General Program Instructions:

Each training module is 4-weeks long. Each of the first three weeks will feature:

A consistent warm up (that is the same for all sessions that week).
Three training sessions (that vary in difficulty).

Your first objective is to complete the warm up, then assess which training session is appropriate for you on that day.

This process helps manage realistic scheduling logistics rather than shoehorning a specific split (e.g. Monday, Wednesday, Friday). It also encourages you to actively assess your recovery state and loot at your training more broadly. If you have a hard sports practice scheduled for Saturday, you probably want Friday to be an easier gym session.

You are required to complete all of the sessions on the menu, but it is up to you to decide when the best, or least bad, times to complete them throughout the week will be.

Assessing our readiness for training isn’t as simple as an arbitrary biometric like resting heart rate (RHR) or heart rate variability (HRV). These are valid measures and can be used to calibrate or confirm our subjective sense, but ultimately they undermine our intuition if we become reliant on them. The only reason to not trust your intuition is when it hasn’t been developed through (enough) experience yet.

Throughout each module we will be using the terminology of the particular emotional and somatic experiences I outlined for each energy system in Module 1d.

The 4th week of each module is intended to be a “de-load week.” The menu for this week will simply include prompts and guidelines for you to test your understanding and write your own training sessions. You are limited to two sessions in the final week. You’re welcome to aim for any desired difficulty, but the 2-session-limit allows some latitude to make mistakes either in perception of recovery or session difficulty.

The standard rule here is that “once it is written, it must be done.” Assess and re-evaluate based on what went well, what worked, and what didn’t.

Disclaimer:
By starting this program or any of the modules herein, you agree that you’ve consulted a licensed and credentialed medical provider before starting any fitness or dietary program. You also agree that the elements and modules herein are not a substitute for medical or mental health advice and direct care by respectively credentialed providers of those services.

Objectives: Aerobic Capacity

Understand the fundamental value each Heart Rate “Zone.”
Cultivate a somatic and intuitive awareness of your experience in each zone.
Express cardio-respiratory threshold work that challenges ventilatory waste clearance.

Key Concepts: Aerobic Capacity

No amount of dieting or breathwork alone will make you more aerobically fit.
Eventually all intensity ends. Find the edge. The only way out is through.
Internal dialogue is noise. Intuition is wisdom.

Savage Zen Athletics

Module 7c: Aerobic Capacity Training

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