Standards of a Hybrid Athlete: A Comprehensive Performance Benchmark

In the world of hybrid training, athletes strive to master both ends of the performance spectrum: the endurance of a distance runner and the strength of a powerlifter. But what can be considered "good" hybrid athlete" in measurable terms?

In this post, I have tried to pull some numbers to define performance standards based on the best available data from general population studies, military fitness testing, scientific literature, and elite athletic benchmarks. While no system is perfect, this is a broad and practical framework for athletes who want to compare themselves across multiple physical domains.

More importantly, it’s not about competing with others — it’s about competing with yourself. This table offers a frame of reference for what is possible and illustrates what it means to be a well-rounded, balanced performer.

Benchmarking the Hybrid Athlete: Methodology

The following tables combine data from:

• Finnish Defence Forces (Puolustusvoimat) Cooper test datasets (n > 20,000 young men, since military service is mandatory this was an excellent source of information that closes out the trained individuals bias)

• StrengthLevel.com estimates for trained populations

• Elite sport data

• Rough population percentiles (Top 1%, Top 10%, median from Tomkinson et al., 2017 & 2023: large-scale aerobic fitness reference values in youth and adults)

  
  

I acknowledge these are approximations and rough combinations of data from multiple sources, so they are not scientifically 100% accurate, but they give a somewhat good picture of what the levels are. Feel free to comment if you find better sources of information!

Male Hybrid Performance Standards

Test	Top 1%	Top 10%	Median
5K Time	~20:10	~22:15	~25:50
VO2max (ml/kg/min)	~56–58	~50–52	~42–44
Pull-Ups (strict)	>15	8–10	3–5
Broad Jump (SLJ)	~260–280 cm	~230–250 cm	~200–210 cm

Female Hybrid Performance Standards

Test	Top 1%	Top 10%	Median
5K Time	~23:00	~25:00	~30:00
VO2max (ml/kg/min)	~50–52	~45–47	~38–40
Pull-Ups (strict)	>6	3–4	0–1
Broad Jump (SLJ)	~200–220 cm	~180–190 cm	~160–170 cm

Note: VO2max and 5K estimations are corrected from 12-minute Cooper test pacing +10s/km to reflect the estimated 5K pace.

Elite Athlete Comparisons (Men)

Here are some examples of elite athletes' numbers just to give some perspective on what the numbers could be when an athlete focuses their whole life on mastering one aspect of performance.

Test	Elite Benchmark
VO2max	Tour de France cyclists: 80–90 ml/kg/min
5K Time	Elite distance runners: 12:30–13:30
Pull-Ups	US Navy SEAL aspirants: 20+ strict reps
Broad Jump	Longjumper: 320-340+ cm

Why These Standards Matter

Hybrid athletes face a unique challenge: balancing opposing adaptations. Endurance training downregulates pathways for hypertrophy and maximal strength, and vice versa. Therefore, achieving high performance across both ends is rare — and valuable.

By establishing baseline numbers across strength, endurance, and power, I want to:

• Set clear goals for training

• Create context for personal progress

• Enable comparison across sports and backgrounds

  
  

These standards are not designed to be elite-only thresholds. They simply represent a map — not a mandate. Most importantly, they can help individuals visualize what balanced performance might look like when strength, endurance, and power are trained concurrently.

Final Note

These numbers aren’t rigid cut-offs — they are reference points. They won’t capture every physiological nuance, sport-specific adaptation, or genetic outlier. But they are a starting point to understand what hybrid athleticism can look like at different levels.

Let this be your scoreboard. How many top 10% can you hit?