Issue #24: Low-Volume, High-Intensity Training

🥞 Fueling for Performance

👨‍💻 Introduction

Topic: Low-Volume, High-Intensity Training

For most people, training time is limited. Between work, family, a social life, and everything else, logging 10+ hours a week of training isn’t realistic. The good news? You can still make serious progress in your aerobic fitness and endurance with far less time.

Low-volume, high-intensity training is one of the most effective models in endurance sports. Focusing more on intensity can replicate many of the physiological benefits of long, easy mileage. The science shows that even with minimal total training time, athletes can boost VO₂max, raise their lactate threshold, and get faster at running, cycling, and other endurance events.

This model works incredibly well in the short term—but no training approach works forever. The key is to start with intensity to create rapid adaptation, then gradually layer in more easy volume to expand your aerobic base before reintroducing higher-intensity work again. Think of it as cycling between go hard and go long phases.

🔍️ Deep Dive

High-Intensity Can Replace High Volume (for a while)

Study: Gillen et al., 2016 – Sprint Interval Training: A Time-Efficient Strategy for Health Promotion (PLOS ONE)

• Athletes performing 3×20-second all-out sprints per session increased VO₂max by 19% – the same as those doing 50 minutes of steady-state cycling.

• The high-intensity group trained just 10 minutes total per session, proving that intensity can match volume in efficiency.

Study: Gunnarsson & Bangsbo, 2012 – 10-20-30 Training Improves Performance and Health in Recreational Runners (Journal of Applied Physiology)

• Runners who cut weekly mileage by 50% and replaced it with “10-20-30” intervals improved 5K times by 48 seconds in 7 weeks.

• Their total training time dropped dramatically, yet both VO₂max and running economy improved.

Small Doses of Intensity Drive Big Aerobic Gains

Study: Esfarjani & Laursen, 2007 – Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training on Endurance Performance in Runners (Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport)

• Recreational runners doing just two HIIT sessions per week improved lactate threshold speed by 12% and cut 3K times by 7%.

• Compared to a control group running easy miles, the HIIT athletes achieved more with less total training time.

Study: Bangsbo et al., 2025 – Speed Endurance Training to Improve Performance in Trained Cyclists (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports)

• Even well-trained cyclists who reduced training volume by 30% but added sprint-interval sessions improved 20-min time trial performance by 2-3%.

• These gains came mainly from improved exercise economy and muscular efficiency – not VO₂max changes.

🧪 Lab Notes

• Fitness can be built on a time crunch

  • Don't be afraid to add more intense sessions early on in your training journey and shorten the duration of your workouts.

  • For recreational athletes, intensity will spark more adaptation than a bunch of easy work. 30 min hard is better than 60 min easy for most people.

• Shift the stimulus after a big block

  • After doing intensity 3 times a week for 8 weeks, do a block focused on more easy-moderate work to try and build more overall volume.

  • Once you reach a volume ceiling within the training hours you have available, add back in more intensity – this is a safe way to build volume over time and reap the benefits of hard work and adaptation.

• Mindset

  • You don’t need to train like a pro to make progress – and in all likelihood, you shouldn't try to train like a pro.

  • You just need to train with purpose. Short, intense blocks create rapid change; long, easy phases make it last.

Personal anecdote: I ran a sub-60 minute HYROX pro on < 8 hours of training per week in the 16 weeks leading up to the event – probably 60-75% of what my competitors were doing. The difference?  35-40% of my workouts were hard, instead of the traditional 80% easy, 20% hard approach. I train more hours now, but I modulate between increasing volume and increasing intensity. The goal is to keep building a bigger foundation long term, so that I can eventually put in 20 hour weeks with 20-30% of that being high intensity.