The Cats, who are fifth on the ladder but are equal on points with second-placed Hawthorn, have suffered a number of fadeouts in recent weeks.
Last week, chief executive Brian Cook said an increased workload was a key factor, and now Stokes has revealed the details of the extra training.
"Every team does the loading phase and our club's no different," Stokes told K-Rock radio on Sunday.
"We finished a couple of weeks ago and we're about to get into our second phase.
"It means that instead of coming in on a Tuesday or a Monday and just trying to get your body back to feeling how it should be, you're actually stressing the body out even more by going out and doing 10 minutes of hard running or jumping on a bike for an extra 30 minutes.
"It probably doesn't equate to too many extra ks doing the week, but when your body's trying to … recover for the next game, you're actually putting your body under more stress by training harder.
"The science that's behind it, none of us football players understand. But hopefully by round 22 or 23 it gives you enough fitness to get through, and that's when you're peaking.
"Our aim is play finals footy, so the program that we have is set up so that come the first week of the finals we should be in our best physical peak of the year."
He is aiming to return for the Cats' round 19 clash with North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.
"The body's feeling good. I'm really fresh but my ankle is not as good," Stokes said.
"I was hoping to play next week but I tried to do a little bit of running on it last week and it didn't pull up too well.
"Maybe (I'll be back in) a couple more weeks."
Stokes has been keeping up his fitness by spending a lot of time on an exercise bike.
"I've become a really good rider over the last two weeks," he said. "I (usually) try and do anything I can to stay off the bike but for the last two weeks pretty much every day is a bike session.
"I still feel the fitness won't be too much of a worry. If I miss another month, then I'll probably be a little bit concerned. But at the moment I'm not too bad."
