This program has been designed for hybrid athletes looking to build all round athleticism by training several components of fitness (strength, speed and stamina) all at once through a scientific and systematic manner. The reason I stress “scientific” and “systematic” manner is because theories (rooted in molecular biology) have traditionally stated that “Concurrent Training” (where an athlete trains more than one fitness component at equal amounts of focus) will produce less than optimal results if not programmed correctly. This is based on research published in 1980 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology that concluded often concurrent training dilutes your effectiveness to improve a specific component of fitness (e.g. strength or stamina) since when not programmed efficiently your body doesn’t know whether to become stronger or more endured. Your training stimulus basically loses its “potency” since your body doesn’t have a clear “cellular signal” to adapt.

But the Suprā Hybrid Program is different. Since every exercise, every set and every workout sends a clear “cellular signal” to the body to adapt to a specific training stimulus. As well as training strength, speed and stamina, another metric of success with this program is an increased work capacity. This is essentially the total amount of training you can perform (recover from) and adapt positively to. The reason it’s so important is because a high work

capacity means:

• You can train harder and for longer

• You avoid the “Exhaustion Phase” and rarely over train

• You’re a more physically robust athlete

The Hybrid Program can be used anytime during the year as a 12-week science-backed strength and conditioning protocol. However, the 4-session, 6-session and 8-session program have also been designed to work brilliantly within a larger periodized plan and structure.

Periodization has been used for thousands of years. Traditionally used in elite-level sport, it’s a method of managing an athlete’s training through the year so they ‘peak’ at the right time for a competition. According to the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise 1, it’s defined as the “Methodical planning and structuring of training process that involve a systematic sequencing of multiple training variables (intensity, volume, frequency, recovery period and exercises) in an integrative fashion aimed to optimize specific performance outcomes at predetermined time points”. It sounds complicated but it’s not. Simply dividing your year into “bulking” (increasing muscle) in the winter and “cutting” (losing fat) in the summer is a very, very basic form of periodization. Within sport or when training to “peak” for an athletic adventure, athletes will often divide their year (known as a macrocycle) into seasons (known as mesocycles) where the intensity and volume of training is strategically manipulated throughout the 4 mesocycles (winter, spring, summer and autumn) to allow the body (and mind) time to recover and adapt to training stress ensuring you don’t become fatigued and ‘stale’ from overtraining. Put simply:

- Training Intensity refers to the level of effort a person exerts during exercise relative to his or her maximum effort

- Training Volume refers to the total amount of work that you perform whether that’s running mileage, swimming distance or reps/sets during strength training if training for a summer event:

• The 4-Session Per Week Hybrid Program could be used for a Recovery Mesocycle since the volume and intensity are low. Equally, this is a great program for a beginner who someone who’s looking for a minimalist program (where you want the most results from the least work)
  

• The 6-Session Per Week Hybrid Program could be used for a Base Mesocycle since the volume is higher, but intensity is still relatively low. Also, this is a great program for intermediate-level athletes wanting to build new levels of athleticism.
  

• The 8-Session Per Week Hybrid Program could be used for a Build Mesocycle since both the volume and intensity are high. This is very demanding on the body and any athlete attempting this must have years of strength and conditioning experience to ensure their rest and recovery are ‘dialed in’ and on point.
  

Your %1RM is a percentage (%) of your 1 repetition maximum (the maximum weight you can lift for 1 rep). This serves as a valuable tool so you know how many repetitions you should be hitting with a certain weight. As an example (and to keep things simple), if you bench press 100kg for 1 repetition then (based on the table) you should be able to perform 4 repetitions with 90kg, 8 repetitions with 80kg and so on. Finally, it’s important to note each exercise has its own 1-Rep Max and the numbers in the table are only estimates.

Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a rating of intensity/difficultly that correlates to how many repetitions you can perform before failure. The ratings run from 1-10. RPE 1 represents a lift that requires little to no effort and RPE10 is the absolute maximum a person can lift.

The Hybrid Program improves endurance using the tried and tested 80:20 Polarised Training Method. Really simple in principle, you spend 80% of your time training aerobically at a low intensity and slow pace. Then spend 20% of your time training anaerobically at a high intensity and fast pace. The fundamental difference between these 2 types of training (aerobic vs. anaerobic) is aerobic is defined as "occurring in the presence of oxygen" which means your body uses oxygen to create the molecular energy of the muscles needed to power all movements within the body (known as Adenosine Triphosphate). Producing energy this way is slow, but comes in great supply.

Whereas anaerobic energy can be created without oxygen and instead breaks down carbohydrates from blood glucose or glucose stored in muscle to produce the molecular energy of the muscles needed to power all movements within the body (again known as Adenosine Triphosphate). Producing energy in this way is far faster, but is limited and in short supply. Essentially, the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise is oxygen.

The reason you separate your longer, slow-paced, low intensity Aerobic Training from your shorter, fast-paced, high-intensity Anaerobic Training is because each session then has a different and specific focus to provide a “clear cellular signal” of what you want your body to adapt to. But when fused together in a well-designed program, each training session (jointly) improves your body’s ability to operate at higher intensities at different durations to provide enough oxygen and/or energy to continue whatever the pace and intensity of the hike, run, swim or cycle.