At the risk of offending many folks here, I don’t think any of the people being mentioned in this thread - Attia, ISM, etc. - really know what they’re talking about. You certainly wouldn’t find any of them giving a featured talk on the metabolic/muscular adaptations to training at a scientific conference. For better recent insights, I would suggest watching the Inside Exercise interviews with a couple of true experts in this area, i.e., David Hood and David Bishop.
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It’s a dumb debate where neither side is entirely correct. I do vo2 workouts in a polarized week but that’s when my training calls for a vo2 block. Likewise, my sweet spot phases could be considered polarized as well since I do two a week and the rest endurance rides. Doing sweet spot 4-5 days a week is silly but so is this delineation between “polarized” and “ss training”
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I agree on the debate. My take is to do the most volume your body can take while also doing sufficient higher intensity intervals that you need for your event or goals. This could be 80/20… or could be 60/40 or less, it depends on the individual and specific training goals / blocks etc and what your body can take. If the additional volume needs to be at z2, otherwise you would blow up, then it will clearly better than killing yourself with intensity and then spending time off the bike imo.
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Practically speaking, you have to also consider how consistently you can add additional Z2 volume. When starting block fresh, your motivation can be really high and you may push yourself too far (yes, even with Z2). But once fatigue accumulates, you may add less and less i.e. in big picture, you are moving backwards.
Start very conservatively, increase only volume but not intensity. Especially important is not to affect recovery and performing TR prescribed workouts. Do it during a whole block. If at any point feel losing motivation/sleep/etc, hold back with additional workouts volume. Only when starting next block, play with even more volume or higher intensity based on experience from last block.
For me personally, all the additional volume’s intensity can be only up to 58-60% of FTP. Any higher than that (like even only 63%), and in month or so I’ll lose joy for riding and then it takes couple weeks to get it back. Of course, for you those number are likely different. You only know after couple iterations.
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I know successful middle distance runners that ran the bulk of their training doing 5-6 mile runs all 6 min pace or under. I know other successful middle distance runners that would run super slow (8+ min miles) on their non-interval days (for the record those were so hard you could barely jog a cool down). Both worked for them and both were very successful athletes nationally.
I think you just have to do what works for you. There is no perfect training plan or “best way” to train. (Though there are plenty examples of “bad” training 
)
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I am in no way offended. but you made me drop my beer and log on to reply and quote this.
There is no one best answer to train an individual… we all respond differently… but to discredit ISM is classic “internet.” The guy has been published in more peer reviewed scientific journals for his research than i cared to count (i stopped counting when i crossed 60… and i estimate 100). Never mind he has been hired by a world class cycling team and he advises on some of the top riders in the world.
and for the ss camp… i would be embracing ism. he advocates training in the top of zone 2… which… drum roll please… is close to ss in intensity. it just comes down to sustainability, consistency long term, and your end goals. we all like easy answers, but for most of us, just riding consistently without burnout is key. true pro level… well that is when the devil is in the details.
the bioenergetics system targeting of polarized or pyrimidal training is just physiology. and excessive lactate inhibiting fat metabolism is what it is.
in 2019 i did ss… peaked my fitness, but suffered knee pain doing it, and burnout. it made me stop riding for a few years. this year i am back, doing polarized (pyrimidal to be honest), and gaining fast, and soon i will pass my peak. no symptoms of overtraining. N of 1, but there is only one of me… and so far so good. the trick is finding what works for you.
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You’re kidding, right? Either that, or you simply don’t know how to decipher the scientific literature.
Last I looked, ISM had published less than 20 original, peer-reviewed papers in quality journals. Everything else you will find on, e.g., Google Scholar is a review article, opinion piece, abstract, etc. That’s a paltry output, at least/especially for someone of his age/career stage and working in a US medical school with minimal teaching responsibilities. More telling, as best as I can determine he has never had any external funding, not even from the private sector, much less from NIH (far more prestigious/desirable, due to the peer review and additional F&A dollars that flow to the PI’s institution…to the point that the saying is, “a dollar from NIH is worth two dollars” from any other source). Finally, his limited publications haven’t been very impactful, as demonstrated by the relative infrequency at which they have been cited.
TL,DR: ISM’s track record as a scientist is such that I can’t see him getting hired in kinesiology/exercise physiology at any R1 institution in the US, much less at any medical school here. I say that as someone who knows the field/standards/expectations well, having spent the vast majority of my career living off of “soft” (i.e., grant) money at WUSTL and other medical schools as well as working at (and serving on, including at present, search committees for) several R1 institutions.*
*Technically, IUPUI - soon to be just IUI, since IU and PU are undergoing a not-entirely-amicable divorce - is R2, not R1. However, that’s because a few years ago the Dean of the medical school made a successful power play to bypass the Chancellor here and report directly to the President of the IU system in Bloomington. Among other things, that means Bloomington gets credit for any funding directed through the medical school, even though the research happens here in Indianapolis.
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ok ok you got me. i guess i fell into that trap. i do have experience (a few pubs myself when i was a student), but i did not review his publications. i am into cycling, but not THAT into it.
i am not interested in being right, rather knowing what is right. so what is wrong with his approach/theories?
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