It's Tough, But It'll Build A Monster Aerobic System — Transcript

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1. 0:00Your aerobic system has multiple layers,
2. 0:03and most people only ever train one.
3. 0:06Studies on elite athletes show the
4. 0:08single biggest predictor of aerobic
5. 0:11performance isn't the training style
6. 0:13most people obsess over. And once you
7. 0:16see why, everything changes. So, in this
8. 0:19video, I'm going to show you the fastest
9. 0:22way to build a monster aerobic system.
10. 0:25My name is Nicholas. I'm a former
11. 0:26professional triathlete with two degrees
12. 0:28in sports science and physiotherapy.
13. 0:30Now, the first thing that I'm going to
14. 0:32show you is what the four different
15. 0:34things you need to train are. Because if
16. 0:37you've never trained all of them, it's
17. 0:39the number one thing that you can do
18. 0:41that'll make you better. Now, here's the
19. 0:43thing. Most people find a training style
20. 0:46they believe in and then just do that.
21. 0:49Someone tells you that zone two is the
22. 0:51secret, so you build your whole week
23. 0:53around easy aerobic training. Or someone
24. 0:56else swears by heart training or
25. 0:58threshold training, so you switch to
26. 1:00that. And because you're consistent, you
27. 1:03assume you're doing it right. But if you
28. 1:06truly want the biggest aerobic system
29. 1:09possible, you need to train four
30. 1:12different systems most of the time. So,
31. 1:14let me show you what those systems are,
32. 1:17and then I'm going to show you exactly
33. 1:18how to train them. I want you to think
34. 1:20about your aerobic system as watering a
35. 1:23garden. You've got a pump, you've got
36. 1:25water in the tank, you've got hoses
37. 1:27running out to every plant, and then
38. 1:29you've got the plants themselves
39. 1:31actually drinking the water. Now, let's
40. 1:34say the garden isn't getting enough
41. 1:36water. So, you go out and you buy a
42. 1:39huge, expensive pump. You install it,
43. 1:42you turn it on,
44. 1:44and almost nothing changes. Simply
45. 1:47because the hoses are still thin and the
46. 1:50tank is still half empty. It doesn't
47. 1:52matter how strong your pump is if the
48. 1:55water can't get anywhere, that's your
49. 1:58aerobic system. Your heart is the pump,
50. 2:00your blood is the water, and your blood
51. 2:02vessels are the hoses. And finally, your
52. 2:05muscles are the plants. When you do
53. 2:07nothing but hard intervals, you're
54. 2:09buying a bigger pump. When you do
55. 2:11nothing but easy zone two training,
56. 2:13you're mostly laying more hose. Now,
57. 2:16this is super simplified and in reality,
58. 2:19it's a lot more complex, but you get the
59. 2:22idea. Each training method on their own
60. 2:25hits a wall at some point, simply
61. 2:27because the rest of the system is still
62. 2:29the same size. The people with monster
63. 2:32aerobic engines don't just pick one way
64. 2:35to train. They build the whole thing.
65. 2:38And multiple studies have shown that the
66. 2:40best endurance athletes in the world
67. 2:43does not train in one specific way.
68. 2:45Instead, they train across a bunch of
69. 2:48different paces to train all the
70. 2:50different systems in some way or another
71. 2:53most of the time. So, the first step to
72. 2:55a bigger engine is to train at at least
73. 2:58four different intensities most of the
74. 3:00time, meaning both the easy long stuff
75. 3:03like 60 minutes or more at an easy pace,
76. 3:06the medium hard stuff, also called your
77. 3:09lactate threshold pace or tempo, so
78. 3:12something like 5 * 6 minutes or 3 * 10
79. 3:14minutes at a comfortably hard pace, the
80. 3:17hard stuff, also called your VO2 max, so
81. 3:21something like 4 * 4 minutes best
82. 3:23average pace, and the sprint stuff. So,
83. 3:26the 10 to 20 seconds all out efforts.
84. 3:29And when you train all four together,
85. 3:32the improvement is a lot faster than
86. 3:35most people expect because almost nobody
87. 3:38is doing this. Now, the obvious question
88. 3:41is, how do you actually fit all four
89. 3:44into a normal training week when you're
90. 3:46not a professional athlete with 10
91. 3:49sessions per week to play with?
92. 3:52Well, let me show you. So, most people
93. 3:54think in 7-day blocks, Monday to Sunday
94. 3:57and then repeat. And when you try to
95. 3:59squeeze four different systems into 7
96. 4:01days on top of work and family and
97. 4:03everything else, it either falls apart
98. 4:06or you end up so tired you can't hit the
99. 4:09sessions properly anyway. But,
100. 4:11professional athletes think differently
101. 4:14about training. When I was a
102. 4:15professional triathlete, we did not plan
103. 4:17in 7-day training blocks. I mean, think
104. 4:20about it. There's nothing magical about
105. 4:227 days. It's just an artificial
106. 4:24constraint we put on ourselves. Instead,
107. 4:28what we did was that we made sure that
108. 4:30we hit every single system at least once
109. 4:34every 10 to 14 days. So, it's really
110. 4:36simple. If you want a bigger aerobic
111. 4:38system and can't fit everything into
112. 4:41your training plan in 1 week, like most
113. 4:44of us can't, then just expand your time
114. 4:47horizon to 10 days or even 2 weeks. That
115. 4:50way, you don't need to train hard all
116. 4:52the time. You just need to switch up
117. 4:54your training. And I'm going to show you
118. 4:56exactly how to do that later in this
119. 4:58video. But, there's one more thing you
120. 5:00need to do first, which brings me to the
121. 5:03third step you have to take if you want
122. 5:05to build a monster aerobic system. Now,
123. 5:07the problem is that if you do the same
124. 5:09sessions week after week, at some point
125. 5:12your body stops adapting.
126. 5:14It's basically because your body is
127. 5:16lazy. So, at some point it'll just say,
128. 5:19"I can handle this, so I don't need to
129. 5:21get better." But, there is something
130. 5:23that we can do to force your body to
131. 5:26keep getting better week after week.
132. 5:30Let me explain. When I was a
133. 5:31professional triathlete, my training
134. 5:33group actually had a phrase for this. We
135. 5:36called it new normal. You see, every
136. 5:39year my coach would hand me a new
137. 5:41training plan. And it was always harder
138. 5:43than the one from last year. So, it had
139. 5:46more sessions and longer sessions. And
140. 5:49to be honest, when he first showed it to
141. 5:51me, I thought, "There's no way I'm going
142. 5:54to be able to handle all that volume."
143. 5:57But, somehow we'd get through the
144. 5:59season. And by the end, those sessions
145. 6:02that once felt impossible
146. 6:05were just Tuesdays. It was just the new
147. 6:08normal.
148. 6:09Then, the next year would come around,
149. 6:11and this whole thing began again.
150. 6:13What felt insane eventually became
151. 6:16routine. And that's exactly how you need
152. 6:19to think about your aerobic training.
153. 6:21You can't do the same distances at the
154. 6:24same paces forever and expect to keep
155. 6:28improving. Over time, you need to add
156. 6:31more volume or push the intensity.
157. 6:35Simply because more volume is the most
158. 6:38powerful thing you can do for your
159. 6:40aerobic fitness. The more quality work
160. 6:42you can do without breaking down, the
161. 6:45bigger your aerobic system gets. So, the
162. 6:48goal is always to be doing a little bit
163. 6:50more than you've done before. And then,
164. 6:52over time, you'll notice that something
165. 6:55that seems crazy today, like running a
166. 6:58half marathon just because it's Sunday,
167. 7:00becomes the new normal. So, now you're
168. 7:03training the different systems and
169. 7:05you're doing more over time. But, none
170. 7:07of this will work unless you pay close
171. 7:10attention to the next thing that I'm
172. 7:12going to show you. Now, the problem is
173. 7:14that training more, training harder,
174. 7:16doesn't automatically make you fitter.
175. 7:19It just makes you more tired. You need
176. 7:22to make sure that the training you're
177. 7:23doing is actually giving you the
178. 7:25adaptation that you want. And it's not
179. 7:28just about rest days. Let me show you.
180. 7:30So, think about a bodybuilder trying to
181. 7:32put on muscle. If he cuts calories at
182. 7:34the same time, it will be a lot harder,
183. 7:38if not impossible, to put on muscle
184. 7:41because the body simply doesn't have
185. 7:43enough resources. He has to eat enough
186. 7:46calories to support the training and the
187. 7:49recovery on top of it. So, smart
188. 7:52bodybuilders separate two phases. First,
189. 7:55they bulk to build the muscle and then
190. 7:58they cut to lose the fat. Endurance
191. 8:01training works the same way, even though
192. 8:03most people never think about it like
193. 8:05that. In fact, multiple studies have
194. 8:08shown that what's called RED-S is a huge
195. 8:11problem for endurance athletes. RED-S
196. 8:13stands for relative energy deficiency in
197. 8:16sports and it's usually a result of
198. 8:18trying to train harder while also
199. 8:21cutting weight or eating less calories
200. 8:23than you need. So, here's what I want
201. 8:25you to do. When you're trying to build
202. 8:27your aerobic system, that is not the
203. 8:30time to also be losing weight. Your body
204. 8:34needs fuel to recover between sessions
205. 8:37and to come back ready to train again.
206. 8:40So, you need to eat enough to support
207. 8:42the work. Build the engine first, then
208. 8:46if you want to lose some fat, do that
209. 8:48afterwards. Just know that the training
210. 8:51will feel harder while you do it, simply
211. 8:54because you don't have the same energy
212. 8:56available. So, now let me show you how
213. 8:58to put all of this together into an
214. 9:00actual training plan. In my experience,
215. 9:03this is where most people get stuck.
216. 9:05They understand that they need to train
217. 9:07different paces and train harder, but
218. 9:10when they sit down to make the training
219. 9:12plan, it turns into a mess. In fact, I
220. 9:15remember the first time I tried to plan
221. 9:17a proper training block that covered
222. 9:20everything. Within about 10 minutes, I'd
223. 9:22scheduled hard sessions on Monday,
224. 9:24Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday because
225. 9:27I wanted to make sure nothing got
226. 9:29missed. But, by Thursday, I was so tired
227. 9:33that by the weekend, I had to skip my
228. 9:35training just because I needed to sleep.
229. 9:37But, fortunately, I learned that there
230. 9:39is a better way and it's the same
231. 9:41structure that has been shown in studies
232. 9:44to be the way that the best athletes in
233. 9:46the world actually plan their training.
234. 9:49It works like this. Each week, you have
235. 9:51two quality days and one long day.
236. 9:55That's your framework. The long sessions
237. 9:57takes care of your aerobic base and the
238. 10:00durability and your two quality days
239. 10:02rotate across a two-week block. One week
240. 10:05might be a threshold session and a VO2
241. 10:07max effort. The next week might be
242. 10:10threshold again and then some faster
243. 10:11sprint work. So, across 14 days, every
244. 10:14system gets hit at least once without
245. 10:18any single week feeling like too much.
246. 10:20And here's a small trick that makes a
247. 10:22big difference. If you have more
248. 10:24training days with some easy stuff, just
249. 10:27add a few short sprints at the end. Just
250. 10:30four or five short accelerations of
251. 10:33about 10 to 20 seconds.
252. 10:35That way, you're keeping your
253. 10:37fast-twitch fibers awake and reminding
254. 10:40your legs what fast feels like. It's
255. 10:43speed work that costs you almost nothing
256. 10:46to recover from. So, here's the fastest
257. 10:49way to build a monster aerobic system.
258. 10:51First, train at a bunch of different
259. 10:53intensities most of the time. Second,
260. 10:56make sure you hit each system at least
261. 10:59every 2 weeks. Third, do more over time.
262. 11:02Building your aerobic engine is not
263. 11:04something you do in 2 weeks. It takes
264. 11:07years. Fourth, eat enough to recover
265. 11:10from your hard training. And the
266. 11:12simplest way to structure your training
267. 11:14is two quality days and one long day
268. 11:17every single week with the rest of your
269. 11:19training being easy. But, part of your
270. 11:21aerobic system is your VO2 max. And if
271. 11:24you want to know the fastest way to
272. 11:26increase that part of your fitness, I'm
273. 11:28going to show you exactly how to do that
274. 11:31in this video right here.