Ready to take your fitness to the next level?
I was consistently working out and moving my body in new ways with CrossFit classes, hot yoga classes, attempting compound lifts at the gym, and running outdoors, however I had a difficult time creating a routine that would really initiate progress and yield clear results. Personal trainers can be expensive, so I decided to do some self-learning and listened to exercise science professionals. Andrew Huberman has an incredible multi-hour podcast series featuring exercise scientist Dr. Andy Galpin, and they uncovered a gold mine of information on curating workouts based on various goals.
Depending on your goal, whether it is running a marathon, completing a triathlon, body building, training for a specific sport, or just to remain in good health, we must challenge our bodies to see progress. Fitness is an adaptation to strain.
Dr. Andy Galpin categorizes fitness into 9 exercise induced adaptations:
1. Skill/technique
2. Speed
3. Power
4. Force/Strength
5. Muscular Endurance
6. Muscular Hypertrophy
7. Anaerobic Capacity
8. Aerobic Capacity
9. Long Duration
While you don’t need to hit every category during every workout, or even every season for that matter, using these 9 adaptations can help you begin to form some structure around what type of exercise you want to improve on.
Tips for creating a weekly structure based on each adaptation:
Endurance:
Do something 1x/week that gets you to your max heart rate x 4-8 bouts.
Spend 150-180 minutes in zone 2 training (60-70% of max HR) each week.
Supplement with strength and hypertrophy workouts.
Speed, Power, Strength:
THE 3-5 RULE: Pick 3-5 exercises, 3-5 reps, 3-5 sets, take 3-5 minutes rest between, train 3-5 days/week. Aim for high intensity reps. If you want strength - lift heavier. Power = Speed x Strength.
Hypertrophy:
Target a minimum of 10 working sets, per muscle group, per week, working to failure at 5-30 reps/set. Rest muscle groups for 48-72 hours.
Aerobic Training/Long Duration:
Train 1x/week for about 60 minutes at a conversational pace. This could be a steady jog or hike. If you are unable to talk, you may be going too fast.
Anaerobic Training:
Similar to endurance, do something 1x/week that gets you to your max HR x 4-8 reps. This could be sprints, HIIT workouts, plyometrics, essentially any exercise that can bring you to max HR for a duration anywhere between 30-60 seconds at a time.
It is recommended to break the year up into 4 quarters and focus on 3-5 different adaptations for each quarter as you best see fit for your goals.
I highly recommend checking out the Huberman Lab Podcast and the series with Dr. Andy Galpin. The following links are notes for setting goals and building a training program, and specific examples of how to build a training program including strength and endurance adaptations. Check out my next blog post on testing your fitness in all 9 fitness adaptations!
Guest Series: Dr. Andy Galpin – Optimize Your Training Program For Fitness & Longevity | Huberman Lab
Episode 65: Dr. Andy Galpin: How to Build Strength, Muscle Size & Endurance | Huberman Lab
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