Season 7 Ep 2 — Fergus Crawley on Training Hybrid Athletes and the Benefits for Endurance Athletes
Feb 19, 2025
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Fergus Crawley, co-founder and head coach of Omnia Performance, brings his expertise in hybrid athlete training to the forefront. He reveals the merging of strength and endurance disciplines, sharing tips on balancing training goals. Fergus recounts his impressive feat of squatting 500 pounds and running a mile in under five minutes, emphasizing the mental approach needed for hybrid training. He discusses auto-regulation, personalized coaching strategies, and the importance of adapting to individual athlete needs for optimal performance.
Hybrid training effectively blends strength and endurance disciplines, requiring careful integration to prevent physical stress and injury.
Maintaining strength while developing endurance through hybrid training encourages athletes to enjoy their fitness journey without abandoning previous achievements.
Adopting varied mental attitudes for different training sessions fosters resilience, adaptability, and holistic growth in athletes across diverse athletic experiences.
Deep dives
The Pitfalls of Concurrent Training
Many athletes mistakenly combine distinct training plans, like endurance running and strength lifting, resulting in excessive training loads that can lead to physical stress and injury. Each program is designed for individual capabilities, and integrating them without adjustments can overwhelm the body, leading to symptoms like calf pain. A more effective approach is progressive strength training focused on compound movements, which enhances biomechanical awareness and can improve performance in other athletic areas. By understanding and managing training loads, athletes can balance both strength and endurance without overexertion.
Hybrid Coaching and Its Appeal
Hybrid coaching accommodates clients with dual fitness goals, typically between strength and endurance sports. Many of these individuals come from backgrounds like rugby, where they have experienced various athletic challenges, leading them to seek new, balanced pursuits. Notably, the practice of hybrid training encourages maintaining strength while also developing endurance, thus preventing the abandonment of previous athletic achievements. This trend not only introduces variety into training routines but also helps athletes enjoy their fitness journey while exploring new challenges.
The Importance of Mental Approach in Training
Athletes are encouraged to adopt different mental attitudes for various training sessions, reflecting the unique demands of each workout. For example, a high-intensity lifting session may require a fierce, aggressive mindset, while a longer, lower-intensity endurance session may benefit from a calmer, more zen-like approach. This shift in mental state helps prepare the athlete for the specific challenges of each day, fostering resilience and adaptability. Developing the mental aspect of training alongside the physical promotes holistic growth across diverse athletic experiences.
Program Structure and the Art of Periodization
Training programs typically follow a structure where intensity peaks at the beginning of the week while volume increases as the week progresses, facilitating recovery and adaptation. By consolidating stresses, athletes can more effectively identify their responses to both strength and endurance training without incurring excessive fatigue. Implementing a mix of high-intensity sessions alongside maintenance of aerobic capacity ensures that athletes remain prepared for their respective goals, such as achieving personal records in both running and lifting. This method allows athletes to gradually build strength while maintaining endurance, ultimately leading to improved overall performance.
Emphasizing Recovery and Individualization
Recovery practices are crucial, and tracking metrics like heart rate and perceived exertion can help athletes understand their physical state and adjust their training as needed. Coaches encourage consistency in basic recovery habits, such as quality sleep and nutrition, which can greatly affect performance. By fostering a culture of self-awareness, athletes learn to reflect on their training outcomes in relation to their daily lives, allowing them to adapt and prioritize training sessions effectively. This individualized approach helps mitigate common pitfalls experienced by athletes, such as burnout or injury, while ensuring steady progression over time.
In this episode of the TrainingPeaks CoachCast, we sit down with Fergus Crawley, the co-founder and head coach of Omnia Performance, to look into the world of hybrid athletes. Hybrid training, a blend of strength and endurance disciplines, challenges the traditional boundaries of athletic training.
Fergus draws from his rich background in rugby, powerlifting, triathlons, and concurrent training to explain how athletes can effectively balance opposing athletic goals. From his incredible achievement of squatting 500 pounds and running a sub-five-minute mile in the same day to working with military operatives, Fergus shares insights on biomechanical awareness, periodization, and the mental approach needed for such diverse training programming.
Learn how hybrid athletes can tackle the demands of multi-discipline sports and the benefits of open-mindedness in fitness. Fergus discusses several strategies he uses to coach and accomplish his many challenges that can help you pursue your athletic goals, whether you're a seasoned triathlete or a strength enthusiast curious about endurance.
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