Stop One Rep Short
The training principle “stop one rep short” is something I’ve been trying to practice more as I prepare for the Rasputitsa 70k later this month. It means you should end a workout before feel you have to, when you still have one more lift, mile, or interval left in the tank.
It’s tempting to push and “just do one more” when you are feeling good and training is going well. But just because you could grind out one more rep or complete an extra interval or lap around the track doesn’t mean you should.
A certain amount of effort and intensity is needed to either maintain or improve your current level of fitness. But once you have applied enough training stress to trigger a positive adaptive response, piling on more training stress doesn’t necessarily bring additional benefit. In fact, doing too much can even become counterproductive, since excessive stress comes with a longer recovery period and an exponentially greater risk of injury, illness, and overtraining.
For long-term growth and improvement, the frequency and consistency of your training matters much more than the intensity of any given workout. You need to work hard, sure, but you also need to be able to bounce back relatively quickly and pick up the next workout where you left off, and you can’t do that if you’re constantly going to the well and destroying yourself in workouts. As Brad Stulberg says “What you are able to accomplish tomorrow is in part influenced by the restraint you show today.”
Stopping one rep short is especially important if you’re someone who is prone to overdoing it and getting caught up in the excitement of the moment, only to end up feeling burnt out or injured tomorrow. Most of my own injuries and setbacks in training have resulted from disregarding this principle and failing to recognize when I had done enough. The phrase “Don’t do more today than you can completely recover from by tomorrow” is one that I always come back to, and I think it is a good general rule to follow for most people, most of the time.
Hard sets taken to failure and impressive “see God” type workouts often result in some quick short-term fitness gains and a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment in the moment, which can make them quite addicting. Such training might even be required at certain times during the year depending on your goals and level of experience. Just remember to zoom out and keep the big picture in mind, and ask yourself if what you are currently doing is necessary for your goals and is sustainable over the long-term.
In the grand scheme of things, grinding out an extra rep or another hill repeat likely won’t do much for your fitness or your performance at your upcoming race. But a single set or interval taken too far is all it takes to sabotage your progress and undo weeks and months of consistent training. When in doubt, err on the side of doing too little, and prioritize consistency over intensity.