How to Get Lean Muscle: How to Measure Workout Intensity

This will be short article, quick and succinct. Many men who workout to get lean muscle struggle to understand the concept of intensity. When you hear someone say, "whoa, that was such an intense workout", have you thought about how you actually gauge intensity? Is it by how tired you're feeling afterward? Is it by how long you lifted for? Is it by how heavy the weights you lifted were? First, let's go through what an intense work out isn't.

An intense workout doesn't mean lifting to failure. Combining these two poorly understood terms is only asking for disaster. "Lifting to failure" doesn't mean lifting until you physically can't lift any more. Lifting to failure means lifting until you can't lift anymore within aone set. Though you do see some weight lifters lift until they can't even raise their arms (which is stupid), this phrase can only be used in conjunction with intense. Lifting to failure is only achieved when your work out has been more intense than the previous work out.

This can be gauged by multiplying the weight you lifted and how many reps you lifted for. Say you lifted 220 lbs at 10 reps. Your load intensity is 220 x 10 = 2200 lbs. Say the day after, you're feeling more robust and you lift 330 lbs at 5 reps. 330 x 5 = 1650 lbs. Which work out was more intense? This is a simple technique that not many men are aware of but it's a useful technique that you can use to gauge whether you've been building lean muscle or not.