STRENGTH TRAINING FOR ATHLETES
“Strength is the mother of all qualities” Dietmar Schmidtbleicher
This holds true with endurance and power athletes
Even though they are involved in an endurance-based sport, you need to focus on strength training in the gym, not endurance training.
Endurance athlete’s overuse their Aerobic Energy System which can lead to decreases in performance and recovery. Analyzing testing data with my athletes from numerous tools, I have seen declines in VO2 max, HRV, Sleep Performance and Sport Performance when these athletes are focusing too much on their sport.
On the contrary, I have analyzed the data when we have pulled back the frequency of practice and increased the frequency of strength training and experience improvements in VO2 max, HRV, Sleep Performance and Sport Performance.
Aside from sports performance there needs to be a focus on injury prevention. Injuries are common in cyclical, aerobic sports such as shin splints, hip labrum injuries, knee injuries and lower back. It is the nature of these sports. Without strength in these areas, they will not be able to train properly in the sport, thus limiting their ability to sustain efforts for long periods of time.
This information is not limited to athletes but also weekend warriors who work full time and run for exercise. There is even more importance for these runner’s to improve strength of the Hamstrings, Vastus Medialis, Glutes and calves. All of these muscles are responsible for stability of the knee, hip and ankle joints. Improving their strength not only decreases risk of injuries but will improve your pace by decreasing the amount of steps you take in your run.
The great Louie Simmons once talked about the best sprinters and long distance runner’s took the least amount of steps in their races. Aside from hiring a qualified technical run coach, the most efficient way to do this is to improve ground contact time and increase the force generated into the ground with strength training.
Figure 1: National Junior Cross Country Athlete Owen Nguyen
How I Approach Strength Training for Endurance Athletes
My conclusion, these athletes need BALANCE between frequency of sport and frequency of strength training.
I tend to focus on the qualities of Hypertrophy (8-12RM) and Functional Hypertrophy (6-8RM).
To improve the anaerobic capacity, I like to incorporate methods such as:
Law of Repeated Efforts
Agonist (Accumulation) and Antagonist (Intensification) Supersets
Agonist (Accumulation) and Antagonist (Intensification) Trisets
Agonist (Accumulation) and Antagonist (Intensification) Giant Sets
Drop Sets
30-15-15 Method (6RM – 8RM – 10RM)
As far as a frequency of the training program I train my athletes according to their Neurotransmitter Dominance. A majority of the Endurance athletes I have seen tend to be non-dominant in their Neurotransmitter Dominance Testing. These athletes like continuity, not variety in training and they will respond best to methods that focus on Volume rather than Intensity.
Train Smarter, Not Longer
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