Workout Complexity Bias: Oct ‘24
Hey, this is Tom and Emma from High North Performance with the October edition of the In-Form Newsletter. We hope your riding has been going smoothly since we last dropped into your inbox!
This month we wanted to ponder on what we might call “workout complexity bias”, and try to unpack a potential issue in perceiving more complicated-looking and ‘sophisticated’ workout designs as superior to those that appear more simplistic.
Let’s be honest; there are thousands of different cycling workouts out in the world, and it’s probably fair to say that a lot of the most intriguing or eye-catching ones often feature a lot of elements like different intervals and constant changes in variables like intensity, cadence, duration etc. We’re sure that many reading this can relate to a feeling that such workouts hold some kind of seductive benefit or advantage within this complexity!
A general “complexity bias” is a cognitive prejudice that appears in numerous areas of life, and is essentially where something is perceived as having greater value or usefulness because of its intricacy. Conversely, something that’s more rudimentary can be perceived as less valuable.
As with any such bias, it can be very helpful to be made aware of it so that you can avoid falling into the associated traps one might cause!
In this discussion’s context of workout choice, we as coaches think that choosing simplicity first and adding other elements/complexity only when necessary is the approach to take, where our thinking is nicely summed up in some famous related quotes like:
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
- Leonardo da Vinci
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein
Afterall, who are we to argue with da Vinci and Einstein?
Now, are we saying that workouts that are more complicated by nature are always worse compared to simpler workouts then? Nah…
The key point, we think, is having an identifiable reason or set of reasons to support the existence of complexity, where immediate examples that spring to mind include choosing more “complex” workouts to enhance psychological engagement of a training session (e.g. for indoor cycling) or for when trying to recreate the exact demands of an event/challenge (for example, creating a structured workout based off of a previous race file).
The main point we think self-coached athletes and coaches should take away from this musing is that in most cases, simple workout designs are ideal vehicles to stimulate good adaptive stimuli and complexity for complexity’s sake isn’t advised. Of course, understanding what you are trying to achieve with a workout is paramount, but with that in mind, keeping what you need to do as straightforward as possible is usually the best move...
Simpler workouts typically encourage/foster:
Easier execution (especially outdoors) when terrain and other obstacles might impede the ability to constantly change up your power outputs, cadences etc
Easier memorisation of the session
Greater simplicity in terms of tracking your progress across several weeks/months.
Shameless plug, but our Complete Workout Library (available for TrainingPeaks and intervals.icu) very much takes this approach, and whilst there are over 120 individual workouts in the power-based library, this variety doesn’t come at the cost of complexity.
What do you think? If you want to let us know your thoughts on this subject, feel free to shoot us a reply.
News:
We’re very excited to announce that the High North Performance team has expanded with the addition of our new coaches, Ross Howcroft-Jones and Zoe Langham. Both elite-level athletes in their own right, Ross and Zoe bolster our breadth of experience in the art and science of coaching and we’re very pleased to welcome them to High North Performance!
We’ll also be adding several “associates” to the website over the coming month too, where these people will represent our go-to referrals for complimentary performance services like strength and conditioning coaching and sports nutrition guidance. We’ll add more details in next month’s newsletter, but do let us know if you’re at all interested in enlisting some help in these specific areas.
We’re also pumped that in the near future, we’ll also be releasing some structured training plans for specific gravel, MTB and sportive events in the 2025 calendar, so if you have any particular requests, give us a shout!
As always, you can check out our current library of plans here: https://www.highnorth.co.uk/training-plans
Many thanks for your time reading this email. As ever, we hope it’s been useful and insightful, and can help improve your training going forward, even just a little bit.
Catch you in the next one,
Tom & Emma
High North Performance
