Hybrid Training
Have you hopped on the hybrid athlete training train yet? Hybrid training is the approach to fitness where you aim to improve two types of training simultaneously, most commonly seen amongst strength training and one or more forms of cardiovascular training, such as running or cycling. Whether you are new to hybrid training or finding your way to consistency, mistakes are bound to be made as part of the trial and error process. Hopefully by bringing these hybrid training mistakes to your awareness and offering helpful actions to take instead, you will find yourself set up for success in the long term.
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Whether you are entering into the hybrid training world from the strength side and adding in cardiovascular training or coming from the running side and adding in strength training, it’s common to want to jump right in and do it all. Perhaps you’ve had the thought, “if I’m already running 4x/week, why can’t I just add strength 3x/week?” While your intentions may be good, volume management is a huge part of integrating a sustainable hybrid training program into your life. Suddenly increasing your weekly volume by 3 workouts and multiple hours isn't quite meeting you where you’re at.
This example also goes for the opposite as well. If you are currently strength training 3x/week and run 1x/week, suddenly adding in an additional 3 days of running or cardiovascular activity is a hefty jump in volume. Not only is it an increase in volume, duration, and mileage, your time on your feet increases threefold which can have destructive impacts. Again, while this isn’t inherently wrong or not a good long term goal, it takes time to build resilience in your muscles, tendons, and cardiovascular system.
Doing too much too soon can be a fast track to burnout, and potentially increase your risk of injury.
What to do instead:
1. Follow a structured hybrid training program. Join Sustainably Fit.
2. Pull back from volume and intensity across all forms of training to allow for adaptations.
3. Ease into volume increases over time. You could start by adding one additional workout for 3-8 weeks, then add another one, and so on. You could also begin with adding shorter duration sessions and slowly increase the duration and/or volume over time.
4. Cycle through an annual training cycle where you have seasons of higher strength volume while running volume is lower and higher running volume while strength volume is lower. This will allow for continuous adaptations and progressions throughout the year.
Training intensity must be managed in order to recover, adapt, and perform well consistently. Every training session does not, and should not, be hard. On the other hand, every training session should not be easy. It’s important to include varying training intensities throughout your week.
What to do instead:
1. Depending on your training frequency, consider having 1-3 hard days and 2-4 easy days. This will give you enough time to recover from the hard days while still supporting your goals throughout the week.
2. If you must do two training sessions in one day (i.e., lift and run), aim to keep your hard days hard and easy days easy. This could look like stacking your interval run after heavy lift for the hard day or stacking your easy run after a less intense lift for the easy day.
3. Understand that training intensity is important, but consistency matters more. If you can’t stay consistent with your hybrid training program due to the intensity (or volume) demands, it’s time to follow a different program.
How you fuel impacts how you perform. If performance is important to you, which it likely is if you are participating in hybrid training, you need to support your training with proper fueling. If your goal is to lose weight, hybrid training may not be the best fitness format for you at this time. That doesn’t mean don’t strength train or do cardio, but it does mean that being in a caloric deficit is going to make training for performance a lot more challenging. If you want to be in a calorie deficit, do it during your off season, then increase your calories back to at least your maintenance level when you get back into a season of focusing on improving your performance.
Outside of an intentional calorie deficit, you could also be unintentionally not eating enough to support your training and recovery. Whether a calorie deficit is intentional or not, it affects your performance and ability to recover between sessions. On a deeper level, eating enough of each macronutrient (protein, carbohydrates, and fats), as well as getting enough vitamins and nutrients can impact your training.
What to do instead:
1. Learn what it looks like to eat enough to support your life and activities. It could be worth working with a registered dietitian, even if it’s for a short period of time, or tracking your food intake to better understand what enough food looks like for you.
2. Eat protein at each meal throughout the day to support your muscles and bodily functions. In general, aim for 1.4-2.2g/kg of bodyweight.
3. Consume complex carbohydrates for fiber, nutrients, and satiety, and simple carbohydrates for fun, taste, and/or around or duration training to support energy and recovery. (Some simple carbs are also full of fiber and nutrients, such as fruit). Carbohydrates are part of a well-balanced diet and are especially important for hybrid training athletes. Aim for 50-70% of your diet to be carbohydrates, depending on how your training frequency and intensity.
4. Consume healthy fats throughout the day to support hormone regulation and nutrient absorption.
5. If you already check all the boxes above, this is when some supplementation could be beneficial if cleared by your doctor. Supplements like creatine, fish oil, magnesium, or vitamin D could help support your goals if you and your doctor find it necessary.
Recovery is where the magic happens. It’s where adaptations occur, torn muscle fibers repair, and your body responds to the stimulus. Recovery is often overlooked as something that you can find in a pill or shake. While supplementation could help your recovery, the real recovery is happening during your sleep, in your nutrition, in your stress management and amongst your training volume and intensity management.
Recovery isn’t something you take, it’s something you act on. Without proper recovery, your training sessions will feel harder and more sluggish, your body will have a tougher time adapting, and your risk of injury and burnout will increase. Recovery is just as important as the training itself.
What to do instead:
1. Manage your training volume by following a proper hybrid training program that encourages progressive overload and working with a coach who can adjust your program based on where you’re at in your fitness. Hey, that’s what we do at Kathletics.
2. Consume enough food and nutrients to support your hybrid training goals.
3. Sleep 7-9 hours per night and also aim to go to bed at similar times every night. Sleep is the most important recovery tool you have access to, and it’s free ninety-nine!
4. Manage your stress. Whether it’s stress from work, family, relationships, friendships, or fitness, stress is still stress. Find ways to manage your stress outside of training. Training can be a form of stress management, as it is beneficial for your mental health, but it is a form of stress. Consider finding additional hobbies, socializing with friends, meditating, going to therapy, or practicing other mindful processes.
This one might be controversial. When lining up your training schedule, there are times where you may need to lift and run, or perform another form of cardio, within the same day. Some coaches take the approach that you should do whatever is more important first. For example, if you have a race coming up, a coach might program your run before your lift on the same day. While we understand why that might be suggested, it’s no longer what we suggest at Kathletics.
What to do instead:
1. If you must stack your runs and lifts on the same day, consider the following. Can you space out the training sessions by 6+ hours? If yes, great. If not, do your lift first and run second. Strength training requires more of your central nervous system (CNS) and gets more fatigued through lifting than it does while running or doing cardio. You can run on tired legs. In fact, one could argue that it would be good to practice every once in a while to help prepare you mentally and physically for an upcoming race. If you choose to run or do cardio first and then lift, you likely aren’t going to be able to lift as heavy as you would have if you were lifting on fresh legs.
2. Of course there are other considerations outside of which to complete first such as weather, accessibility, and timing, but lifting before running is the recommendation we now make when possible. If you don’t have that option, remember that done is always better than perfect. Do the training however it fits with your schedule.
The training plans that leave you exhausted and fatigued after following the program for just two weeks are not conducive to your long term goals. The training plan for you is the one you can consistently follow while still being present for your family, career, and lifestyle.
Sustainable fitness may not always feel flashy, but it is what produces long term results.
Build gradually.
Fuel properly.
Train with structure.
Trust the process.
Those fundamentals may sound simple, but they are often what separate hybrid athletes who burn out from hybrid athletes who continue progressing for life.
If you’re ready to start hybrid training in a structured and intentional way, join Sustainably Fit and begin developing your strength and endurance with a program designed to help you perform well without sacrificing recovery or longevity.
Hybrid training can be an incredibly rewarding way to train. You get to build strength, improve endurance, increase power, and become a more well-rounded athlete. But because hybrid training requires more from the body, it also requires a more intentional approach than simply “doing more”.
The hybrid athletes who see the best long term results are not necessarily the ones training for the longest duration or at the highest intensity. More often than not, they are the athletes who train consistently, manage recovery well, fuel properly, and stay the course for the long haul.
If you’re new to hybrid training, remember that you do not need to do it all nor do it perfectly overnight. You do not need the “perfect” program or the “perfect” training schedule. What matters most is building sustainable habits that allow you to keep showing up month after month and year after year.
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