Cycling on a regular basis, not missing any of your workouts, and always keeping up with the ideal checklist when it comes to achieving your physical health goals is great but not enough! Why? Because cycling like a pro in modern times needs more than just discipline. It requires modern tactics and solutions.
One such technique we are going to talk about today is – the art of riding slow and steady. It is also called the Polarized cycling training or technique.
What is Polarized Cycling Training?
Polarized cycling training works on the principle of the 80/20 rule of the intensity you put into your cycling workouts. 80 percent of your workout should be low intensity driven while the remaining 20 percent should consist of high-intensity cycling training. The focal idea of polarized training is going slow for as long as you can throughout your cycling session.
Does Polarized Training Even Work for Real?
Even though you may feel that riding slow won’t do much good instead it will affect your average cycling speed, that’s when you go wrong. Well, to make it less confusing for you, when you ride at a slow pace, you preserve all your energy and strength to ride at your best and at lightning speed when the right time comes. This helps you to increase your cycling speed bit by bit instead of being stuck with the same frequency and intensity for days.
Also, polarized training contributes greatly towards building a robust physical physique and enhancing endurance over a period of time. It also increases your efficiency for you to start noticing a difference in your cycling speed at regular intervals. So, you can confidently admit that the secret to riding fast here is riding slow at times.
Do Polarized Training Mean I Am Compromising on My High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)?
Let us understand this from a psychological perspective. How would you feel when you constantly engage in high-intensity workouts at a stretch? Let’s say for two weeks straight? Surely you will feel accomplished but tired and drained as well. And that would eventually lead you to take a break for a day or two.
No matter how much you deserved that break, there would be discontinuation and a break in the cycling session. So, to avoid that kind of burnout, it’s justified if you ride at a slow pace every once in a while.
Also, if you continue to sweat all your energy day after day, you become less productive which can negatively affect your performance over time.
When you ride slow, you always do a favor to your body and yourself.
Tell Me More About The Advantages Associated with Training The Polarized Way?
The art of riding slow is underrated, be it for outside or indoor rides. You always kind of feel you are being lazy or not paying full attention to the workout and maybe that’s why you do not see any progress. But here’s the real thing!
Go through the list below which will make you familiar with the advantages that you cannot miss as a beginner or even as a professional cyclist to improve your training workouts with each passing day.
1. Lesser-Known Strategic Fat Burning Technique
Riding slowly can effectively help your body convert fat into fuel. This happens because when you are cycling at a low momentum, the carbs in your body preserve themselves to be of use for a situation more suited for high-intensity training. This works in great favor for your body as it uses the right kind of fuel at the right time for it to be of more benefit for your athletic body.
2. Boosts Your Motivation Level and Helps You Keep Going
Going slow serves as a boost to you to stay focused and calm without making you feel too tired for the coming days to work out. This ensures a regular flow of cycling workouts without going through any serious injuries. This also encourages you to be motivated in all your cycling sessions.
3. Gives You an Extra-Edge to Outperform In Your High-Intensity Workouts
Encourages you to give your best shot when the time comes to give your best in high-intensity workouts. This automatically leads you to burn more calories and push yourself harder than you would usually be doing your routine cycling workouts.
This becomes possible because all your fat-burning and oxygen-rich energy systems build over time when you perform low-intensity rides to produce enough energy when you are ready to indulge in high-intensity cycling sessions.
To Sum It Up
Polarized training is a modern and effective technique for you to try as a cyclist if you wish to dominate speed while you are on your bike, get fitter and healthier, and last but not least is to lose weight if you have been meaning to do so for a long time now.
Spoke Herd advices you to do make it a habit to try this technique out and start witnessing the actual results.