An opportunity exists in strength training for endurance athletes—from increasing injury prevention or correcting an imbalance to developing strength and power.
The off-season is a time of opportunity. It’s a chance to develop a key area of their performance, a specific skill they need to master, or even take their foot off the gas and get some well-needed rest.
Strength Training and Power for Better Athletic Performance
As we traverse the endurance sports landscape, we all share a common goal, to be better versions of our athletic selves. For most, this is likely to become stronger and/or more powerful. Whether pushing bigger watts on the bike, moving through the water with greater ease, or sprinting to the finish line, a little more power can make a far more successful athletic experience.
From a pure power output perspective, strength training for endurance athletes can play a pivotal role in your training. It’s about developing functional strength that translates into more power on the bike, in the pool, or on the road. Even moderate increases in power can lead to significant improvements in performance when the season comes around again.
5 Key Strength Exercises For Endurance Athletes
- Squats: Squats are foundational for building strength in the legs, hips, and core. They mimic the functional movement patterns of running and cycling, helping to enhance power and efficiency in these sports.
- Deadlifts: This exercise is excellent for developing the posterior chain muscles, which include the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. Strengthening these muscles is crucial for improving overall endurance performance, providing better support for the spine, and aiding in forceful movements like sprinting and climbing.
- Lunges: Lunges are another great leg workout that focuses on unilateral strength, helping to correct muscle imbalances. They also improve flexibility and stability in the hips, which are vital for effective running and cycling mechanics.
- Plank variations: Core strength is vital for endurance athletes as it stabilizes the whole body and increases the transfer of power to the limbs. Plank variations (like side planks, plank with leg lift, and plank with arm lift) engage multiple core muscles, enhancing stability and endurance.
- Pull-ups or rowing exercises: Upper body strength is often overlooked by endurance athletes but is essential for maintaining good form, especially in the late stages of races. Pull-ups strengthen the back, shoulders, and arms, which are crucial for swimmers, cyclists, and runners.
Injury Prevention With Strength Training
One of the biggest benefits of strength training for endurance athletes is its role in injury prevention. Endurance sports can place a lot of repetitive stress on the body, particularly in areas like the knees, hips, and lower back. Strength training strengthens the muscles and connective tissues surrounding these critical joints, reducing the risk of overuse injuries. Exercises that target core strength, balance, and stability are especially beneficial, as they improve overall alignment and help protect against common endurance training injuries.
5 Key Core and Stability Exercises
- Plank holds: A staple for core strengthening, the basic plank activates the deep core muscles, including the transversus abdominis and lumbar muscles, which support the spine. Holding a plank position helps build endurance in these muscles, critical for maintaining good posture during long races.
- Bird-dog: This exercise enhances core stability and coordination by extending opposite limbs simultaneously, challenging balance and activating the lower back and abdominal muscles. It’s excellent for preventing lower back pain, a common issue for endurance athletes.
- Swiss ball exercises: Using a Swiss ball can increase the intensity of core workouts and improve balance and stability. Exercises like ball crunches, Swiss ball pikes, or stability ball leg curls engage multiple muscle groups, with a focus on the core and lower back.
- Hip (pelvic) bridges: Strengthening the glutes and hamstrings is vital for protecting the lower back and knees. Hip bridges, particularly when performed with a single leg, can target these areas effectively, enhancing muscle balance and stability across the hip joint.
- Cable rotations (woodchoppers): This exercise is excellent for engaging the obliques and improving rotational strength, which is crucial for sports involving twisting movements, like cycling and running. Strengthening the obliques helps support the spine, reducing the risk of side-to-side imbalances that can lead to injury.
Correcting Muscle Imbalances With Strength Training
Endurance training can often emphasize specific muscle groups, which might lead to imbalances and, subsequently, injuries. Strength training fore endurance athletes can provide a platform to correct these imbalances by strengthening underused muscles. For instance, cyclists and runners often have strong quadriceps but weaker hamstrings and glutes. Targeted strength exercises can balance muscle groups, leading to better overall performance and reduced injury risk.
5 Key Exercises To Correct Imbalances in Endurance Athletes
- Single-leg Romanian deadlifts: This exercise is excellent for targeting the hamstrings and glutes on each side independently, which helps correct imbalances between the two sides of the body. It also improves balance and core stability, essential for both running and cycling.
- Bulgarian split squats: By elevating the rear leg, this exercise places more emphasis on the front leg, intensifying the workout for the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. It helps correct imbalances between legs, enhancing stability and strength uniformly.
- Single-arm dumbbell row: This row variation helps correct imbalances in the upper body, particularly between the left and right sides of the back and shoulders. It’s beneficial for endurance athletes, especially those who engage in sports requiring upper body strength like swimming.
- Side planks: Aiming to strengthen the oblique muscles on the sides of the trunk, side planks are crucial for maintaining lateral trunk stability, which is important for all endurance sports. Regularly performing side planks can help correct lateral imbalances in core strength.
- Clamshells: This exercise focuses on strengthening the smaller hip muscles like the gluteus medius, which are crucial for knee stability. Clamshells help correct imbalances in the hips, which can prevent issues such as IT band syndrome or runner’s knee.
Implementing Strength Training In Your Off-Season
To get started, you should aim for 1-2 strength workouts per week. It’s crucial to prioritize form over speed or weight to maximize benefits and minimize the risk of injury. Feel free to go slower when following the demo videos in the Humango workout player. If you’re not working out with someone who can help, particularly if a qualified personal trainer is not an option, set up your phone to record you performing each move and then compare your form to that of the Humango Coach in the video.
As you improve, especially if you were taking it easier, start to bring this more in line with the tempo and reps that are prescribed in the workout, and consider adding another workout per week. Listen to your body as you start playing with your strength routine. It is important that your strength training doesn’t interfere with endurance training, so if you experience significant DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), you might want to reduce the amount you are doing.
Top Tips For Strength Training For Endurance Athletes
- When starting a new strength training routine, start easy with just 1-2 workouts per week. Remember to consult your physician before starting any new training routine.
- As you get started, focus on form. If a personal trainer isn’t an option, then look at capturing your movements on your phone camera so you can compare them to the demo videos in the Humango workout player.
- Set a goal for what you want to achieve from strength training. Are you looking for performance gains, to protect against injury, to fix a muscular imbalance, or something else? With your goal set, find a way to baseline it (for example, amount of or form during single-legged squats, plank hold time, push-ups in a minute), then monitor as you progress.
- As you follow the prescription, don’t be afraid to slow down and go at your own speed. Less can be a little more as your body adapts to the new routine. You will soon catch back up and be stronger for it.
- Remember that, for most people, strength training is to complement endurance training, so if you get to a point where you struggle to complete your endurance-based workouts because of strength training, then consider backing off.
