Two fundamental concepts that form the majority basis of any physical training program are volume and intensity. Because these two concepts are so central to any fitness program, or individual session, it is very important to understand what is meant by the terms of volume and intensity and how they reflect on each other.
Volume as reflected in the context of a physical training program is the total amount of physical work that is performed. If an individual were following a cardiovascular based program this would be reflected as distance covered within the session. As an example, if a runner were to perform 10 sets of 400m interval runs, the volume of this session would be stated as 4000m or 4 kilometers. For an individual performing a weight training program, this would usually entail the total number of repetitions performed by multiplying the number of sets performed by the number of repetitions of each of those sets. To provide another example, if an individual were to perform 5 sets of 15 repetitions for a particular exercise, the total volume of this exercise would be 75 repetitions. Within any program, volume can be measured on an individual session or daily basis but can also be measured on a larger scale, looking at weekly or even monthly volumes of work.
When speaking from the perspective of a physical training program, intensity is a reflection of effort, usually measured against a maximal output variable. Cardiovascular programs will most often measure intensity against some sort of race pace for a given distance while a weight training program will usually reflect intensity as a load percentage of a repetition maximum. For specific examples, a rower may perform intervals at a percentage of their 500 metre pace from a 5k time trial while a powerlifter may perform sets of bench press at a given percentage of the load that they would use for a single rep max. Another common measure of intensity in a physical training program is the utilization of a perceived effort scale, or an RPE scale. The most common RPE scale that is used reflects the effort on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being low effort and 10 being a maximal effort. These scales can be helpful for an individual who may not have exact measures of maximal efforts.
With this better definition of volume and intensity in relation to fitness training, it is also important to understand the relationship that exists between these two measures in this realm. The primary relationship that exists within a physical training program between volume and intensity is inverse in nature, meaning that as one increases the other should decrease. For example, a session performed at a higher intensity level should have a lower amount of volume while if a session calls for a high amount of total volume then the intensity level should be brought down to a degree. Although this inverse property will often happen naturally, in that it would be impossible to full sprint a 5km run or that a heavier weight lifted will result in a lower number of reps performed, it is also highly beneficial for this property to be intentionally planned within a training program to both maximize results and recovery as well as to prevent possibly overtraining.
The measure and proper balance of volume and intensity within a fitness-training program is one of the most important elements that will ultimately lead to long-term results and improvements. For further information or help with working these concepts into a plan, military members can contact their local PSP Fitness & Sports Instructors.
Article by: James Orsatti, CFB Kingston PSP Fitness and Sports Instructor