Imagine being able to improve your endurance in just five seconds. Well, it might not be quite that simple (or easy), but this old-school Russian Type II muscle-conditioning method could help improve your muscular endurance without pushing yourself to exhaustion.
Developed by Russian sports scientist Viktor Seluyanov, the method involves repeated bouts of five to eight seconds of high-intensity effort, followed by 30 to 45 seconds of recovery. The aim is to improve the endurance of fast-twitch muscle fibres without compromising their explosive power.
How Does the Type II Muscle Conditioning Method Work?
It works by targeting your fast-twitch muscle fibres. Known as Type II muscle fibres, these are responsible for powerful, explosive movements used during short bursts of intense exercise.
By allowing these muscles to recover between efforts, the aim is to improve their ability to keep working without tiring as quickly, while maintaining their strength and power.
Coach Maxwell Schmarzo explains that the solution is to ‘turn them on, turn them off’, avoiding excessive fatigue while encouraging adaptations within the working muscles.
‘We are not chasing global cardiovascular changes. We are chasing local metabolic changes,’ he adds.
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According to Schmarzo, the method can be adapted depending on the exercise. For sprinting, efforts typically last six to eight seconds, while exercises that alternate between legs can involve 10–15 reps, as each leg gets a brief recovery between movements.
How to Use Type II Muscle Conditioning in Your Workouts
The method can be incorporated into your existing training using exercises that require short bursts of explosive effort, such as hill sprints, sled pushes or sprints on the assault bike.
For example, after warming up thoroughly, perform a six- to eight-second sprint, followed by 30–45 seconds of recovery. Repeat for several rounds, ensuring you maintain your speed and power throughout.
If your performance begins to drop, increase your recovery time or end the session. The aim is to keep the quality of each effort high rather than accumulating as much fatigue as possible.
Schmarzo says he has used the method with himself and athletes, ‘often with a sled or up a hill’. The key is to avoid pushing yourself to complete exhaustion. Rather than accumulating fatigue, the aim is to repeatedly challenge your fast-twitch muscle fibres while allowing sufficient recovery between efforts.
Research suggests repeated short sprints can improve sprint performance and the ability to sustain repeated high-intensity efforts. However, evidence specifically supporting Seluyanov’s method remains limited.
It’s also worth noting that the method is intended to improve endurance within the working muscles, rather than necessarily improving overall cardiovascular fitness.
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Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.
