Transcript
0:01 when it comes to exercise there's a lot of junk and Bs out there most of it doesn't matter especially if you're novice or an intermediate athlete Runner endurance athlete or even someone who just wants to get healthier fitter for longevity or health reasons all of those are valid you've probably heard about Zone training and you need to be in zone 2 or V2 Max or lactate threshold and all these complicated things look I can tell you about all of them I wrote a book
0:31 called the science of running that goes way into the weeds way further than any podcaster or influencer has been or has gone because that was what my masters was exercise physiology focus on BO2 Max and performance but we get lost in the weed and the reality is that most people don't need to even understand or focus on that and often it gets in the way but
1:02 let me give you an example before we get into the practicality let's take zones right you've heard GO train in zone one or maybe zone five right the 8020 rule 80% easy 20% hard well here's the problem for novices and even the intermediate athletes all the zones kind of blend together it even happens for advanced athletes the zones if we're talking physiologically they're arbitrary distinctions to help us categorize training but there is no magic switch
1:34 where we go from Zone 2 to 3 to four to five that impacts training it just doesn't happen there's all sorts of research that shows this okay so that's number one number two when we look at novices for example just getting up off the couch and doing something like the simplest of cycling the slowest cycling you could imagine being on that that exercise butt they're lactate levels are already 2 to three Mills which means they Zone one and into zone two is
2:09 literally lying on the couch or maybe the slowest walk imaginable what do we do with that we can't say oh you novice getting off the couch like you need to be Zone to they're going to be out of that physiological realm doing just about anything the zones all contract because if we made them do a little bit more we'd jump from 2 to 3 millon moles to four 5 6 7 8 n of lactate meaning they'd
2:38 feel that burd even if we walked a little bit faster because they don't have the underlying Fitness to have the Nuance of speed or physiological intensities that we generally see with well-trained athletes so when you hear all this advice especially for novices but also for everybody else else a lot of it is is nonsense that we don't need to pay attention to so what actually matters we'll go through it for each kind of level of
3:08 athlete I like to simplify instead of zones think about using the talk test probably heard of it what it is how easy is it for you to the easiest kind of example is we can have a full conversation it's me talking to you I could do this endlessly a step up from this is more of a back and forth conversation where I
3:39 say a couple sentences I listen to you say a couple sentences so I get a breather and then I it but it's easy it's simple it's like talking on the phone the next level up is when I can say a few sentences but then I need a break I can say I feel pretty good I feel pretty great but I can't keep talking on that third sentence my breathing is such that I need some more I need to let that CO2
4:08 out the next level up is what I'd call a kind of teenager conversation you get one word or or a phrase that's the level of difficulty and the last is the angry teenager that you can say k no yes and that's about it those represent of our different intensity levels that I like to use for a novice because they give us some grounding that we can all check in out
4:39 okay so let's set the stage there now what do it look like when it comes to training if you're a novice or a beginner you want to build a base why because we know that if you don't all the physiological Energy Systems essentially become indistinguishable your your body goes into panic mode so we need to bound build a foundation of very easy
5:12 meaning having a full conversation or full back and forth conversation should Compass everything basically because that builds our Aerobic System in capacity on multiple levels it builds what we call our Central Aerobic System so lungs heart pumping blood etc etc and our peripheral so mitochondria and the muscles are muscles being able to work aerobically okay e builds that especially when you
5:46 haven't done much at all now as we progress to intermediate or Advance guess what the stimulus of going for a walk and having that full-on conversation our body's kind of adapted to it so well yes I want to as an intermediate or Advanced athlete still spend a lot of times in those easy kind of intensities for a couple reasons a is because they're often volume dependent meaning the more volume we get to a
6:18 degree becomes the stimulus for those aerobic adaptations okay and second they serve a vital kind of Maintenance and covery mechanism or function so the aerobic stuff is really important but what it does is it builds our capacity or our engine so that the harder stuff can work and do its function so when we start off for novice
6:50 that means lots of walking then that means lots of walking with slow inter versus of jogging it means having a full conversation if you're getting significantly out of breath slow down it means walking with maybe a backpack on rucking all of those are good but the the idea of no pain no gain does not apply here again these adaptations take volume they are volume dependent so what
7:21 does that mean generally we want at least 20 minutes but prefer preferably 30 plus minutes research tends to show us practice also shows us is if you can get to 30 to 60 minutes per one of these activities you're going to be in a good spot every once in a while you might want to do longer if you're intermediate or Advanced because it accesses more muscle fibers so generally what happens is we use our slow twitch muscle fibers first
7:53 then will fatigue or run out of a little energy and we recruit harder and harder to recruit muscle fiber and train them aerobically that's the function of a long run for a more advanced athlete as we go for a 90minut or 2 hour long run in somewhere 70 80 90 minutes are easy to recruit slow twitch fibers are running out of fuel so we got to call in more fibers that are generally held in reserve for faster stuff and train them
8:27 aerobic okay but again for novices 30 to 60 Minutes as much as you can now research tells us that surprisingly doubling or doubling meaning training twice a day can have a very benef beneficial effect so we used to think just singles go for your 60 your 70 your 90 minute runs or walks and that helps but research tells us that
8:57 doubling can have the effect so if if you're worried about getting out there for 60 Minutes on your walk or jog try 3030 30 in the morning walking the dog and kid 30 in the afternoon walking the dog and kid you can split it up but again General minimum effec of dose and any is better than nothing but try and get 20 minutes or more 30 minutes or more is ideal now that builds our foundation we need to couple that after
9:29 we've got some sort of foundation with what I'd call fast but smooth and not fatiguing okay you've got to train your body to be prepared for some intensity but not in a fatigue state that doesn't mean we need to go out and Sprint not ready for that but for novices beginners and even Advanced athletes we need to couple the lots of easy with
10:00 short non- fatiguing what we' call and running strides Go Run 100 met at Mile Pace fast but smooth repeat that a couple times do some diagonals on the soccer field you want long rest so it's not fatiguing can fatigue fast and smooth this prepares your body biomechanically It prepares your muscles and tendons to handle that harder load okay okay and It prepares your energy
10:32 systems to get us functioning right your ATP creatine phosphate system which is that quick Energy System your glycolysis as well if you do something between 15 to 20 second stride go get it done for advanced athletes this often include does include Sprints right because we want it we want to and we'll get into this we want to build a f Foundation or base that focuses on the extremes first lots of easy and then
11:03 short fast but not fatiguing so Advanced athletes would include not just strides but Short Hill Sprints so sprinting up a hill for six to 8 seconds with full recovery and again what are you doing you're training that Energy System you're training yourself to recruit fast switch fibers and preparing your body mechanically to get ready for after we get through that whether you're beginner through Advance is we funnel
11:36 up Okay so we've got to shift the stimulus a little bit so what does that mean we don't leave anything behind we still have to have lots of easy but we start introducing stimuluses to give us a slightly Progressive overload so what does that mean we introduce maybe once a week something where we can say a few short sentences what I'd call up tempo run right or
12:06 Tempo or threshold whatever you want to call it basically where you can say a couple sentences you're still under control but you're challenging your Aerobic System your lactate levels go from one to two to you're still under what we call lactate threshold or maximum lactate steady state but you're challenging your your body to work at higher level of aerobic demand so it gets a little bit embarrassed and adapts now there's a whole range of Paces in
12:37 between this right so for me as a old guy just trying to stay in shape who used to be fast maybe my easy runs are seven to 730 Pace full conversation when I'm doing this steady to Tempo stuff maybe it's between 6 minutes down to 520 Pace anywhere in that range again the difference between 6 minutes and 5 20 base is significant it will give me different adaptations but what we want is to be
13:07 able to use a variety of those stimuluses to get there so sometimes I might do a progression run going from 20 down to 540 that's longer other times I might do a tempo run that it's just hey hang out at 530 525 pace for a while just again not as long as that progression we want to vary the stimulus but have it high-end aerobic where you're under control for no for novices this is a little Advanced so this is
13:37 once you get your foundation what we want is to be able to add slight spices of work so you might start with hey I'm going to do an easy run and then the last mile I'm going to pick it up to this uptempo Bas then you might say hey I'm going to split it up into 3 by five minutes at steady with the breaking and our goal is to lengthen and progression progressively overload on the other side
14:07 what we want to do is add in spices of faster work that are slightly fatiguing but too much so we take those strides and we turn them into 30 second pickups not crazy fast maybe 30 seconds at 5K Pace 5K Pace can be something that you could hold for 15 to 20 minutes or a little bit longer for people and you say hey I'm going to do 8 by 30 seconds on with a minute rest or a minute jog in
14:37 between we get a little fatigue but it's just introducing stuff from there it depends on what you're trying to accomplish in what you're racing so that's a whole other conversation one that I've gone on many times before but I want to stop and wrap this one up to show that when we're looking at basic general fitness I want you to think of the extremes lots of easy fast and not fatiguing and then gradually progress take the fast but not
15:07 fatigue making it moderately fatigue make it where you can have a teen have a teenager combo or a few sentences and be okay eventually if you're training for something we're going to take that to where you can barely talk right that's where it's headed at some point but unless you're training specifically for performance probably don't need to go there honestly if you're training for performance yes you need to go if you're
15:39 training for General Health and Fitness you don't need to be like the people on Instagram or Tik Tock who are saying no pain no gain because you'll get 95% of the way there feeling or getting to on those harder workouts a seven or eight out of 10 instead of a nine or a 10 out of 10 it's just reality it's what it is on the flip side we want to take that aerobic lots of easy and eventually add
16:07 something in that is steady can have a back and forth or a short sentence conversation that's where you can maximize the stimulus for high-end aerobic development what does this look like for general or novice again accumulate as much easy volume as you feel comfortable doing progressively gradually then have one day a week once you get build a base one day a week where you're going longer and steady again this can be split up can be
16:38 however you want to do it and then one day a week of what i' call fast and smooth or fast and only moderately fatiguing you do those two things varying up the pace and intervals and from short to medium length intervals again vary it up there are no magic workouts don't fall for the best way to increase your V2 Max is 4x4 minutes no that's a bunch of okay the best way to increase your V2 match is your V2
17:10 Max the kink in the pipe is going to shift and change as your Fitness changes so for some literally the best way to increase your V2 Max is to do a lot of easy very easy stuff for others is going to use Progressive overload workouts that are again can vary between 30 seconds and 5 six minutes in length at between 5K pace and 3K Pace but we need to vary those workouts in order to maximize it for most
17:40 people you're high performance plate you're going to get there with lots of easy little bit of moderate aerobic work fast and smooth a little bit of moderate speed work again 30 seconds on one minute off at 3K Pace 45 seconds on one minute off 3K 5K effort whatever you have it minute on minute off at 5K Pace that will get you most of the way there
18:11 okay fine tuning we can talk about that all day that's what we do as coaches but that sets the stage don't get lost chasing the Zone the BO2 Max the lactate threshold the magic workout it doesn't exist it's simply we need to vary the stress in stimuli there are no magic workouts we need a lot easy to develop aerobically but we need to couple that with some fast and smooth and some fast and
18:42 moderately challenging okay how you do that no perfect way but think of progressive overload think of vary the stimulus think of next logical step not doing something crazy and that will get you most of the way there so there you go exercise for endurance and Health and Longevity 101 why do I say Health and Longevity because if you look at the research a lot of people say hey it's V2 Max is the best predictor of
19:13 longevity that's not exactly true what they find is that the the speed that you are running at the end of the BO2 Max test is the best predictor it's not the best it's not BO2 Max itself it's what speed you get up to other words known as if you were if you were to go out and run a two- mile time trial how fast would you run which what's the biggest indicator of a two mile time trial or
19:40 mile time trial or 5K time trial take your pick it's your endurance capacity it's your overall General endurance Fitness what's the best way to do that combining some easy some moderate aerobic fast and smooth and moderately challenging speed workor and if you really want to maximize it then we can get into specificity and narrow that that funnel towards the top end but most of us don't need that until we're ready
20:12 to perform at a high level which I've written a book out about and talk about all the time on my Instagram Twitter and everything else so if you want to go more into that subscribe