High-Low Training Method for Athletes

I can’t believe how many athletes still do body-part splits. You’re an athlete. Not a bodybuilder.

Dividing the week into muscle groups doesn’t work for athletes.

Too many activities don’t fit into a “muscle category” for example an olympic lift (or your sport!).

Instead, use the high-low concept:

What is High-Low Training?

The high/low training is alternating days of high and low CNS stress.

Allowing you to maximally stimulate different biological systems of the athlete with sufficient recovery. Whilst blending technical and physical preparation for sport.

Instead of thinking about muscles, you think about your body like a neural battery.

High CNS activities such as sprinting and heavy squats drain the battery fast.

You need at least 48hrs to recharge after these activities.

Low CNS activities such as aerobic running and hypertrophy work don’t drain the battery much.

You can recover from these activities in 24hrs.

Alternate between the high and low strain activities to optimise recovery across the week.

How to Group High-Low Training Exercises and Methods

As we know high strain activities takes at least 48hrs to recover from, whilst low strain activities take 24hrs.

Here’s visualisation of common training methods grouped into high vs low strain activities:

In reality, the strain of common training methods isn’t black or white. It’s more of a sliding scale.

For example, both upper-body bodybuilding and flexibility work are classified as low, yet upper-body bodybuilding will be significantly more taxing.

Below is more accurate visualisation of the common strain of activities:

However, dividing the week into either high or low is still an effective system. We recommend anything max strength or above to be considered “high” and hypertrophy or below to be considered “low”.

You’ll notice the inclusion of skill development within the strain scale, this is the unique benefit of high-low training – it allows you to balance the physical, technical and tactical demands of the sport.

High Low Training Programme Example:

Now we can pull it together.

Add your exercises into the high-low format to create your training structure.

Here’s an example plan for a rugby/American football athlete:

Want a more detailed example of a high-low training program for Contact Athletes? Get your free in-season Game Ready Programme here – Game Ready: The Inseason Training Programme