What is Fatigue?
Typically, in sports, fatigue is defined as an inhibition of performance resulting from a stressor impacting the individual. These stressors might include playing the sport, the workouts from a training program or other life-related stressors. In short, when you feel fatigued, you do not feel like you’re 100% ready to perform at your best.
Let’s talk about training-induced fatigue for a moment. At Graviton, our group training program runs in nine-week cycles. Weeks one through eight are spent learning and refining new movements and skills going from simple to complex. Our progression is designed to thoughtfully build up the volume and intensity of our strength training. Week nine, is considered our “Intensity & Benchmark Week”. This is when we assess the movements, exercises, and workout types that we have been working on over the previous eight weeks.
Fatigue is important and should be considered in a training program. However, not all training-induced fatigue is bad. Benchmark week is the time to intentionally peak your performance and achieve some new personal records. After you go through an intensity and benchmark week, you will probably start feeling the cumulative impact of the training volume and intensity. We believe it’s important to prioritize fatigue management and hit the reset button before starting a new training cycle.
What is “Reset Week”?
We consider the first week of a new training cycle, “Reset Week”. This is a time to dial down the volume and intensity of our workouts and focus on allowing your body and muscles to recover and adapt to start of the new training cycle.
During Reset week you will:
focus on learning new skills and movements that will show up throughout the new cycle.
practice movements using tempo, typically moving slower to focus on really quality movement.
see a reduced volume and intensity of workouts to allow your muscle to repair and continue to build.
feel like your central nervous system is getting a little break will still maintaining a baseline level of physical activity and movement.
Get Built, Not Burnt
At Graviton, the intent of our general group fitness program is focused on helping you build foundational strength, cardiovascular endurance, develop really quality movement patterns, and feel and look good. Our goal is to help you use fitness training to improve your daily functions in life while promoting health and longevity. We believe that if you’re looking to achieve vitality, then you do not need intense efforts for weeks and years on end OR to try and express your maximal physical potential every time you step into the gym. Fatigue management is important to consider in a thoughtfully designed training program. It’s important to hit the reset button and be aware of how your body is responding to the program.
Interested in learning more about our training program at Graviton? Whether you’re an experienced athlete or looking to jumpstart your fitness, Book your free intro session today.