An Analogy of Cumulative Load Using Wine

​Here’s a glass of wine. 🍷

Let’s suppose we take this glass and drink it at 5pm. Fantastic. We then refill it and consume another glass at 5:30pm. Great. At 6pm we have another. And at 6:30pm another. Finally, at 7pm, within approximately two hours, we have our 5th glass. In general, how will most of us feel?

Now let’s say we’re rehabbing from an injury or perhaps trying a new training program - marathon running, crossfit, yoga, whatever - for the first time ever. We have our first high intense session on Monday. We’re feeling great. We have a second session on Tuesday. Smooth. The same on Wednesday...if you recall, we’re either recovering/rehabbing from an injury or starting a novel training program. And again we train on Thursday. Not feeling so hot after all.

Back to the wine. Let’s say we have our first glass at 5pm. The second glass we drink at 6:30pm. We enjoy those glasses, take a bit of a break, and have another at 9pm. Knowing that we’re not driving for the evening, we have a small glass at 11 or even call it quits at three glasses. In general, how will most of us feel?

Often we are quick to point blame to specific muscles and joints when in fact a simple “too much too soon” is at play. Cumulative load within a short time period will often set us up for failure. Keep it simple.

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