A Strength Coach Swears by This Training for Building Peak Athleticism
For a long time, training meant picking a lane and sticking to it. You either chased strength or endurance, speed or size, and rarely both at once. Go too heavy in the weight room, and your lungs might hate you on a long run. Push endless miles, and your muscles might feel like wet noodles in the squat rack. Hybrid training is flipping that script. It’s about building muscle, boosting cardio, and sharpening agility simultaneously. You’re no longer forced to choose between power and endurance—you can have a bit of both.
"With this method, you can train individuals to improve their aerobic capacity while simultaneously improving maximum strength, increasing muscle mass, improving balance and agility, and more," says Alex Viada, NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist & author of The Ultimate Hybrid Athlete: A Definitive Guide to Achieving Peak Athleticism Across All Disciplines. "With more conventional training, one or more of these might be compromised, with poorly designed programs focusing on one or two areas at the expense of the others."
How to Balance Strength Training and Endurance Work
Balancing strength and endurance isn’t about going all out every session. It’s about smart recovery and intelligent training. You don’t need to lift heavy every day to build serious strength. Lower-volume routines that focus on key movements, lighter weights moved explosively, plyometrics, and dynamic-effort work can all improve functional power without wearing you down. The same goes for cardio. Dialing back pace, swapping long, grind-it-out sessions for intervals, and knowing when to push versus cruise helps you get fitter while avoiding burnout.
"It’s all about 'minimum effective dose plus one', and taking the time to understand (and work within) your capabilities," says Viada. "The body can recover from a lot, it just needs to be kept well fed, and needs to stay under that 'burnout' line in every respect."
Common Hybrid Training Mistakes
People usually make two mistakes with hybrid training. The first is stacking a standard running plan on top of a lifting program. Most plans assume you’re only doing one thing, so combining them without adjustments is a quick path to burnout. Smart hybrid programs trim the workouts to the essentials—fewer sets, slightly lower intensity, and only the most critical miles.
The second mistake is trying to mash running and lifting into a single “hybrid workout.” That rarely works. The strength of hybrid training comes from giving each discipline the focus it deserves. Keep runs and lifts separate, train each with intent, and you’ll get better at both.
Related: UFC Strength Coach Reveals the Muscle-Building Keys Men Miss in Hybrid Training