#50: Dr. Stephen Seiler on 80/20 Training

“You don’t have to go that hard every day in training with the high intensity sessions. You’re building the cake, but racing is eating the cake. You have to balance that. If you eat the cake too much, then you’re going to be in trouble…" - Stephen Seiler PhD

Video version of this interview. Dr. Stephen Seiler (Twitter) is a well known Exercise Physiologist, located in Norway. You might have heard of the 80/20 rule of endurance training, meaning performing 80% of your workouts at a low intensity and 20% at a higher intensity.

Professor Stephen Seiler has studied the training habits of many world class endurance athletes and discovered the 80/20 Rule that also applies to endurance training. This has been a remarkable counter intuitive trend, however this polarized approach is now widely accepted by coaches and athletes around the world.

In this podcast we talk about exercise physiology and training adaptations, particularly for endurance sports.

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🚨 BIG GIVEAWAY! For this 50th episode of the Extramilest Show, I’m giving away a $150 gift card from PATH projects, the only clothing I use for my running. Many women enjoy the PATH projects gear as well, the running shirts, beanies and hats.

I’m also giving away a lifetime membership to my Personal Best running coaching program. This PB program is valued at $297.

To enter for a chance to win one of these prizes, let me know here in the YouTube comments: what was your favorite takeaway, lesson or quote from this episode? 1 winner will be picked at random.

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SHOW NOTES

4:45 How did Dr. Seiler get involved in exercise science?
8:30 Growth of exercise science
13:40 Alternatives to the No Pain No Gain mentality
18:50 Training zone intensities
25:00 How 80/20 training can also benefit the recreational runner.
29:30 How hard to do high intensity training?
35:45 Balancing being a dad and coaching his daughter Siren Seiler
40:40 Male vs female athlete difference
45:25 Being healthy to reach max performance
48:50 His research with rats
52:10 Impact of stress on training adaptations
55:25 Balancing training and personal life
1:01:50 Breathing intensity vs heart rate intensity
1:08:30 Nasal breathing experiences
1:13:35 Entrainment, linking of breathing and movement pattern
1:18:58 Dr Seiler on ResearchGate
1:20:34 Closing thoughts
1:21:35 BIG giveaway contest, leave a comment to enter

TOOLS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED:

FIND DR SEILER HERE:

YOU CAN FIND ME, FLORIS GIERMAN HERE: