How Healthy Do You Train?
Is there a particular approach to training that can optimize your fitness and performance while at the same time maximizing your health and level of resiliency?
I think most of us would agree that it is important to be able to sustain a state of health readiness. A good focus on health can ensure that you are both physically and mentally resilient to the stress loads to come and optimally responsive to any increase in those loads.
Sports scientists, like Alan Couzens, suggest that laying a strong health base is the starting point for anyone who wants to reach their endurance potential. Check out his article on Building Your Performance Pyramid. Couzens delves into the importance of correctly fueling and maintaining your energy systems to augment your potential ability to recover and train optimally. In another related article, he cleverly explains the components of maximizing health, recovery, and training. I strongly encourage readers to review both.
It has been heavily supported in the literature that if you’d like to ride, paddle, climb, or run faster, whether it be in a competitive event or in order to more easily keep up with others in group events, you will need to push your training very hard at times. And as you increase the intensity in your workouts, your training loads increase. However, as you have probably heard, without the appropriate recovery response, those load increases can actually have a negative effect on your physiological constitution. This, in turn, will limit your potential to respond well to further training, thereby limiting your intended training effect and may even lead to illness or injury. These acknowledgments are known as the principles of overload and recovery. It is important to get these right. Sometimes, it is only through a more systematic approach to training that you can manage these principles to reach your goals safely.
One of the keys to a good systematic approach to training is to periodically establish a solid endurance platform or base of training. According to renowned endurance coach Joe Friel, a good endurance base requires attention paid to your aerobic endurance, muscle force (e.g., strength training), speed skills, and a marginal amount of muscle endurance training (e.g., threshold or suprathreshold work).
This period of working on the base is also an excellent time to identify and work on potential LIMITERS to your performance goals. These might include:
Focusing on very specific strength training-related limitations (e.g., core stabilization).
Nutrition enhancement (e.g., metabolic efficiency - optimizing fat utilization).
Economy issues (e.g., neuro-muscular and speed drills).
Revisiting the structure of your training program and how you track and respond to what you do (e.g., learning to track recovery, HRV’s, etc.).
Learning what your “limiters” are will make the focus of your training much more evident to you. A clear path can help solidify your training parameters and provide structure to your plan so you can lay out a more systematic training approach to future building phases in your training.
Here at the Fit Stop Human Performance Lab, we evaluate your unique training domains using metabolic testing. This form of assessment involves having you ride, run, or walk while connected to a metabolic analyzer. This analyzer will identify certain changes in your breathing and cardiovascular responses that provide insight into the metabolic systems that are being used. All this is to say - we can now construct a “metabolic fingerprint,” if you will, of your endurance strengths and weaknesses to better evaluate your fitness and construct or confirm your very own training zones.
At our Lab, we provide a couple of testing options that will help you learn more about your unique physiology and give you some practical and individualized metrics to follow and adhere to.
Our signature test is the Cardio-Metabolic Exercise profile. You may have heard this protocol described as a VO2Max test, which can also include ventilatory threshold determinations. This is a comprehensive ramp-style test that can map out individualized “endurance fingerprints” to help you set up your training parameters and identify several potential areas of limitation.
Here is a chart that summarizes the type of information that is found from the CMP.
VO2Max and Threshold assessments (1 minute ramp)
Here is a link to my article that outlines the kind of information obtained in the CMP DATA DASHBOARD.
Additionally this assessment can evaluate changes in your energy systems that would impact your ability to cope with longer workouts/events and higher volumes of training. Both our CMP and longer staged Metabolic Efficiency Profiles (& MLSS) can reveal your ability to use fat for energy and conserve your carbohydrates stores.
Below are some examples of the test outcomes and what we are looking at.
What is your Metabolic Efficiency
Below are some graphs to demonstrate the various fat burning profiles found in athletes and exercisers. Check these out. I borrowed the idea to present these profiles in this manner from Exercise Physiologist Norman Couzens.
Athlete 1: Competitive cyclist or triathlete (under 2 hour event)
Note: this is a very fit athlete. However he would be significantly challenged when events exceed a couple hours due to his limited fat utilization at moderate power output levels.
Athlete 2: Competitive long course athlete (triathlete or road cyclist)
Note: This athlete, unlike athlete #1, is more fat-adapted at moderate intensity levels and is able to sustain higher loads for longer periods.
Athlete 3: Fat-adapted (keto) cyclist
Note: This athlete is on a very low carb diet and will be able to sustain effort in the low to moderate levels for very long efforts with little to no ingested fuel. However, at higher intensities, performance would be quite compromised.
Athlete 4: Carbohydrate dependent cyclist
Note: This athlete may show significant limitations in sustaining low to moderate intensities and could possibly show recovery deficiencies.
A robust ability to use fat in the fat burning zones can also be an indication of your metabolic health and overall health.
In summary, I strongly urge individuals engaged in intensive or extensive training to carefully consider how they allocate their training time. It is crucial to adopt a SMART approach, as there exists a delicate balance between training with sufficient intensity and pushing oneself too far. Skillful navigation of this fine line can have a profound impact on both your overall health and performance. Prioritizing your well-being is paramount, ensuring that you not only attain but also sustain the performance rewards you aspire to achieve.