This meta-analysis goes against most of the other collective evidence in this aspect. Dave Cripps holds a Masters degree in sport science and is an accredited strength and conditioning coach in the U.K. He’s currently the Director of TriTenacious , a leading online strength and conditioning resource for triathletes, and Coalition Performance , one of the U.K.’s most successful private physical fitness training facilities. Strength training should be periodized throughout the year just like triathlon training: the general physical preparation phase, the specific preparation phase, the pre-competitive phase, the competitive phase, and the peak phase. If you are a long-time listener and appreciate the value the podcast brings, please consider taking a couple of minutes for leaving a rating and review on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you can think of leaving a rating and review. Do not use a 40 cm box if it says a 20 cm box. It's easy to find studies showing improved time trial or time-to-exhaustion test performance as a result of strength training. From fine-tuning your physiology for each of the three disciplines to plotting the best race strategy for your fitness level, personal goals, and competitive conditions, you’ll find the insights and prescriptions typically available only from a top-level coach. Ten to twenty minutes three to seven times per week is recommended. In this phase, do 8-12 reps per set per exercise. Do a combination of heavy strength training (high weights, low reps) and heavy explosive strength training. 3. The caveat to this is if you are doing only 2 workouts per week in each discipline and you don't have time for any additional workouts. Don't ramp up the endurance training volume or intensity and also start to include heavy strength training alongside it. These include running and cycling economy, lactate threshold, and anaerobic capacity. The great thing is that you can test it by lifting to failure with slightly lighter weights, as long as less than 10 reps get you to failure. The running group saw a 4.7% improvement in performance compared to the control group. Let's lay down some ground rules for this phase: You have to make this phase progressive. The structure of your gym workout should be as follows: For the warm-up, start with 5 minutes or so of cardio. Scroll up to a previous section for information on how to lift explosively. Below, I've listed just the meta-analyses and systematic reviews of the impact weightlifting has on running and running performance. Therefore, it makes sense to do strength workouts first, endurance workouts second. Congratulations if you made it all the way to the end of this post. At the end of the session, feel free to add 10 to 20 minutes of plyometrics, core work or other strength training like stretch cord work. Whether it's plyometrics, core training, foam rolling, stretching, or something else, you're already changed and warm. They found that maximal force training led to greater improvements than other intensities. The scientific evidence is overwhelming that triathletes get far better results in less time with a specific triathlon strength- training program. If you are going to do plyometrics, you could do it from the start of the program, or even add them in in the second cycle (weeks 7-12 of this phase). The weight range here is 80% (for 6 reps) to 90+% (for 3 reps) of your 1RM. How do you like the sound of these improvements: Five percent improvement in running performance. Despite significant scientific evidence to support heavy lifting, endurance athletes continue to worry about gaining too much muscle and the perceived negative performance consequences that come with it. The order of workouts on any given day is only one part of the puzzle, which is why I am pretty confident in my current recommendation that doing strength after endurance is also a perfectly fine (if not preferrable) way to go. I will have a 4-week “prep” phase, then jump into the first 4-week block of “base 1” after that. If you don't, you may need to add more weight. Great article Mikael and all referenced. The maintenance that you need to do, however, is minimal. The one thing that I can say is that you can do most of the exercises I recommend (squats, deadlifts and so on) with the weights you do have, and if you do that consistently, then it’s absolutely better than doing no strength training. Something that usually works well for athletes I coach is to swim in the morning and do gym work in the afternoon or evening. So i think doing them with correct posture and proper techniques is the best possible way to prevent injury and remain on the track. However, only five studies have investigated the effects of strength training on swimming performance, and the number of participants in these studies is so low that it's not possible to draw any conclusions. We are passionate about our athlete's success! The gaps in the available research are too big for it to be possible. It is practice-based, from my own experience and the experience of the athletes I coach. The Strength For Endurance gym is based in Bath, UK, and the team also offers virtual training through its … If you just lift the same weights and same reps throughout the phase, you might improve the first 2-3 weeks, but then you'll stagnate.". You should reach the point when you can't do another rep without "cheating" or get very close to it at the end of each set. Meditate if you want to. Do prioritise compound (multi-joint) exercises that mimic sport-specific movements versus isolation exercises, and do favour free weights over machines when possible. This is the final episode of season 3, and it features a couple of really in-depth research reviews. Take the leg press. This will not improve neuromuscular function or RFD. Every training day is customized to the athlete depending on their current strengths, weaknesses and sport specificity. Second, research has shown that interference is strongest when you’re focusing on peripheral adaptations in both strength and endurance training. Going down is eccentric, and you shouldn't be doing that with any speed. See the full list of shownotes here, and all Q&A episode audio files here. With all this background information out of the way, what are some practical recommendations for triathlon core training? 7% Improvement in 5-minute cycling Time Trial. However, performance is of course affected by injury. After the adaptation phase, you should do a session of 1-rep maximum (1RM) test. In short, to make sure that these two very different types of training don’t cancel each other out, ideally you should leave 8 hours between the two sessions. That's where strength training comes in. If you want to do well at any sport-just look at what the best in the industry are doing- then do that! What this means is … 14 talking about this. It's likely you'll skip a core training routine if you have to get dressed just for that. For many triathletes, the topic of strength training has been neglected because of the strong emphasis in training for the swimming, biking, and running aspects of triathlons. There are many molecular and hormonal pathways and hormones involved in the background that causes this phenomenon. To make things practical, I suggest you do 2 sets of 4-5 reps at 80% 1RM of each exercise, with 1.5 to 2 minutes recovery between sets. That Triathlon Show exists to educate the listener, so we don't waste time on news, storytelling or fluff, but get right into discussing how to become a better triathlete or endurance athlete - every single Monday and Thursday. Although in reality, you may be lifting that bar in your squat really slowly, if you’re trying to be powerful and lift it as fast as possible, it still counts as explosive. Strength Training for Triathlon Success. This refers to lifting heavy weights at a low number of repetitions, and not lifting high reps, low weights. Aspenes & Karlsen 2012, Exercise-training intervention studies in competitive swimming. But first, let's discuss why you should be lifting weights a little bit more broadly, so you get the incentive and motivation to stick with me for the rest of this article. The elliptical or stationary rower are my favourites as both work the entire body. Make sure you have rested enough since the previous 1RM-test or last warm-up set before attempting the test. Pick the ones that work for you, and complement with your own exercises that fulfil the criteria I explained above when creating your own routine. Don't try to cram in "extra training". The login page will open in a new tab. Don't make this a make-or-break thing, though. Start with an initial adaptation phase of 2-3 weeks before your "real" strength training program. Two sets is just fine. Great benefit is gained from a comprehensive year-round strength training program. I’ll talk about endurance and strength interference below. When it comes to performance, most of the available research points to there being no direct link between core strength and performance.". Also, make sure you sign up for my free triathlon core training routines below. Hey! It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing. The strength training group also had reduced oxygen consumption which is in essence improved economy. Four to five exercises will go a long way. Finally a post that talks about volume. ABSTRACT To gain mass, you'd need to do more reps (with lighter weights), which is something body-builders and others in the strength and conditioning world have known for decades. Athletes will appreciate sample seasonal plans for various triathlon distances, as well as guidance on adapting training plans to individual needs. Most studies have used multiple leg exercises during a minimum of 8 weeks, which has been suggested to be the minimum period that you need to do strength training to see really good results. I was wondering if there is an ideal time to start this 12-week strength phase in terms of when I start my triathlon training plan. You can reduce the weights slightly. CYCLING - RUNNING - TRIATHLON - STRENGTH TRAINING - COACHING. These health effects can be found on hormonal levels, in bone health, body composition and metabolism, and beyond. However, experience and clinical research supports the use of preventive strengthening exercises in … In a 2002 study by Millet, triathletes were studied doing 14 weeks of heavy strength training two times/week. This is due to the interference effects I’ll describe below, and due to our non-bodybuilder diets (you need a caloric surplus to achieve hypertrophy). Thanks for the weeks-long overview and specific details for each set, plus links for the videos. Use lighter weights to focus on technique and form, and to prevent the ungodly DOMS you would experience if jumping from zero to heavy weight training. You can’t just forget about strength training when you get to your racing season and stop it completely and expect the benefits to last. Take 60-90 seconds rest between sets. 4. The 3 studies that found improvements just exchanged some of the endurance training for resistance training instead, to keep the total training volume constant. This can be the difference between amazing running gains and frustrating series of injuries. " You really don't need a lot of exercises to work all the muscle groups you should. But I also think most triathletes can perform in the gym in the afternoon or evening even after a hard morning ride or run, although the opposite is often not the case. What's interesting is that this performance improvement isn't as directly related to an improvement in economy as it is in running. For most triathletes, this means the winter months and the off-season. There can be some value to doing lower-weight weight training, at least for some time periods. Do not do 8 jumps if it says 5. You should do two sessions per week here. How do you put all of this together? Cycling and strength training: go heavy on the weights! We will soon get into the more practical aspects of including strength training in a triathlon training regime, what exercises to do, and so on. And even in well-trained and elite cyclists, economy has improved towards the end of an extended duration of cycling as a result of strength training. FYI – I struggle to find good material on this. Thanks for sharing. The Science of Triathlon provides up to date research-based answers to these and many similar questions. Please log in again. Finally, I've made a lot of mistakes with plyometric myself, and got myself injured. For example, free-weight squats are better than doing the leg press, because it requires much more balance and activation of more muscle groups, including your core. What you could consider, since after the end of those 12 weeks it sounds like you’re still a few months out from your races, is to extend the progressive part of strength training to 16 weeks or so, and only then move into maintenance. Ronnestad 2013 - Optimizing strength training for running and cycling endurance performance: A review. So it is not all black and white, as you can see. Copyright 2021 Scientific Triathlon, all rights reserved. You can substitute some of your endurance training for strength training. So strength training is in fact even more important for the older athletic population than the young 20-something studs. As I mentioned earlier the longer the duration of the event, the more important economy becomes. That Triathlon Show is one of the top-rated triathlon podcasts in the world. If you are an endurance athlete and you want to get into strength training, you need to be lifting heavy to get the most bang for your buck. Do 3 sets of 3-6 reps per exercise. crab walk). You can improve your muscle strength through either increased muscle size or improved neuromuscular function. Now I just have to get over the intimidation factor at the gym! These kinds of delayed effects are rarely tested in research studies, and to my knowledge haven’t been tested for core training. My training plan has 19 weeks simply because a lot of athletes do have a long winter training season, so fitting in 19-weeks is not a problem, and can give even more benefits than a shorter plan. I have compiled a list of the resources I use over and over below. For example, in a squat, you should be going down slowly and with control, stop at your starting position, and then produce a lot of force as quickly as you can to get up into standing position. About 90% of VO2max or higher. 5 studies met the inclusion criteria. To expand a little, here are some things to keep in mind. The conclusions for what the best type of strength training for cycling performance is, differs from that in running. What's not to like? " This can be the difference between amazing running gains and frustrating series of injuries.". With running, you can go both ways – heavy weights or explosive strength training. Do include core training year-round. Note weights used and number of reps performed. This is the number one most common mistake triathletes make with their strength training, " Do not cheat on the recovery. They also had reduced heart rate during the final 2 hours of cycling. We offer plans for all distances (sprint to IRONMAN) and abilities (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). However, it just is not not as good, generally speaking, as the high-weight low-rep training described in this article. Tucking 10-20 minutes of core work onto the end of a weightlifting session is a great way to get a couple of core sessions in per week at no extra cost. There is aerobic strength training but that is about developing muscular endurance. So it wouldn’t be surprising if there is a direct performance link between core strength and endurance performance, that only becomes apparent in a fatigued state. 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