The Year of the Engine

Capacity is one of the cornerstones of fitness, and capacity gains translate directly to performance gains.  As with any athletic discipline, inexperienced athletes improve rapidly, but these beginner gains quickly taper off.  Increasing your capacity – really increasing your capacity - is a long term commitment. 

Our methodology develops tremendous capacity.  We’ve got athletes putting up over 250 calories in 10-minute assault bike time trials, and completing a 5k row well under 17 minutes, without loss of strength or power.   Our approach can be used by athletes at all levels, and it’s compatible with your existing training.   You don't have to give up anything,

Building capacity is more than just training energy systems.  The energy systems are not standalone systems but are actually part of a complex series of mechanisms which govern ATP production.  Conditioning requires understanding how these processes interact under different stresses, intensities, durations and nutrient intake..   Not only that, but muscle activation patterns vary with differing tasks, and muscle characteristics vary widely even within the same muscle group.  Excessive focus on “energy systems training” indicates a poor understanding of physiological processes.  Unfortunately, lots of coaches get this wrong, and their athletes progress slowly.   Here's how we do it:

Engine Builder:  The journey starts here.  EB combines intervals, endurance work and some threshold training to increase your power output across all relevant time domains.  EB delivers serious capacity gains, while building a foundation for more rigorous training.

Polarization:  Polarization refers to an intensity distribution proven to increase capacity more effectively than other program structures.   Polarization recruits a broader spectrum of muscle fibers, building their oxidative capacity in a way that HIIT or Endurance work alone cannot accomplish.  At the end of this stage, you’ll have a huge engine with an even bigger fuel tank.

Differentiation:   You’ve upgraded the engine and built a huge fuel tank.  Now, we take it for a ride - at high speed.  This phase features a series of progressively challenging interval and endurance workouts.   As each goal is met, a new challenge appears.   This phase is called Differentiation because it separates those who are willing to do the hard work from those are who are not.  

Flux:  In this stage we use zero-rest intervals – an innovation from The Gains Lab - and you’ll be pushed to the limit to recover from glycolytic bursts and stay at the prescribed pace. The name “FLUX” refers to the change in glycolytic energy contribution, known as glycolytic flux. The ability to sustain high glycolytic flux is a critical parameter for capacity athletes.  After Flux Capacitor, your engine will be so big that you’ll travel through time.  

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s waiting for you:

Our conditioning and capacity framework has enabled thousands of athletes to build serious capacity, without sacrificing other aspects of their fitness.  Now it's your turn.  Click here for the biggest capacity gains!