In the world of economics, the law of diminishing returns implies that, at some point, additional inputs result in smaller increases in output. A commonly cited example is adding more and more workers to produce more and more food on the same area of land. At some point adding an extra worker will decrease the efficiency of the entire operation.
Similar to the old adage… too many cooks spoil the broth.
The field of fitness could learn a lot from this rule of economics. In particular when it comes to the frequency of intense exercise.
As I often tell my training clients…more and more does not equal better and better!
For most people performing two intense workouts per week is probably better than performing one intense workout per week… but it is certainly not twice as good.
Or for some people performing three tough training sessions per week might be better than two tough training sessions per week, but not for everyone and likely only by a pretty tiny margin.
In fact at some point adding an extra bout of hard exercise onto already fatigued and under-recovered biology becomes a negative to your health and fitness. Energy slumps, performance plummets, motivation wanes and levels of wear and tear skyrocket.
This might sound doom and gloom but actually it is good news. If you are only able to complete one hard workout per week take comfort from the fact that you will have derived a large percentage of the benefits available to you from hard exercise. Yes, adding a second or third workout might top up these benefits… but by an increasingly small margin.
When it comes to intense exercise… more and more does not equal better and better.