How do elite athletes train

Maybe your great ambition in sports is to become a famous elite endurance athlete, with heroic targets like beating the 2 h in a marathon, winning the Tour de France, or earning a gold medal in cross-country skiing. After you have decided on your future goals, the next question becomes how to train the right way to achieve these goals. Should you train for short periods of time with high intensity, or just go easy and train for a longer time, or choose an intensity that is somewhere in the middle?

Or is it best to just mix all intensity zones together, somehow? You might also ask yourself how often and how long you need to train in total—per day, per week, per month, and across the year. The basic idea of this article is to provide you with information on how successful athletes in endurance sports train and which training models lead to greater success.

We will also discuss some unanswered questions about training—the things we are not yet sure about, or things that are not scientifically proven. There are many studies about the effects of different training methods on average athletes; however, there is hardly any data on the most successful endurance athletes. Why that is? Why do not elite athletes want to get involved in scientific experiments? Elite athletes have a lot at stake when it comes to their training.

Many of them are professional athletes, meaning that they make their living from competing. The fact is that the outcome of an experiment is not clear from the beginning. So, if athletes agree to take part in an experiment that changes their method of training, they have no idea what the experimental training method will do to their level of performance. Maybe the new method will not change their performance, maybe it will improve performance, but maybe it will actually decrease performance.

So there is always a risk for the athlete. Also, for scientific experiments to be valid, they need to be standardized and controlled in many ways, meaning that athletes in an experiment might have to change their diets or daily activities, and they might not want to do that, because it could interfere with their training. This becomes more difficult the longer the training experiment lasts.

To overcome these problems, instead of real experiments, so-called retrospective studies are often done to understand the best possible method of training. In these retrospective studies, scientists just keep track of how the best athletes are training, without telling them how they should train. Based on certain measurements like for instance heart rate, the exercise intensity can be split up into different zones.

In this article, we will focus on a three-zone model, where we call low-intensity Zone 1 , medium intensity Zone 2 , and high-intensity Zone 3. There are a few important things to know about using these three zones to describe endurance training:. When training in Zone 1, an athlete can exercise for hours maybe up to 24 h ; however, in Zone 3, the athlete would probably get tired after 15—30 min. That means that people usually spend the most time training in Zone 1 Figure 1.

The amount of time spent in each zone depends on the type of exercise being performed. For instance, a person could cycle for 5 h in Zone 1, but running for the same amount of time would be difficult, because running is harder on the body than cycling.

It is complicated to report training, because there are lots of different methods for measuring how long or how hard athletes train. The different methods of measurement can lead to substantially different results. All of the methods have strengths and weaknesses. Yet it takes knowledge and effort to eat in a way that will support your training.

When we looked at the characteristics of top athletes, two areas, in particular, went beyond just the individual. The most successful sports stars often cite high-quality relationships and support from others as an essential part of their training. Here are some points worth considering:.

In our ExpertTrack on sports coaching and leadership , you can learn about the ways in which concepts from sports psychology, coaching and leadership can be applied to teams and athletes in a number of contexts.

As we explore in our open step on sports coaching , we look at the ways in which coaches help Paralympic swimmer Monique Murphy. Her various coaches have helped her with her swimming technique and strength. Coaches use their experience, education, and a desire to continually improve athletes to keep them motivated and training in the right ways. Again, referring back to the characteristics of top athletes, certain aspects stand out. Desire and motivation, a commitment to excellence, concentration and self-belief, all play a role.

Here are some considerations and tips for working on these areas:. Sports psychology can help you to improve physical performance in yourself or others. With our course, Mental Skills Training for Sport and Health , you can learn how psychological training techniques enhance athletic performance.

You can learn how to use mental practice to improve concentration, control emotional responses, acquire and practice strategy, and cope with pain and injury. All of these can help as you get underway with your training. Self-belief and confidence are a hallmark of top performers. Our open step on understanding self-confidence explores some of the key principles of the subject.

As you find your rhythm and apply all of the other aspects of successful training, you may even find that your confidence grows naturally. Whether you simply want to keep fit or push yourself to be more competitive, having the right physical and psychological approach can certainly help.

With our range of coaching courses, you can find out how you can improve your own abilities, as well as those of others. Similarly, learning about areas such as nutrition and psychology can play a central role in your training regime.

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Monash University Introduction to Psychology. Previous post. Next post. Of course it is easier for athletes to train every day because it is their job, but what we can learn from them is that frequency of training not only creates good habits for continued training, but will allow you to challenge various body parts and give them adequate rest and recovery time. Training just once or twice a week makes it difficult to make adaptations in the body, whether you have aesthetic or performance aims.

Modern fitness has a love of all things HIIT. While it has a place in a training plan, it cannot be the only part. Athletes will use high-intensity training periodically to improve cardiovascular function, but not too often because it can increase injury risk and spike stress hormones. Athletes are great at their chosen sport because they have spent thousands of hours learning and honing their skills.

When the average person chooses to train, they often disregard the need to learn or perfect a movement before increasing the resistance or difficulty. If you are unable to move correctly, then as the movement gets harder your training efficiency drops and your performance level will also decrease.