The original headache for hybrid athletes 🙃
Over the past few years, the hybrid athlete movement has been booming, with my idols Fergus Crawley and Nick Bare leading the way from the start.
However, when it comes to training for it, there is an immediate conflict that faces all budding hybrid athletes – do I run or lift first?
Now, if I could give you a straight answer, then I probably wouldn’t have bothered sitting down to write this! But a short answer is to forget about differentiating between lifting and running, and focus on the intensity of the stressor in the session.
It comes down to what must be performed fresh vs what can be performed on fatigue.
In an ideal world, you would probably come into every workout fresh as a daisy. However, you chose the hybrid life, so with that the legs will always be carrying a minor amount of fatigue.
The upside though is that you don’t have to run as much as a runner → all that lifting is giving you the fatigue benefit of extra miles without running the extra miles!
Understand your stressors
To understand what can be performed when, we need to understand the idea of identifying the different types of stressors that come from each component of your training.
To do this, we need to to categorise them by intensity and skill. This is down to the fact that high intensity work and long slow endurance work require their own kind of recovery.
In most cases, we want to be coming into the high intensity, high skill stuff nice and fresh. This is because we reap the benefits of strength building only when our fast-twitch muscle fibres are firing without fatigue.
In a study by Murlasits et al. (2008), they found that sequencing strength training prior to endurance in concurrent training appears to be beneficial for lower body strength adaptations, while the improvement of aerobic capacity is not affected by training order.
Say you go for a 60 minute easy run before a heavy squat session, the following things happen:
- Fatigue means your legs won’t be able to produce as much explosive force
- You won’t be able to lift as much and push your limits
- This means that you’re not progressing your lift
- Your leg strength won’t increase as a result
- Also, your leg stride won’t get the snappy benefit of increased strength
What must be performed fresh and what can be performed fatigued?
Here are the things that must be performed fresh:
High Intensity, High Skill → Drills, sprints (<30s), weightlifting (cleans, snatches)
High Intensity, Low Skill → Fast repeats, heavy lifting
Here are the things that can be performed fatigued:
Low Intensity, High Skill → Form work on lifts, mobility
Low Intensity, Low Skill → Easy running, Isolation lifts
The best thing to do with your training program is to make a list of all of the exercises you do and categorise them across this spectrum of high intensity, high skill, all the way to low intensity, low skill.
Another general rule when constructing your week is to keep high intensity (low volume) work at one of the week and high volume (low intensity) work at the other end.
Some scenarios to apply this logic
Here is a sample hybrid training week that consists of 5 runs and 3 lifts per week. The key here is that the intensity is loaded at the start of the week and the volume is towards the end.
The stressors involved have been organised in such a way to reduce interference between sessions as much as possible. For example, Deadlifting can be done quite easily the day after an interval run.
Then squatting can be done the day after because the mechanics of the movement differs.
However, there is a day of rest to reduce fatigue going into the volume sessions on the weekend. Recovery runs (20ish mins dead easy) also help stimulate recovery by getting blood circulating.
Example Hybrid Training Week
Day | Run | Lift |
---|---|---|
Monday | Recovery run | Upper |
Tuesday | Intervals | |
Wednesday | Deadlift | |
Thursday | Recovery run | Squat |
Friday | ||
Saturday | Tempo | |
Sunday | Long slow run |
Can I do both on the same day?
If you are truly strapped for time, you may end up doing a double workout day. If you’ve come to this solution, then congratulations – you are truly hybrid af. 🔥
The short answer is – yes, you can run and lift on the same day.
However, if you feel like you can consolidate your stressors into one session, following the intensity prioritisation principle, I encourage that.
For example:
Intensity | Skill | Workout | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | High intensity | High skill | Run drills |
2 | High intensity | Low skill | 10 x 60s intervals @ 5k pace |
3 | Low intensity | Low skill | Shoulders & arms workout |
4 | Low intensity | Low skill | 20 mins cool down run |
However, if you do double workout day, do the following:
- Follow intensity prioritisation (nearly always lift first)
- Try to separate them by at least 6 hours
- Plan out the amount of intensity your body can handle in a day
- Increase your fuelling, with the increased volume
A caveat…
A key assumption in all of this is that the hybrid athlete values their strength as highly as they value their endurance.
However, if you’re heavily prioritising endurance over strength, such as those training for an ultramarathon, then perform your running first.
Specificity matters in this case and you want to do everything you can to make sure you get the miles in.
The same logic goes for if you’re training for a powerlifting comp or a bodybuilding show – specificity matters, so lifting first.
General rules of hybrid training 👇
- Sessions should follow hierarchy of highest skill, highest intensity first
- Volume and intensity should be separated from each other in the week
- Don’t differentiate between strength and endurance – focus on consolidating stressors and reducing interference
- Recover as hard as you train
If you found this useful or know a mate that will – share this blog! 👇
Lawrence