If you haven't already heard about polarized training, let me give you a very quick summary: the 80/20 rule refers to an endurance training technique that works between two workout intensities — 80% low intensity and 20% high intensity while removing the middle "grey zone."
It's based on a model popularized by Dr. Stephen Seiler, and elite athletes from rowers to runners have been using it to dial into their training loads. By properly utilizing low training load, your body can recover enough to maximize high training load, leading to better endurance over time without overtraining.
But not everyone has one of the best fitness trackers to look at the data, so I paced the 80/20 rule without the workout tech. No smartwatches or apps in sight. Here's how.
What is polarized training?
According to Seiler, the zones are split as follows:
- Zone 1 low Intensity: Conversational pace. This helps you build an aerobic base, improve fat-burning, and increase mitochondrial density and endurance. Think of it as an easy run.
- Zone 2 moderate Intensity: This involves working somewhere between aerobic and anaerobic thresholds. Polarized training generally avoids this.
- Zone 3 high Intensity: Hard interval training that reaches your anaerobic threshold. Think about fast-twitch muscle fibers, sprinting, hill work and similar styles of output that improve power and speed.
Benefits of polarized training
As briefly mentioned, low effort doesn't mean low reward; easier paces are essential for recovery and building a strong aerobic base. It might feel frustrating, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
Let's look at one piece of research published in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance as an example. The study assessed 30 endurance runners assigned either low-intensity, sub-ventilatory-threshold, polarized endurance training or a moderately high-intensity program. The researchers concluded that polarized training methods could stimulate greater training effects than "between-threshold" training in runners.
In other words, using high- and low-intensity efforts combined can provide the most gains: high output for pace and power, and low intensity for increased cardiovascular strength and better recovery.
Most importantly, zone 1 training should sit below the lactate threshold, meaning your effort is below an intensity where lactate accumulates, which is when exercise goes from aerobic (with oxygen) to anaerobic (without oxygen). Your high-effort runs should feel very challenging. Try to avoid or minimize these middle-ground efforts that feel challenging yet manageable.
How I tried polarized training without a smartwatch or fitness tracker
My main takeaway from this is that I'd have to get comfortable with moving slower and faster than I'd like. My comfort zone as a recreational runner is firmly in the middle, unless I'm working on sprint intervals on a treadmill.
Unused to this style of training, it would have been easier to set up heart rate zones on my sports watch so that I could accurately track my efforts and the percentages of my maximum heart rate. For example, I recently set up zone 2 cardio on my Coros Pace 4, and could tailor all my workouts to my heart rate.
But I like a challenge, so instead I used something personal trainers have used for years in the fitness industry: rate of perceived exertion, or RPE.
For easy runs, I stayed at around 4/10 effort, what I perceive as my conversational pace. This is an effort I can sustain for hours if needed, so I could quickly identify what speed to stay at. I programmed this for 80% of my efforts. For the other 20% I worked at 8-9/10, which is a pace I could only sustain for short bursts, or for a slightly longer duration, around 7/10, still close to my max.
The goal? Improve VO2 max (my heart's capacity to pump oxygenated blood around my body) while also improving power output, speed and anaerobic abilities without burning out or injuring myself. After all, if you're constantly working somewhere in the middle, you're never really achieving those sought-after training adaptations, and you're also never fully recovered for a hard effort.
To think about this using percentages, those hard efforts should be roughly 90% of your maximum heart rate. Here's an example of a hard effort:
- Warm-up (a few minutes of walking, light jogging, and stretching)
- Run 15 x 30 seconds at a hard effort close to maximum capacity
- Recover for 20 seconds between intervals
- Repeat 2-3 times
- Cool down.
Remember, too much high-intensity training can have a negative impact on hormones and can keep your body in the sympathetic nervous system for longer than it needs to be. Over time, this can lead to burnout, muscle fatigue, injuries and stress. You need to incorporate active recovery and easy days regardless of what training you enjoy, as this is where the real growth happens.
For me, one hard running session in the gym is enough, with a few easy runs peppered in. This meant turning up seriously ready for a hard push on the days I knew I was well rested.
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