The "Less is more" principle

Does anyone else besides me fall into this category? It' not an issue of ducking or shying away from high volume work. I've done my share of very high volume in da past and have learned how my body responds to that vs. more moderate volumes. I argued and had verbal spats with my coaches in HS cross country and track as well as my olympic weightlifting coach–all of whom insisted on running (or lifting) me into the ground with workouts that would kill a horse. I told them that I just couldn't adapt quickly enough to the high volume.

For example, my XC coach back in HS was a high volume advocate and I pleaded with him that I'm the type that needs lots of rest days mixed in with training days. Anyway, he ran me into the ground until I broke down and got sick and had to miss two weeks. The next race, I came out and ran one of the best races of my life after doing nothing for those two weeks. Same with weightlifting. Once I was stuck on 72kg snatch and 100kg clean/jerk. I took two weeks off, went to the beach for a while, came back and nailed 80kg twice in the same workout session. I eventually made it up to 90kg snatch and 110kg clean/jerk in the next comp.

Now, I don't truly know who was right and who was wrong in these cases. These "supercompensation" periods of high volume may very well have helped me. I was just going by how my body was feeling but I had an idea that I respond better to a little less. This is one of the reasons why I hesitate to religiously follow pre-planned, cyclical workout schedules.

The term "high volume" should be relative to each athlete. That is what is high volume to one athlete may not be to another due to a myriad of reasons. Another thing that must be considered is the interplay of volume and intensity. One can't expect to increase both at the same time without eventually having a breakdown. They need to be regulated carefully to avoid overtraining. Also adequate periods of rest at every level of the training cycle (session, micro, meso, macro) are very important for being able to both handle and develop from higher volumes. Having said that very high volumes (in an absolute rather than relative sense) is not something that should be jumped right in to even when theyare performed at extremely low intensities. The volumes of the best athletes in the world have been something that progressively increased over an extended period of time.

I would suggest making a flexible plan. This will allow you to structure your training to achieve the best results while still allowing enough room to change for unaccountable factors like injury, overtraining, etc.

ELITETRACK Founder