JUNK VOLUME
One person's junk is another one's treasure right?? Well not in the gym it's not! I want to talk about junk volume, something that I've been focusing on recently and talking to a number of my clients about.
The goal of training is progressive overload, basically consistently getting better than before. In addition, we want to make sure we maintain a good mind/muscle connection, build a good pump, feel the metabolite burn and keep proper form. This is all the good stuff, so what's junk volume? Basically when none of the above are part of the training.
When I find myself falling into this trap is when fatigue starts to set in and I'm just going through the motions. Another instance is when I'm trying to progress over the prior week and maybe my form gets sloppy. A common practice is doing a bunch of movements in a row with little concern of progression, let alone the other factors. In all these scenarios, not only does risk of injury go up but there is a potential lack of progression.
Sometimes there is a place for junk volume. In a boot camp style scenario when the goal is to get the heart rate going to burn calories is the most common, but this is not an effective way to build muscle.
Intensity is great but beware junk volume training, check yo self before you wreck yo self.
