The Best Weekly Split for Hybrid Athletes (Backed By Science)

My Favorite Lifting Splits for Hybrid Training (You Don’t Need 5 Days a Week)

If you’re a hybrid athlete—or a lifter who runs, a runner who lifts, or someone who just wants to do both—the number one question you’re probably asking is: how do I actually fit it all in? What’s the best lifting split for balancing strength training with running or endurance goals without being constantly sore, fatigued, and frustrated?

I’m Dr. Alyssa Olenick, PhD in exercise physiology and hybrid training coach. I’ve run over 17 ultramarathons and trail races, road races, and Hyrox events while maintaining my strength training—and I’ve coached thousands of people to their hybrid training goals. Today I’m sharing my absolute favorite lifting splits for hybrid athletes and why you probably don’t need as many gym days as you think.

“You need to be lifting four, five, six days a week with a bodybuilding split for it to be effective. Anything less isn’t enough.”

🚨 MYTH BUSTED: Bro splits are a waste of time for most hybrid athletes. You can get everything you need in 2–3 lifting days per week if the quality and effort are high.

Too many people think they need a bodybuilding-style split to make lifting worthwhile. And look—if you come from the bodybuilding world and your bro split works for you, I’m not mad. If you’re lifting, you’re lifting, and that’s great. But one of the fundamental truths of hybrid training is that it involves compromise. You’re never going to lift at 100% full capacity as a pure lifter, and you’re never going to run at 100% full capacity as a pure endurance athlete. Somewhere in there, something has to give—whether that’s what your body can handle recovery-wise or simply what you have time for in your life.

And that brings us to the number one barrier I hear about hybrid training, time and time again: “I don’t have time. How do you fit it all in?” Your lifting split is the first place you can adjust to make it work.

The Principle: Less Volume, Higher Quality

Before I walk you through the specific splits, you need to understand the philosophy behind all of them. My approach to hybrid training is to consolidate and make the effort of your lifting sessions more intense, focusing on the quality of the sets you’re doing—not the quantity.

🔑 Key Point: The key to making gains while doing less is making the lifting sessions you do have count. Every set should be at a 7, 8, or 9 out of 10 effort. Stop chasing tons of reps and sets that you end up sandbagging at low effort. Less volume at higher quality is the hybrid training cheat code.

One of the biggest mistakes I see when runners start lifting or people start hybrid training is keeping everything at super high reps and sets but never pushing the effort. If you’re only doing two or three sets of an exercise, you need to be doing them hard.

My favorite rule of thumb? Something called two hard sets. When in doubt—when you’re doing minimums in the gym because you’re balancing it with running, short on time, or trying to avoid being destroyed from workout to workout—do two hard sets and get out. That approach is incredibly effective.

Split #1: Two Full Body Days Per Week

This is my go-to for busy professionals, parents, people short on time, people who don’t love lifting but know it’s good for them, or anyone in a high running volume season training for a big race where you need to drop to that minimum effective dose.

Two Full Body Days — What It Looks Like:

Frequency: Hit every major muscle group (chest, shoulders, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves) in each workout — that’s twice per week per body part.

Volume: Aim for 4–6 sets per muscle group as a minimum effective amount, up to 8–10 depending on how much you can handle.

Time: 45–60 minutes per session. Short, sweet, and efficient.

Structure: Power/plyometrics, a major compound movement or two (one lower, one upper), accessory work for opposing muscle groups, calf and core work, done.

Effort: Two hard sets minimum per exercise. Quality over quantity.

🔑 Key Point: You don’t need to lift at full capacity year-round to be a hybrid athlete or maintain your gains. Sometimes you need maintenance mode—and two well-programmed full body days per week can absolutely get the job done. Don’t sandbag these sessions. Make them count.

Split #2: Three Days Per Week (Two Options)

This is my personal favorite range for hybrid training. Three days gives you a bit more room to work with while still leaving plenty of space for running, recovery, and life. There are two ways to set this up:

Option A: Two Full Body Days + One Upper Body Day

Take the two full body days from the split above, add a bit more leg volume into those sessions, and spread some upper body work into a third day that’s upper-body only. This gives your legs a break from one lifting session (helpful when you’re also running multiple days a week) while adding more upper body frequency. Because we all know the biggest biceps are what win the races. (That’s a joke. They don’t. But they do look good at the finish line.)

Option B: Three Full Body Days

Three full body sessions spread across the week. Great if your individual sessions need to be shorter, you want more frequency or touch points with specific muscle groups, or you need to spread things out for scheduling reasons.

My personal favorite is Option A—two full body plus an upper day—because it gives you the most flexibility. If you need to cut a lift short, skip a session, or scale back during a tough training week, you can always drop to your two full body days as the minimum and still hit everything you need.

The magic of these splits is built-in flexibility. Your minimum effective dose is always two full body days. Anything above that is bonus volume you can add or remove based on what your running training and recovery demand that week.

Split #3: Four Days Per Week (Off-Season or Strength-Focused)

If you love lifting four days a week or you’re in a strength-focused off-season where your running volume isn’t as high, something like an upper/lower split or an upper/lower push/pull setup can work really well. You’re targeting specific movement patterns or body halves on each day.

When a 4-Day Split Makes Sense:

Off-season or low running volume phases → When endurance demands are lower and you have more recovery capacity to dedicate to lifting.

Strength-heavy training blocks → When the priority shifts to building strength and you’re intentionally pulling back running mileage.

Lifters who favor strength over endurance → If you lean more toward the lifting side of hybrid and don’t run super high volumes, four days can work year-round.

The same principles apply here: keep the quality and effort of each set high. The difference is you have more days to spread volume across, which means each individual session can be a bit less dense.

The Hybrid Training Reality Check

Endurance sports take a lot of time, a lot of physical demand, and a lot of recovery. That’s just the reality. For most of us who aren’t elite athletes with all day to train, it’s so much easier to consolidate lifting sessions, keep them efficient and high-quality, and create space in your week for running, recovery, and the rest of your life.

The goal isn’t to do the maximum most all of the time. It’s to do what’s effective and sustainable for you, your goals, and the life you actually live. There are a lot of ways to make this work. But trying to cram a bodybuilding program on top of a running program and wondering why you’re broken is not one of them.

⬇ THE BOTTOM LINE

You don’t need a bro split or five days in the gym to be an effective hybrid athlete. Two to three days of smart, high-quality lifting per week is enough to hit every major muscle group, maintain or build strength, and leave room for your running and endurance goals. Consolidate your sessions, keep effort high, ditch the junk volume, and stop trying to do the most. Less but better is the hybrid training way.

✅ YOUR ACTION PLAN:

1. Audit your current split. Are you lifting more days than you need to? Could you consolidate and free up time for running and recovery?

2. Start with two full body days. That’s your minimum effective dose. Hit every major muscle group twice per week in 45–60 minute sessions.

3. Add a third day if you can. An upper body day or a third full body session gives you extra volume without crushing your legs on top of running.

4. Keep effort high. Two hard sets per exercise, 7–9/10 effort. Stop sandbagging with tons of easy sets.

5. Don’t forget calves and core. They get neglected in every split. Build them in.

6. Match your split to your season. High running volume? Drop to 2 days. Off-season? Bump to 3–4. Your lifting should flex with your training demands.

🏋 Want a Program That Balances All of This for You?

The Lyss Method programs are built specifically for hybrid athletes—lifting and running programmed together so you don’t have to figure out how to balance it yourself. We do all the thinking so you can just show up and execute. Take our program quiz to find your perfect fit, or email us at hello@thelyssmethod.com and a coach will help you personally.

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Hey, I'm Lyss!

I’m Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. I am here to bring science to your training in a no-nonsense way. I have helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, and even do both. I’m here to help you do the same!

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