Combining Strength Training and Endurance Training

The example athlete used for this article will be a triathlete, someone who spends the majority of their training time mixed between sessions of cycling, swimming, and running.  Common in most endurance athletes, but especially in triathletes, cross training tends to be overlooked in a training program.  This typically creates a higher risk of overtraining and never stopping for a true rest day1.  Along with this constant time in the saddle, pool, or on the road, triathletes tend to randomly throw in resistance training without realizing that they need rest rather than more work.  While resistance training is great for endurance athletes, as it decreases the risk of injury while increasing muscle strength and endurance2, there needs to be intelligence and planning put into the design.

In triathlon training, it is not uncommon for most athletes to follow a two-a-day training schedule, meaning that they train twice a day, generally in two of the three race modalities.  The following is a week-long example of an endurance training schedule for the typical triathlete. (For a full definition of each endurance training modality, please read my article named Designing a Cardiorespiratory Training Program3).

Endurance Training Example 1:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
LSD Bike   30 miles   @ 85 rpm Pace Run   2 miles   @ 7:00	REP Swim  10x200’s  @ 3:00 Temp Run  3x1 mile  @ 7:10	Pace Bike  20 miles  @100rpm LSD Swim   2 mile  @ 45-50:00	LSD Run   10 miles  @ 9:10	REP Bike 6x1 mile @ 100rpm Pace Swim   6x500’s   @ 7 min.	REP Run 6x800’s @4:00

As you can see, the training volume of this athlete is very high.  Depending on the competition season for this athlete, the intensities of this program will vary.  As a competition draws near, the intelligent thing to do would be to lower the volume of training, but keep the intensity either the same or slightly above normal so the athlete does not lose any training adaptations.  However, here is where the addition of a resistance training program usually hurts the athlete.  While the volume of endurance training might go down, the resistance training sometimes stays the same.  Here is what a typical, uneducated, resistance training program might look like for the triathlete example:

Strength Training Example 1:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Bench   3x10 Squats   3x10 Curls 3x10 Dips   3x10 Sit-ups  3x10		Press 3x10 Flyes 3x10 Lunges 3x10 Leg Ext3x10 Planks  3x10		Bench   3x10 Squats  3x10 Curls 3x10 Dips   3x10 Sit-ups  3x10

Without a proper strength and conditioning coach designing a program, one usually sees triathletes performing a lot of isolation type exercises, or your stereotypical bodybuilding lifts, and these generally all have the same set and repetition numbers.  And since these are endurance athletes, those numbers are generally 3 sets of 10 repetitions, regardless of the lift.

Now that we have seen what is typically done for a triathlete, let’s see what needs to be done differently to truly help these endurance athletes.  Starting off with the endurance training, there needs to be a smaller overall volume of training.  The athlete still needs to train each leg of the race, but can cut down on the amount of training.

Endurance Training Example 2:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
LSD Bike  30 miles  @ 85 rpm	Pace Run   2 miles   @ 7:00	LSD Swim   2 mile  @ 45-50:00	Pace Bike   20 miles @100rpm	LSD Run   10 miles @ 9:10	REP Swim 10x200’s  @ 3:00

The same goes for the resistance program.  Now, ideally the athlete will have a trained professional designing a program for them, but this is not always the case.  A triathlete is a true endurance athlete.  They do not need to be training for endurance in the weight room.  Instead they need to be strengthening their muscles with heavier weight with lower repetitions.  This makes the body more resilient to injury as well as increases power output.  Here is an example:

Strength Training Example 2:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Front Squat 5x5 Hang Clean 3x6 Planks 3x1:00			Push Press 3x6 RDL 5X5 Pull-ups 3x8

The next blog will be about these types of exercises and why I have them and why the certain number of sets and repetitions.  For now, just understand that these exercises focus on strengthening the athlete and giving them “body armor” against injury and fatigue.  The reason there is only two training days is that these are the actual recommendations by the American College of Sports Medicine for the adult individual who wish to maintain or increase muscular strength4.

Combining strength training and endurance training together can be challenging.  Athletes and coaches don’t like to cut back on training,, but sometimes less can mean more.  By properly combining strength and endurance training together, endurance athletes can achieve new levels of performance and competition.

References:

1 Rusin, J. (2014, December 31). Weight Training for Endurance Addicts | T Nation. Retrieved October 20, 2016, from https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/weight-training-for-endurance-addicts

2 Strength Training for Triathletes | ACTIVE. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Strength-Training-for-Triathletes

3 Baechle, T. R., & Earle, R. W. (2016). Essentials of strength training and conditioning (4th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

4 Swain, D. P. (2014). ACSM's resource manual for Guidelines for exercise testing and prescription (9th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.