How to fix your Stimulus-to-Fatigue Ratio in workouts and feel less exhausted
Training is all about finding the balance between stimulating adaptations (getting stronger, fitter) without over-fatiguing your body (feeling tired, sore, and Crypt Keeper-y).
If you’re a regular person just trying to be fit and active on top of having a career and ReSpOnSiBiLiTiEs and errands to run and buttons to push—
You need to be acutely aware of the accumulating stress your body is dealing with, because adding tough training to a stressed body will only knock you on your ass or keep you stalled out on progress.
The stimulus-to-fatigue ratio (SFR) is our guideline to training in a way that produces the adaptations we want without accumulating too much stress.
How to improve your Stimulus-to-Fatigue Ratio:
Use a moderate rep range
6-20 reps per set stimulates excellent muscle growth and strength without overly taxing your nervous system
There’s a time and place for heavier work, but it must be intentional lest your joints start nagging you
See “Stop just shy of failure” below to make sure you’re using the right intensity in this rep range!
Stop just shy of failure
Failure just means lifting to the point of not being able to move the weight anymore. It produces great adaptations, but at a heavy fatigue cost with long recovery
For each set, you’ll want to stop 2 reps shy of failure, which will still feel very difficult—you’ll be making ugly faces and grunting involuntarily
This is called 2 reps in reserve (2RIR) and gives you the majority of the adaptations that failure gives, without the fatigue cost!
Use a moderate training volume
3 strength sessions per week will stimulate excellent adaptations AND give you extra time and energy to add a some conditioning work (which also has a SFR!)
9-12 sets per muscle per week
Increase the volume week to week, then reduce it (called deload week) to recover, then ramp up again
Swap some barbell exercises for dumbbells, cables, or machines
Barbells are awesome and useful and make you feel powerful! But they are also usually reserved for big lifts that recruit tons of muscles and load the spine, which take longer to recover from
Dumbbells, cables, and machines allow us to isolate a particular muscle group without taxing the rest of our body
Examples:
Conventional deadlift ➡️ Romanian deadlift
BB overhead press ➡️ Lateral raises
BB row ➡️ Single-arm DB row
Not to brag, (*bragging*) but all the Academy training programs fit these guidelines so you don’t have to think about it. Just show up, get better and stronger, and get on with your life.
ALSO, don’t forget that having a solid recovery plan that addresses nutrition and sleep is crucial to managing fatigue.
Does this all feel like a lot? It’s kind of a lot if making training programs isn’t, like, your full-time job 🙋♂️
But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel—I’ve done the heavy lifting (heyo!) for you by creating simple structures that fit these guidelines. Then I help you customize them to your needs and goals in a way that feels sustainable for the long haul.
I don’t sell training programs outside the Academy because I realized, after years of training people 1-on-1, that if all people needed was another training program, no one would feel stuck.
Finding the correct training program for your needs can absolutely be a game-changer, but in order to see the benefits of that training, you really need to know how to eat for your goals, how to adjust your plan according to what’s happening in your life/body, AND practice this long enough to not need a coach anymore 😉
Which is why I created The Adventure Ready Academy.
Anyway, if the SFR raised questions for you, hit reply and send em my way! I’ll reply on account of I’m starved for attention 😬
Love & muscles,
Coach Mac
Muscle Sherpa
