The Superiority Mindset of Endurance Workouts Needs to Stop

To some degree, the mindset that certain endurance workouts are better than others makes sense. We have research that compares different types of workouts and tests for their relative improvement in different health and fitness markers, so it is easy for someone to take that as enough evidence to place specific types of workouts, or even workout structures, ahead of others in importance. As nice as it would be to be able to just plug in a specific set of workouts, rinse and repeat indefinitely, and improve in a linear fashion that just isn’t how human physiology works. 

For this post, I am going to lay out some things to consider when planning out your training in hope to help avoid drifting towards a workout superiority complex. 

If we were to design a study that looked at a group of workouts that included one at an easy intensity sustained for a given period of time, one that focused on intervals of four minutes, and one that focused on short intervals of 15-30 seconds we could determine which workout moves the needle on a specific type of performance in the short term. The reality is we have done these types of studies. The reason these do not inform exactly how to program training in real life is because they do not consider individual circumstances like how it will impact performance at a goal event, what the bottleneck is in an individual's current fitness, and ultimately how it actually promotes continuous development. If it did, there would be no reason for professional athletes to switch coaches for anything beyond personality, as it would be clear as day what an athlete needs to improve, In fact, in some cases it may negate the necessity for a coach. 

Proper endurance training is ultimately a series of questions that include things like; what are the current fitness strengths and weaknesses (based on individual characteristics and previous training inputs), what is the end goal of the next training cycle, what is the goal for long term growth and development over a hobby/career, how does a certain input interact with others, how do certain workouts influence the value of others, and what degree of rest is necessary to make the next step sustainable. 

Let’s imagine someone is coming off a peaking phase for an event that produced an intensity near their VO2max. The nature of peaking is that the inputs required are not sustainable continuously. In fact, doubling down can result in progress stalling or regressing. Few things are worse than working harder and moving backwards. For a person in this situation, whether or not a study suggested a VO2max workout better improved performance is irrelevant. That isn’t their current bottleneck. They need to consider what is required to do in the short term in order to improve upon their previous peaking phase when the timing is right. These targets also can change. This person may decide the next event they want to do is performed closer to their lactate threshold, which would also change the nature of their focus during their peaking phase. 

For this individual, the next step is likely to work on foundational inputs like a primary focus on lower intensity (zones 1 and 2), and strength work for a while in order to improve their chances of taking a step forward when they are ready to begin more speed work. Again, even if studies suggest VO2max better improved fitness than lower intensity training in the short term, it is not something that would be applicable in this situation. It is the wrong way of looking at how these different training inputs interact with one another over time. 

Let’s now zoom in a bit and assume this individual is in the thick of peaking with a focus on VO2max intensity as one of the primary workouts. If this individual decides the research best suits a structure of 1:1 work rest ratio, and that a format of four minutes on four minutes off best promotes improvement, if they plug that session into their peaking phase indefinitely, they will likely see dwindling impact from that session structure as their body adapts to the stimulus. At this point, even if the research suggested this structure was the best input, it would not matter for this individual. They need to find a way around the current bottleneck. There are different ways of doing this. One is to maintain duration of the stimulus, in this case 16 minutes of total work, but with reduced recovery between target intensity. They could lower rest to three minutes and achieve this. A second option could be to shorten the rep length, but increase duration at goal intensity. An example of this might be to switch to three minute reps with three minutes of rest between, but target six sets, raising their total work to 18 minutes. The point being is the goal here is to continue to produce a stressor that the body needs to adapt towards, not simply applying the same stressor despite the body adapting to it.

I have used an event target near VO2max as an example for this post, but in reality endurance events span the intensity spectrum and as a result impact the order of operations in which someone would likely want to focus on different training intensities. For this, it is worth considering that in general working from a priority of least to most specific is typically a good place to start. With this approach you are more likely to leverage the most direct exposure to the event intensity closest to the event itself. 

Alright! There you have it. Avoiding the urge to view endurance development as finding the best workout or set of workouts will help lead you to be able to better identify not just what might be better in the short term, but how these inputs change or evolve over the span of your training. Using well structured plans and research to develop a scaffolding of understanding is a great strategy, but how to ultimately apply things at the individual level requires thinking about training inputs as teammates that when properly organized and applied will lead to the most success, even if one looks better on paper. 

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