Frequency, Intensity, Ingenuity: The Three Poles of Fitness

Frequency, Intensity, Ingenuity: The Three Poles of Fitness

What do you actually need from your fitness? If you’re like most people, you might default to vague goals like “getting in shape” or “feeling better,” but what does that actually mean in practice?

I think about fitness as existing between three key poles: frequency, intensity, and ingenuity. None of these are tied to experience level—someone can be great at frequency but terrible at intensity, or creative with their workouts but inconsistent in showing up. The key is recognizing where you’re thriving and where you might be falling short.

Frequency: The Foundation of Everything

You can’t get better at what you don’t do often enough. This one seems obvious, but a lot of people struggle with it. If you’re only getting in a couple of workouts a month, you’re not giving your body enough exposure to adapt. A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that training frequency was one of the strongest predictors of strength and endurance improvements (Schoenfeld et al., 2016). Simply put, the more often you train (within reason), the better your results.

But frequency doesn’t mean “always.” Training every day without adequate recovery can backfire, leading to diminishing returns, burnout, and even regression. More is better—until it isn’t. If you’re constantly tired, sore, or seeing declining performance, it might be a sign that you’re overemphasizing frequency at the expense of recovery.

Intensity: The Missing Ingredient for Many

Just showing up isn’t enough if you’re always coasting. At some point, things need to feel hard. That doesn’t mean every workout should be a soul-crushing battle, but if you never push yourself to the point where you’re uncomfortable, you’re leaving results on the table.

Research in Sports Medicine shows that high-intensity training drives greater improvements in VO2 max, muscular endurance, and power compared to steady-state training alone (Wen et al., 2021). Intensity is what forces the body to adapt—it’s how you get stronger, faster, and more resilient.

But, as with frequency, too much intensity can sabotage progress. If every workout is an all-out max effort, you’re probably not recovering well, and your skills may be stagnating. Intensity is best used strategically—pushed when needed and dialed back when appropriate.

Ingenuity: The Secret to Long-Term Growth

The human body adapts to what it’s exposed to. If you’ve been doing the same workouts with the same exercises in the same rep ranges for months, you’re likely stalling—not because you’re not working hard, but because you’re no longer presenting a new challenge.

Variation is key. A 2018 study in The Journal of Applied Physiology found that resistance training with exercise variation led to better strength and hypertrophy gains than sticking with a rigid, unchanging program (Fonseca et al., 2018). Novelty keeps the body learning, adapting, and improving.

However, ingenuity can also become an excuse. Some people use novelty as a way to avoid doing the hard, necessary work of building mastery. Jumping from one trendy workout to the next might be fun, but constantly switching things up without a foundation leads to shallow progress. The basics—squats, deadlifts, presses, pull-ups, running—are effective forever. They don’t stop working just because you’ve done them before.

One of my personal axes to grind with CrossFit in its current form is that it has largely calcified in terms of ingenuity. Early on, CrossFit was all about variance—odd objects, different movement patterns, constantly challenging the body in new ways. But with the rise of the CrossFit Games and the sport’s emphasis on competition, there’s been a shift toward movements that are easy to judge and visually grasp as a judge and/or spectator. Now, most people’s working definition of CrossFit revolves around a fixed menu of 20-30 movements, which, while effective, aren’t the full picture of what fitness can be. Bring back variance! Bring back ingenuity! Training should still have structure and progression, but if we lose the spirit of exploration and problem-solving, we lose a massive part of what made CrossFit exciting in the first place.

Finding the Right Balance

No one naturally balances these three poles perfectly. Some people are great at showing up (frequency) but never push hard enough (intensity). Others are all about crushing themselves (intensity) but never train consistently (frequency). Some love finding new and exciting challenges (ingenuity) but struggle to stick with the fundamentals long enough to see real improvement.

To self-audit, ask yourself:

• Am I training consistently enough? (If not, increase frequency.)
• Do I ever push hard enough to feel truly challenged? (If not, add intensity.)
• Am I stuck doing the same things with no noticeable improvement? (If so, introduce some ingenuity.)

There’s no perfect ratio, and the balance will shift over time. The key is to check in with yourself and adjust as needed.

Final Thought: What Do You Need Right Now?

The best training approach is the one that fits your current needs. So take a moment and be honest with yourself—which of these poles needs the most attention?

The answer will change. And that’s a good thing. Progress isn’t about getting everything perfect all the time—it’s about making the right adjustments at the right moments.