Endurance 101 (Pt. 4)

In parts 1 – 3 we discussed a few key concepts:

  • Endurance is basically your body’s ability to delay fatigue.
  • Fatigue is the result of your body no longer efficiently producing energy (ATP).
  • Good endurance/conditioning is the result of multiple metabolic systems in the body being well-trained & developed (and thus being able to efficiently produce ATP for longer and thus delaying fatigue… see how it all comes together)
  • We touched on the AEROBIC system, which supports you in long-duration/low intensities.
  • We touched on the ANAEROBIC system, which supports you in short-duration/high intensities.
  • We discussed the fact that while they work together, the optimal way to train each of them looks a bit different (intentional long/easy work, intentional short/hard work, 80/20 split easy/hard)
  • Finally (in part 3) we discussed the profound importance of having a well-developed aerobic system AKA aerobic base. Basically, sprints and metcons without intentional & separate aerobic capacity training will only take you so far.

Now that we’re caught up on some basic concepts, I want to talk about an often-overlooked aspect of conditioning/endurance: TECHNIQUE.

Whatever you do – run, bike, swim, fight, dance, hike – how efficient you are with the mechanics/movements is a crucial aspect of your durability within the activity. Your nervous system has an incredible ability to adapt very specifically to the movement patterns you repeat in order to expend less energy while still getting the job done.

Take running, for example. Even a slight variation like the surface you’re on (road, treadmill, trail) is taken into consideration by the body as it figures out the “path of least resistance” (path of least calories expended to run). This explains why many people who predominantly run on the road find themselves getting fatigued sooner when they hit the trails – even when the trails are flat. Your body doesn’t have the same hours of experience there and therefore hasn’t built trail-specific efficiency!

This is one reason why you can’t become a better runner just by jump-roping, for example. Even though you could technically train the same necessary systems, build a monster gas tank, and *systemically* develop phenomenal conditioning, it will leave you lacking the movement efficiency it takes to be an all-star runner. In short, you gotta run to run fast, bike to bike fast, hike to hike fast, and so on.

That being said, there is absolutely a place for non-specific training (like hopping on the stationary bike for a long aerobic session, even if your goals are running-focused). That’s a topic for another time.

If you’ve worked in Wildland Fire, how many guys can you think of who were slow on the crew PT runs but would absolutely destroy everyone on the hikes? This is what I’m talking about. Years spent walking up and down steep slopes created movement efficiency/specific conditioning (patterns repeated over and over again). It’s a nervous system thing.

For example, if you’re specifically trying to improve your endurance swimming, *most* of your weekly volume should be spent swimming. HOWEVER, the amount of specific training you should be doing is going to depend on a few things:

  1. Your training experience/history… for example, if you want to be a great runner, but you haven’t been consistently running, it would be a good idea to mix up your modalities first as you build more general conditioning and slowly work up your capacity to handle higher volumes of running. The more conditioned you become, the more specific training you can handle and also the more specific training you might require in order to progress.
  2. On the other side of that, if you’re an advanced runner and your capacity for weekly training volume is now very high, it would be a wise choice to spend some time in non-specific modalities, like doing a longer steady state session on the stationary bike or elliptical in order to mitigate the local fatigue & impact you’d get from yet another run.
  3. How taxing is the thing you’re training for? For example, if you’re training to hike faster up a mountain with a ton of weight on your back, I wouldn’t recommend going for a 60lb hike every day. This will accumulate unnecessary fatigue and limit your ability to train your aerobic system exclusively as well as just limit how much volume you can do per week (you need a good amount of volume to improve your aerobic capacity). Spend some time running, bodyweight hiking, and even swimming or biking as you start to increase your weekly volume.
  4. How measurable is the thing you’re training for? For example, if your goal is to improve your conditioning during rounds of sparring in Jiu Jitsu, it might be very difficult to measure things like perceived exertion or metrics of improvement week to week – which I think is very important if you’re following a conditioning program. So, it might benefit you to utilize more general modalities – like running, elliptical, swimming, biking, jump-rope, etc. and get your *specific* conditioning done on the mats!

I hope this was helpful. If you haven’t checked out parts 1, 2, and 3 – you can find them in the category “Endurance 101” right below the Title of this post. Thanks so much for reading 😊 See you in Part 5!