a 15 day gap is needed between consecutive attempts of our max, but I guess something around 7-10 days should be fine, though it varies from person to person. But training at 90% does not need a 10 day break, 1-2 days is just enough. And then there's the funda of super compensation (google it up) that can be obtained in a planned cycle of over-reach and under-reach and training at 90% max for an extended period of time is a good way to over-reach.
If all the above is too much for you to read, 90% max is heavy enough to make you fight through the reps and it is light enough to allow for good recovery.
2. Use of muscle relaxants
I've seen a lot of people use sprays (volini, volitra, etc) and other muscle relaxants when they feel some pain. I'm going to argue against using them.
1. Pain is a mechanism by which the brain knows that something's wrong somewhere in the body.
2. When the brain knows there's something wrong, it responds and initiates some repairing process.
3. The whole funda of strength and muscle gains is nothing but adaptation- when you load more than what you usually lift, the muscles get sore (or in case of low rep heavy training and Olympic Weightlifting, its the nervous system that has to adapt) and they tell the brain something needs to be done.
4. If the brain doesn't know something's wrong, it won't respond.
Take blood clotting for example. First something goes wrong (a cut in the skin), then there's a signal that something's wrong (some process happens at the place where the skin's cut) and then there's the response (blood platelets rush to create a clot).
All muscle relaxants/ pain killers/ etc.. They can do one of two things-
1. Suppress the pain
2. Initiate some healing action.
If it suppresses the pain, i.e., if it acts on the nervous system and doesn't let the brain know that there's a pain, the brain won't initiate any healing process (and obviously every muscle relaxant does this). If this is the only thing that it does, then it is totally useless coz it doesn't help in healing.
If it suppresses the pain and initiates some healing action too, then, since the pain signal doesn't really reach the brain, the action it takes won't be what it is supposed to take. I'd rather trust my brain and its natural way of healing (which has worked quite well for 20 years) than the chemical formula that some manufacturer has developed.
Bottomline, use muscle relaxants and any other way of treatment only if it is totally necessary. It must only supplement the natural healing process, not replace it. The only time use of such stuff is totally justified is just before a competition, when you want your brain to allot as much resources as it can to just the lift and not to any pain in the back or the shoulder. During training, if you train 3 days a week and on 2 days you have to apply some spray or gel on your back before you train, you have some serious problem with your back and need to attend to that immediately. Take some time out, strengthen it through stretching and light training and then hit the gym again.
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