I often need to talk to clients about switching them to endurance training at the gym. Usually, they have noticed that their usual strength training workout isn’t working: it feels too intense, it feels exhausting “and not in a good way,” they don’t seem to be making progress anyway, and they are worried that training may be a problem for a current injury or pain problem. Often, they have already stopped working out altogether.
If you enjoy the gym, this is an exasperating situation. You are eager for a solution. You want to get back to work!
If you don’t especially enjoy the gym — if you are only strength training for weight loss, or as part of a general fitness program that your doctor put you up to — then you are eager for an excuse to stop!
What’s going on here? Why do strength training workouts sometimes seem to stop working? And how can a switch to endurance training help?
Quick definitions
If you’ve spent any time at the gym, you will have heard people talking about “reps” for repetitions and “loads” for the heaviness of a weight. Strength training refers to “high load, low rep” exercises — lifting weights so heavy that you can only manage a few repetitions. Endurance training is the opposite: lifting light weights lots of times.
Endurance training and strength training are the top half of a spectrum of intensity in basic rehabilitation exercises:
Being overweight may not be as unhealthy as it was 40 years ago," BBC News reports. New research has found a body mass index (BMI) of 27 is linked to the lowest rate of death – but someone with a BMI of 27 is currently classed as being overweight. BMI is a score calculated by dividing your weight (usually in kilograms) by the square of your height (usually in metres and centimetres). Currently, a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is classified as being overweight. Researchers looked at 120,528 people from Copenhagen, recruited from 1976 to 2013, and separately compared those recruited during the 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. They were followed up until they died, emigrated, or the study finished. The BMI linked to the lowest risk of having died from any cause was 23.7 in the 1970s group, 24.6 in the 1990s group, and had further risen to 27 in the 2003-13 group. It may be the case that the suggested upward shift in optimal BMI is the result of improvements in preventative treatments for weight-rela...