Every single person I have ever worked with has faced an identical challenge in training their bodies: knowing what maximum effort actually feels like.
It's a simple enough concept to describe—"contract your muscle as much as you possibly can"—but the challenge comes when you actually try to, uhhh, do it.
And that challenge is always a unique experience. Of course it is, right? Because you can't feel what you can't feel.…yet.
With steady practice, a few times a week, you really can become more adept at the skill of strength. You really can make yourself stronger through regular, intensity-seeking inputs to your tissues.
Because this ability is a changeable capacity; in fact, it's the main thing that changes as people train and build muscle, improve skill and get stronger. It's you teaching your brain how to control your body, literally. In fact, changing your nervous system's 'maximum voluntary contraction' ability is at the very heart of Strength & Conditioning as a field.
Basically, when you exert as much force as you can voluntarily, over and over, you progressively get better at getting your muscle to contract fully.
Your nervous system becomes MORE able to engage your body tissues, and you steadily get stronger and stronger as a result.
It's magic! (but not really—it's actually a phenomenon that is consistently and dependably observed in real humans #science … which is maybe even cooler than magic?)*
Now even given this powerful training tool, working up the energy to do these kind of high-intensity efforts during your week, and having the necessary time for rest and recovery around those efforts, is no joke.
Even the most committed, consistent folx that I train will inevitably have off weeks (or months) where they need to lay off these high intensities to be able to recover to a baseline of feeling well.
While much of our culture would say otherwise, it is not actually possible to just keep doing more. At some point, we all break.
But this is exactly why I think prioritizing some of your movement life to developing this ability is a crucial, and usually enjoyable, aspect of building your own truly healthy body—your "health" being something that is as unique to you as your fingerprint.
By regularly 'touching your ceiling', the very top of your ability to contract—to go 100% in a safe manner—means that your regular life demands steadily feel easier and easier. Your system is prompted to get a different kind of a rest, but then also comes back stronger.
Said simply, adding hi-intensity to your life in the right way can be exactly the eustress (dfn: positive, or adaptive, stress) that your system needs in order to grow.
Curious about how you might start adding this kind of training into your life? Book a call, and let's chat!
In your corner, Will