Discard the belief that every day of training must be hard or painful, as the logical assumptions emerging from ’no pain, no gain’ are not valid or true for sustainable progress.
Learn from elite athletes to develop a sustainable activity lifestyle by managing stress and adjusting training levers (intensity, duration, frequency) for long-term health and peak performance.
Structure your training so that approximately 80% is at low intensity (green zone) and 20% is at high intensity, as this polarized distribution is observed in elite athletes for optimal performance and health.
If you are experiencing high stress from work or home life, avoid doing all your exercise sessions at super high intensity (HIIT), as this can increase burnout risk, injury, and hinder weight loss by adding to your overall stress load.
Spend most of your training time in the low-intensity ‘green zone’ to achieve performance benefits, metabolic health, and overall well-being, as it provides a high adaptive response with low systemic stress.
When starting a new fitness routine, prioritize establishing consistent frequency (e.g., three days a week) for the first six weeks, focusing solely on getting out the door to build a ritual and habit, regardless of intensity or duration.
Once a consistent training frequency is established, gradually increase the duration of one or two sessions per week (e.g., from 20-30 minutes to an hour) to tap into physiological adaptations like increased fat utilization and molecular signaling.
After establishing consistent frequency and duration, gradually introduce intensity by adding short, hard efforts (e.g., running up a hill for a couple of minutes, then walking down) into one session per week, slowly increasing the number of bouts over time.
Ease into training to allow your body’s bones, tendons, and muscles to adapt, reducing the risk of injury and preventing setbacks that could lead to abandoning your fitness goals.
Understand that training, especially high-intensity work, adds to your body’s overall stress load, similar to work or life demands, so adjust your training intensity during periods of high external stress to prevent burnout and impaired adaptation.
View training intensity distribution as a way to manage the relationship between creating adaptive signals (for mitochondria, capillaries) and systemic stress, aiming for a high adaptive response with low stress in the green zone.
Incorporate complete rest days into your routine, where you are not thinking about training or mobilizing your body, to allow for physical recovery, reduce overall stress, and make space for other life tasks without guilt.
During periods of high external stress (e.g., exams, demanding work projects), ease off training intensity and focus on green zone activities to prevent adding to your stress bucket and ensure better adaptation later.
Embrace a process-oriented mindset, finding enjoyment in the daily routine and the act of training itself, as this fosters sustainability and often leads to better results than solely focusing on outcomes.
Engage in low-intensity ‘green zone’ training to experience quicker recovery, better sleep, and maintain appetite, as it minimizes the stress load on your body compared to high-intensity workouts.
Cultivate the discipline to ‘park your ego’ and stick to your planned training intensity, even if others pass you, understanding that consistent adherence to your program is key for long-term goals.
In group activities, avoid ‘half-wheeling syndrome’ where you subtly increase your pace to match or exceed others, as this can lead to going too fast and deviating from your planned low-intensity training.
Aim to finish many workouts, especially low-intensity ones, feeling like you could have done more and with a smile, rather than pushing to absolute exhaustion, to promote sustainability and enjoyment.
View training plans as flexible guides rather than rigid rules, understanding that life happens and adjustments are necessary; don’t consider missed workouts as failures, but rather move forward.
If you miss a workout due to illness or other reasons, do not try to ‘make up for it’ by doing twice as much later, as this increases the risk of injury or overtraining.
If you train only three times a week, the 80-20 rule may not apply directly; consider making one in every five sessions an intensity session, or adjust your training cycle beyond seven days to allow for adequate recovery.
Recognize that humans are inherently built for endurance; even if currently out of shape, your body possesses unexploited capacity that can be tapped into through sustainable training.
As you get older, view ‘performance’ (e.g., carrying groceries upstairs, crossing the street quickly) as directly equating to ‘health’ and quality of life, emphasizing the importance of maintaining functional capacity.
For aging individuals, prioritize strength training (e.g., two sessions a week) focusing on functional movements like squats and jumps, to maintain muscle mass and power, which are critical as we lose muscle after age 30.
As you age, incorporate movements you did as a child (sprinting, jumping, lifting, hanging) to maintain functional movement, balance, flexibility, and mobility, which are crucial for preventing decline and injury.
In strength training, aim for ‘reps in reserve’ (e.g., doing a set of 8 when you could have done 10) to get a good benefit without pushing to absolute exhaustion, promoting recovery and preventing injury.
Develop ‘slalom skills’ by adapting your training to work around injuries or physical limitations, finding alternative exercises that allow you to continue stimulating your body without causing further harm.
For beginners or those building endurance, use a walk-run strategy where you alternate running with strategic walking periods, allowing you to go for longer durations and build capacity sustainably.
Practice intensity discipline, like an elite athlete walking up a steep hill on a green zone day, to stick to your planned low-intensity training even when tempted to push harder.
To ensure you’re in the low-intensity ‘green zone,’ aim for a stable heart rate, be able to hold a conversation with a friend, and feel hungry and ready to eat immediately after the workout, indicating you haven’t activated a major stress response.
The ‘yellow zone’ (threshold) is where lactate starts to accumulate in the bloodstream but can still restabilize; it feels harder, requires more focus, and is typically maintainable for 30-40 minutes for most individuals.
The ‘red zone’ is very high intensity where lactate production exceeds elimination, leading to rapid fatigue within minutes, and is typically broken into intervals for accumulating more time at this intensity.
Utilize Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as a ‘stress-o-meter’ to gain insight into the balance between your sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and recover) nervous systems, with higher variability generally indicating a lower stress state.
Use wearables and trackers to gain insights into your body’s functioning and the effects of lifestyle choices, but avoid becoming obsessed with metrics or training solely to improve a specific number.
Be aware that many wearables measure one core variable (e.g., heart rate) but then estimate several others (e.g., calorie consumption); trust the direct measurements more than the estimates, which can be fuzzy.
Refrain from checking performance metrics like HRV on the morning of a race or important event, as the data can create unnecessary stress or influence your mindset negatively.
When progressing interval training, don’t solely focus on increasing intensity; instead, consider increasing the duration of the hard efforts or adding more bouts (e.g., from three to four times two-minute efforts) to build capacity.