Energy Systems Explained

What you’ll learn

Your body draws on different energy systems depending on how hard and how long an effort lasts, short and explosive, sustained and moderate, or long and steady each lean on a different one. Understanding this helps explain why different kinds of conditioning feel so different.

Key takeaways

Short, explosive efforts and long, steady ones draw on genuinely different energy systems.
Training one doesn't automatically train the others.
This is why a strong lifter can still be breathless after a short sprint, they're different capacities.
A well-rounded approach touches more than one system, depending on the goal.

Your action

Think about which kind of effort your goal actually demands, explosive, sustained, or steady, and let's make sure training reflects that.

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