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In-season strength template: maintain 85-95% of absolute strength

In-season training should work to maintain 85-95% of absolute strength — the first job across three sessions. Assign one back squat session per week, plus a heavy unilateral lower-leg exercise such as a front foot split squat or Bulgarian split squat. For athletes with weekend games, stack the back squat session at the start of the week (probably Monday morning) assuming the athlete is fairly fresh. Maintain upper body strength as well, though it likely has less negative influence on gameplay. The secondary goal is transference into speed and power: clean pulls from rack, power cleans, and faster, higher-speed, slightly lower-force exercises. Accessory exercises go in the latter half of the session and are predominantly prehab/rehab.

Method, not a verified protocol.

Garage Strength · How To Get Strong and Still Be Athletic w/ Sika Strength

Complete Single Leg Squat Progression

Start with body weight single leg squat progression. Progress to overhead and goblet single leg squat variations. Progress to the Zurcher single leg squat variation. Progress to advanced VBT training in the single leg squat, pushing it as heavy as possible.

Method, not a verified protocol.

Garage Strength · The "Single" Best Lift Every Athlete Should Do!

Dose targets: 11 minutes of cold per week and 57 minutes of sauna per week

Dr. Søberg endorses a calculated cold exposure dose of 11 minutes in total per week — not in one session — corresponding to one to two minutes in cold water at a time across two to three visits per week. The sauna dose from her study was 57 minutes in total per week, divided across two to three days with two sessions each day of 10 to 15 minutes per session. She considers having such a low-threshold dose target good because it gives people something to aim for and prevents overdoing it.

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Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Cold & Heat Exposure for Metabolic Health | Dr. Susanna Søberg

Limit harder-than-threshold running (the X session) to once per week with two easy days after

Dr. Marius Bakken recommends limiting harder-than-threshold running — the X session — to once per week, and allowing two days of easy training afterwards so fatigue does not accumulate. Not taking care of the days after the X session leads to trouble. Because of that recovery and the once-weekly limit, he argues it is difficult to do the X session wrong.

Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Don't cycle strength training on and off; schedule it with the X session and cool down longer

Bakken discourages going on and off strength training because it creates a relative load from entering training you're not used to. He recommends scheduling strength work on the same day as the X (interval) session and following it with a slightly longer cool down to help bring muscle tone down.

Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Treat hill training as a hard X session, not a threshold session

Bakken endorses treating hill training as an X (hard) session. Doing hill sessions as threshold sessions slows you down instead of getting as close as possible to race pace without negative effect, and the host notes that doing 3-minute hill intervals as a threshold-style session derailed his own training.

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Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Monitor muscle tone with the stair test, springiness on sessions, and how sessions evolve

Marius Bakken says you can actually feel muscle tone by getting used to palpating it on your quads, and you can get a feel for it by walking up the stairs every day and noticing how the legs are feeling — the most practical way of doing it. He calls this the stair test, a really good way of monitoring muscle tone from day to day. The second monitoring signal is springiness on the actual sessions — how springy or light you feel each step. More complicated monitoring like lactate compared to heart rate and pace exists but is not necessary; the stair test, how you feel on the session, and how it evolves during the session are the most important things.

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Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Shift to marathon-specific work 6-12 weeks before a marathon

Bakken recommends shifting to more marathon-specific work from about 6 to 12 weeks before a marathon (or 4 to 10 weeks), meaning longer, more durable sessions.

Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Run threshold sessions at 80–87% of max heart rate, comfortably hard

Dr. Marius Bakken recommends running threshold sessions at about 80 to 87% of max heart rate — comfortably hard. Without advanced measurement, use a speech test: a pace where you can say three to five words in a sentence before going after your breath.

Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Maximize sub-threshold volume while controlling intensity; run easy days below 70% max HR

Dr. Marius Bakken recommends putting in as much volume as you can on sub-threshold work while controlling intensity, and running easy volume below 70% of max heart rate. The goal is to run fast enough to get a real running-economy effect without going hard enough to incur the negative effects of running above threshold.

Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Do two of your four or five weekly runs as sub-threshold work

Dr. Marius Bakken recommends that for a normal athlete training for 5K/10K, two of the four or five weekly running sessions should be sub-threshold work.

Garage Strength · The Genius Who Solved Endurance Training w/ Dr. Marius Bakken

Loaded max effort jumps into stair jumps: two loaded jumps, then drop the dumbbells and jump stairs

For max effort jumps, do two jumps loaded with dumbbells, thinking through the counter movement of the drop quickly (hit, go, hit, go). Then place the dumbbells down and do stair jumps. Some athletes benefit from resting 15 to 20 seconds after the loaded jumps before the stair jumps, but don't rest more than 30 seconds or it can start to be laggy. Factor the arm swing lesson and technique from the box jump into the stair jumps. On stair jumps, grounding feels like floating, lighter than typical body weight — the host describes this as post activation potentiation, something you might see with eccentric hooks on a bench. Max effort jumps are where you start to notice your jumps climbing.

Method, not a verified protocol.

Garage Strength · I Trained 1000 Elite Athletes. This Is How You Jump Higher.

Four-day training split, each day developing a different piece of explosive power

The host recommends a four-day training split where every day develops a different piece of the explosive power puzzle: day one focuses on increasing max lower body strength; day two is speed strength work and may include upper body work; day three is 'athlete day' with a lot of jumps and plyometric work; day four is an impulse session focused on putting out a large amount of force in a short period of time, combining plyometrics with explosive strength work.

Method, not a verified protocol.

Garage Strength · I Trained 1000 Elite Athletes. This Is How You Jump Higher.

Never have an athlete do an exercise that causes pain

Grubbs's rule: never have any athlete do any exercise that causes pain; when selecting exercises, ask why you are doing it and whether it is creating pain — if so, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

Garage Strength · How The Best Pro Baseball Players Actually Train w/ MLB Strength Coach Stephanie Grubbs

Prefer about three days a week of total body training for most people

Dr. Andy Galpin says he prefers doing something more like three days a week of total body for most people — not because it's more effective, but because it's more resilient to life disruptions. With three days a week total body, if something happens, you've only missed that body part for 48 to 72 hours. He notes body part splits are okay for a lifting junkie who is very consistent in their schedule, but most people are not that. He also suggests that doing two days a week of whole body plus two days a week of a body part split hedges against all risks, as long as you hit the total volume number.

Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin

Progressively overload training — the number one mistake is failing to do so

Outside of not training at all, the number one mistake people make in pursuit of fitness goals is failing to progressively overload. Progressively overload your training — increasing sets, reps, and weight over time — to continue causing adaptation and see gains in strength and hypertrophy.

Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin

Verify a target muscle is actually growing; adjust or isolate if not

Dr. Andy Galpin advises that if you're trying to grow a specific body part or muscle, it's very important that you're actually seeing progress in that area. Don't worry about what the textbook says an exercise is supposed to target — if you're not in the right position or at the right angle, it may do very little for that muscle. If an exercise isn't targeting the intended muscle, you may need to adjust to an incline bench, decline bench, or pec fly. He describes a coaching scenario where squats are excellent for quad development in general but may not work for a specific individual, in which case a coach may move them to a machine to isolate that muscle group and ensure development.

Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin

Cue three: keep the foot under the hip

The hosts' third cue is foot placement: keep the foot under the thigh or hip at ground contact during acceleration and transition. Grounding under the hip diminishes braking and deceleration, helps tempo, and may prevent hamstring issues. Ground contact should land about three to six inches in front of the hip, not a foot or more; in transition the foot getting slightly in front is normal.

Garage Strength · The Simplest Way to Sprint Faster

Cue two: think track mechanics and fast thigh

The hosts' second cue is to think about track mechanics, using the 'thigh forward fast' cue from Dr. Clark: after ground contact, immediately think 'bring the thigh forward fast,' repeating 'ground, thigh forward fast, attack' rhythmically. This produces slightly longer strides and a faster thigh, but not reaching or overcasting.

Garage Strength · The Simplest Way to Sprint Faster

Weekly sprint training split: acceleration, plyometrics, recovery, max speed, strength

The host lays out a weekly training structure: Monday acceleration work (hill sprints, 0-15s/0-20s, 1080 sprints, sled pulls) followed by impulse weight-room work (cleans, single leg squats); Tuesday plyometrics (10-15 minutes) plus upper body; Wednesday active recovery with sauna; Thursday max speed work (flying tens, wickets, skips for distance) plus simple upper body; and a final day of heavy squats and heavy speed squats with VBT intensity tracking.

Method, not a verified protocol.

Garage Strength · The Simplest Way to Sprint Faster