Einstein’s definition of insanity: ‘doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ What about watching other people do the same things over and again expecting different results? Can that drive you mad? If so I’m cracked. I’ve seen too many people work out too hard, get injured, then return only to work TOO HARD again. Sub maximal training is where the results are. Science says as much.
My Super Bowl
The Olympic 1500 meter race was my Super Bowl. It had it all: intense rivalries; multiple American runners with medal potential; and my favorite runner (Jakob Ingebritsen) gunning for his second 1500 gold medal.
Jakob trained from birth for this stage. His father, Gjert (in the parenting style perfected by Joe Jackson and Emmanuel Agassi), pushed his sons from birth. Jakob broke 4 in the mile at age 16. The Ingebritsens are running super stars; they even star in a reality show in their native Norway. Meanwhile, track geeks like me want to know what their training secret is.
How much do they run?
How fast?
Why were the pricking their fingers?
The Norwegian Method
Your hard workouts drive me insane. Jakob’s training, contrarily, proves the effectiveness of sub maximal training. The Norwegian Method is built around the principle that a runner’s primary goal in training should be to maximize the amount of time they run at or just under their lactate threshold.
Lactate threshold, i.e. that specific level of effort where lactate is produced as fast as it is flushed is the Goldilocks zone of pace: just right.
The Goldilocks Zone
Runner’s aiming for peak performance should run slowly- a lot. When they do run hard, they measure lactate threshold (by pricking a finger or ear to read the level of lactate in the blood). This assures they’re training in the goldilocks zone, which increases their capacity for harder running. Their workouts invigorate, not destroy, them.
If you exceed the range and build up too much lactic acid the workout’s over: the body is too stressed.
Sadly Jakob failed to medal this time. American Cole Hocker saw to that. Don’t let that dissuade you from sub maximal training. It has produced a 2 mile world record, the fourth fastest all time 1500 m, and a gold in the Olympic 5k last week. I expect he’ll seriously challenge the world records in the 1500 meter 5k over the next year or two.
The Norwegian Method, as shown above, proves that training intelligently, and following a science/research based plan leads to the best results.
Not simply training as hard as you can.
What’s this have to do with you?
I would lift hard every single workout and, as a result, I plateaued. Then I read the book 5-3-1 by Jim Wendler (Norwegian Method for Meatheads). I shifted to lifting sub-maximally for 4 to 6 week cycles, and, in short, have increased my personal bests in the the big four lifts.
Train sub maximally, i.e smartly, with a program (or a trainer) and you may shock yourself as well.
Your body is amazing. You are faster, stronger and more flexible than you know. With the right program, the right attention to detail you’ll do things you never thought possible. Want to unlock that potential? Go all out in your planning.
Then relax in your workouts.
Related: Progressive Overload and Pain as Language · How Many Sets and Reps Should You Do?