I’ve written plenty about Capacity vs Utilization training, so I’m not going to define those methods again. A different way to think about training for performance is to imagine yourself as a computer or smartphone.
Think of a five-week 5K run or bench press improvement program as an application that you can download. Over the course of those five weeks, you will sharpen the skills needed to run 3.1 miles quickly or bench press a heavy one-rep-max. However, little to no physiological changes have been made.
Think of the structure of your body as your hardware. Hardware improvement is more invasive and takes longer to install than a simple app download. As opposed to a five-week program, it might take five months (or more) for a runner or lifter to make structural changes—denser capillary beds, increased mitochondrial mass, and larger tricep muscles. However, with better hardware, your body has an elevated potential for effectively installing and executing a short-term training program for the fast 5K race or heavy bench press.
I can’t say this enough: if you are training as hard, fast, and heavy as you can all year long, you are simply overloading your hardware and limiting your long-term potential.
