You have most likely heard of and experienced the Second Wind Effect.
This is a real physiological phenomena. Typically used in reference to long distance running, but in fact can be applied to anything.
In the gym you can take advantage of this phenomenon by switching exercises (see Novelty). Think about cross-fit : how do people do it without burning out in the first couple minutes? Well, it is impart due to the second wind effect.
20 minutes of continuous squatting would be impossible. But doing rounds of 5 pull up, 10 push up and 15 squat for 20 minutes is not actually that bad.
I am not a proponent of cross-fit because Strength should be prioritized. However I am not against learning from cross-fit and taking the good things from it!
Try this out:
- test how many reps you can do of a certain exercise (lets say bench press)
- the next day: do 20-30 swings and then immediately test out your exercise from the previous day.
- you will surprise yourself at how closely you come to your maximum reputations – in fact – I have experienced/witnessed many times an increases in maximum reps (see P.A.P.)
There are 101 ways to organize your training to take advantage of this and all the other principles you have to live by. The point of these short, almost-daily posts is to drip feed you information that you really should know in order to optimize your training. I encourage you to join me in implementing these principles into your / your athletes training.