if you're the sort of person willing to put it all on the line and knock some old ladies out of the way kick some kids into the pond and get banned from your local park run for life all in pursuit of that 5K PB well this video is just for you so in today's video I'm going to break down the six key strategies that I've implemented over the years to bring my 5K all the way down most recently having deadlifted 500 pounds and ran a 5K in under 20 minutes total alongside that it's probably worth
mentioning the 5K is one of the most popular running distances on the planet therefore making it the most inclusive so please take what I said earlier with a pinch of salt and don't actually kick any children or barge through any old ladies thank you very much hello me again with Point number one which is that running is something that we should manage our expectations with as we are all individual have varying goals varying backgrounds and varying things to focus on you don't turn up to a Teppanyaki and just start juggling flaming Sushi knives on night
one no you need to work up to that over a long period of time exactly as you would do with running it's a skill it's something we need to develop it's something we need to be mindful of and as with all things on the Internet it's important not to compare ourselves to arbitrary numbers that we might be aware of or what other people are doing we've all heard of a sub 20 minute 5K 25 minutes is another Benchmark and the 30 minutes is another Benchmark what I think is most important at the point I want
to make most crystal clear from the off today is that self-progress is the most important thing focus on what you can achieve in the short term the low-hanging fruits the things you can improve on today tomorrow next week rather than thinking all the way down the line when you can run a sub 20 minute 5K because throughout lockdown I witnessed a lot of people punishing themselves week on week day on day trying to run sub 20 because it was the number when in reality all they were doing was inhibiting their individual progress and therefore slowing
down their 5K performance to manage your expectations understand your starting point for example I am 205 pounds about 93 kilos I have a background rugby powerlifting and now as a hybrid athlete which means that at this body weight with my strength training as well I am never going to be running a sub 15 minute 5K but I've made my piece with that and therefore I can manage my expectations accordingly so look at yourself as an individual your strengths your weaknesses where you need to improve and get to work but look at the progress you make
on a day-to-day basis rather than focusing too far in the future and at the end of the day arbitrary numbers so Point number two is to slow it right down speed it right up and sit right in the middle so what I'm alluding to there with those three considerations is effectively effort levels and heart rate zones and where you should be allocating your effort across the course of a training week because that is ultimately what makes up a successful training plan and you might have heard of the phrase 80 20 whereby 80 of your training
volume should be easy 20 should be moderate or hard in principle that's fantastic but in practice it's quite arbitrary and difficult to apply those numbers to a training plan and I've had a lot of questions over the years of people saying well how can I make 20 hard and 80 easy it's not quite as binary as that easy running is long steady slow miles in an aerobic heart rate zone and then the 20 stuff for slightly harder effort is stuff that you're doing a Tempo or a zone three or a sub threshold pace and then
you've got the full send hard effort stuff that you come to a place like this for and what's important when putting a 5K training plan together is a combination of all three and at this point it's very important to flag that for a lot of people watching you might have a lot of gains to be made in your aerobic capacity as that is the foundation for all Fitness in general terms but especially when it comes to running performance your foundation allows you to do more intense work which will create an elicit the adaptation that allows
you to improve your 5K over time so what you need to take away from today's video is that you should be mapping out your training with aerobic work included with a small dosage of high quality high intensity hard work to really improve that top end performance and then some Tempo some steady higher effort moderate effort stuff in the middle over a shorter volume so that you can really get your legs turning over and getting more used to sort of 5K effort levels it's important to mention that for some of you watching your aerobic bass might
be what's lacking the most and therefore you can actually make a lot of gains from just running slow but when you're confident enough to start working in some high intensity work and this applies to you at your athletic ability level running capacity then let's say you're running three times a week one of those can be a high intensity track session one of those can be a moderate intensity temper run and one of them can be a long slow run and with those three components pieced together across a week you can make steady progress whilst focusing
on every adaptation and you can actually analyze where you're performing well where you're feeling good where you're not feeling good so that you can make tweaks as you go rather than just waking up every morning lacing up your shoes sending out the door and then wondering why after three weeks you're 20 calf and you hate running okay so for Point number three it's worth addressing the question as to whether or not there is anything you can be doing outside of running to improve your 5K time well if you come with me this way we'll find
out bonjour tisai and I am now in a different setting which means I am now at a different hat mode we call this sport mode in the trade get to know that's another 5K tip for you all there so we are going to cover Point number three which is all about strength training and obviously we're going to start with the most sport specific exercise for runners which is the heavy Atlas Stone so obviously that is the fastest way to incapacitate yourself for successful 5K efforts so please do ignore that but what you shouldn't ignore is
the importance of stamp training whether you are a total beginner as a runner strength training will help you better understand your biomechanical movement patterns so that you can better understand how to move you can look at your gate you can sit comfortably into a bodyweight squat you can learn to do a pull-up all of these things that just help reinforce structural Integrity strength and everything else that goes with being a holistic quickly healthy athlete at more intermediate level you can start working in things like heavier back squats chatbar deadlifts single leg movements so that you
are working on your strength to support your running whilst also reinforcing your ligaments your tendons your bone density all of the good things that come with resistance training and if you're quite an advanced Runner or lifter at the same time then you can maybe focus on things like I do which is building strength and 5K performance concurrently and getting stronger and faster at the same time so whatever stage of your running Journey you are on you should be lifting Atlas Stones as I hope I've already made clear but that is absolutely not the case but
you should be considering strength training in and of itself obviously make sure to execute everything with proper technique don't try and run before you can walk pun very much intended within the context of this video I'm not going to run through too many details of what you should be doing prescriptively because it's so wide reaching for all of you that might be watching but bear it in mind please do and don't think that we're lifting some weights to support your running is going to make you a slower runner in fact it's probably going to do
the opposite but the one myth I want to bust before we move on is that you should not be doing High rep low weight training in the gym you get a lot of high volume training out of the gym with your running so what you want to be doing in the gym is the stuff that you're not getting when you're out rolling which is Highway Tire intensity heavier movement pattern stuff so the old myth of I'm going to do sets of 20 on squats because that's mimicking running is silly because you're already doing enough running
so what you want to be doing is mimicking strength training to reap the rewards of strength training to support your running clear 1001 1002 1000 three an important consideration whether you are an endurance athlete a strength athlete or anything in between training at a recreational level let's say is protein intake as part of wider nutrition considerations we want to focus on recovery we want to focus on quality food we want to focus on giving ourselves the best fighting chance to adapt to the training that we are putting ourselves through when training we are essentially breaking
down muscle tissue and the building block to repair that is protein and one of the ways that you can supplement your protein throughout the day obviously getting most of it through Whole Foods is with a whey supplement this one being from my Pro as part of that range within my protein's wider ecosystem where there are also available a variety of delicious bars Flapjacks drinks and everything in between and that is a fantastic way if you're on the Move traveling whatever it might be to get some protein in have it conveniently ready to go so General
range for those of you that might be watching is between one and a half grams per kilo of body weight all the way up to one gram per pound of body weight maybe a little bit higher if you're going to step on a bodybuilding stage Maybe be a little bit lower if you're exercising training volume is on the lower end of the spectrum but that ballpark range is where we should be aiming for on a day-to-day basis so with that in mind maybe have a look at your protein intake see if there's any gaps that
you need to fill or if you might need a more convenient source and there is a solution right here for you and if you use this code just here Fergus at checkout you can save yourself some percentage off with your order and speaking of Fergus we should probably go and see him back on the track if you ever feel like this with your training goals then point number four today might well be the most important one for you to consider and that is to get some skin in the game and by that I mean commit
to that race join that run Club join the Athletics Club sign up to your local park run Community whatever it may be to give you a date to give you accountability to give you something to work towards that will allow you to make a road map to plan towards the goals that you have the achievements you want to accumulate in your running Journey over time and those don't happen by accident they happen through hard work and whilst that might be the harsh reality bouncing easy running with moderate running and hard running is the roadmap that
can help you get there obviously the specifics to consider along the way but why not build the wings as you fly set yourself up for Success get some skin in the game because as human beings we have a tendency to put things off you want to have intent you want to be working towards something you want to have a clear goal to work towards and most importantly you want to have some skin in the game the one thing that might be holding you back from that 5K performance you've been dreaming of you've been telling people
about over pipes on a Thursday night at work could well be the fact that you haven't given yourself the chance to be consistent and work towards something specific specificity is King it's a core component of Fitness in general terms so why not give yourself the best chance for the performance dreamed of all your life and send it on a date in the future that you are going to sign up to immediately after this video and I'll cut and put the Persona down for a second there if you do please let us know in the comments
down below what it is so Point number five is all about having a plan because if you don't you could end up turning up to the track like I have today and justifiably doing this and look at beers now unfortunately there were no beers to be found but what I have found is instead the best hybrid training plans on the planet and if you check out the link in description down below there's even a cheeky discount code for you in there so I will put my enormous bias firmly to one side and cover the overarching
point which is training with intent knowing what you're doing on what day knowing what it's going to involve how long it's going to take so you can Factor it in around your lifestyle family work all other things in life that get in the way means you can plan effectively you can enjoy the process you can reap the rewards day to day and you can extract all of the value from training towards something rather than just focusing on the end itself I get a huge amount of value from the process of training and it means that
when I turn up to the start line the only question I ask myself is have I done everything I could do within the context I had available to me to be here right now and if the answer is yes the time is the time yes I'll have goals yes I have Ambitions but at the end of the day the process is more valuable than the destination and that is why I think you should really focus focus on getting the right plan for you so Point number six is to bring the Bros make sure to socialize
where you can with your training with your running because there is a lot of value to be had from it and we don't need to lock ourselves off in Harry Potter cupboards under the stairs because we're training towards a better 5K no the process is very rewarding in and of itself and if you can make it equally sociable meet new people join new clubs communities and things that is a great way of doubling up your investment into this training process on the screen now I'm going to be overlaying some of the events and things I've
done with people recently whether running or lifting and I just want to express how much I have enjoyed these over the isolated training sessions I've been doing this year the past two years I've spent an enormous amount of time training on my own six seven eight hours on Saturdays and last year it really took it out of me towards the end of it so this year I've made a focused effort to make my training more accessible and easier to do with people I've bent the rules and the letter of the law and my training plan
on certain days I've had Johnny in my back pocket sort of coaching me through when to adjust when to work a bit harder when and I can do something sociable when it's actually time to just get my head down and focus on the session at hand and from a social point of view from a happiness point of view from a training consistency and enjoyment point of view spending time with people and enjoying the suffering and solidarity along the way or the long steady zone two runs along the way has been something that's been fantastic for
me personally and whilst this might be another bias point I think it can be fantastic for you as well so seek out the communities local to you seek out communities online if you are focusing on something that is self-improvement focused spending time with people who are also self-improvement focused is a great way to really band together towards a common goal so those are six points to consider on how you can improve your 5K time and I appreciate they've not been overly prescriptive because I need to cater to the general audience of YouTube worldwide but there
are a few more prescriptive specific things down in the description below so do please check them out but the one thing to take away from today is that consistency trumps all so chamber the intent get some skin in the game make sure that what you're doing is the right amount of the right things focus on finding communities and aging with the right people and really elevating your investment into this self-development training process because you are going to become a better person by working towards these goals I firmly believe Fitness can change lives which is such
a cliche on the internet but it really has for me and that can all start with 1K or here to this Lamppost and back whatever it is whatever your journey is hopefully there's been some things you can take away from today and you can lift up others in the process of doing so so let's get some PBS tell us what you're training for in the comments down below like comment and subscribe thank you very much goodbye
