She said her friends, children and all the fitness influencers she sees extols the benefits of HIIT. Then without batting an eyelid, she said, "What about Zone 2 training?"
That is basically what is happening online. One group says train at Zone 2 while the other says go hard or go home, HIIT is the way to go.
What do the best in the world actually do? A new study by Sandbakk et al (published in April 2025) investigated elite endurance coaches and their training were not what you expected. These coaches had athletes winning more than 380 international medals in long distance running, biathlon, rowing, cross country skiing, road cycling, swimming, triathlon and speed skating.
All the coaches stick to a traditional periodization model, including a gradual shift towards overall lower training volume and more competition-specific (race pace) training as the competitive period approaches.
Another common emerging feature was an emphasis on high volume low intensity training. Look at the picture above, MOST (80-90 percent) of the weekly training was easy. Here is the key insight, majority of the easy work was not in Zone 2. It was in Zone 1. Slower than what the internet experts are obsessed with. Slower means more sustainable and more adaptation over time. That's how you get stronger.
True aerobic development is only possible from accumulating volume. It also allows one to recover and handle key sessions.
This Zone 1 low intensity sessions along with combined with 2-3 weekly "key workout" days consisting of 3-5 intensive training sessions. The sessions are purposeful and focused, with recovery all planned.
Finally, coaches across all sports focused on getting high training quality by optimizing training sessions by controlling the load-recovery balance to ensure optimal preparations for major competitions.
The athletes go through all the zones (see the above picture), not just high intensity (Zone 5), but also in between. Short, fast intervals and controlled thresholds. The exact proportion is dependent on their competition demands. There were not a lot of really hard anaerobic sessions.
Why the big difference between these elite coaches and what we see online with all the fitness influencers? Firstly the fitness influencers usually do not compete in races or competitions. They won't be posting so many videos if they do. Train easy, adapt, get stronger does not sell as well as "unlocking this magic Zone of HIIT". High performance is not about shortcuts. It's about accumulating consistency over time. Not as attention catching, but it definitely works.
To sum up, it's mostly sessions of low intensity, with occasionally high sessions adjusted to the individual. Balance stress and recovery and consistency over all else. Now you know.
* Many gyms, fitness influencers and trainers get patients to do what is traditionally circuit training but call it HIIT. Circuit training is like 30 seconds doing push ups, rest a minute, go to another station and perform 30 seconds of high knee lifts, rest a min, 30 seconds of lifting dumbbells etc
HIIT stands for high intensity interval training. Or interval training for short. Example, you run 15 intervals or repetitions of 400m with a one minute rest in between or the coach will say run 6 x 1km going every 5 minutes (meaning if you run your kilometer in 3:50 min, you get 1:10 min rest before starting again). You can also cycle intervals outdoors or on a trainer with your bicycle attached.
Circuit training does not sound sexy, but HIIT certainly does!
Reference
Sandbakk O, Tonnessen E, Sandbakk SB et al (2025). Best-practice Training Characteristics Within Olympic Endurance SpoRts As Described By Norwegian World-Class Coaches. Sports Med 11:45. DOI: 10.1186/s40978-025000848-3
No comments:
Post a Comment