maximal aerobic function (MAF)

if you are an endurance athlete, this is something for you to consider.
do you want to run slow to improve speed?
this may sound like a crazy idea but it definitely have its own benefits.

if you have thought pushing harder in every training session will improve your long term results you are preparing yourself for overtraining and damage. away from the concept of no pain no gain there is something which is quite interesting to improve performance. MAF Heart Rate Training is the way forward.

what is Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF)

the philosophy is developed by Dr. Phil Meffetone, a famous endurance coach who trained Mark Allen (six time Hawaii Ironman World Champion). Maffetone philosophy came from his observation that many endurance athletes were frequently training at extremely higher level of intensity which led them to overtraining injuries from excessive stress.

the revolutionary system challenges the thought of no pain,no gain and lung screaming endurance workouts frequently, which has led many athletes to many unfortunate set back in their career.

how to know your MAF?

180 – age

this is your magic number, if you at the age of 33 simply it will be 180-33=147
there are some more adjustments you can make to this, if you have had a flu more than once within the past year you can subtract another 5 to get your MAF.

the MAF heart rate is the higher boundary heart rate for you to keep training or running throughout your base training period. this may sound like a crazy and frustrating application, where you will feel like you are moving slower than you should be to reap the benefits of training.

benefits of MAF method.

HR is a measure of intensity when it comes to aerobic training, Maffetone discovered that this intensity the body can work aerobically as using fat as an energy source. as to make it more clear above your MAF the body is primarily burning sugar as the source of energy. any event or session longer than 3 minutes can be called an aerobic event, after 3 minutes the body heavily relies on the aerobic system where oxidizing fat is the most important thing for endurance racing.

using the MAF system as your base training for about 6 months you can observe that over time your body has started to move faster and efficiently maintaining this lower heart rate.

this is called building a base and an efficient engine for performance.

by 
Hussain Zinan