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Firstbeat provides you with a complete package of information on training to support your training with Training Effect. These instructions will help you to get most out of Training Effect, EPOC and Training Coach.
Training to improve
Many people want to get fit. To reach this goal, workouts must be done often enough and with sufficient intensity and duration. Even easy exercises improve fitness in beginners but training must be gradually increased if further improvements are desired.
Hard workouts are needed to really improve circulation and fitness but also easier workouts and correctly dimensioned rest must be included in training program to avoid excessive fatigue or exhaustion. Until recently it has been difficult to estimate whether the training has fulfilled these criteria.
As a summary, to improve fitness training must fulfil the next criteria:
- Workouts must be performed with often enough, at least two to three times per week
- Training load of a single workout must be sufficiently high (but not high in all workouts!)
- Training load should increase while fitness develops
- Training load should vary between different days, weeks and training periods.
- There must be a balance between training and recovery
What kinds of workouts are good for fitness?
Workouts of higher Training Effect 3 to 4 (improving to highly improving) are the workouts that are really needed to improve your fitness. Build your weekly plan around these main workouts.
Workouts with lower Training Effect 1 to 2 (minor to maintaining) are needed to build up foundation for harder workouts with higher Training Effect. This kind of basic endurance training is usually performed with longer duration workouts from 45min to 90 minutes. These workouts are an important part needed to build up ability to complete harder training programs to further improve.
Easy / recovery workouts: Training Effect 1.0-1.9
- Short duration from 20 to 40 min
- Recommended for beginners for good health and wellness and for athletes to enhance recovery.
- For athletes very long duration (hours) low intensity workouts are recommended to improve microvasculature and fat utilization. These workouts build up basics for good endurance performance in the future.
Basic endurance workouts: Training Effect 2.0-2.9
- Prefereably longer duration from 45 to 90 minutes and even longer
- Builds up foundation for harder workouts and maintains fitness
- Recommended for everyone as a regular part of weekly training.
Improving workouts: Training Effect 3.0-3.9
- From shorter workouts of 20 to 30 min to longer workouts of over 45 min.
- Improves cardiorespiratory fitness. Shorter workouts of 20 to 30 min have more effect on muscular force production and longer
workouts of over 45 min have more effect on fatigue resistance.
- Recommended for everyone 2 to 4 times per week.
Hard workouts: Training Effect 4.0-4.9
- From 30 min to 90 minutes.
- Improves sharply maximal cardiorespiratory fitness
- Recommeded for fit individuals 1-2 times on a hard training week. Easier workouts with Training Effect 1 to 2 are required to follow to balance training.
In addition very hard workouts and interval training are recommended for athletes and those who are very advanced in training, to futher improve.
Very hard workouts: Training Effect 5.0
- Competitions and hard continuous workouts of 45 min to 90-120 min.
- Recommeded for athletes when really required to have an overreaching workout. Adequate rest and easier training is required after this kind of workout.
High intensity interval workouts
- Training Effect 2.9 or lower: Recommeded for fit individuals and athletes to improve muscular power production.
- Training Effect 3.0 or higher: Recommeded for very fit individuals and athletes for improved VO2max and muscular power production.
Training Effect and EPOC will guide you in good training
With Training Effect and EPOC you can now really know what kind of training you are actually doing.
- Control the accumulation of training load and Training Effect during single workout to achieve the target Training Effect in targeted time.
- Plan and perform your training schedule with the correct distribution and timing of training load. By timing correctly workouts of different intensity and rest, you will achieve the best increase of your fitness level.
- Learn from the reactions of the body by doing. You will be able to see what Training Effect you get from different types of workouts. Be able to distinguish maintaining or recovery enhancing workouts from harder workouts.
- Notice changes in your fitness level:
- decreased EPOC and training effect in your regular workout indicates improved fitness
- increased EPOC and training effect in your regular workout shows decreased fitness or possible fatigue or signs of illness. Learn to detect those.
- Motivate yourself: You can easily see what changes are required in training program to keep on improving fitness.
- Planning of long term training is much easier when you can visualize the effects of training. You can avoid overtraining or undertraining yourself.
- Planning a training program of gradually increasing training load is easier when you compensate your increasing fitness level with Training Effect.
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