Category: Training

On Tuesday, in Methods of Endurance Training Part 2: Miles Build Champions, I discussed what is probably the most traditional and common of endurance development methods, to whit “pissing around” at fairly low intensities of perhaps 130-150 hear rate for hours at a time and doing it almost daily.

The Problem with Miles Build Champions in the Real World

There is no doubt that this method of training “works” and “has worked” for decades in terms of developing the aerobic engine.  It has certain advantages and, like all training methods, certain disadvantages.  Perhaps the biggest disadvantage for real humans being the enormous time commitment required.  With weekly training volumes of 20-40 weeks, that’s still 2.5-6.5 hours per day (depending on the sport) if someone trains 6 days/week.

Realistically only full-time athletes can do that.  At most the average citizen racer might get in several shorter workouts during the week and devote more time on the weekends. … Keep Reading

Continuing from Part 1, I want to go ahead and move into perhaps the most commonly used method of endurance training which is the miles build champions approach.

Miles Build Champions

.Arguably the most commonly popular (or certainly most traditional) approach to developing endurance over the years has been a volume oriented ‘miles build champions’ type of approach.  Many coaches echo that idea that unless you can do “X amount of miles/kilometers/volume per week” you simply can’t succeed at the highest levels or build maximal endurance.  Cycling coaches will often tell up and coming athletes that they just “need another 1000km in their legs” to reach the next level.

The focus with this philosophy is basically on just doing endless volumes.  You do the miles, you build a champion.  I saw it summed up on one power training forum with the simple coaching mantra “Ride lots”.   But the goal here, basically is to do about as much training as you can, stand, handle or recover from without overtraining. … Keep Reading

Previously, I have written about the three primary predictors of overall endurance performance which were VO2 max, functional threshold, and efficiency.   While each is important on its own, it is the interaction of all three (along with factor such as pacing, tactics, etc) that determine actual real-world performance.

Each is also developed in a different way.  So in this series I want to look at various methods of endurance training as they are commonly recommended or used by athletes to optimize and maximize performance.

Today I mainly want to introduce the topic by looking briefly at the major adaptations that occur in response to endurance training.  Since it will provide background to better understand why different methods of endurance training “work”, I will also delve into bit of molecular physiology regarding something called AMPk.

Today I want to mainly make some introductory comments, looking briefly at some of the major adaptations that occur in response to endurance training. … Keep Reading

Today I want to talk about the back extension exercise, which I often is not always include in workouts.  Yes, other movements such as the Romanian Deadlift work the low back but it is mostly isometrically.  That is, there is no movement in the low back.  Or there shouldn’t be.  The back extension complements the movement by training the spinal erectors dynamically.

From a safety standpoint, I think there is benefit to working the spinal erectors through full flexion and extension since there are times when the back simply can’t be kept flat. Low back strengthening can also benefit squats and deads simply by ensuring that they aren’t a weak point in the movement.  That’s in addition to any safety benefits.

The simple fact is that heavy squats and deadlifts can often go awry during maximal or near maximal sets, folks lose form no matter how hard they try not to; this often involves rounding of the upper or lower back or both. … Keep Reading

The reality of training is that we often have to take some time off.  It could be because life gets in the way.  Perhaps we just burn out or sustain a small injury.  In this case the question that invariably comes up is how best to return to training after a layoff.   Should you start where you left off in training or reduce your intensity and volume?   Altogether too many, mostly men, will jump straight back into heavy training and get hurts.  What’s best?  I’ll tell you.

Let me say upfront that despite an enormous amount of scientific literature on detraining, I’m not going to get into it in depth.  I honestly haven’t kept up with it to any great degree although what I have obliquely seen keeps up with what I will be recommending.  But most of what I’m going to write comes more from personal experience as both a coach and athlete as anything in the literature.… Keep Reading