6 Programming Tips to Make Hybrid Training Easier
Writing a good training program for the simultaneous pursuit of strength and endurance comes with a few challenges.
One of which is that it requires a good understanding of what a good program looks like individually.
Then, it requires understanding how to write a good program for each in the context of the other; and how to properly mesh them together.
For many, this can feel like shoving a round peg into a square hole.
To make things a little easier, there are a few tricks that I will use when I write programs for my clients.
In this article, I’ll share a few of them to hopefully make things easier in your own pursuits.
While I will cite evidence to back claims throughout this writing, the primary source of these ideas is my own experience both with my clients and with myself. As someone who strives to be evidence-based wherever I can, I thought this would be important to add. So, do with that what you will.
These tips are in no particular order of importance or value- just the order in which they happened to pop in my head.
#1: Allocate calf strength training to after a run
The recommendation I am making to you with this first point is to, as the subtitle implies, perform your calf strength training after you finish a run.
It is without question that running poses significant metabolic and structural demands across all muscles of your legs.
It is not unreasonable to say that your calves experience the greatest amount of this demand.
Supporting this statement is the fact that the achilles tendon is the most likely muscle/tendon to experience overtraining related injuries in runners. [1]
Point is: the practice of running is already providing significant load on your calves.
It isn’t the same kind of stimulus that resistance training gives you, but it is a high amount of ‘load’ nonetheless.
Anecdotally, the calves also tend to be unique insofar that they can handle volume quite well. Many people tend to report this at least.
In other words, if you did a few sets of calf raises and tibialis anterior raises after you finished a run, you’d likely still be able to produce a quality enough set to elicit the desired adaptation.
I like this programming tactic for a couple reasons.
First, it helps to consolidate the stress imposed on your calves. The importance of this depends on the structure of your training schedule, but for many it can be helpful.
Second, it can be helpful from a time-management perspective. It doesn’t take you much time at all to bounce back and forth between some calf raises and tibialis anterior raises after a run; and it frees up some time in your strength training sessions to worry about other movements.
It may not be as “optimal” for calf growth as giving them their own dedicated training slot, but it is likely to give you the majority of what you need from a performance/aesthetic perspective.
#2: Add brief bouts of anaerobic conditioning at the end of a strength session
For a complete description of the difference between anaerobic and aerobic training, go here.
For our purposes here, this is what you need to know: anaerobic training characterizes high-intensity, short-duration types of activities.
This differs from aerobic training, which is characterized by lower intensities & longer durations. In other words, aerobic training pertains more to your stereotypical endurance training.
Anaerobic training encompasses a number of different exercises including weight lifting, jumping, sprinting, etc.
For conditioning purposes specifically, it includes any bout of conditioning in which you hit fatigue (or get close to it) under ~3 minutes or so.
You need to perform both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning as some point throughout the week for your conditioning to see best results.
True aerobic training can be a bit easier to program than anaerobic training is.
For instance, you could do a a 45-minute easy bike or run the day before or after strength training legs and be totally fine.
You shouldn’t, though, do true high intensity running the day before or after strength training legs. There are exceptions, sure, but high intensity interval running can have the same recovery demand as heavy squats. [2]
It’s generally considered best practice to not combine aerobic training (e.g. cardio) and weight lifting into the same session. [3]
However, anaerobic conditioning is much more similar to lifting than aerobic training is. Theoretically, you could combine them in the same session and not need an entire session dedicated to higher intensity conditioning.
Here’s an easy example:
Let’s say your lifting consists of three full body days per week.
At the end of one of these sessions, you could get on a rower and follow the programming below:
2 sets
1 minute @ maximum effort
3:00 complete rest in between sets
You should absolutely take this into account with the rest of your workout instead of just stacking this on top of a full length lift.
In other words, if you usually do 6 lifts in a full body workout and want to use this tactic, then you’d be better off by doing 5 lifts and finishing with this type of conditioning.
Again, this may not be as “optimal” as having a dedicated day for anaerobic conditioning; but I do believe a similar trend remains.
That is, this is likely to give you most of the benefit in less time and less programming headache.
#3: Schedule “snacks” of endurance throughout the week
Exercise snacks are a recently formulated idea in the research. [4]
The original concept was developed to combat sedentary behavior.
An example of what has been tested includes having a person run up a flight of stairs, as fast as they can, 3x/day (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
Such an intervention, in someone who leads a sedentary lifestyle, has been shown to promote meaningful improvements in health & fitness.
This concept, in my opinion, can also be applied to those pursuing hybrid training.
Here’s the idea:
Say you don’t have time for two training sessions in a day. Most people don’t.
However, let’s say you have 10-15 minutes you can spare in the mornings, evenings, or right after a lift. Let’s further say you get some easy, low-heart rate running/biking/etc. in during these 10-15 minutes.
If you did this 3x/week for 15 minutes each, that would total 45 extra minutes of aerobic volume. A dose which, if done all at once, would more than count as a “real” session.
Here’s why I think this can be helpful:
One of the most important metrics to track in your endurance training is the total weekly volume you are completing, and how this total weekly volume progresses over time.
What doesn’t seem to matter is how this volume is split up across the week.
In other words, if your program calls for 12 miles per week @ 60-80% max heart rate, then it doesn’t matter if you do three 4-mile runs, four 3-mile runs, or one 6 mile run with two three mile runs.
That said, there’s no minimum amount that you need to hit within a single session in order for the volume to count.
So, if you don’t have time for a 60-minute run but you do for a 10-minute run, and you can do this 2-4x/week, then you can use these sessions to add on a significant more amount of volume throughout the week.
#4: Start with the minimum effective dose of each and increase from there
A common misconception around hybrid training is that it requires a boat-load of training in order to see results.
The truth is: the minimum effective dose for both strength and endurance training are lower than most people would think.
For strength and muscle growth, the minimum effective dose seems to be ~3-4 sets per muscle group per week.
The minimum effective dose for endurance training is a bit harder to quantify, and it would be easier to give you a straight answer here if we were a bit more specific than just “endurance.”
Anecdotally, though, I would feel comfortable telling you that you can make progress in your aerobic fitness with one short-duration, high intensity session and about ~90 minutes of lower intensity training performed elsewhere.
For context, the minimal physical activity guidelines (from ACSM, CDC, and pretty much every other institution) are set at ~150 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity. I’m telling you that you can reasonably see improvement with less than these guidelines; with good structure of course.
For both lifting and endurance training, there is going to be more benefit to be had from doing more.
This is more true for endurance training than it is for lifting.
So, from here, you can increase the amount of each that you do based on your preference, goals, and availability.
However much volume you end up on in each discipline, you can rest assured that you are doing enough to see gains over time.
#5: Use longer training blocks
Let’s first define what a “training block” even is.
It’s basically a period of time in which your weekly structure, or the workouts you do in a week, stays the same week to week.
Throughout the training block, there will be planned progressions that occur. The block should be written in a way that allows for these progressions to occur.
Ideally, each training block should be written with previous training blocks and future training blocks in mind to be maximally effective over the long run.
In fancier periodization terms, a training block is the same as a mesocycle.
One of the main benefits of having this sort of structure to your training is that your body becomes familiar with the week’s structure.
Novelty of movement is probably the biggest cause of needless soreness and recovery demand.
The more accustomed you become to a given training week, and the less novel it is, the harder you can train with less of a need for recovery.
If you find yourself not liking the way your legs feel during your squats or runs, the easiest fix may just be to stick with your current training block for longer.
#5.1: Start each training block with a “deload” level of volume/intensity
I’m listing this as #5.1 because it goes hand in hand with tip #5.
Let’s say you start a new training block with a number of different movements and different session structures.
Let’s further say that in the first week of this training block, you do all of your scheduled sessions but to structured more as a deload week as opposed to a normal training week. In other words, decreased volume & intensity compared to what would be most appropriate.
The rationale for doing this would be so that you can train hard and recover well in the next week and every week after.
I find this to be a useful tactic if you find yourself having trouble acclimating to new blocks of training.
If you also prefer to have regular deload weeks, then it can make a convenient place to put them.
#6: Use full body or upper/lower lifting splits
Even for someone who is only lifting and not doing any other form of training apart from lifting, I would make this same recommendation.
Your workout ‘split’ is the commonly used phrase referring to how you divide up your training across the week.
The most commonly used are:
Bro split
All muscle groups divided into their own day
e.g. chest day, shoulder day, arm day, leg day, back day, etc.
Push/pull/legs
Push: chest, shoulders, triceps
Pull: all back muscles, biceps, etc.
Legs: self-explanatory
Upper/lower
Usually 4 workouts per week
2 full upper body days & 2 full lower body days
Full body training
All muscle groups trained within the same session
Many people assume that having more isolated training days (e.g. chest day) is “more advanced” or more effective for muscle growth than upper/lower splits or full body splits.
This is incorrect.
The research now is clear: if the total volume done in a week is the same, it does not matter how that volume is divided up. [5]
In other words, if you’re going to perform 9 sets of chest exercises in a given week, it does not matter if that is done in 1, 2, or 3 different workouts throughout the week.
Here’s the important point though:
If you schedule all of your chest training volume into one session (such as in a ‘bro’ split) and then something comes up causing you to miss that session, then you would have lost all of your training volume for your chest for that week.
A push/pull/legs training split can allow you to train each muscle or movement 2x/week, if you dedicate 6 sessions per week to lifting.
However, this makes it very difficult to do any proper endurance training unless you train 2x/day every single day; something that is unsustainable for most.
I discuss training volume in more detail in this article, but the bottom line is this:
If you are going to pursue strength & endurance simultaneously, the only training ‘splits’ that make sense are upper/lower splits and full body splits.
Both of these allow for more than sufficient training volume for just about everybody; and they don’t limit your ability to properly train your endurance.
Moreover, full body trainings can be especially advantageous because they allow you to train certain exercises that just aren’t as feasible in other training splits.
Deadlifts, bent over rows, front squats, clean and jerks, snatches, hanging leg raises, etc. are all full body exercises.
None of these fit very nicely into any other training split; and progressing these sort of exercises is where most people will find most of their gains.
References
Lopes AD, Hespanhol Júnior LC, Yeung SS, Costa LO. What are the main running-related musculoskeletal injuries? A Systematic Review. Sports Med. 2012;42(10):891-905. doi:10.1007/BF03262301
Gabbett TJ, Oetter E. From Tissue to System: What Constitutes an Appropriate Response to Loading?. Sports Med. 2025;55(1):17-35. doi:10.1007/s40279-024-02126-w
Schumann M, Feuerbacher JF, Sünkeler M, et al. Compatibility of Concurrent Aerobic and Strength Training for Skeletal Muscle Size and Function: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2022;52(3):601-612. doi:10.1007/s40279-021-01587-7
Islam H, Gibala MJ, Little JP. Exercise Snacks: A Novel Strategy to Improve Cardiometabolic Health. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2022;50(1):31-37. doi:10.1249/JES.0000000000000275
Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Davies TB, Lazinica B, Krieger JW, Pedisic Z. Effect of Resistance Training Frequency on Gains in Muscular Strength: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2018;48(5):1207-1220. doi:10.1007/s40279-018-0872-x
