Hybrid Training
Training for performance requires all hands on deck to manage training volume and recovery efforts. From the outside looking in, it might seem like improving your strength and endurance only requires consistent training, but there’s more to it than completing your plyometrics, compound exercises, and cardiovascular training, especially if you want to avoid burning out.
Let’s get into how you can avoid burn out in strength and endurance training and what signs to look out for.
Want to train more effectively and avoid burn out? Join one of our hybrid training programs.
When it comes to deciding if you are overtraining or under recovering, these two can often go hand in hand. It’s like the chicken and the egg scenario – which came first?
Regardless of where the problem is coming from, it needs to be addressed from all angles.
Proper recovery requires:
- Eating enough calories, especially protein and carbohydrates, to support your life AND activities. Not only does your recovery require this, but also having performance goals in general. I understand how society and ‘90s diet culture taught us that “carbs are bad”, but truthfully carbohydrates are your brain's preferred fuel source, they provide many fiber sources helpful for gut health, and simple carbohydrates offer quick digesting fuel when you are intra-workout. Carbs are your friend.
- Staying hydrated throughout the day and during your workout sessions. This includes both water and electrolytes. If you tend to sweat more frequently in your workouts, you may need to increase your intra-workout electrolyte intake. You can take a sweat test if you are curious about your sweat rate and would like to further dial in your hydration efforts to support your activities and recovery.
- Having quality and quantity sleep. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Watch my YouTube video below to learn how to improve your sleep quality. I also recommend aiming for similar bed time and wake times to create a regular schedule.
- Training volume management. If you have read some of my previous blogs or consumed some of my content before, you know that training volume management is a big part of success in hybrid training. This is something we take the guesswork out of for you in our strength and endurance programs, whether you are working with us one-on-one or in Kathletics Trail or Sustainably Fit. We’ll dive a bit deeper into this topic in number two below.
- Keeping mobile in between training sessions. Taking rest days is extremely important for recovery, but that doesn’t mean you need to or should stay immobile on the couch to reap the rest day benefits. Yes, you can absolutely veg out on your rest day(s), AND you can stay mobile by going for a light walk or doing some light stretching. Keeping your muscles and joints loosey goosey can help mitigate any stiffness or soreness that might be lingering from your workout sessions.
As you can see, recovery is multi-faceted and should be addressed from all angles.
Periodized training means that your program is broken down into phases to encourage progressive overload and to allow for adaptations between seasons of hybrid training. This is represented by combining both NASM Personal Training and UESCA Running Coaching teachings.
On the strength side of things, there are five phases: stabilization, endurance, hypertrophy, strength, and power. Throughout the year, athletes will go through each of these phases in some capacity depending on their fitness level and experience. If an athlete is at an intermediate or higher level, they likely can get away with skipping over stabilization and go through the other four (endurance, hypertrophy, strength, and power). Here at Kathletics, we typically have our athletes go through each phase for 8-16 weeks depending on their goals, training availability, adherence, and fitness level. Within those 8-16 weeks, we also update training programs every 4-8 weeks to encourage progressive overload via changes in volume, intensity, weight, tempo, and/or rest times.
On the endurance or cardiovascular side of things, athletes will also go through phases of base building, developing capacity, peak cardiovascular fitness, and race (if they are racing or training for an event) followed by recovery. You could also look at this as base building being the least specific of endurance training leading to race being the most specific. This method typically lines up with having one major event per year, sometimes two. I generally recommend my clients pick 1-2 events per year so it’s not overly stacked, they have time to prepare and get specific, and there’s time to recover and rebuild. Each cardiovascular phase deeply varies in duration depending on the athletes goals and fitness level. For example, a base building phase could be anywhere from 12-26+ weeks. This is why it can be helpful to work with a trainer and running coach to set you up with an appropriate training timeline.
The purpose of periodization is to manage training volume throughout the year. For example, you wouldn’t want to increase the intensity and volume of both your strength training and endurance training at the same time. That, my friend, could be a one way ticket to burn out. You will want to make sure intensity and volume changes are managed throughout the year to ensure time for recovery and training adaptations. Want this managed for you? Join one of our hybrid training programs.
Your training schedule should meet you where you are at, meaning it should take your fitness level, goals, and training availability into account. Following a training program that requires six days of training per week when you only have time for four days of training in a week is not going to set you up for success. It’s important to be realistic when creating your goals and your training schedule.
Read my blog to learn about various ways to schedule your strength and cardiovascular sessions based on how many times per week you train.
For most people, I recommend taking at least 1-2 rest days per week. Rest days are where the magic happens for your muscles to repair and replenish. From there, if you are able to have one individual training session on the other days, do it! You could alternate each day with one strength workout and one cardio workout. This would line you up for 2-4 strength workouts per week and 2-4 cardio workouts per week, meeting the CDC exercise guidelines and setting you up for a typical hybrid training schedule. If you must complete two workouts on one day (one strength, one cardio), consider combining your easiest workouts or your hardest workouts to keep it performance and recovery focused. In short, keep your hard days hard and easy days easy. In most scenarios, I recommend completing your strength workouts first before cardio, but ultimately, getting your workouts done in general is the most important part. Done is better than perfect.
Another point to keep in mind is scheduling deload weeks every 4-8 weeks could be advantageous to your training volume management, as well. During a deload week, you reduce your volume and/or intensity to allow your body to recover before ramping back up again. I like to suggest a range of 4-8 weeks for my clients as a deload week may occur naturally due to travel, home life, work responsibilities, or illness. This is another example of meeting yourself where you are at in your fitness – if you know you have travel coming up in 5 weeks, aim to have that fifth week be your deload week so you don’t end up deloading the week before AND have an accidental deload week again while you’re traveling. Although you won’t suddenly lose all of your fitness by having two deload weeks in a row, you also don’t want to keep your eyes too far off the ball if you have a race or event coming up soon.
I recommend keeping track of how you feel before, during, and after your workouts including your sleep, stress, nutrition, and how you feel overall. How you feel is just as important as tracking your progress stats of the workout (reps, sets, weights, rate of perceived exertion, etc.). You can do this in a written journal, in your phone’s Notes app, or something similar.
In our training programs, we, of course, have clients keep track of their workout details including reps, sets, and weights, but you aren’t just a workout machine. You are a human first and we want to take that into account. One of the features in our training app is identifying how the workout felt – easy to challenging/rate of perceived exertion. In addition to this, I encourage my clients to provide any comments on how things felt – if anything felt good or off, if they felt rested and recovered or if it was a “just get it done” type of workout, or if they were fueled/unfueled or hydrated/dehydrated. These are questions that are also asked in our 1:1 online coaching clients weekly check ins, as well, to ensure they are progressing and feeling recovered.
Unfortunately, it’s all too common to push through the burn out. No pain, no gain, right? Well, we don’t play by those rules ‘round here. Ignoring your biofeedback is not doing you any favors. You will want to keep an eye out for symptoms like:
- Poor sleep
- Extreme fatigue
- Mood swings
- Elevated resting heart rate
- Jumps in heart rate variability
- Change in hunger cues (i.e., loss of appetite)
If you experience any of these underrecovering/overtraining-related symptoms, bring it up to your coach to see what changes need to be made. It could be as simple as changing the intensity of one workout or it could be something that you need to have a further discussion about with your doctor and/or registered dietitian to see if there are other underlying factors to be addressed. Regardless, there needs to be a conversation so you can feel good, perform well, and be recovered.
Experiencing burn out isn’t something you only experience at work. It can be experienced within the training realm, as well. It’s important to remember that exercise has many benefits and it is also a stressor. When pushed too far or if training volume is not well managed, it can become a negative stressor. Save these five tips as a reminder to balance your approach to strength and endurance training.
Get strength and endurance tips, running recs, and all the Kathletics updates right to your inbox.
