How Hard Do You Need To Train In The Gym?

It’s unfair for me to just say you don’t train hard enough because I have to admit I don’t train hard enough sometimes myself.

In the gym Intensity drives adaptation. Intensity is relative too, 100kg for me compared to 100kg for a 13 year old girl who has never lifted a weight is going to be very different.

So how do we measure intensity?? Reps in Reserve ( RIR ) or Rate of Perceived  Exertion ( RPE ).

What this means is if you did a set of 10 reps, how many more reps could you do of the same weight before you failed / could not lift anymore. This isn’t a casual oh yeah I could do 1 or 2 more then it gets hard it’s 1 MILLION DOLLARS on the line or there is a GUN TO YOUR HEAD how many more reps could you do. That is the measure of intensity.

So how hard do we need to be training?

Research shows that anything up to 5 RIR can build strength and grow muscle HOWEVER there sweet spot, the most optimal range is 0-2 RIR and this is where we should spend most of our time in the off season. In season when we are playing games and want to minimise fatigue and soreness, different story ( although I will program exercises we can still train this hard without getting as sore and fatigued) but when we aren’t playing cricket , its time to actually train hard in the gym.

I see far too many cricketers just sand bagging their sets ( going nowhere near 2 RIR) especially on their accessory exercises.

At the end of the day my final message is to train harder than you already are, if you need 4 or 5 sets per exercise to feel like you’ve had a good session, you don’t train hard enough.