STRENGTH TRAINING FOR THE ENDURANCE ATHLETE
Training is the process of accumulating a desired physiological adaptation for the purpose of improving performance. The desired adaptation is dependent on the performance at hand. Strength is the adaptation that is applicable to all physical activity. In most athletic endeavors, strength is the primary physiological trait being expressed. This is because most sports involve high levels of force production, and strength is a measure of force production capability. Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, wrestling, shot put, weightlifting, all consist of high intensity activity. The athlete’s performance is dependent on their ability to produce force, and produce it quickly. Therefore, strength training should be prioritized to realize your physical potential in these sports. However, there are sports in which strength is NOT the fundamental adaptation being expressed. Marathon, long distance swimming, long distance rowing, cross country skiing are all examples of endurance sports. Endurance sports consist of cyclical movement patterns repeated for long periods of time using submaximal force production. Because endurance is at the foundation of these sports, strength must take a secondary role in the athlete’s training schedule. Most of their time and resources will be spent accumulating other adaptations vital to efficient energy utilization for their specific performance. Unfortunately, this traditionally results in the neglect of strength training all together for most endurance athletes.
Because endurance sports still involve force production, training the ability to produce force is still beneficial for endurance athletes. Improving an athletes maximal strength makes the submaximal force necessary for the endurance event a lower percentage of the athletes capacity, making the them more efficient with their energy expenditure. Strength training also helps mitigate injury by accumulating more robust structural adaptations vital to longevity. Endurance sports related injuries are most commonly overuse injuries. These are injuries that occur from repetitive use of a musculoskeletal structure to the point of inflammation, deterioration, or damage. The most common injuries in endurance sports are tendonitis (inflammation) and bone stress injuries (shin splints and stress fractures). While no-one can prevent all injury, especially if you are interested in pushing yourself, strength training can significantly reduce the incidence of these injuries, reduce the affect the injuries have on overall performance, and reduce the recovery time after an injury occurs. For example, using axil loaded movement patterns (squats, presses, deadlifts, etc.) will force the body accumulate bone density overtime to adapt to heavier and heavier loads, making the forces of endurance sports less impactful to those structures. Strength training also makes the connective tissue commonly associated with inflammation thicker and stronger. It is a common misconception that strength training just builds muscle. While strength training does this very effectively, it is far from the entire picture. Muscles move joints by contracting and pulling on the connective tissue at their skeletal attachment points. This means that the connective tissues (tendons) are subject to the same forces that the muscles are subjected to, and therefore will adapt by getting stronger and less prone to injury. Just like accumulating bone density, stronger tendons make the forces of endurance activities less impactful to the athlete. This allows the athlete to train harder and longer with a mitigated injury risk.
Now, what does strength training for an endurance athlete look like? Because strength is a general adaption, it actually doesn’t look much different from that of a high intensity sport. However, the athlete will be dedicating a significant amount of their time and recovery resources to accumulate the other adaptations necessary for high performance in an endurance sport, some of which are directly in opposition to accumulating strength. This means an endurance athlete cannot adapt to strength training to the degree a power athlete can.
The exact programming is dependent on the athlete. This is primarily because endurance sports exist across a wide spectrum. For example, a 1500m track athlete and a cross country skier are both endurance athletes but still very different in nature. There is a certain amount of explosiveness that a 1500m runner requires, that a 30km cross country skier may not necessarily need to express. That being said, most endurance athletes are new to strength training so that level of specificity probably doesn’t matter much at first. For this example, we will assume the athlete is a standard marathon runner since that is the quintessential endurance event.
Workout A
Squat - 3x5
Bench Press - 3x5
Chin up - 20-30 total reps
Workout B
Squat - 3x5
Strict Press - 3x5
Deadlift - 1-2x5
The athlete would strength train two times per week while continuing to train for their endurance event. Workout A would be performed on Monday. Workout B would be performed on Thursday. The athlete could alternatively adopt a Tuesday/Friday schedule depending on what fits with their endurance training schedule. Ideally, the athlete should strength train on days that align with their interval training since those are programmed to be higher intensity already. The athlete would add weight to the bar for each exercise every workout until the weight begins to slow down significantly. For the squat, the athlete could add weight for workout B, repeat the same weight, or just do a lighter squat (85-90% of workout A). The athlete could also opt to not squat during workout B, but typically it’s a good idea for a novice lifter to squat more than once per week. This may seem like a minimal or bare bones program. It is. Trust me, it’s more than enough, especially for a marathon runner. Again, endurance athletes spend the vast majority of their time and resources performing and recovering from endurance training. A strength program MUST reflect that reality. To give another example, let’s say the athlete is on the other end of the spectrum and is a track and field athlete that specializes in the 1500m run or 3000m steeple chase. As stated before, there is a certain amount of explosiveness that these athletes require that longer distance athletes don’t generally need to express. The strength program should reflect this. These athletes may start with a similar program but will quickly branch off to more specificity as they accumulate strength. Their program may look something like this.
Workout A
Squat - 3x5
Bench Press - 3x5
Deadlift - 1x5
Workout B
Squat - 3x5
Strict Press - 3x5
Deadlift - 1x5
This program follows the same protocol as the previous example. Add weight every workout on a Monday, Thursday schedule. As the bar speed slows down and workouts become more stressful, The program would slowly morph into something like this:
Workout A
Squat - 4x5 @85-90% of workout B
Bench Press - 1-2x3, 3-4x5 @85-90%
Power Clean/Power Snatch - 4x3/6x2
Chin up - 20-30 total reps
Workout B
Squat - 2-3x3
Strict Press - 1-2x3, 3-4x5 @85-90%
Deadlift - 2x3
This program begins to split training into volume based workouts and intensity based workouts, an eventual necessity for any strength program as athletes get stronger. The addition of the olympic lifts keep the athlete’s expression of power concurrent with their strength development, meaning the athlete is practicing using their strength quickly. This is the beginning of the addition of what is commonly referred to as “sport specificity” for the 1500m/steeple chase athletes’ program when compared to the marathon runner’s program.
As the athlete progresses, failed reps should be avoided. A heavy barbell exercise taken to failure is a highly stressful physical event. That level of stress is generally unnecessary for most people, and in some cases counterproductive due to the systematic toll it takes on the body, making it difficult to recover from in a reasonable amount of time. This is especially true for an endurance athlete since the majority of their recovery resources should be dedicated to their specific endurance training. Therefore, changes should be made to the program well BEFORE failure is reached. These changes can be in the form of adding less weight to the bar per workout. The athlete could reduce the frequency of increases on the bar. The athlete could split the volume into more sets to allow for reduced per set volume. The specifics are dependent on the athlete. At the end of the day, the goal is to add weight to the bar because that is how an increase in strength is quantified. This must happen without significantly impeding the recovery process of the athlete’s endurance training.
Eventually, the ability to add weight to the bar every workout or every week will be exhausted. The baseline level of adaptation has been acquired to reap the majority of the benefits of strength training for an endurance athlete. At this point, it is debatable whether an endurance athlete needs to get much stronger (again, we are assuming this athlete is a marathon runner). While an increase in strength is always beneficial, some athletes may decide the time and effort required to do so may not be worth the gains acquired and recovery resources required to actively progress. This is the law of diminishing returns at play.
The athlete now has two options: Either enter a maintenance phase where strength remains relatively constant as endurance training and performance continue to progress, or progress their strength but at a significantly reduced rate. My recommendation would be the latter. Maintenance programs aren’t as easy as they sound. It took hard work and relatively heavy weights to develop the athletes current strength level, so it will still take some amount of hard workout and heavy weight to maintain it. So if it’s going to be hard either way, you might as well make some progress, even if that progress isn’t always obligatory or is much slower. Additionally, the athlete is always fighting against life. Strength is a relatively permanent adaptation, but things happen. “Maintenance” will inevitably result in regression. The athlete will get sick, potentially resulting in some marginal loss in strength. The athlete may get injured, resulting in temporarily reduced training volume and/or intensity. The athlete will miss workouts for life reasons (weddings, funerals, etc.). These may result in detraining. All of these compounding factors overtime could result in decreased strength. Having some to spare is a good idea. The greatest way to combat this regression is continued progression. What that program looks like is much more individual to the athlete, and requires context to prescribe. But I could look something like this:
WEEK 1
Monday
Squat - 4x5 @80-85% of Week 2 2x3
Bench Press - 4x5 @80-85% of Week 2 2x3
Chin ups - 25-35 total reps
Thursday
Deadlift - 1x3, 1x4 @85-90%
Strict Press - 1x3, 2x4 @85-90%
SSB Squat - 2x6
WEEK 2
Monday
Squat - 1x3, 2x4 @85-90%
Bench Press - 1x3, 2x4 @85-90%
Pull ups - 15-25 total reps
Thursday
Power Clean or Power Snatch - 12x1 OR Deadlifts - 2-3x5 @80% of Week 1 2x3
Romanian Deadlift - 2x6
Strict Press - 4x5 @80-85% of Week 1 2x3
This program would be performed until it’s time for the athlete to peak for a competition. At that point, strength training volume would taper and maybe even stop all together as the the competition date approaches. After the athlete competes and recovers, he can resume the previous program starting at about 10-20% lighter than pre race weights or start the strength training process from the beginning, depending on how long it’s been since they last lifted.
