The Guide to Minimalist Hybrid Training

The biggest misconception around hybrid training is that it requires you to train all of the time for you to do it “right.”

Most of the influencers on social media popularizing this style of training will post about training 2x/day or every day of the week.

Few people, as far as I can tell, have talked about how to approach hybrid training with the least amount of training possible.

There are periods in everyone’s life where you have more or less time available to dedicate toward training.

If you find yourself in this sort of situation currently, this article is for you.

Specifically, we’ll go over how to make reliable results with hybrid training with just 2-3 sessions per week.

The plan for the remainder of this writing is as follows:

• We’ll discuss the minimum effective dose for both weight training and endurance training

• We’ll go over a few programming tactics specific to maximizing results with as little time as possible

• Finally, I’ll give you a few example training splits, with example sessions, to show what this all might look like in practice

Minimum Effective Dose for Lifting

Volume is best measured by the number of sets taken close to failure per muscle group per week.

For example:

• 1 set of leg extensions taken close to failure would count as 1 set / week for the quadriceps

• 1 set of squats taken close to failure would count as 1 set / week for the quadriceps, glutes, and low back

For building muscle, the minimum effective dose seems to be 4 sets (taken close to failure) per muscle group per week.

More sets per week tends to be better, but with diminishing returns; for example, going from 4 to 6 sets per week yields more benefit than going from 6 to 8. [1]

For strength, some studies suggest 2 sets per week is the minimum effective dose.

More also tends to be better, but 6 sets per week may be the upper limit of this. [1]

Now, building strength and building muscle are mostly the same thing; building more muscle makes you stronger, and getting stronger builds more muscle.

However, there are some differences in the adaptation themselves, plus how they are studied in research, that produce this difference.

Point is: the requisite amount of lifting required to build strength and muscle is much less than people tend to realize.

We’ll put this more into practice once we start talking about programming tactics and example training routines.

Minimum Effective Dose for Endurance Training

It is true that endurance is more “volume dependent” than lifting weights is.

What I mean is that volume is a big driver of the results you see; doing more volume will almost always yield faster results- the same not necessarily being true for lifting.

That said, there is research demonstrating that improvements in endurance performance can be made with very little volume; in both sedentary and trained individuals.

For instance, Kilen et al. studied this in military recruits and found that 60 minutes per week was sufficient to improve 12 minute max-effort run performance. [2]

Scribbans et al. conducted a review of numerous papers looking at this concept. [3] The brief of their findings for what the minimum effective dose of endurance training is are as follows:

• ~2-3 sessions per week

• ~80-90% VO2max

• ~10-20 minutes per bout

With resistance training, we can measure volume cleanly by breaking it down into a single unit: the number of sets taken close to failure per muscle group per week.

With endurance training, such a clean unit does not exist.

Thus, it is difficult to give you a clean recommendation as far as the minimum effective dose goes.

However, a few take-homes can be said with certainty:

The least amount of endurance training you can do while still seeing improvements in performance is somewhere between 15-60 minutes of total work per week

This is dependent upon intensity being programmed appropriately, which we will discuss in the “programming tactics” section of this article

The more trained you are, the more time you may require

Programming tactics

The goal of this article is to help you develop a system of training that build strength/muscle and endurance with as little training as possible.

Thus, the programming tactics we’ll discuss here are ones that will squeeze the most results out of the least amount of time.

Goal setting

The more targeted you can be in your training, the faster you are likely to see results.

This is true of any training program, but it becomes a necessity when training as little as possible becomes the goal.

So, take the time to get clear on what it is you are trying to pursue with training.

Select one clear resistance training goal and one clear endurance goal.

Do you want to pursue powerlifting, bodybuilding, improve your vertical jump, build your sprint speed?

Do you want to pursue running, swimming, cycling, general aerobic fitness?

There is no right or wrong answer, but you do need an answer.

Long term thinking

It’s inherent to minimalist training that you are not going to fit everything you may want or need to train into one training routine.

However, if you spend some time thinking outside of the current week, you can develop a program that builds upon itself over time.

When I write a program for a client, I typically write a fixed weekly structure that is followed for 4 weeks (give or take).

That is, the weekly sessions are repeated and progressed over the course of those 4 weeks.

After this period of time, a new training block is initiated.

The key here is that these blocks of training don’t operate in isolation. Each training block is written with the previous and next one in mind.

This is the sort of approach I would recommend to you.

Say, for example, one of your resistance training goal is to build your deadlift strength.

There are a number of different accessory movements that would help you do so, but you may not have the time to include all of them in a single training week.

What you could do is select the one accessory movement that you are weakest on. In other words, select the one that getting stronger on would lead to the greatest improvement in your deadlift.

Keep this in your program for one 4-week training block. Then, in the next training block, select a different one.

Understand that this idea does not apply to just deadlifting- it applies to all forms of training.

Resistance training programming for minimalist hybrid training

Exercise selection

It’s important that you select exercises that give you enough juice for your squeeze.

What do I mean by this?

The movements you train should target a wide variety of muscle groups; while still providing a sufficient stimulus to the muscles being trained.

This statement has a few implications.

Single leg training is great. It has its role, no doubt about it.

However, when you program a single leg movement, you essentially double the number of sets you have to complete since you have two legs (as far as I am aware).

Isolated arm training is also great. There are certainly times where prioritizing this can be in a person’s best interest.

However, the more you isolate muscle groups, the more exercises you need in order to train all of the relevant musculature.

When it comes to more isolated training as described above, I recommend taking the same approach as I discussed with long-term thinking.

Include high-priority isolation training as needed temporarily, and cycle through other ones in later training blocks.

Supersets

Supersets may be the single most potent time-saving tactic you can use in your training.

When they are done right, at least.

A superset is when you go back and forth between two different, unrelated exercises as opposed to doing straight sets of a single exercise.

In other words, you would go back and forth between bench press and rows instead of doing straight sets of bench press followed by straight sets of rows.

The rationale is that you can cut the rest periods of your workout in half while still making the same gains over time.

While you are doing a set of bench press, the muscles responsible for the row are resting; at least as much as they need to be.

Thus, you can rest somewhere between 0:30 to 1:30 before beginning your set of rows after the set of bench press.

If you were doing straight sets of bench press followed by straight sets of rows, you would need to rest ~2:00-4:00 in order for each set to be of truly high quality.

To be clear: this only works when the exercises being used in a superset are truly unrelated to one another.

Squats and deadlifts wouldn’t work because they both train your low back, glutes, and hip adductors. These muscles will burn out long before your quadriceps and hamstrings do.

The result would be that the overlapping muscles are constantly too tired to be exposed to enough mechanical tension, and the remaining muscles also won’t experience enough stimulus because everything else is too tired.

Drop sets

A drop set is another tactic that significantly improve the time-efficiency of your resistance training.

This is where you perform an exercise to near failure, lower the weight by ~30% or so, and then immediately continue performing reps until you get near failure again.

The idea is that one drop set becomes ‘equal’ to two straight sets because you remained in that near-failure, high-tension portion of the set for much longer.

In other words, two drop-sets of an exercise would equal the stimulus of 3-4 straight sets of the same exercise.

The most straightforward way to do this is with a simple drop in weight.

Machines are the most practical for this. Dumbbells can work too; it’s just worth paying attention to your gym etiquette to make sure you’re not hogging too many weights.

Another approach is to use a technical drop set.

This is where you modify the exercise to an easier version in order to achieve the continued repetitions.

Here are a few examples of this:

• Normal push-ups to knee push-ups

• Barbell back squats to dumbbell goblet squats

• Barbell hip thrusts to dumbbell glute bridges

• Bent over barbell rows to bent over dumbbell rows

• Dumbbell chest flies to dumbbell bench press

• etc.

Endurance training programming tactics

Volume & intensity

Volume (how much you do) and intensity (how hard you do it) are the bread and butter of programming endurance training.

There’s a few points worth mentioning with regard to these two variables:

• They are inherently inversely related. The harder you push, the faster you burn out. The easier you go, the longer you can go.

• Volume seems to be the primary driver here. In other words: the more you do, the better the results that you’ll get.

That second point is the reason for the surge in popularity of zone 2 cardio or low heart rate training. At this lower intensity, you can sustain higher volumes without significant risk of injury.

This can seem like a bit of a brick wall when the goal is to be as time-efficient and minimalist with your training as possible, but the answer is quite simple:

Since you can’t cash in on volume; you need to cash in on intensity.

This is not to say that all of your endurance training should be done as high intensity as possible.

True max-intensity conditioning is arguably the most painful and difficult form of training there is.

However, there is no real reason to preferentially remain in low heart rate zones if you aren’t doing enough volume to necessitate.

Moreover, any duration of exercise done at a higher intensity will result in more volume done than the same duration done at a lower intensity.

Thus, with minimalist training, opting for higher intensities is the way to achieve higher volumes.

The key point is this:

Whatever duration of time you allocate toward endurance training, you should use at least moderate to high intensities to get the most bang for your buck (for minimalist training, at least).

Exercise selection

Picking and choosing different exercises is an obvious first choice when it comes to lifting, but not too many people think of this when it comes to endurance.

The main influence to your exercise selection with endurance should be what your goals are as discussed with ‘goal setting’ previously.

That may be obvious, but it is especially true with minimalist training.

There are many other variables that would come to my mind when training as little as possible, while still seeing results, is not the objective.

However, given our circumstances here, the importance of these other variables is minimized.

If you have your heart set on improving at any individual mode of endurance, such as cycling or running or swimming, then that specific mode of training should make up all of your endurance training.

With time being constrained, there is no reason to not spend all of the available time on the primary training focus.

If your goal is to improve your general aerobic fitness, without any one mode of endurance being prioritized, then you may look to use a mixture of trainings as opposed to just one.

For instance, using a combination of cycling, rowing, ski-erg, assault biking, and running will likely give you a more well-rounded aerobic system than using any one individual exercise.

This can also be a good strategy if you don’t have any specific endurance goal right now but you foresee yourself adopting one in the future.

Example Training Splits

There are two different training splits that I am going to present to you here.

The first is best if you need maximum flexibility due to life getting in the way.

The second is best if you’d prefer that each session look a little bit different.

Here’s a few things to note before we get into them:

• As we talked about before, it is best if there is some sort of rotating structure over time to the specific details of these splits. In other words, don’t just follow what is written below in perpetuity.

• The splits provided here are intentionally left devoid of many details. Their purpose is just to make everything we’ve discussed thus far a bit more real; not to provide you with hard recommendations.

• How I would program these trainings would likely look very different if I had all of the context and details relevant to you.

Example split 1: Combined strength & conditioning sessions

With this approach, you are functionally training everything in every session you perform.

For the purposes of minimalist training, this can be done 2-3x/week.

Below is a brief example of what this might look like:

Session 1

1. Dumbbell snatch

2. Superset 1

   1. Barbell romanian deadlifts

   2. Reverse nordics

3. Superset 2

   1. Incline dumbbell bench press

   2. Bench supported dumbbell rows

4. Ski-Erg

   1. 10 minutes @ RPE 7-8

5. Treadmill run

   1. 10 minutes @ ~75-90% MHR

Session 2

1. Jump training

2. Superset 1

   1. Goblet squats

   2. Leg curls

3. Superset 2

   1. Pull-ups or lat pulldowns

   2. Push-ups

4. AirDyne

   1. 10 minutes @ RPE 7-8

5. Concept 2 row

   1. 10 minutes @ RPE 7-8

You could perform these two sessions alone, or you could add any of the following as a third session in the week:

• A third session in the exact same sort of format

• A tempo/threshold session, such as a 45-minute run performed at ~60-80% max heart rate

• An interval session, such as the following:

  • 2 minutes @ RPE 4-5

  • 2 minutes @ RPE 8-10

  • Repeat 3-5x

    • This can be done with any exercise (running, cycling, AirDyne, etc.)

Example split 2: 1 combined session, 1 lift, and 1 endurance session

There are a few reasons why you might choose this split over the previous one.

First, if for instance your goals include training for a 5k, then having the longer endurance session can be helpful.

Second, if you’re someone who values variability in your training, this split will provide that more so than the previous one.

Below is a brief description of what this might look like:

Session 1

1. Dumbbell snatch

2. Superset 1

   1. Romanian deadlifts

   2. Reverse nordic

3. Superset 2

   1. Incline dumbbell bench press

   2. Bench supported rows

4. Treadmill run

   1. 10 minutes @ RPE 5-6

   2. 10 minutes @ RPE 7-8

Session 2

1. Superset 1

   1. Dumbbell reverse lunges

   2. Leg curls

2. Superset 2

   1. Pull-ups

   2. Dips

      1. May be assisted, bodyweight, or weighted

3. Superset 3

   1. Hip abduction

   2. Hip adduction

4. Superset 4

   1. Dumbbell shoulder press

   2. Barbell row

Session 3

• 45-minute tempo run as follows:

  • 15 minutes @ RPE 4-5 (60-70% MHR)

  • 30 minutes @ RPE 6-8 (80-90% MHR)

Conclusion

The main take-home I want you to have here is the following:

You can make progress in both your strength and endurance with very little dedicated training per week; it just takes some thought and planning to get the most out of it.

If you would be interested in personalized help and guaranteed results, consider inquiring about 1:1 coaching to see if it would be appropriate for you.