Try This to Improve Your Results

If you want world class results from your fitness program, and who doesn’t, you must have intensity in your training. Just going through the motions won’t cut it. And if you’re going to invest the training time, why not get world class results?

But what is intensity? How do you know when you have it? Is it maintaining your heart rate at a certain percentage of your max for a period of time? Is it how hard the workout feels? Is it sweating a lot during the workout?

The answer to all these questions is “No.”

Intensity is measured by Power. It is objective, measurable and has real world application.

We can calculate power with this simple equation:

Power = (Force x Distance) /Time.

Power is the answer to the question, “How much work do you get done in a given amount of time?” Or “How long does it take you to do a fixed amount of work.”

Measuring Power in Your Workouts

You can get a sense of the power output by performing the same workout periodically and recording the change in time or total work. But you can also do some other calculations (Warning!! Simple math ahead!).

To measure Power in your workouts, you need to know: how much you weigh, how much any external load you used weighed, how far you moved the loads and how long it took.

As a simple example, let’s assume your workout is 100 Squats with no external load. Let’s say you weigh 150 pounds (Force). To determine distance we’ll measure how far your center of gravity moves in a repetition. For simplicity let’s say it’s 24 inches.

So you start your stopwatch and do the workout. You finish in 10:00. Now we can calculate your power.

To determine the work performed we’ll multiply the force (150 pounds) by the distance (24 inches) and divide by 12 (inches in a foot) to get foot-pounds. In this case we get 300 ft-lbs for each repetition. Multiply by 100 repetitions and you get 30,000 ft-lbs of work. Divide this by 600 seconds and you get 50 ft-lbs per second.

So how good is this? It’s as good as you did today. It’s a performance benchmark. After repeating this same workout periodically you will have objective measures of your progress. It’s a good way to determine the effectiveness of your training program.

Power In the Real World

Power is a determining factor in nearly every physical activity. In every sport (even Marathon Running) the athlete who can produce the most power usually wins.

In daily activities like yard work, helping your buddy move or stacking sandbags before a flood power is the measure of your effectiveness. No matter the application, the more power you can generate, the better you’ll do.

And the fitter you’ll be.

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