How To Train Less And Achieve More Results

If you want to get selected, you need to train smart. The greatest myth I hear is that more training means better results. The truth is training too much will actually kill your gains. This is because training volume and gains follow an inverted U-curve-it’s not linear where the more you do the better results you get.

So that’s why I am going to walk you through how to achieve better results in less time. This is especially relevant for those of you complaining you don’t have time or struggle to bring focus and energy to your training sessions.

As you’ll see, you’ll just need a little bit of time and a lot of effort and focus. At the end, I’ll share a free minimalist program.

Understanding the 3-currency framework for training

Before we start, I want to share a word of encouragement to those of you who are struggling to get results or find time to train. 

There is actually a 3-currency framework to training, and the good news is, once you understand it, you’re likely to realize the solution is simpler than you think – and time is probably not your problem

There are three currencies in your training;

1. There’s your Focus (which is mental)
2. There’s your Energy which is (physical)
3. The third is your Time 

Each one is finite, there’s only a certain amount you can expend in a given day. 

If one of those first two buckets of mental focus or physical energy are zapped, your training sessions will suffer. Or, if you run out of time, you’re just not going to make it to the gym in the first place. In most of the cases, the people saying that they lack time are simply mentally fried.

The Most Underrated Aspect of Training (Mental Focus)

So, physical energy and time are self-evident, but I want to highlight mental focus-because it is the most underrated and overlooked aspect of training.

Just think, how often have you arrived at the gym and could barely muster the energy to get under the bar, and once you did, training just felt off. For a lot of people, this is a common occurrence.

But then think about your sessions where you were firing on all cylinders-you walked in with a mission and just attacked your session. I want that to be your reality every single day. It’s possible if you have your mental energy in check.

If the former example of being sluggish and lacking focus matches your recent training experience, mental energy is your problem-and having more time to train is not going to fix it. However, it is easy to tell yourself that the reason you’re not making progress is because you work full-time or have a hard schedule at school.

3 Tips to Overcome Low Mental Energy

So, I’ll get to maximizing your training time in a minute. But first here are 3 tips for overcoming that sluggish, low-energy state.

1. Tackle your most important work earliest in the day
   
   First, is to organize your day with the most demanding tasks first. So, stop training at night when you’re exhausted and drained and get up early to hit your runs and lifts. Now, I’m not going to lie to you and say you’ll feel energized after a brutal leg session. The truth is your school or work may suffer a bit, but you need to choose what you want to prioritize and put that first.
   
2. Deep, restorative sleep
   Second is getting deep, restorative sleep, so your mental battery will be fully charged upon waking instead of operating at 70% or less as most people do.
   
   You’ve already heard the basics of sleeping in a cool, dark room, and getting 7 hours minimum each night. But let me be clear about what you should not be doing. You need to stop keeping your phone within arm’s reach at night, stop having large fluctuations in the time you go to bed, and stop taking caffeine any time after noon. Avoid those 3 and your sleep will improve.
   
3. Shut your brain off/disconnect
   
   The third and most underrated step is to learn to shut your brain off and disconnect. This doesn’t mean meditating or to stop being productive at school or work.
   
   This is particularly important if you have an anxious, overactive mind (which is common in the social media age) you need to find ways to get your mind off training at all costs. The person who spends all day overanalyzing his routine, his technique, and getting nervous over performance is worse off than the guy who commits to his program, executes with confidence and focus, and carries on with the rest of his day.

This is why I strongly oppose the idea that you need to quit your job or college to train. It is an easy excuse to tell yourself that you’re not making progress because you have other commitments.

But what I’ve found is people who do more get more done. Also, finding more time to train is only going to help you if time is your current limiter. Quitting your job to train will make your mind wander more-and likely do more harm than good.

So, fall out of the trap that says training needs to be your entire life to make progress and put yourself in a state where you can achieve true focus and mental clarity.

How to hit new milestones with less training

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of mental focus let’s talk about how to improve your results while training the same or even less.

I’ll assume you’re targeting a <12:50 2-mile run, a 275lb squat, and a 335lb deadlift. 

Once you have that goal, you need to determine how much time you are willing and able to train. Let’s err on the side of fewer hours because a plan created on your most optimistic projections is destined to fail. 

So, let’s go with 7 hours per week. With that, we can now look at the various buckets in your training – like strength, running, rucking, and calisthenics – and see how best to allocate your time to maximize your progress.

Drivers of improvement

There are two drivers of performance improvement that we need to optimize (across strength and endurance)

1) Specificity: which is basically practice-improving technique and getting comfortable with a movement

2) Physiological Adaptations: these are processes like improved mitochondrial output or capillarization which improve aerobic conditioning.

What we want to find is the minimum effective dose to elicit skill and physiological improvements. 

General Guidelines

Here are some general minimum landmarks, you should be hitting in your training.

• For strength, I’ve found you need to do a movement at least once per week for at least 2 working sets to make progress.
• For hypertrophy (muscle building), you’ll want to hit at least 5 hard sets per week, generally, to build muscle.
• For running, at least 90 minutes per week would be necessary to improve.
• For rucking, you could improve with 0 minutes, so long as your run and strength work are on point. However, 30 minutes per week is great (specifically interval sessions which I’ll talk about in the comprehensive guide)

Now, if you’re advanced, you’ll need to do a lot more than this. But the point is, if you’re attacking your sessions with intensity and focus, you can improve with far less than you realize.

• Strength Training – 5 sets per muscle group per week
• Hypertrophy Training – _ sets per muscle group per week
• Rucking – 30 minutes per week
• Running – 1 hour per week
• Zone 2 Conditioning – 90 minutes per week

The key factor to achieving results

Let’s do a test and see what kind of energy you’re bringing into your gym sessions. Watch the video below and tell me at what point you typically stop your set. 

If it’s after reps 7, 8, 9, or 10 – Congratulations, you’re the exception. But if you’re stopping at rep 6 or prior, that means most of the sets you’re doing in the gym are just a warmup.

That’s OK if you have all day to train or you don’t care about results. But, hitting those final 4 reps is not easy. 

That is exactly why you need to be mentally sharp to push hard-and it’s not just in the gym. Running, I would say is even harder because you’ll be holding a painful pace for 5, 10, or 15+ minutes on your timed runs.

Focus + Effort = Focused Effort

Now I hope you can understand how someone who does 10 hours per week of so-called “training” with little intensity or focus will be outdone by someone who does 7 or even 5 hours of true training per week.

Where People Mess Up (the right or left side of the curve)

How much volume should you be doing?

What’s tricky about training volume is that everyone is different with their own unique history and background. For instance, a football player will have a different baseline than a cross-country runner.

But until you start training, there’s no formula to determine what amount of volume you require to improve-it’s like shooting an arrow at a target you can’t see.

So, I err on the side of less. Say you’re improving your 2-mile time with just 2 hours of running per week across 2 sessions and a single ruck. You might as well stay there and ride out those gains for a little while. As you start to see progress taper off, add more. 

Training volume is the most potent lever you can pull to keep the gains coming. So, that’s why you should be very cautious before pulling it.

But, here comes the paradox. Let’s bring back the inverted u curve. Imagine you were making great gains at 2 hours per week and quickly ramped up to 5 hours. You could be making similar results with 5 hours as 2 hours. But when your results start to plateau, you’ve already increased your volume so much that you don’t have the option to increase volume to drive further adaptions – or even if you did, your results would be worse.

This is just one of the many reasons why you want to stay on the left side of the curve. At least as you’re farther out from selection. The scenario changes significantly 10 – 12 weeks out. So, here’s a sample training routine – and then I’ll share a bonus tip with you before closing out.

Sample Training Program

On Monday, we have a full-body circuit and sprints for a total of 90minutes. Tuesday is an easy zone 2 jog for 45 minutes. Wednesday is a 45-minute tempo run. Thursday is an hour-long full-body strength session and Saturday is a 90-minute zone 2 run.

In total, this is only 5.5 hours per week, and you get 2 rest days per week. 

If you’d like to put this type of routine together, you can check out the full program for free or watch the Ultimate Training Program video where I outline how you can create a routine based on your strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re looking for 1 on 1 advice on how to prepare for selection, you can apply for coaching here.

Remember, you get no points for waking up early or showing up to the track or gym. It’s only through your actions-the effort you put in both training and recovery is what will yield you results.

I don’t want you to hear stories or compare yourself to others who say they’re training 3, 4, or 5 hours per day. While there’s a place for peaking and high volumes in the months leading up to selection, training is not just a box you check. It requires purpose and intention. Best of luck with your training.