Strength Training is an Insurance Policy for Endurance Athletes

A well-designed strength program will benefit any endurance athlete.

Strength training:

• Increases efficiency

• Improves technique

• Reduces chance of injury

• Identifies and addresses imbalances

Stronger muscles will make you more efficient in the movement of your sport.

Whether it is running, cycling, or swimming, or whatever activity you enjoy, more strength, power, and stability will make you more proficient at that activity.

This benefits you because making an activity easier will allow you to perform more repetitions of it over time.

Strength training can also improve your technique.

Muscles that lack strength can cause you to negatively alter your technique to make up for the lack of strength.

Endurance activities require you to repeat the same movement over and over. If there is a lack in technique, it likely will result in a decrease in performance or worse-case, injury.

Incorporating strength workouts into your training will improve these weak muscles and allow you to make corrections in your technique as strength won’t be a limiting factor.

The main point here is that strength training will not only improve your performance, but it will also reduce the chance of injury.

Strength training not only strengthens your muscles, but it also strengthens your ligaments and tendons that support your muscles and joints.

Repetitive stress on an unsupportive joint can lead to injury. Lack of strength creates unsupportive joints.

It is important to note that ligaments and tendons require more training over time to strengthen than muscle. Increasing your strength in your muscles, ligaments, and tendons will provide you more joint support which reduces the chance of injury.

Similar to improving technique, strength training provides an opportunity to identify weak muscles and imbalances on each side of your body.

If a muscle on one side of your body is weaker than the other side, it can lead to worsening your technique and overall performance.

Strength training can help address this imbalance.

For example, unilateral exercises, such as lunges, can improve muscle imbalances in the legs as they require you to use one side of your body at a time.

Basic compound strength exercises are ideal to incorporate into your training.

Compound exercises require the use of more than one joint.

To get started, here are the main strength movements and a compound exercise that addresses each:

• Squat (barbell squat)

• Hinge (barbell deadlift)

• Vertical Push (shoulder press)

• Horizontal Push (bench press)

• Vertical Pull (pull-up)

• Horizontal Pull (dumbbell row)

• Carry (farmers walk)

• Rotation (Russian twists)

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