[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
[quote]desolator wrote:
I just said we have to agree beforehand which one meaning we are going to use.[/quote]
The problem is, this will not happen.
Some will continue to use it in the “rah rah” sense, and others in a precise sense.
It would be a hopeless endeavour to try to standardize this situation.
The best that can be done is to improve one’s own communication and keep in mind that when using this word – if using it at all – what you say or write may well be read with different meaning than you ever intended. And so at the least some care ought to be taken with the overall context to reduce the frequency of that.
The general problem of ambiguity here is one that unfortunately is either a weakness of the human race or at least of the English language.
For example, I have never seen anyone criticize the ambiguity of the commonly-used phrase “if not such-and-such.”
Some use it meaning BUT NOT.
Others use it meaning OR EVEN.
Now sometimes the context makes it obvious which is the pet style involved, because the other way wouldn’t make sense.
But all too often one will run into a statement such as, “The Super Excalibur Mk 5 is the fastest 50 foot production boat we’ve tested, if not the fastest made today.”
Does that mean it’s the fastest they’ve tested but not the fastest such boat made today?
Or does it mean that it’s the fastest they’ve tested and the author thinks it may even be the fastest such boat in the world today?
You can’t tell.
But good luck stamping out this inconsisent usage. It would take even more luck to stamp out the inconsistency with use of the word “intensity” with regard to resistance training.
[/quote]
The idea of trying to use a commonly known word and changing it’s meaning is a weakness of language in general.
What is the point of linking the word ‘intensity’ with a % of your 1RM?
Why not just say “The subject was using a high % of their 1RM?”
Using the phrase “The subject used a high intensity” instead, just seems to me, pedantic.
Does it make people feel academically superior when someone doesn’t understand a simple meaning and they do?
It’s utterly pointless and to me, shows a lack of common sense.
This subject just touches a nerve with me. For example, I’ve spent the last 3 months trying to teach myself a year’s worth of biotechnology; I often find myself skipping around re-constructed meanings of words (sometimes entire sentences). It just feels so unnecassery and it’s very time consuming!