6-Day Hybrid Training Split: 4 Different Ideas

Commonly, hybrid training entails pursuing some endurance/conditioning goal alongside some strength/hypertrophy/power goal.

To fit all that is required for each into 6 sessions per week can seem impossible, but I assure you it can be done.

The aim of this article is to outline the 3 different ways to split up your hybrid training amongst 6 days per week.

Please understand that there’s an unlimited number of ways to divide up your training across the week and this article is by no means comprehensive.

Option 1: 50/50 split focus

The first split we’ll cover is if you want evenly split up your training focus between strength and endurance.

Here’s how it could look:

• Monday: Full Body Strength (+ short conditioning bout; discussed below)

• Tuesday: Low intensity endurance (zone 2)

• Wednesday: Full body strength

• Thursday: Low intensity endurance (zone 2)

• Friday: Full body strength

• Saturday: Long run or tempo run

Simple and to the point, as most good practices in training should seem.

Pros to this split

The biggest pro to this split is its flexibility.

Let’s say life comes up one week (which, life always comes up at some point) and you have to miss a session.

You can just move onto the next session and rest assured that you have plenty of volume elsewhere in the week to see the progress you’re after.

Another noteworthy benefit of this orientation is that it may give you greater access to certain exercises.

Movements such as olympic lifts, deadlifts, front squats, hanging leg raises, bent over rows, etc. are much more appropriately deemed as full body movements as opposed to “upper body” or “lower body” movements.

Using full body workouts allows you to program them with much more freedom.

Cons to this split

The biggest con to this split is that it is hard to program any very-high intensity conditioning, such as HIIT.

However, there is one trick I like to use to alleviate this problem.

Quick idea to make this better

Good endurance training of any sort will usually have some mix of high intensity and low intensity conditioning.

As you can tell, this split does not contain any high intensity conditioning as a stand alone session.

Something you could do to round out the conditioning of this split is add a short, high intensity bout to the end of the first full body strength session. An example of an appropriate structure would look as follows:

• 30 seconds at 5/10 effort

• 30 seconds at 10/10 effort

• repeat 4x

  • If done properly, you should not feel as though you can perform more rounds

  • This can be done on a stationary bike, rower, SkiErg, Airdyne, etc.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that this is as good as a proper tempo run or HIIT workout.

However, it’s better than having no high intensity conditioning and won’t add more than 4 minutes to your total training time.

Option 2: 50/50 split focus

If you want to divide your training focus halfway between strength & endurance but want another option from the previous one, I would recommend the following:

• Monday: Full body strength

• Tuesday: Low intensity endurance

• Wednesday: Low intensity endurance

• Thursday: Lower body strength

• Friday: Upper body strength

• Saturday: High intensity conditioning (ie VO2max intervals)

Pros to this split

There are two reasons I might choose this structure.

The first is because is because it allows easier programming of higher intensity conditioning which can be helpful at certain points throughout a training cycle.

The second is that it can allow for easier programming of upper body endurance work, such as swimming. I’ll discuss this in the “quick idea to make this better” section.

Cons to this split

The only downside compared to the previous option is that it might not be as flexible if you need to miss a session here or there.

However, if missing sessions is a sparse event for you, there’s really no other con to note here.

Quick idea to make this better

My clients who have a triathlon focus as part of their endurance typically use this orientation in their training.

A good way to structure this is to perform an easy bike ride on the Tuesday, swim on Wednesday, and a run on the Saturday. I find this this distribution of events makes a nice way to divide up load & fatigue across the week.

As another idea, utilizing full-body conditioning modalities in the Tuesday session of this split can be a good idea. Examples include a rower, SkiErg, AirDyne, etc.

Option 3: resistance training bias

I would choose this one if you want to pursue strength & endurance simultaneously, but with a slight emphasis on the strength side of things.

Here’s how it would look:

• Monday: Lower body

• Tuesday: Upper body

• Wednesday: Low intensity endurance (zone 2) or tempo run

• Thursday: Lower body

• Friday: Upper body

• Saturday: High intensity endurance (ie VO2max intervals or anaerobic intervals)

Pros to this split

Apart from allowing more room for resistance training volume, the biggest pro to this split is that is allows easier programming of higher intensity conditioning.

If you’re interested, I outline the basics of combining lower body strength training and endurance training in this article.

Cons to this split

The only con to this split is that it slightly limits how much endurance training you can do; as implied by the resistance training bias headline.

Nevertheless, you can absolutely still make progress in your endurance here; particularly if you get creative in the Saturday session.

For instance, this recent study found that two days per week of endurance training can yield the same VO2max improvements as higher frequency training if total weekly volume is matched.

Quick idea to make this better

For your endurance training exercise selection, try to perform the same mode of exercise for all of your endurance training when using this split.

It does not matter if you choose cycling, running, swimming, rowing, etc.

The consistency will help maximize the effectiveness of this routine.

Option 4: endurance bias

Finally, if you are in a period where you still want to pursue strength & endurance bit bias the endurance side of things a bit, here is what I would recommend:

• Monday: Full body strength

• Tuesday: Low intensity endurance (zone 2)

• Wednesday: Full body strength

• Thursday: Tempo run

• Friday: Low intensity endurance (zone 2)

• Saturday: High intensity endurance (ie VO2max intervals or anaerobic intervals)

Pros to this split

The obvious pro here is that you can have a much more complete endurance training schedule.

For almost everybody, two days of strength per week is still enough to see results.

I discuss strength training volume needs in more detail here.

Cons to this split

With your strength being at a 2x/week frequency, there is certainly a bit less wiggle room for flexibility here.

Apart from this, there are no apparent cons from this training split as far as I can tell.

Quick idea to make this better

Within your strength sessions, I recommend taking more of a strength focus as opposed to a muscle growth focus.

As I discuss here, the volume needs for strength improvements are much less than what is needed for hypertrophy.