Minimum effort. Maximum Impact

Now, don’t get it twisted when reading that headline… I am not saying minimum effort as in you can sand bag your training sessions.

What I am talking about it the Minimal Dose Response, the third training principle of Different Breed.

Endurance training aims to improve the body’s ability to sustain prolonged physical activity. As you do more endurance exercise, your fitness and endurance capacity improves. However, there is a minimal amount of training that produces most of these adaptations.

If you train beyond this minimal dose, additional benefits become smaller and more gradual. The body can only adapt so quickly – extra training stimulates diminishing returns. So more endurance exercise is not always better once the minimum stimulus threshold is surpassed.

In fact, training well beyond the minimal dose without proper recovery can lead to overtraining, fatigue and burnout. This impairs performance and endurance capacity. So for efficient and sustained fitness gains, the minimal effective training dose with good recovery time optimized long-term development.

Simply put, more endurance exercise is not always more beneficial if the minimum dose is already achieved.

The second reason this principle is so important is because it minimises the injury risk.

When you regularly train well beyond the minimum recommended endurance training volumes and intensities, it dramatically increases repetitive impact and strain on the body. For example, ramping up running mileage too aggressively places a lot of stress on joints and tissues.

This accumulative overload over weeks and months gradually fatigues structures like tendons, cartilage, and bones beyond their capabilities.

It makes them more vulnerable to microtears and inflammatory conditions – this manifests as painful overuse injuries like stress fractures, plantar fasciitis, patellofemoral pain.

By sticking closer to the minimum effective endurance training you ensure adequate rest and recovery between sessions. The body has more time to adapt and get stronger to withstand subsequent sessions. Tendons, bones and muscles are strengthened overtime before being exposed to heavier loads.

So in every way, less training can equate to more in the long run.

Hopefully this helps you understand a bit more about the how and why of effective endurance training plans.