Threshold gains stagnate after six weeks without a volume base
“What typically you see with, when you compare those two types of individuals or those two types of workouts, you get very quick gains from the threshold individual. So within a few weeks, that threshold individual will be better than the volume and low-intensity individual. But after six weeks, they've stagnated the threshold. And they're not better anymore, whereas the person doing the volume generally keeps on improving. And that's been shown time and time again.”
Frequency beats single long sessions for consistency and injury prevention
“But what I would say is that I think the consistency factor comes in when you go for more frequency because your injury risk is a bit lower. So when you're having breaks in between, you're having more recovery in between, you're not doing repetitive strains on the muscles continuously, and the injury risk is less. There's also some great work that comes out of John Hawley's lab based in Australia, and they looked at the molecular signaling pathways of adaptations. The idea is that you can train in the morning and train in the evening, you're kind of always upregulating that signal to adapt, which I think is a positive thing.”
Don't put the cart before the horse in training priorities
“I remember one of my coaches from a young age, he explained this to me. He says, you got to imagine your cake. He says, your high intensity and your threshold is your icing. And he said, and then your frequency and volume is your base. In a sport like triathlon or Hyrox, where we are trying to perform and to fatigue. As soon as you fatigue, your icing cracks and your cake falls apart. And if you don't have that base support of your thick frequency and volume, you will just fall apart.”
Build threshold intervals by shrinking rest, not changing pace
“If you look at how they do their double threshold and their threshold training, the only thing that changes is that as they get closer to racing, the duration of the intervals increases, and generally the recovery between intervals decreases. So you might start off with something really simple, like one minute on, one minute off. Your threshold pace is quite easy, not very hard at all. But then you build on that, you do two minutes on, one minute off, three minutes on, one minute off. And then by the end, you might be doing ten by four minutes with one minute recovery at the same pace.”
A good and bad training session look identical on paper
“Training, the good way to think about training is it's a bit like music. It's like there's basically, what is it, how many keys are in music? Is it seven keys, six keys? But to make music is the order. If you just randomly put everything in there, you just randomly bang keys randomly, it's going to make a terrible noise, but that's the same as training. As a coach once said to me, a good session and a bad session look the same on paper.”
Aerobic capacity is the primary driver of HYROX performance - Despite the heavy functional stations, the 60-90 minute race duration means cardiovascular efficiency and stroke volume dictate the pace far more than absolute power.
Running endurance is the primary determinant of HYROX success
“The whole fricking race is running. It's all running. These other things, they're completely meaningless. You just need to get basically, you just need to get through them without spiking your heart rate like crazy. And you need to be a very good runner. So obviously, as we're seeing, the favorites that are starting to really dominate are longer, lankier athletes.”
Prioritize whichever discipline matters most when stacking strength and cardio
“What I would tell my Endurox athletes is, I have this written in the notes, is that decide what you're prioritizing. So, if you're someone who needs to prioritize their endurance, do that first and do your strength second. If you're someone who needs to prioritize their strength, do your strength first and your endurance second. You can just swap them round to, so you're not compromising the thing you're trying to improve.”
Tapering can boost performance 10-15% in 7-10 days
“So typically we're looking for around about a 50% reduction in your normal training volume. But the key is that you maintain the training intensity, and you maintain the training frequency. So that means the number of sessions you're doing. But you're just reducing the total volume. So if you did 8 by 4 minutes on your build week, you're doing 4 by 4 minutes on the taper week, for example. If you're doing an hour run for your long run in your normal week, you're doing 30 minutes in the taper week. But you're kind of just slowly adjusting it to allow yourself to be as fresh as possible. You can see a 10 to 15% improvement in your performance from a fatigued state with a taper.”
Avoid the black hole of medium-hard intensity that feels productive
“So people tend to sit in that kind of what we call the black hole, the black hole of intensity, because it's just that nice feeling of it's not too hard. You're still moving fast. It's still a bit of work. And that's why a lot of people will tend to sink in to that area automatically. Not automatically, but just on perp, not even without thinking about it. It's just the black hole.”
Use dynamic heart rate zones for recovery - Recovery and HRV data should dictate training intensity on a daily basis because fixed zones ignore the physiological fluctuations caused by lifestyle stress and sleep quality.
HYROX serves as an accessible entry-point for fitness
“What they've done so well is they've created a fitness competition of sort that can appeal to like very, I don't want to say low level, but like entry point average people that are really trying to push themselves and try something really challenging all the way up to elite level, like obstacle course racers, and even now professional crossfitters getting in and at it.”
Training variety helps athletes adapt to different energy systems
“You're able to adapt to these different energy systems very seemingly. And like whenever we were training and we would jump on the row or jump on the ski, like because I've spent so long working on these or anybody that's familiar on these looks at your screen and sees you pulling 2000 calories... it's like that's insane.”
Amateur athletes pay a bigger training cost when tapering for every race
“I think the problem comes in newer, more recreational athletes or lesser trained athletes, where when doing a Hyrox is very fatiguing for them. They require a lot of recovery after a Hyrox. And then just to get around the Hyrox, they're going to also require to be quite fresh. I think generally that's the issue. It depends on where you are in your training cycle and what your ego is like. If you can put your ego to one side and just accept that your performance isn't going to be optimal, then by all means, race.”
Strength endurance sits high on the pyramid but needs aerobic base first
“I mean, I think it will be a surprise to many people listening that there's a wide strength endurance and your strength, you know, because strength endurance, power development, strength capacity, those three things is basically all your gym work, really. But so why is my gym work at the top? And it comes back to the very similar thing what we talked about with the cake and the icing is that, you know, if you don't have a robust aerobic conditioning, you can be as strong as you like. It would just all fall apart when you get into a Hyrox, when you become fatigued.”
Steady-state aerobic training provides superior functional carryover
“Training for hyrox is like, you're just, you're building that steady state aerobic system, you can do that all year long. And so that's really appealing, really appealing for me as well. Hyrox, the carryover, you know, building that aerobic system, the carryover onto the farm was great. Like I would get out of the gym feeling loose, limber, got a good sweat, breathe heavy.”
HYROX avoids the excessive central nervous system fatigue
“Hands down. It's just a lot more fun. And I don't know how you felt after it, but obviously it leaves you feeling exhausted, and you push yourself, but you don't feel like you got ran over by a freaking train. A lot of those crossfit competitions at the higher level, after you're done, especially if it's a two-day competition, you just feel like you got hit by a train.”
