WIR IM SPORT 07.2022
Magazine of the Landessportbund NRW
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What is the Norwegian cross-country skiers' recipe for success: Polarized Training (POL)! It is the combination of low-intensity, circumferentially emphasized endurance units with short, high-intensity load according to the HIIT method (High-Intensity Interval Training). To a certain extent also recommended for ambitious amateur athletes.
Numerous studies confirm that this greater contrast of training intensities sets new stimuli and thus triggers performance improvements even in experienced endurance athletes. It creates new motivation for training and is less time-consuming than classic circumferential endurance training.
The secret of the method that makes experts click their tongues: It combines basic training to develop aerobic capacity(s) with a significantly higher proportion of high-intensity training, above the aerobic-anaerobic threshold. "Polarized" in this context means training "hard" units - short and intense - and "light" units - aerobic and circumference-oriented.
Forbidden Zone
In training, the so-called "sweet spot" is deliberately avoided - the area often used in recreational sports between the two intensity poles. True to the motto "too easy on the hard days, and too hard on the easy days," this "middle" training area is referred to as the "forbidden zone" in the POL method because it is ineffective for performance development.
High-intensity training is completed as "high intensity interval training" (HIIT) and takes place well above the so-called "endurance threshold". Aerobic training is completed exclusively in the lower basic endurance range. When cycling and running about 30 heartbeats below the "endurance threshold". Those who train according to the POL method should complete about 75 to 80 percent of the training in the (low) aerobic range and about 10 to 15 percent as HIIT interval training with high intensity, i.e. only once to a maximum of two times per week.
