SPOILER ALERT…it’s strength training!
WAIT!!! Before you potentially skip past this blog…DON’T!! Give me 3-4mins of your time while I dive in and de-bunk some common misconceptions around strength training for endurance athletes.
FOR ATHLETES TO READ:
“Strength training makes me put on too much size”
This couldn’t be further from the truth! Otherwise, it would be easy right? Everyone that lifts heavy would be putting size on, which clearly isn’t the case. So there is more to the equation. We need more than just a heavy load to put on some serious size. We need a calorie surplus, we need higher volumes, more density, increased time under tension, the pieces to the equation are abundant. So then we flip this equation to ensure that we easily avoid the unwanted increase of “weight”. We eat ENOUGH for our energy demands, work at lower volumes, decrease the density with longer rest periods, avoid being under the bar for too long and we focus on challenging your NERVOUS SYSTEM! The true purpose of STRENGTH TRAINING!
Your nervous system is the king to strength development. Unfortunately, we can not get the most out of your nervous system with very submaximal lifting (i.e 4-5 sets of 15+ reps). Your body needs HEAVY loads to force recruitment of high threshold motor units. Now we know that endurance athletes require ‘slow-twitch’ muscle fibres, however, for continued improvement of your lower end threshold endurance, we NEED to train the opposite end of the equation at the right time. Your demand for running doesn’t require constant heavy lifting like many other athletes, it does, however, need it every so often throughout the year during specific phases. Think of it like this. Every athlete trains relatively similar! The difference is, however, the duration they spend on each training phase.
FOR COACHES TO READ:
“I Need my athletes to run as much as possible. As runners, we need to focus on aerobic endurance to improve performance.”
Now, this statement definitely is not wrong. It’s like every other sport if you want to get better…PLAY YOUR SPORT MORE OFTEN! Strength coaches CAN NOT get you a spot on the team. Our job, however, is to improve physical performance. We need to pull out the highest potential through your physical development possible. So we aren’t here to be your run coach, we are here to give you the physical performance that transfers to your running.
Now going back to the statement we know that aerobic endurance is the key element required. This is where it is perfect. Aerobic endurance AND Max Strength are an IDEAL training pair when it comes to strength programming. Years of research has shown that both training elements work well in terms of adapting simultaneously (This has been research heavily since 1995). It’s almost as if it’s a perfect match right? So why are we not working together and pushing the most possible out of these athletes? There is a chance here to do something special
References:
Compatibility training – Strength and Endurance https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/jappl.1995.78.3.976?journalCode=jappl
Not all Hypertrophy is created equal – https://powerathletehq.com/not-all-hypertrophy-is-created-equal/