Strength Training In-Season for the Competitive Multisport Athlete
by Coach Troy Jacobson
We all know of the importance of strength training for competitive endurance athletes. The benefits are numerous and include everything from increasing bone density to helping reduce the risk of injury. Being a stronger person overall means that you'll be a better athlete and therefore, strength work and other supplementary work (i.e. stretching, yoga, etc.) has a place in every competitive athlete's training regimen. A common question posed by many competitive triathletes is whether or not strength training should be continued with great intensity and focus 'in-season'. While there is no perfect answer for every athlete's individual situation, the answer in my opinion is yes -- but with a few important considerations, including:
- Your overall training time availability.
- Your age and experience in training for endurance sport.
- Your target event(s) and event timing.
- Your personal ability to recover from resistance workouts.
- The design and focus of your strength training routine.
"In-Season" sports training should be focused on work specific to the demands of racing (The Principal of Specificity of Training). In other words, the serious triathlete focuses on refining the movement patterns, intensities and other skill sets necessary to race effectively at their target distance or goal events. This means -- at least in most cases -- long steady state aerobic workouts for the Ironman distance athlete and shorter, threshold (race pace) workouts for the short course racer. By doing this, you target and enhance the energy systems most beneficial to succeeding at your race(s). But this is only part of the equation for success. The other part of that equation is recovery from your workouts - as the faster you can recover and adapt to training workloads, the more likely it is that you'll improve your performance. If you hamper that recovery by neglecting proper rest or with inadequate nutrition or by overtraining, you'll see slower performance gains or possibly even a decline in performance. Strength training at the wrong time and at the wrong intensity can quickly put you in an overtrained state -- especially if you are a competitive athlete logging serious training volume in the swim, bike and run.
Boosting muscle tissue contractile characteristics of pure speed/strength is especially important for team sport and speed athletes but is not as important for triathletes as is improving the aerobic and endurance characteristics of the muscle, which is done primarily through extended aerobic intensity work as well as tempo (sub threshold and threshold) training. Strength training for triathletes, especially in-season, should be focused more on maintaining lean muscle tissue and overall muscular and connective tissue strength, as opposed to building raw strength, size and explosiveness. Therefore, my recommendation for the competitive triathlete is to incorporate strength training into their year-round program but according to a periodized schedule as it relates to their race season. This is especially important for the aging triathlete (30 years and older) who begin to see a natural decline in lean tissue due to the aging process.
COMMON MISTAKE: One common mistake that I have witnessed as a coach, especially among athletes newer to endurance sports training (1-3 yrs.) and who come from a strength sport or team sport background, is to overemphasize traditional method strength training in their overall program. By this I mean doing strength work in the gym as a primary form of training and not as a secondary, or supplementary, form of training.
It's important to remember that you get to be a faster runner by running fast -- not by pounding out heavy sets of squats. Be careful not to 'burn the candle at both ends' and sacrifice your ability to properly recover from your sport specific training just in order to fit in that strength workout -- choose your battles wisely. Remember there's a distinct difference between 'training for fitness' and 'training for competition'.In-Season strength training should be focused on strength maintenance, not building. Short, resistance focused workouts one or two times each week of even 10-20 minutes targeting major muscle movers will do the trick. Good examples of simple exercises include: Pushups (upper body push muscles), chin ups (upper back pull muscles), lunges (lower body) and core work (crunches, v-sits). It is also my recommendation to scale back on the intensity of your strength work 7-10 days prior to your key multisport event and avoid strength work 2-3 days before that event. And any strength work that makes you overly sore 'in-season' is probably too intense and might interfere with your progress in the swim-bike and run. The key with in-season strength training is to minimize any negative affects of the training on your ability to recover from your more important -- sport specific tri training and of course, your racing. If you notice that your swim, bike or run training is suffering as a result of your strength work, you need to re-evaluate the strength work and how it fits into your overall goals of reaching your potential in multisport. I hear from many cyclists who complain about having a sub-standard bike workout due to tired or sore legs from a heavy 'lifting day' in the gym. While it might be a good ego boost to leg press 400 pounds- translating that strength to the bike while riding up a hill is a different story altogether. That same athlete would probably have been better off and improved his cycling by having a lighter workout in the gym designed to maintain strength and a higher quality 'sport specific' workout (i.e. higher wattage readings and heart rates) during the bike workout. The very important principal of Specificity of Training is to be adhered to by all serious athletes. Supplementary training, especially strength work, will enhance your multisport performance - but make sure you measure it out in the right doses, according to the time of season and your overall goals and objectives as a competitive triathlete.
Coach Troy has been coaching triathletes since 1992 and has trained all levels from novice to Olympic. For more information about his personal coaching services and to join his stable of athletes, CLICK HERE
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