"The world’s best do _____, so I probably should too.”
You may have found yourself saying something similar to the above, and as athletes, we love to emulate what the best in the world are doing.
High volume
Double threshold days
Ice baths
Fasted training
Those are a few of the many current trends in sport/exercise and it is not necessarily wrong or right to be jumping on those trends. We don’t want to miss out on our chance to operate a cut above the rest. Furthermore, implementing what is trendy can be a logical and effective approach, but if it is working for you, the data you have should support that it is working for you.
Why might these trends be working for those who advertise it, but not for the layperson?
I looked to tackle this question by asking another question:
“Are the protocols of the world’s best effective because of what it is or because of how they approach doing it?”
We only get a small glimpse into the total picture when a professional athlete divulges training or recovery metrics and methodology. Many of these individuals have lives set up around performance, thereby giving them a better filter through which to apply the trendy protocol.
They are your edge cases. The amateur on the other hand falls somewhere in the middle of the two extremes in terms of performance and capacity for handling training demands.
If we strip the minutiae away we tend to find that executing a consistent routine over a long time horizon is driving much of the success. This is great news for you, the amateur, because it means that is your focus. You have control over whether you show up and stay committed to a goal. That is what will enable sustainable improvements.
If you set up your program in that manner and check that box, then perhaps the trendy stuff is more likely to work. We can be left distasteful with our performance when we look to the new and exciting things before the more boring and well-established things.
I have made that mistake and had to backtrack a few steps in recent months to set my bearings straight. I’m not immune to trendiness, but I do have the awareness to chuck something if it is not helping me out.
Bottom line
You will ultimately need to find what works for you. If you are using trendy training and recovery methods and killing it at your races or on your tests of fitness, then keep doing that! Or maybe it makes you feel good and more confident in your approach. That is not a bad thing either.
But if you are:
Struggling to get out the door for training
Looking for a hack to get you going
Seeing a decline in performance
You may be better served analyzing how your program can fit your broader life.
Make it yours. Tailor-made.
Your best is what matters and may not always align with “the best.”