Examining the Question, What is Moderate Stress Training?

I believe in the effectiveness of high frequency training, especially if it is combined with moderate stress training (MST). What is moderate stress training? To start with, it is a method of training that is specifically designed to be used in conjunction with high frequency training that is done at least three times per week, but more commonly four or more times per week for each muscle group. There may be other high frequency training strategies that produce results, but I have found moderate stress training to be an excellent strategy if it is used often over a long period of time. However, the term moderate stress training must be clearly explained and defined in order to avoid a misunderstanding of what it truly is.

Moderate Stress does not Mean Moderate Effort

First of all, using a moderate training stress does not mean moderate effort. The effort should be high in terms of how forcefully a lifter pushes into a rep. This is true of each and every rep that is done for an exercise. Forceful repetitions demand maximum nervous system firing in order to achieve maximum muscle fiber recruitment for maximum rep speed and rep force. This is what produces high intensity muscle contractions and it puts a high amount of stress on the creatine phosphate energy system which is the system you want to stress for gaining stress.

Even though a forceful repetition takes a brief but explosive effort, it is not necessarily highly stressful to the body as a whole. An explosive high intensity muscle contraction can still remain a moderate training stress, as long as excessive fatigue does not enter into the training equation. The reason for this is that excessive fatigue is the chief culprit for producing a high amount of training stress by over involving the lactate energy system and draining the nervous system. This type of stressful fatigue comes from two major sources in weight training.

Avoiding Two Major Sources of High Stress Training

The first major source of stressful fatigue is pushing past the point where rep speed and rep tempo start to slow down during a set. At the start of a set, you can normally maintain a steady even rep rhythm. When this starts to slow down, fatigue is sharply on the rise and the training stress is escalating in a more pronounced manner with each successive rep. If you push a set until you can’t do any more reps, you are training to failure. Training to failure and beyond (with forced reps) creates a high amount of fatigue and therefore causes a high level of training stress on the lactate system and the nervous system. By contrast, moderate stress training is based on pushing forcefully into each rep, but stopping a set before excessive fatigue creates a high amount of training stress to the lactate system and the nervous system.

The second major source of fatigue that leads to a high amount of training stress comes from doing too many sets for a given muscle group. This starts to show up when you repeat sets for a muscle group to the point where that muscle group begins to lose its strength, even with sufficient rest time between sets. If you continue repeating sets for a muscle group past this point, fatigue escalates and the lifting stress that your body is encountering escalates as well. High volume training while in a weakened state of fatigue can easily create a high amount of training stress.

High Intensity Training is High Fatigue and High Stress

At this point, I need to address high intensity training. The term high intensity sounds like it should really work. It give the impression that it’s only for the truly serious lifters who really mean business and are willing to do what it takes to get real results from their training. However, in my opinion, high intensity training is only high intensity in terms of producing a high amount of training stress that is derived from putting forth a high amount of effort while in the presence of a high amount of fatigue. The problem with all of this is that it negates the ability to produce strong muscle contractions that can only occur in the absence of fatigue.

After having said this about high intensity training, I will also say that I have nothing against it for anyone who is currently experiencing progress from it. If this is the case, I have no problem advising them to keep doing it, but if not, I’m offering an alternative with the reasoning behind it. Also, keep in mind that we’re talking about how to use high frequency training in a productive manner, and any type of training that leads to excessive stress will make recovery very difficult in the context of high frequency training.

Excessively Heavy Weight can Create Excessive Training Stress

Are there any other training factors besides pushing too far into a set and doing too many sets that can cause workouts to escalate up to a high stress level? Yes, excessively heavy weight can cause an excessive training stress. Heavy weight can still be used for moderate stress training, but what I’m warning against is excessively heavy weight.

How to Lift Heavy while Avoiding Excessive Training Stress

Excessively heavy weight refers to the kind of weight that causes a lifter to do grinder reps. Grinder reps occur when the lifting motion slows down or starts to stall in the middle of a lift when doing a single rep max. This can wear your nervous system down in a hurry. A good guideline is to stay within the boundaries of lifting weights that will allow a smooth nonstop lifting motion while using perfect form. This will give you room to lift heavy on a frequent basis while avoiding high stress lifting that comes from grinding with excessively heavy weights.

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Program Your Body for Strength Gains with M.S.T.

One of the big advantages of using a moderate training stress is that it can be used to program your body for strength gains. This can be done with simple workouts that are repeated over and over again. I know that this goes completely against the common thinking that constant change and complex training cycles are needed for effective training. These concepts may be necessary when using a low training frequency and high stress workouts. However, when training at a moderate stress level on a high frequency basis, sameness and consistency from one workout to the next can be used to your advantage. I will now go on to explain why you don’t need all the complexity and change when using moderate stress training on a high frequency basis.

High Frequency is Necessary for Powerful Programming

If you start at the right level of training stress, which is a moderate training stress that I have discussed in the previous section, you can program your body to grow accustomed to a precise level of training stress if you do it on a high frequency basis. If you do not do it on a high frequency basis, the degree to which your body grows accustomed to a precise training stress will start to decrease, and the programming effect will be weakened. High frequency training is needed to establish a powerful programming effect.

Precise Programming at a Moderate Level of Training Stress

Precise programming requires a precise training stress that is repeated over and over and over again. This requires repeating the same workout where the same amount of weight, and the same amount of sets and reps are repeated from one workout to the next. I don’t recommend constant variation from one workout to the next, but you can vary the amount of weight and reps within a single workout. In fact, I recommend using a substantial range of weights so that you include the use of explosive lifting with lighter weights, as well as a combination of moderately heavy and heavy weights in your workout. Once you have established a workout, keep it the same and stick with it.

If you find the right training zone by using the correct amount of training stress, the workouts that you are repeating will get easier. After six to twelve weeks of this (less time is needed for beginner and intermediate lifters) your body will be programmed to manage a precise level of training stress. At the end of the six to twelve week period of frequently repeating the same workouts, you simply add five to ten pounds to your basic lifts. The added weight will increase the training stress. However, your body will be programmed to prefer the previous level of training stress because it was easier, so it will adapt by gaining a little strength so that your workouts feel as easy as they were before you added weight.

Little by Little, You Add Weight While Remaining at a Moderate Training Stress

When you use this method of training, the workout stress temporarily escalates a little when weight is added, but your body will keep reducing the escalated stress back to the level of stress that it was accustomed to before the weight was added. Your body accomplishes this by gaining strength because the stronger you are, the less stressful it is to lift a given weights. Little by little you can add weight, and little by little your body will gain strength to stabilize the training stress and keep it from escalating into a high level of training stress, in preference of remaining at moderate level of training stress.

The workouts that you do should be hard enough, but not too hard. Even when weight is slowly added, the workouts should still remain hard enough but not too hard. At the end of a year, your workouts should feel no harder than they felt at the start of the year when you were using twenty to forty pounds less on all your lifts, and at the end of five years, your workouts should feel no harder than they felt when you were using one hundred or more pounds less for your lifts. You start out with a moderate training stress and continue with a moderate training stress as weight as added.

Be Reasonable and Think Long Term

Some of you may think that adding weight every six to twelve weeks is a sign of an ineffective training strategy because it’s not often enough. However, if you do the math, you’ll find that gaining five pounds of strength every six weeks will give you forty pounds (or a little more) of strength in a year. If you successfully accomplish that for five years or more, you start to get ridiculously strong. Even if you gain at a slower rate, your gains will start to add up over time.

If you want a quick method for gaining strength in the next week or two, don’t use the methods I have been explaining. Instead, find a good shock method to quickly boost your strength, but don’t expect rapid gains forever, there is no such thing. You must be reasonable and I haven’t given you a method based on hyped up promises that deliver short lived results followed by a dead-end training rut.

There are tons of ways to train and I’ve tried a lot of them, but what I’ve just outlined for you has worked better than anything else I’ve tried in terms of long term training results. It’s not an instant gratification strategy, but it’s a practical solution to help you keep gaining strength over time, and it’s based on realistic expectations. My hope is that if you decide to try this type of training that you have the patience, determination, and persistence to see it payoff.

For more extensive training information, you can refer to my primary website by clicking on the following link that will take you to Precision Point Training.com