For most of the 20 years that I’ve been a competitive runner, I’ve intentionally disregarded yoga. I assumed that it wouldn’t offer anything meaningful to my workout routine. But as I’ve become older—and, it seems, wiser—I’ve found the exact opposite to be true. Especially when it comes to the benefits I experience from core-strengthening exercises in yoga and what they contribute to my training.

After racing competitively in college, I shifted my focus to intense training for half-marathons, marathons, and other road races. It wasn’t until after I began incorporating core-strengthening exercises from yoga into my gym workouts that I began to feel stronger than ever.

Yoga poses engage the less-obvious core muscles often ignored by runners, hikers, cyclists, mountain bikers, and other outdoor athletes. Those include the transversus abdominis and other , the side abdominal muscles, the spinal stabilizers, and the overlooked pelvic floor muscles.

Although the benefits of incorporating yoga into your training aren’t limited to making the shapes. It’s also how you hold yourself in the shapes. I’ve found that the long holds and slow breathwork emphasized by yoga have enhanced my endurance, my balance, and my ability to be more aware of my body.

When I coach others, I encourage them to take a “training wheels” approach by incorporating a few simple yoga poses into their usual ab or core workout. This ensures that you’re not neglecting whatever static or dynamic core strength training already works for you. Yoga will never supplant your gym workout. But it can supplement it to bring you surprising and tangible results.

7 Best Core-Strengthening Exercises for Athlete Needs

Rely on the following sequence of core-strengthening exercises as a complete core workout or incorporate three or four of them into your existing core exercise routine. Maybe you swap out your usual Forearm Plank for Chaturanga or replace V-ups or toe-touch sit-ups with Boat Pose.

1. Cat-Cow

– is a dynamic exercise that mobilizes the entire spine, which is often overlooked during core-strengthening exercises. It’s basically a slow transition between two poses, and as you sync your movement with your breath, you bring awareness to your ability to isolate your vertebrae. You also train yourself to engage your deep transversus abdominis muscles each time you draw in your belly, which helps stabilize your core.

2. Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose)

This core exercise is similar to the familiar Plank and Forearm Plank drills. But demands that you draw your pubic bone toward your belly button to maintain your balance on your forearms and your toes, which engages your pelvic floor muscles. This is important as the pelvic muscles are crucial for improving your breathing mechanics and your stability as you run, squat, bike, or practice whatever outdoor adventure you most love.

Also, be sure to squeeze your glutes to relieve strain on your low back and find safe and optimal alignment.

3. Virabhadrasana 3 (Warrior 3)

All Warrior poses in yoga engage your core, but is the best for strengthening your core muscles. The full-body balancing pose requires engaging all of your core muscles in a 360-degree manner to find and maintain your stability. You experience a similar demand on the core in running, hiking, and weightlifting exercises, although it’s easier to cheat on your form since you’re upright rather than steadying yourself on one foot.

4. Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose)

is a static, isometric hold that requires tons of core control. This yoga core exercise strengthens not just your abs but supporting muscle groups, including your quads, hip flexors, and spinal stabilizers.

It’s important to keep your back and shoulders straight, rather than rounded, because this helps build your core strength and balance while also supporting proper posture. It also practices engaging the lower abs and lower back, which synergistically support your form. To maximize the benefit of this pose, bend your knees if you must rather than allow yourself to slouch.

5. Vasisthasana (Side Plank Pose)

One of the best yoga core-strengthening poses for your tricky-to-isolate obliques (side abdominal muscles) is . It also shifts the load to your shoulders and demands support from your front and back core muscles, which must engage in varying degrees to support your balance.

6. Eka Pada Utkatasana (One-Legged Chair Pose)

This variation of is basically like holding a single-leg squat but by lifting one foot any amountÌę It’s a strong pose for runners, cyclists, and outdoor athletes because it requires engaging your core to keep your trunk upright and body balanced while simultaneously strengthening your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and back. It not only strengthens your muscles but your sense of proprioception, which is an awareness of where your body is in space.

7. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose)

is one of the best yoga poses for any athlete as it stretches the entire posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, lower back, calves, and Achilles tendons), which is not only essential but feels incredible after biking, running, hiking, rowing, using the elliptical machine, and almost any workout. It also strengthens the shoulders and core, which are often overlooked by those who engage in these endurance sports.

Focus on drawing your belly button toward your spine and squeezing your inner thighs and pelvic floor muscles. This approach engages your core in a complete and balanced manner. Engaging your quads and glutes will increase the intensity of the pose.

Additional Core-Strengthening Exercises for Athletes

If you’re looking to switch up your routine and work in different core-strengthening exercises, consider including , , or cable machine,, and either hanging leg raises or .

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Consider this age-old dilemma: you’re at the bottom of a hill, and you want to get to the top. Should you head straight up the steepest slope or switchback back and forth at a gentler incline? The answer depends on the context. If you’re on a marked trail, for example, you should definitely stick to the prescribed switchbacks. But a more general answer involves digging into the physics.

That’s the goal of , from a research team led by David Looney and Adam Potter of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Previous researchers have found that “steeper is cheaper” for runners, meaning that it takes less energy to ascend directly up steeper slopes. But it wasn’t clear whether the same is true for walkers and backpackers, or whether the answers change depending on how hot or cold it is.

The Best Slope for Trail Runners

For starters, it’s worth looking back at the trail-running data. In 2016, researchers at the University of Colorado decided to the increasingly popular world of . The total elevation gain in these races is set at 1,000 meters, or 3,281 feet, but every course is different. A steep slope will have a shorter course distance but be harder to run up. A gentle slope will be easier to run up but cover a longer total distance. For a given finishing time, what’s the sweet spot?

The Colorado researchers built the world’s steepest treadmill (video ), capable of reaching a slope of 45 degrees—a 100-percent grade, in other words. To put that into perspective, a black diamond ski run is typically about 25 degrees, and gym treadmills rarely go more than 9 degrees. They had to line the treadmill belt with sandpaper for grip, and even then runners couldn’t stay balanced beyond 40 degrees.

They tested runners at a variety of slopes, with the treadmill speed adjusted so that they were always gaining elevation at the same rate, equivalent to a vertical kilometer in a very respectable time of 48 minutes (the world record is just under 30 minutes). Here’s what the results looked like for walking (black circles) and running (white circles), with metabolic rate (basically how quickly they were burning calories) on the vertical axis:

At gentle slopes like 10 degrees, it takes a lot of energy to climb, because the treadmill is moving really fast to gain the required elevation. At steeper slopes, the calorie burn decreases: steeper is indeed cheaper, at least up to a point. Beyond about 30 degrees, calorie burn starts increasing again, presumably because the incline is now so steep that it’s hard climb efficiently. The sweet spot, then, is between 20 and 30 degrees—which, as it turns out, corresponds to the average slopes of the courses where the fast vertical kilometers are held.

(You might also notice that walking burns less energy than running for most of the steeper slopes. That’s a truth that most mountain and trail runners eventually discover for themselves. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should only walk up hills, as I explored in this article on the walk/run dilemma in trail running.)

The Best Slope for Hikers

Climbing a kilometer in 48 minutes is really fast, the aerobic equivalent of running as hard as you can for 10 kilometers, so it’s not clear that the Colorado results have much relevance for backpackers or military personnel. Looney and his colleagues decided to run similar experiments at a range of much slower climbing speeds. The Colorado study had a climbing rate of 21 vertical meters per minute; Looney’s study looks at four different climbing rates of between 1.9 and 7.8 meters per minute, a much more realistic range for hikers.

The overall results are similar to the running results: steeper was once again cheaper. For each climbing rate, choosing a steeper slope corresponded to burning fewer calories. As with the running data, there’s probably a point where getting too steep becomes counterproductive. But the steepest slope in Looney’s study was only about 13 degrees, and in that range steeper was always better.

There was an additional wrinkle in Looney’s protocol: the military is on Arctic operations, so they ran the same protocol at three different temperatures: 32, 50, and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The two warmer temperatures were basically the same, but the data at 32 degrees was slightly different.

At slower vertical climbing rates, calorie burn rates were higher than normal at 32 degrees, because the subjects were spending extra energy keeping themselves warm by shivering and activating their . At higher vertical climbing rates, calorie burn rates were roughly the same regardless of temperature, presumably because they were working hard enough to stay warm even at 32 degrees. In cold temperatures, in other words, pushing harder can sometimes be more efficient because it saves you the energetic cost of keeping yourself warm. (Conversely, you might imagine that the steepest slopes would cause problems in really hot conditions because you’re more likely to overheat.)

The Takeaway

The most important caveat to keep in mind when interpreting these results is that the comparisons are based on a fixed climbing rate. If you’re at the bottom of a hill and want to get to the top in a given amount of time, then choosing a steeper route will generally save you energy. If you’ve got all the time in the world and don’t care how long it takes you to reach the summit, then you might well choose to take a gentler route that will feel easier as you climb.

Most of us, though, live in a world where time is scarce. Even if we’re not racing vertical kilometers, we’re hoping to make it to the summit and back, or to the next campsite, before dark. In that situation, if you’re choosing between two routes, remember this: If one route is twice as steep as the other, you’d have to walk twice as fast up the gentler route to reach the top in the same time. Counterintuitive though it may sound, that data shows that under most circumstances, twice as steep is easier than twice as fast.

For more Sweat Science, join me on and , sign up for the , and check out my forthcoming book .

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Athletes, take note: Although you already know that the best way to release tension is stretching, you may need a reminder that increasingly supports the fact that practicing stretches after a workout can literally minimize your aches and pains after resistance training of any sort.

Your stretching routine doesn’t need to be particularly long or involved to be effective. But you do need to target all of the major muscles you just exhausted during any full-body workout. So if you engage in strength training of any sort, set aside five extra minutes. You’ll thank yourself later.

6 Best Stretches After a Workout

Or you can pick and choose specific stretches for back muscles, leg muscles, and upper body muscles if you’re short on time or you rely on a body part split routine.Try to stay in each pose for 30 to 45 seconds. Depending on how tight you feel after lifting weights, you can linger in the stretches for longer. Don’t forget to breathe.

1. Downward-Facing Dog

One of the most well-known yoga poses, Down Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is also one of the best stretches after a workout when you’re strength training because there’s a strong chance it will help lengthen at least one of the muscles you just repeatedly contracted in your weightlifting session. The pose lengthens the entire posterior chain, including your spine and upper back.

It also targets the calf muscles and Achilles tendons, which makes it especially useful following squats. Tightness in these tissues will limit your squat depth and make it difficult to keep your heels firmly grounded when lowering your body into a back squat. Without this stability and mobility, you reduce your Without that full range of motion, your muscles will not get the maximum stimulus for . Lack of flexibility also increase the risk of losing your balance when you go for depth in the squat.

How to: The key to practicing is drawing your hips up and back toward the ceiling and reaching your heels down toward the mat. (There’s no need for your heels to touch the mat. But you want to reach for it to lengthen those muscles and connective tissues.)

Think about creating two sides of a triangle with your body: you should have a straight line from your hips down through your back, shoulders, and arms down to your wrists. Plant your palms firmly on the ground with your fingers spread nice and wide. Then, you should mirror this straight line and a similar angle from the hips down through the heels.

2. Cat-Cow

Not all yoga poses require you to get into a specific shape and then hold it statically. Cat-Cow (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana) is a dynamic yoga exercise that flexes and extends the spine to improve mobility of all of the tissues related to the spine. It also promotes hip mobility. Although this is one of the best stretches after strength training, but it can also be performed as part of a dynamic warm-up.

How to: You will move between an anterior and posterior pelvic tilt in –. Being able to consciously perform a posterior pelvic tilt is critical for any supine weightlifting exercises, such as the bench press. Understanding how to engage the lower abdominal muscles, as you do in Cat-Cow, helps you press your low back and back of the pelvis into the bench to prevent straining the back.

One tip is to not rush the movement between the cat posture and the cow posture and to sync your movement with your breath. Improving this mind-body connection can help you better activate your core muscles when you are performing other strength training exercises with weights.

3. Extended Triangle Pose

Any version of Triangle Pose (Trikonasana) will help stretch your hips, spine, glutes, hamstrings, and inner and outer thighs. Best of all, this is an excellent yoga pose after chest workouts because it helps open up the pectoral region and shoulder girdle. Use this yoga pose after bench pressing or performing chest fly.

How to: Think about spreading your weight evenly between both feet and grounding them down into the floor in . If you cannot reach the ground with your front hand that is aiming downward, use a yoga block under that hand.

4. Cobra Pose

This backbend helps stretch the chest, shoulders, and abdominal muscles. Because your arms help support your shape in Cobra (Bhujangasana), it doesn’t require a lot of back strength. Also, you get to control how intense you make the stretch.

How to: Try to squeeze your glutes and press the front of your pelvis into the mat to support safe alignment and muscle engagement in

5. Puppy Pose

Puppy (Uttana Shishosana or Anahatasana) is one of the best yoga poses after weightlifting exercises that work the shoulder girdle, arms, and upper back.

How to: Think about lifting your hips up and stacking them directly over your knees as you walk your chest forward in . Also, focus on elongating your spine and stretching along your armpits.

6. Lizard Pose

Also known as Dragon Pose, this is one of the best yoga poses to stretch the quads and hip flexors. The quads stabilize your knees when you practice squats and lunges and the hip flexors help stabilize the pelvis when you lift the bar while deadlifting. The hip flexors are also essential during hip thrusts, kettlebell swings, and so much more, so it’s important to stretch them after a leg workout.

How to: Lizard Pose (Utthan Pristhasana) has countless different options depending on your desired intensity. You basically start in a low lunge with your back knee on the mat. Bring both hands inside your front foot and stay here or come down onto your forearms. You want to feel a stretch along the front of your back hip and thigh. Don’t worry about bringing your forearms all the way down.Ìę

If you practice each stretch one time, the entire post-weightlifting routine takes less than 10 minutes. You can repeat any of the poses where you feel like you need to target the muscles again.

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Mick Jagger is 81 years old and on the Rolling Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds” tour. The shows run somewhere between two and two-and-a-half hours long. Jagger is running, gyrating, singing, and dancing at each one. I couldn’t help but notice that Jagger is in incredible shape—for a person at any age. How does he do it? And what would it feel like to work out like him?

How to Work Out Like Mick Jagger

Jagger has worked with the Norwegian personal trainer Torje Eike for many years, and cite yoga, dancing, strength training, sprinting, and meditation asÌęthe types of workouts that Jagger tends to do five to six days each week.

Using these online sources—along with videos Jagger has shared and interviews he has given—I put together a five-day Jagger workout plan that incorporates each of his core fitness practices.

And then I tried it.

Day 1: 1 Hour of Vinyasa Yoga to Start the Day

I decided to start my Jagger week in my comfort zone with a form of physical activity we both seem to love: yoga. I practice vinyasa two to three times a week and have done soÌęon and off for a decade.

Today’s class started with a dash of kismet, though. The instructor at my usual studio, ,Ìęasked if anyone in the room was familiar with Rick Rubin. Surely she can’t be talking about the record producer, right? I thought to myself as I tentatively raised my hand. But Rick Rubin, the unparalleled American producer of albums ranging from The Beastie Boys’ 1984 License to Ill to Mick Jagger’s 1993 Wandering Spirit,Ìęwas exactly who she was talking about. She used Rubin’s thoughts on creativity to ground that day’s practice, which ended up going pretty heavy on the chair poses if you ask me.

Mick, are you here with us in the room right now?

Day 2: Transcendental Meditation and Strength Training

I’m not going to lie; I was dreading the meditation component of Jagger’s routine. will tell you that meditation is one of his major habits. Except, and this is important, I have spent at least 15 of my 36 years on the planet very aware that meditation might help quiet my usually screaming mind. But I’ve always refused to do it because it sounds a little too quiet. And 15 minutes sounds like a very long time.

So, since I’m a meditation avoider and thus a total novice, I did some cursory research on Transcendental Meditation before I sat down to try it. From what I , picking a mantra, one that consists of sounds vs. meanings, and repeating that mantra throughout the practice serves as step one. Step two is sitting for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, choosing a comfortable position, and repeating the mantra until the end of the allotted time.

Obviously, I went for the 15-minute option. I chose the classic Sanskrit “Om” as my mantra and settled into a comfortable position in my office and guest room. As the minutes ticked by, I resisted the urge to check the remaining time on my phone and to focus on the meditation.

And, honestly, it was kind of great. The time passed much faster than I expected. I assumed I was around the five-minute mark when the timer went off to signal 15. Repeating the mantra made it easier to push out intrusive thoughts, and I felt myself settle into silence in a way that is usually pretty elusive to me. I think I might keep meditating even after my Jagger week.

Oh, I also did strength training on Day 2Ìębecause Jagger gets in a few good gym workouts each week, and weight training is already part of my regular routine. I performed bench presses, shoulder presses, tricep extensions, flys, concentration curls, medicine ball twists, incline bench with dumbbells, and kettlebell shrugs.

Not bad.

Day 3: 1+ Hour of Vinyasa and Sprints

Most places I looked online included a striking detail about Jagger’s purported regimen: in the past at least, he’s done sprints to keep in shape. A lifetime ago, I, too, regularly did 100-meter sprints, and I was actually very good at them. I was a high school soccer player who set the all-time scoring record for the sport at my high school because, in addition to a strong right foot, I was just really, really fast.

But then,Ìęclose to 20 years elapsed, and I became a sedentary knowledge worker and had a baby. I can’t say sprinting is part of my week unless we’re talking about hustling behind my child after she darts toward the street in front of our house.

So sprinting hurt, and I went relatively easy on myself since it had been a while.ÌęI opted to do four 100-meter sprints with a ten-minute warmup consisting of a short jog, leg swings, and some stretching. I tried to be reasonable, too, and get some negative splits going by starting at around 70 percent of my already diminished sprinting capacity. I was huffing and puffing by the end, but I made it through, which was my singular goal for this exercise.

I should note that I also did an hour and 15 minutes of vinyasa yoga in the evening. I’m not sure if Mick Jagger combines workout types across his days, but I have to imagine that if he’s feeling up to it, he does.

Day 4: Dance Workout

No Jagger workout week could exist without at least one . (And in one , Jagger said he does two dance workouts a week.) I kept it simple and found a , though I’m certain Jagger must be able to dance for much longer stretches.

Dancing isn’t at all part of my regular regimen, and it was hard. It required coordination and speed, and I had to keep my eyes on the screen to be able to follow the instructions with any semblance of proficiency. I think the cardio component of this workout is great, and I totally get why it makes sense for someone performing “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” on the regular, but I’m not sure I’d subject myself to this particular form of training again. My dancing is best saved for family wedding receptions.

Day 5: Strength Training

On my final day of Jagger Week, I repeated my strength training circuit from Day 2. This is my regular lifting routine, and it makes my arms and back feel strong and pliable. I figured I would end the Jagger week in my own comfort zone.

Should You Work Out Like Mick Jagger?

I spoke with , a former Division 1 athlete, SoulCycle instructor, and certified personal trainer, to get her take on the workout plan I put together, as well as what she would suggest for anyone who really does want to get started working out like Jagger.

Gaines told me it would be best to ease into the Jagger-style workout if you’re a relatively sedentary person. She recommends working out two to three times per week for the first month, building up to four times per week in month two, and maxing out at five to six times per week in month three. “For the first month, I would suggest strength training two times per week and cardio once a week,” she says. “Strength training will help prevent injuries and will give your muscles the foundation to take on other activities, such as dance or yoga.”

If my week as Mick Jagger taught me anything, it’s that a diversified workout plan and a focus on mindfulness feel really good. If I were to habituate some of what I tested out this week—and move beyond the initial soreness—I think I would feel really balanced and strong.

And, as Gaines reminded me, the most important thing to remember when starting any routine is to take it easy on yourself. “Have patience in building a program that works best for you, but also patience in getting the results you are looking for, she says. “The best way to build a Jagger-style regimen would be over time, so patience is key.”

Ryleigh Nucilli is the former Director of Digital Content at National Geographic and the former Digital Managing Editor at șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online. Sturgill Simpson is her favorite musician, but she’s not sure what he does to stay in shape.

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Moving your bike indoors for the winter can feel uninspiring. There’s no scenery to gaze at, no cycling crew to keep you company, and no changes in terrain to keep things interesting. But there’s also less time spent layering up, fewer frozen fingers, and no junk miles commuting from home to your starting point.

Instead of thinking of as a necessary evil during the winter months, consider the benefits: You don’t have to worry about slipping on ice or navigating around cars, pedestrians, and pets. You can adjust the temperature indoors, making it warmer to mimic summer races or turning on a fan if you need to cool off. With fewer distractions and more control over your environment, you can get really dialed in with your training.

While outdoor cycling allows you to practice bike handling and climbing and descending hills, indoor training is great for honing your pedaling efficiency and cadence.

How to Choose Indoor Cycling Equipment

There’s no match for your own bike, especially if it’s been fitted to your body and has a seat you can comfortably sit on for hours. If you want to keep riding the same bike indoors, you can mount it on a bike trainer or rollers.

Bike trainers fall into two main categories: and . A wheel-on trainer attaches to your bike’s rear wheel and uses a metal roller pressed against the tire to add resistance. With a direct-drive trainer, you remove your rear wheel and set your bike on the trainer’s cassette. Wheel-on trainers can quickly wear out your back tire, but they also tend to be more affordable; direct-drive trainers, which are larger and heavier, provide a smoother ride.

Rollers sit flat on the floor and include three long cylinders attached to a metal frame. While you ride, your wheels spin the cylinders, offering a realistic road-feel. This apparatus requires more balance and skill to stay upright than other indoor cycling options.

While it won’t replicate your outdoor riding experience as closely, , a coach and training specialist with Peloton, says a stationary bike can also help you build your overall endurance. “When you’re focusing on general fitness, just getting on a bike and pedaling is like 90 percent of the battle,” he says.

Unlike devices that attach to your normal bike, a stationary bike is a separate piece of equipment specifically meant for cycling indoors. Your pedal strokes spin a flywheel at the front of the machine. Depending on the model you’re using, you can turn a knob or pull a lever to adjust your level of resistance. There are a few different types of stationary bikes, including upright (which most closely resembles a regular bike), recumbent (with a reclined seat), and dual-action (the handlebars move back and forth, offering an additional upper body workout). Upright and dual-action bikes will feel most similar to your outdoor bike, but if you have back pain, the reclined seat of a recumbent bike offers more comfort and support.

Set a Goal

When your outdoor cycling season ends, Wilpers says that’s the time to set your goals for the coming year. “It puts a flag in the ground to say, ‘OK I need to be ready for this,’” he says. “It gives purpose to your workouts.”

If there’s a bike race on your calendar, plan your training program around your main race (your “A” race). Think about where you want your fitness to be by that race, and work backwards to where you are now. You’ll want to start your first phase of training about six months before race day. If your aim is to simply ride more, or be able to ride a certain distance, there’s still value in sticking to a structured training program to stay motivated.

“The difference between training and exercising is simply having a goal, and I think you need to have your goal in mind to really start getting the most out of your training,” says Wilpers. “That makes you less likely to miss a training day and more likely to have a higher quality session.”

Focus on Technique

While training indoors, pay attention to where you’re feeling the work of pedaling. You should primarily be using the big muscles of your glutes, quads, and hamstrings, rather than smaller muscles like your calves. If you’re feeling it in your knees, that could be a sign that you’re “just mashing the pedals,” Wilpers says.

While your legs power your pedals, your core is responsible for keeping the other half of your body upright and balanced on two wheels. Activate your core to control your hips in the saddle and avoid bouncing or rocking when you’re riding at a higher speed, Wilpers says. You should also be drawing on your core strength and stability to initiate your pedal stroke and take some of your upper body weight off of your handlebars.

Warm Up

Regardless of your training phase, Wilpers recommends a five-minute warmup that starts with an easy pedal for about a minute. Follow that with three to four minutes of spin-ups for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off of building to a higher and higher cadence, then slowly backing down. “Being able to quickly turn over the pedals and apply force to the pedals is what makes a cyclist fast,” says Wilpers.

You can also add in some single-leg pedaling drills, which can help identify and correct power imbalances. Unclip one foot from your pedal and pedal with one leg, paying attention to any spots where you lose power. Start with one minute on each leg.

Indoor Training Phases

To best prepare for spring and summer rides, your training cycle should have two phases: base (which begins about six months before a goal race) and build (which starts about 12 to 16 weeks before your goal race). During base training, your focus will be on increasing your aerobic fitness and endurance as well as pedal stroke efficiency. The build phase “relies on a strong aerobic engine and foundation built in the base phase,” says Wilpers. In this phase, the volume and intensity will increase.

Base Training

During base training, which should last about six to 12 weeks, you’ll focus on upping your fitness and overall cardiovascular capacity. Wilpers suggests aiming for threeÌęworkouts a week. You can sub out one ride a week with other endurance exercises, like running or swimming.

“If you’re in base training, everything needs to be endurance,” says Wilpers. That doesn’t mean purely long, slow distance rides though. While one ride a week should be your long ride, the others should include high-intensity interval training. Those rides, which can be kept to about an hour, should include several intervals around eight minutes long (you can build up to 15-minute intervals) which feel like a seven on the one-to-ten scale of rate of perceived exertion (RPE).

You can throw in some sweet-spot training as well, which helps increase your aerobic capacity. This entails riding at about 88 to 94 percent of your functional threshold power (FTP), or the maximum amount of power you can sustain for an hour at a time. Start with four eight-minute intervals or two 15-minute intervals, resting four minutes or seven minutes between each interval. These intervals should also feel like about a seven in terms of your rate of perceived exertion.

“Sweet-spot training is considered one of the most beneficial intensities to train at to start bumping up your FTP,” says Wilpers. “I like using sweet-spot training at the tail end of base training because you are starting to get hungry for more intensity…but it’s not yet time to make that jump into the build phase.”

During the base phase, recovery is particularly important to ensure you don’t get injured or burn out before your training can really begin. As you get older, Wilpers says, it becomes more challenging for your body to absorb the work you’re doing and adapt to training intensity.

Build Training

Your build phase should start about 12 to 16 weeks before your goal race and last around six to eight weeks. Aim for two to three 60- to 90-minute long high-intensity workouts per week, in addition to your longer endurance ride. During this phase, you’re bumping up the volume and intensity. VO2 Max intervals—riding in a zone five level of intensity, where your heart rate is at about 90 to 100 percent of your max—should be around five minutes. Threshold intervals—in which you’re riding at the highest level of power you can sustain on an hour-long ride—should be about eight to ten minutes with recovery between intervals at about half the time spent working. Aim for an RPE between seven and eight.

Training should start getting more race-specific as well. Consider the elevation of the course and add hills accordingly, and increase long rides to get closer to the amount of time you anticipate riding during your peak race.

The Pillars of Off-Season Training

Frequency: Find a schedule you can stick to. How much time can you realistically devote to training? “If you over-schedule yourself and you can’t stay consistent, nothing is going to happen,” Wilpers says. “You’re just going to get frustrated.” Three sessions a week is ideal, but during your base phase, you can swap one of those for another kind of cardio you enjoy.

Duration: Start with easy endurance work and gradually increase the length of your workouts as you progress. Even if your goal race will have you in the saddle for several hours, don’t spend your entire off-season just pedaling slowly for hours at a time. “You want to show up on race day ready to race and excited,” says Wilpers. “But if you’re just doing endurance rides for 24 weeks, you’re going to get to the race and be like ‘I’m already over it.’” Instead, schedule two of your weekly sessions to be around an hour long and use that time to work on interval training, which will increase your pedaling power and endurance.

Intensity: Unlike frequency and duration, intensity is a bit subjective. How hard does your workout feel? If you plan for one ride per week to be low intensity, the other two (or three) should incorporate intervals at a higher intensity, which can include increasing your speed, shifting your cadence, and adding hill work.

Strength Training

You can build strength both on and off the bike.

On the bike, you can build strength with muscle tension or high-force intervals. Add an incline on the bike (or get into a higher gear) and take your cadence into the 50s or 60s, pedaling slowly “so you’re getting lots of muscle fiber activation,” says Wilpers. Try to hold that cadence and power for five to six minutes, building up to about 20 minutes. Muscle tension riding is great for building glute strength, something cyclists often neglect in favor of their quads and hamstrings. When you head back to higher cadence rides and sprints, this should make your pedal stroke even more efficient.

Off the bike, Wilpers suggests focusing on the “main movers”—the glutes, quads, and hamstrings—to increase force production on your pedals. Think: squats and deadlifts and cleans. Unilateral (single-leg) work will help ensure you’re building strength in both legs, rather than allowing one side to handle the bulk of the work. It can also help correct any muscular imbalances you may have developed during the racing season. For upper body work, add in bench presses, overhead presses, lat pull-downs, and rows.

Wilpers recommends at least two or three total-body strength sessions per week, depending on your training phase. During early base training, the addition of a third session can “help enhance strength improvements while your cycling training is just getting started,” he says. As your cycling training gets more demanding, decrease the volume and intensity of your strength workouts and switch to just two sessions per week to maintain the muscle you’ve built.

“A good indication that it’s time to dial back the strength training to strength maintenance is when you feel that residual fatigue and/or soreness from strength sessions is starting to interfere with your cycling training,” Wilpers says.

Rest and Recovery

Wilpers recommends at least one rest day a week, adding more based on how hard you’ve pushed yourself and your overall health and stress levels.

“Every athlete has a different rate of adaptation or absorption, and that will change as your life changes,” says Wilpers.

Rest doesn’t have to mean melting into the couch, though. You can use that time to focus on mobility work or do a low-impact workout you enjoy like yoga.

It’s tempting to assume that only professional athletes need dedicated rest days. But shifting your thinking about why and how you train may be the key to getting the most from your time on the bike and avoiding burnout.

“People say ‘I’m not an athlete.’ Well if you’re training, you’re an athlete,” says Wilpers.

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Earlier this month, the Journal of Applied Physiology published a paper with the title “Evidence on Sex Differences in Sports Performance.” Seems pretty straightforward, but of course it’s not. The gap between male and female athletes has become a major flashpoint in debates on whether transgender women and athletes with differences of sexual development, like the South African runner Caster Semenya, should be able to compete in women’s sports.

Three scientists—Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic, Sandra Hunter of the University of Michigan, and Jonathon Senefeld of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—present a series of seven statements on the topic of sex differences in sport, along with the evidence to support them. Some of them seem obvious, others less so. Whatever your opinion on the debate, I think it’s worth considering each of these statements (which I’ll paraphrase) in turn, in order to understand what the current evidence says and where the gaps are. The full paper, including references, is free to read .

A note on terminology: the article deals with differences in sex rather than gender. Although it’s an oversimplification, I’ll use the terms male and female to refer to people with XY and XX chromosomes, respectively.

1. Males outperform females in events that depend on strength, speed, power, and endurance.

The evidence cited here is primarily performance data from sports like running, jumping, and weightlifting, where outcomes are easily measured. Among elite adults, the male-female gap is typically above 10 percent. The largest gaps are seen in sports that depend on explosive power, like high jump and long jump, where the gap approaches 20 percent. Field sports are harder to measure, but to the extent that they involve running and jumping and lifting, similar conclusions should apply.

Are these gaps biologically determined, or, , the result of social factors like the limited opportunities for women in sport? Elite performance data, on its own, can’t answer this question. But there’s no question that the gap exists, and is nearly universal. There may be some exceptions in activities like , where the determinants of performance are more complex. Overall, though, this statement should be uncontroversial.

2. This male-female gap shows up before puberty.

This seems like a significant claim, because it suggests that males may have a performance advantage that isn’t erased even if a transgender woman has undergone hormone therapy to lower testosterone levels. The evidence, once again, is primarily from performance data. Take a look at this graph of age-group track and field results for boys and girls between 7 and 18 years old:

Between the ages of 7 and 9, boys seem to be ahead, on average, by 4 to 5 percent. The gap narrows between the ages of 10 and 12, presumably as girls start puberty earlier than boys. After the age of 13, male puberty gets going and the gap widens rapidly.

So what gives 8-year-old boys an edge? As Joyner and his colleagues acknowledge, it’s once again hard to distinguish between biological and social factors. There is a possible hormonal explanation. We undergo a “minipuberty” during the first few months of life, with a temporary increase in sex hormones that is associated with a subsequent increase in muscle and decrease in fat accumulation in boys. But it’s also true that boys tend to spend more time running and jumping in unstructured play, and this may reflect gendered social expectations rather than sex differences.

Overall, the small gap in pre-puberty performance doesn’t seem like strong evidence of ineradicable differences between males and females. Instead, it’s the subsequent shape of that curve that, as we’ll see, turns out to be more significant.

3. The gap widens with puberty, along with changes in body structure and function.

In the graph above, male-female differences accelerate dramatically after the age of 13 and continue all the way to adulthood. Now it gets harder to attribute the changes to social factors, because there are a host of other changes that accompany puberty and are associated with sports performance: males see a greater increase in muscle, airway and lung size, heart size, oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, and so on.

Perhaps the most obvious difference is height: by the age of 20, the average male is taller than 97 percent of women. Differences in lung size or hemoglobin levels are invisible to us; differences in muscle mass could conceivably be because boys are encouraged to work out more. But height? We see it all around us, and accept that it’s driven by biological sex differences.

4. The main driver of the male-female performance gap in adults is the surge in testosterone during male puberty.

Here’s when things get more contested. Where, you might ask, is the randomized controlled trial proving that males who go through puberty without testosterone are worse athletes, or that females who go through puberty with male levels of testosterone are better athletes? Such studies haven’t been done, for obvious practical and ethical reasons.

Joyner and his colleagues argue that we can instead piece together the evidence from studies showing links between testosterone levels and increased physical performance during puberty; the various studies in humans and animals showing testosterone’s effects on muscle, bone, and blood parameters; doping studies where volunteers took testosterone; and strong circumstantial hints like the graph above showing the widening performance gap during puberty. The evidence here isn’t perfect, but as a whole it’s convincing.

5. Body changes during female puberty can have negative effects on sports performance.

This is an angle I hadn’t thought much about. The discussion usually focuses on the advantages conferred on males by testosterone, but there are a distinct set of changes that females experience during puberty. For example, they accumulate more body fat; their growth plates fuse so they stop growing taller; they develop breasts, which can alter balance and movement patterns; their hips widen, which may increase injury risk; they experience hormonal fluctuations associated with the menstrual cycle that may (or may not!) affect performance; they may eventually miss training time during pregnancy and face increased injury risk when returning to training after childbirth.

There’s no doubt that all these changes occur, and that they have the potential to influence performance. Whether they collectively make a significant contribution to the gap between male and female athletic performance is less clear. It’s worth considering, but I’d classify it as an open question for now.

6. Suppressing male testosterone levels after puberty only partly eliminates the male-female performance gap.

There’s a smattering of case studies and comparison studies to support this statement. A 2023 U.S. Air Force in Military Medicine, for example, tracked fitness test scores for nearly 400 transgender servicemembers for up to four years after they began hormone therapy. For transgender women, performance on some tests, like the 1.5-mile run, ended up corresponding to average female times by the fourth year of hormone therapy. But for other tests like push-ups, there were still differences.

Here’s how push-up scores evolved in transgender women over the course of four years of hormone therapy. The red band shows the range of male scores within one standard deviation of average; the blue band shows the corresponding women’s range. Scores are still higher than average even after four years.

One reason for the retained advantage is that some of the changes that occur during puberty are irreversible. Those who go through male puberty will, on average, be taller and have bigger lungs. They’ll lose muscle mass during hormone therapy, but still retain more than the female average. There’s also evidence for “muscle memory,” a phenomenon that makes it easier to build muscle if you’ve previously had it.

It’s worth noting that the significance of retained advantages will vary from sport to sport. Greater height and muscle mass matter a lot in sports like basketball and rugby; they may matter less in, say, marathon swimming.

7. Adding testosterone improves female performance, but doesn’t eliminate the male-female gap.

This claim is the mirror image of the previous one: transgender men improve various facets of sports performance after beginning hormone therapy, but they don’t gain the full ten percent. This supports the idea that testosterone matters for performance, but that timing also matters: it plays its most significant role during puberty.

These are the seven claims that Joyner and his co-authors make. Some are stronger than others. But even if you take them all at face value, they don’t tell you what the rules for transgender or intersex athletes should be. That involves a difficult balance between fairness and inclusion. Maybe the male-female differences discussed here are the most important consideration; maybe they’re outweighed by other factors. I don’t think there are any easy answers here, but any compromises we reach need to acknowledge that these differences exist and are persistent.

For more Sweat Science, join me on and , sign up for the , and check out my forthcoming book .

The post Sex Differences in Sport Are Hugely Controversial Right Now. Here’s What Science Does (and Doesn’t) Know. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

If your lower back or knees ache at the end of a long day on the slopes, you may have limited hip mobility.

Compromised range of motion in the hips can be “a silent culprit” for pain elsewhere in the body, says Mandie Majerus, a physical therapist with in Kirkland, Washington, and co-founder of the , an online ski and snowboard training program designed by physical therapists to improve performance and reduce injuries. If you lack mobility in your hips, “your body is going to find it somewhere else,” Majerus says.

Majerus has been working on the medical team for World Cup ski races and training camps for 14 years. During that time, she has noticed a consistent trait in the athletes who top the podiums: “They wake up, do their hip mobility work, go ski, and then come right back to the gym to do their cooldown.”

For the rest of us, dedicating even a few minutes a week to improving our hips’ range of motion and stability can have a meaningful impact on ski performance, longevity in the sport, and overall health.

How Do Your Hips Move When You Ski?

Think of your hips as “the steering wheel of your lower body,” says Majerus. Each turn is initiated from the hips. As you carve, your hips alternate between abduction (the movement of the leg away from the body) and adduction (the movement of the leg towards the body), or external and internal rotation.

If your hip mobility is compromised and you can’t rotate well, you’ll be less effective at turning your skis, Majerus says. As a result, you’ll start relying on your back to power these movements, which can lead to aches and pains.

Similarly, if you’re lacking mobility and stability in your hip muscles (including the glutes, adductors, hamstrings, and hip flexors), “that load all goes into your quads and therefore your knees,” explains Majerus.

About one third of all alpine ski injuries occur in the knee, with the majority impacting the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), according to published in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. These injuries often occur when we catch or lose an edge in a turn, or fall backwards. But there’s evidence that strong hip muscles can lower your risk of knee injury. A 2015 study published in the found that lower preseason hip abduction and external rotation strength increased the risk of suffering a non-contact ACL injury during the competitive season.

Even if you stick to groomers, you’re likely to encounter some uneven terrain. Your hips are responsible for absorbing the shock of those bumps, maintaining your center of gravity, and helping you adjust quickly to ice and bare patches.

When Can You Work Through Discomfort and When Should You Seek Help?

If you experience a nagging ache while skiing or develop a new acute pain when you stand up at the end of aprĂšs, you may need professional help, Majerus says.

She suggests following a traffic light scale to determine if you can keep skiing or if it’s better to take a break. Green would be “no pain.” Yellow should register at about a four out of ten on the pain scale, when you can ski through a small amount of discomfort that doesn’t seem to be increasing. Red is when your gut tells you not to keep pushing, or when there is localized swelling, pain, or warmth; that’s when it’s time to rest and seek care from an orthopedist or physical therapist.

The Moves

Majerus suggests starting to work on hip mobility and stability at least two to four weeks before your ski season begins with two to three sessions a week, then repeating your exercises two to three times a week throughout the season. (The couch stretch can be done daily). You can do this routine—which promotes mobility, flexibility, and stability—in the morning or evening. Just be sure to do it at a time of day when you’re able to pay close attention to how your body feels as you move.

Before you head out for a powder day, be sure to do a dynamic warmup. Once you’re off the slopes, give your hips some extra care and attention.

“Instead of coming home from a day of skiing and then just grabbing a beer and sitting on the couch, do a couple of hip stretches and maybe some foam rolling,” says Majerus.

Hip Hinge

How it helps: Ensures your hips are hinging correctly before you load them with your body-weight while skiing

Begin by standing with your back to a wall or other vertical surface, like the side of a box. Step a few inches away from the wall (about the length of one of your feet). Your feet should be hip-width apart and your arms can be crossed over your chest or held straight out in front of you. Maintaining a straight back, bend slightly at your knees and hinge at your hips to push your rear back until it taps the wall, then return to standing. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings throughout the movement. If you are unable to tap the wall, try moving a little closer. Perform two sets of ten reps.

You can progress this movement by stepping farther away from the wall, or by holding a kettlebell at your chest.

Supine Hip Internal Rotation Stretch

How it helps: Improves internal hip rotation

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Your feet should be about two feet apart (if you’re on a yoga mat, they should be just outside the edges of your mat). Let both knees drop towards the same side until you feel a stretch on the outside of your hip. Repeat on the other side. Hold about five seconds for each rep, repeating ten times on each side.

Side Lying Hip Abduction with Wall Support

How it helps: Strengthens hip abductors

Lie on your side with your back pressed against a wall. You can either rest your head on your bottom arm or cradle it in your hand to support your neck. Straighten your top leg and allow a slight bend in your bottom leg. Raise your top leg up, sliding your heel along the wall, and stop before your upper leg rotates or pulls away from the wall. Then, lower it back down. You should feel this movement primarily in your glutes. Complete ten reps on one side before switching sides. Perform two or three sets.

To make this exercise more challenging, move your upper body slightly away from the wall but keep the heel of the top leg in contact with the wall as you raise and lower. When you’re ready to progress from there, you can try this move without wall support.

AirplaneÌę

How it helps: Improves hip rotation

Stand on one leg with a slight bend in your knee, hinge forward at your hips, and raise your opposite leg slightly so your foot hovers over the floor. Maintain tension through the raised leg. With your arms outstretched to the sides like airplane wings, twist your torso towards the standing leg, aiming for about a 45-degree angle, allowing the opposite hip to drop slightly. (If balancing in this position is challenging, try performing it next to a couch, chair, or countertop and holding on for added stability). Return to center, then twist and open your torso towards the opposite side, aiming for about a 10-degree angle only. You should feel this movement primarily in the glute, hamstring, and quad of the standing leg. Perform one set of ten reps, completing all reps on one side before switching sides.

Bulgarian Split SquatÌęÌę

How it helps: Teaches you to properly engage your glute muscles during movement

Stand about two feet in front of a bench or a chair, facing away from it, with your feet hip-width apart. Lift one leg, bend at the knee, and place the top of that foot on the flat surface behind you. You can cross your arms at your chest or extend them in front of you. Engage your core and begin to lower your butt towards the ground, bending the knee of your standing leg,Ìęand allowing a slight hinge at your hips. Your opposite leg should bend as well, but most of your weight should be in your front leg as you lower into the squat. Continue to lower, making sure the knee of your front leg stays in line with your ankle, until your front thigh is parallel with the floor. Press the foot of your standing leg into the floor to return to standing. Keep your back leg elevated on the bench throughout the entire set. You should feel this movement primarily in the quads, hamstrings, and glutes of your front leg. Complete ten reps on one side before switching sides. Perform two sets on each side.

You can make this movement more challenging by adding an isometric hold at the bottom of the last rep of each set for about 20 seconds.

Couch Stretch

How it helps: Opens up the hips and helps relieve tight hip flexors

Begin in a kneeling position facing away from a couch or chair. Bend one leg and rest the top of that foot on the couch or chair. Step your opposite leg forward to form a 90-degree angle, with your foot flat on the floor. Engage your core and glutes, keep an upright torso with your shoulders over your hips, and push your hips forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your hip and thigh. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds for two sets on each side. You can do this movement daily to maintain flexibility in your hip flexors.

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Every parent who wants to share powerful experiences with their children is naturally drawn outdoors. It’s such an obvious place to build a foundation for lifelong adventures, and to foster a love of nature. Yet, life doesn’t always make it easy to take the advantage of quality time outside. Find some strategies to reclaim that time by taking heed of the following parenting tips from a sage pair of experts. Dr. Scott D. Sampson is a science educator, paleontologist, PBS Kids presenter, and author of Shanti Sosienski Hodges is the founder of the kid-friendly hiking community and author of . Start with their advice below and begin the steps toward creating a lifetime adventure buddy.

Start them young.

“It’s best to introduce your kid to the outdoors basically from birth,” says Sampson. “Connection to science and nature can happen at any age, but it’s easier when kids are younger and their brains are still open to awe and wonder in a big way.”

Involve them at every step.

“Let them pick out their hiking shoes and clothes,” suggests Sosienski Hodges. “Or set a goal to hike once per week and let them put stickers on a calendar to mark those days. Let them be part of the process.”

Ask provocative questions.

“You don’t have to know a lot about science to connect your kid to nature,” says Sampson. “Instead, ask questions: ‘Why is that bird so big? Why do you think it’s that color?’ Questions are way more powerful than answers in terms of sparking curiosity.”

Let your toddler set the pace.

“A kid hike looks different from an adult hike, especially when they’re little,” says Sosienksi Hodges. “It might be a paved walking path, and you might stop every five minutes to look at something in the dirt. That’s OK.”

Give your middle schooler a challenge.

“It could be hiking, skiing, birding—you name it,” says Sampson. “Give them an opportunity to demonstrate a skill they’ve accomplished outside, preferably with kids their own age.”

Let your teen embark on their own.

“Parents are often exactly the wrong people to connect their teens with nature,” says Sampson. “Teens want to be around other teens. That’s where programs like Outward Bound and are great—they get young people into wild places and help them grow.”

Drop your expectations.

“Don’t get caught up in how your child is going to be this badass snowboarder or mountain biker with you,” says Sosienski Hodges. “Don’t push them. Instead, listen to their cues and let them guide you to what they like to do.”

Revel in the process.

“Being a nature mentor is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give a child,” says Sampson. “It’s a great honor. And it’s powerful. It increases the odds that they will grow up to be a human who treats nature in a reciprocal way. The world needs that right now.”

Nissan North America, Inc., headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, delivers innovative automotive products and services that inspire and move people. As a global leader in electric vehicles and advanced automotive technology, Nissan offers a full lineup of vehicles, highlighted by the new . Driven by a commitment to sustainable mobility and thrilling performance, Nissan aims to transform the way people live and drive. For more information, please visit .

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The Bonds We Build Outdoors

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When John Orth, a violin maker from Colorado, set out to break his own world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours, he had no idea he was competing against a college kid from Virginia. And that kid, Andrew Shapiro, didn’t know Orth had his eyes set on the same number—10,000 pull-ups. No one had previously thought such a feat was possible, and as the two men grabbed their respective bars and started to pull, they would find a new limit to human endurance.

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You should do something that makes you sweat every single day, right?

At least, that very loose metric has long been the standard for anyone who wants to stay fit, live longer and healthier, and stave off any number of diseases that are associated with inactivity. According to in both the U.S. and UK, adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise (like walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise (like running) each weekÌęto reduce the risk of long-term health issues like .

However, according to a journal from the American Heart Association, it might be perfectly fine to cram a week’s worth of exercise into one or two days. In fact, the study says that doing as much—becoming a “weekend warrior,” so to speak—can lower the risk of developing more than two-hundred diseases when compared to wholly inactive people.

The study, led by scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, analyzed information from nearly 90,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank project and categorized their physical activity as weekend warrior, regular, or inactive based on federal guidelines. Researchers found that weekend warriors’ approach of going hard on their days off seemed as effective at reducing disease risk as regular exercise spaced more evenly throughout the week.

“Because there appears to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most,” the study’s co-senior author, Dr. Shaan Khurshid, said in .

It’s hardly a shock that doing something is better than doing nothing. But seeing the positive impact of just a few workout sessions per week backed by scientific research is reassuring, especially for people who may not have the time to get sweaty every day.

All that being said, don’t give in to the temptation to skip your warmup so you can pack all of your fitness goals into a compact timeframe.

“Even if your time is very limited, I would never tell an athlete to go into a workout cold,” says Mandy Gallagher, a level-one USA Cycling coach based in Durham, North Carolina. Gallagher also says you should still move your body as much as possible during the week, even if that just means taking a short walk every day, lightly stretching and loosening your body during work hours, or, if you’re a parent, getting outside and playing with your kids.

“Do something active during the week, even if it’s just for ten minutes a day,” she says.

Matt Sanderson, a human performance coach at the fitness company , stresses the importance of approaching a reduced workout load for exactly what it is.

“Don’t try and pack five days of working out into two days,” says Sanderson, who has a master’s degree in strength and conditioning and was previously a physical training instructor with Britain’s Royal Air Force. “Approach it as a two-day-a-week training plan.”

So how do you become a weekend warrior? How do you wring the most out of those 75 or 150 minutes? Here’s how to optimize your weekend workouts.

Change Up Your Zones

To get the most out of your two-day-a-week workout plan, both Gallagher and Sanderson agree that varying your level of intensity is key.

Alternating workouts between two of the five heart-rate training zones is an effective way to build aerobic and anaerobic fitness, Sanderson says. He recommends exercising in zone two, which is typically 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, for one of your workouts. Then on the next day, try exercising in zone five, which should push you to 90 to 100 percent of your maximum heart rate. (To calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. For example, a 35-year-old would have a maximum heart rate of 185 beats per minute).

If you don’t have a way to track your heart rate, Sanderson says you can estimate your workout intensity by your ability to talk. While exercising in zone two, you should be able to hold a conversation; a zone five workout will require “everything you’ve got,” he says.

Depending on your level of cardiorespiratory endurance, a zone two workout could be an hour of brisk walking, jogging, or alternating between walking and running at a leisurely pace. For another moderate intensity workout, Sanderson recommends rucking—an increasingly popular fitness trend that involves walking with a weighted backpack.

“Go ruck for 400 meters,” he says. “Then ditch your pack and walk for 400 meters. Then throw your pack back on for 400 more. Alternate that for an hour.”

Your zone five workout may include sprint repeats or shorter, max-effort runs. For these efforts, Sanderson stresses focusing on how close you are to your endpoint, whether that’s your home or your car.

“Pick a loop around your neighborhood or go work out at the local track,” he says. “The last thing you want is to have done hard efforts five kilometers down a trail only to say, ‘OK, I’m done,’ and have to walk five kilometers back.”

Ride Your Bike

If you’d rather spend your weekend cycling, Gallagher also recommends varying the pace and length of your bike rides.

“One day focus on endurance or a longer ride, one day focus on intensity or a shorter ride,” she says.

To build a strong endurance base, Gallagher recommends a 90-minute ride at a steady, conversational pace. Bookend that ride on either side with a 15-minute warmup and a 15-minute cool down and stretch. For your warmup, Gallagher suggests an easy ride peppered with some quick speed bursts, where you’re pushing your pedals over 100 RPM.

To increase your , your next workout should focus on intense efforts. For those, Gallagher recommends the following with the same warmup and cool down efforts.

“Find some short climbs, under three minutes, and do hill repeats,” Gallagher says.

She advisesÌęstarting with a set of three to five climbs with about two to three minutes in between efforts. As your fitness increases, you can add additional sets.

Gallagher also suggests finding some flat terrain and focusing on 15- to 30-second-long sprints. Start with five to eight sprints with about two to three minutes of moderate cycling in between efforts, and add more sprints as you are able.

Finally, Gallagher encourages one-to-one bursts, where efforts and rest come in equal measure. In other words, ride hard for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds. As you gain fitness, increase to one minute on, one minute off; three minutes on, three minutes off, etc. Repeat the efforts three to six times per set with five to ten minutes of rest in between sets.

Keep It Fun

The key to staying consistent as a weekend warrior is having fun. If you don’t enjoy running, don’t run. If you have limited time to achieve your fitness goals, it’s best (and easiest) to get your exercise in by planning an activity you’ll look forward to.

“It’s essential to do something that you enjoy rather than something you hate that you think is going to be beneficial to you,” Sanderson says. “You have to think of it like, ‘What’s something I’m going to do for the rest of my life?’ rather than, ‘This is something that’s going to be beneficial to me over the next six weeks.’”

Sanderson also says that exercise can be a social activity. In particular, the conversational nature of zone two workouts allows you to connect with a workout partner in a way that intense efforts may not.

“Find a flag football league or a softball league, a running club or a cycling group,” he says. “That helps massively, not only for fitness but also accountability and mental health.”

If you enjoy your workout, it will feel less like work, Gallagher says.

“The big thing is that you don’t want to make it seem like another job,” she says. “If you’re out on your bike, that’s a good thing.”

Too often, we associate fitness with suffering in a gym or miles thumping underfoot. In reality, fitness can and should be fun. And when it is, you’re more likely to keep coming back to it, even if it is just for a few hours each week.

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