Strength Training & Triathlon: Recent Research Ep 72

Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food.

Mm-hmm.

Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined.

I'll see you there. Hey y'all, and welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. So today I'm trying something a little bit new and different, so let me know if you like it. But we just started today our 12-week training block that really focuses on increased strength and speed in all of our different classes that we do in person and virtually. So as I was digging a little bit into the research on strength training and triathletes or endurance athletes specifically, like cycling, running, triathlon, I found a couple of interesting articles. And of course, this is like my jam, totally nerding out on this stuff. So I figured, why wouldn't you guys wanna nerd out with me? So I'm here to tell you a little bit about the research that I found, and I'll start off with one article from the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, one of my favorite articles. Or my, one of my favorite journals, I should say. The article is titled Strength Training Improves Cycling and Running Economy in Long-Distance Triathletes. So hey-o, how about that? It was published back in November of 2018, and we have seen that in short course triathletes in particular, that cycling economy and running economy, so basically how efficient are you at doing those activities? And then of course overall performance is improved with strength training, but some of the implementation seems to be a big challenge. And one of the other articles, which I may or may not refer to today, was citing that as a barrier for the reason why a lot of endurance athletes don't like to get into strength training. And basically like, how do, how do you do it? Right? We get that that concept may work, but like how do you actually implement it? And that's like I said, what we're working on. Doing in our group classes. So if you're local to the Raleigh-Durham area, come join us. You get to work out with me. Isn't that fun? I get to, uh, walk around with a timer and, uh, help you put weights on the barbell and do all that fun kind of stuff. Anyhow, this particular article looked at 30 long-distance triathletes, so average age of 38 plus or minus 9 years. So they were randomly assigned to either an endurance-only group, so there are 15 of them for that, or an endurance strength group, so 15 of them for that. And they were matched for age, gender, and performance for a 26-week intervention, right? So we got about 6 months here. So the, um, 2 groups were matched as best as they can. So that, uh, but of course the strength group had an additional 2 strength training sessions per week. So they consisted of 12 weeks of progressive moderate strength training. So that's less than 75% of your one rep max, which on a side note, getting my athletes to do one rep max is kind of like pulling fingernails. So we typically will agree at a 3 or a 5 rep max. I, I don't, I don't know whether it's a fear thing or a combination of various things. Things. But, uh, you know, my endurance crowd generally doesn't like to do some of these big heavy lifts. But, you know, I lean into it a little bit, see where I can meet them in the middle. So anyhow, that's 12 weeks of progressive moderate strength training and then 12 weeks of progressive heavy strength training. So heavy they define as greater than 85% of your one rep max. So if your one rep squat max is 100 pounds, They're thinking that heavy strength training is 85 pounds to 100 pounds, right? So those sessions consisted of 4 lower limb and 1 upper limb exercise. So think of it as 4 lower body, 1 upper body, right? And then this was the cool part. They completed a, the participants completed a simulated triathlon quote unquote test. So not necessarily doing like a VO2 max test or anything like that, but doing a simulated triathlon. Which I mean, okay, right? And a 1 rep max testing at baseline, 14 weeks, and then at 20 weeks, 26 weeks. So then during the simulated triathlon, which was, uh, looked for, for their, they looked at their swim time, um, their cycling economy, their running economy, and then the overall energy costs or calories. That were expended during that effort. So maximal strength tests were done for squats like I just told you before. And again, this is why I love doing strength training in person because this I find is typically where athletes, in particular endurance athletes, don't do great with their form. So they need a lot of form assistance, form correction, um, kinesthetic awareness if you will. And that really helps if you're working either with a coach or a personal trainer or somebody who really knows their stuff with, with form. The other thing was single-legged leg press. We don't happen to have that in the gym that we use, but we do a lot of single-leg squats, and then a single-leg calf raise, and then a lat or a latissimus dorsi, a lat pulldown, which in the gym that we use, we do a lot of band-assisted or just regular old pull-ups. There tends to be a lot of resistance with that particular exercise too. But again, we're leaning into it, guys. We're always looking to learn new things and to get stronger in different ways. So anyway, at the completion of this 26-week program, only the endurance strength group had significant improvements in their cycling economy, their running economy, and just overall their exercise performance, which is pretty cool, right? Uh, there were also significant improvements, obviously, because they're doing it right, in the, uh, strength one-rep max. Uh, only the endurance strength group had significant improvements in the other— the lat pulldown, the single-leg calf raise, and the single-legged leg press. So swim times, uh, were the same in both groups. So, uh, progressive, their, their sort of point here is that this progressive strength training program only 2 days a week in conjunction with endurance training can significantly help in your cycling economy, your running economy, and overall performance in long distance triathletes. And again, they did, they, that their test was actually doing sort of a, uh, simulated triathlon, which is cool, right? So this is another article. Uh, let's see if I can pull it up. Sorry if you hear me clicking around here. This was a little bit more. So the, the one I just told you about was back in 2018. This was from 2021. The article's called Strength Training Improves Exercise Economy in Triathletes During a Simulated Triathlon. So similar type of research. This was in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. So looking at, um, the efficacy of strength training implementation to improve economy in long-distance triathletes. So that was their investigation that they were actually doing, and this was a randomized controlled trial, which is kind of cool. So the methods were, and we've got a, um, again, a small group, so 25 total triathletes randomly assigned 26 weeks of concurrent training. So using their endurance training and their strength training, uh, and again, we've got this progressive load. That's the really important part. And again, what I found in another article was the big barrier to a lot of triathletes not doing strength because, you know, you walk into a weight room, when you walk outside to go for a run, it's like, okay, well, I run down the street, right? End of story. When you walk into a weight room, you're like, I don't— there's big weights, there's little weights, there's like, I don't know what I'm doing. How do I make sure that my form is good? Now that, that's a sweeping generalization because a lot of our folks come in from a strength, from a strength background, but some none at all. And we're, we're getting there. So anyway, just knowing that the progression is the important part. So similar from the last article that I was telling you about, the strength training program progressed from moderate, so 8 to 12 reps at less than or equal to 75% of the 1 rep max. So again, if you do a squat and your 1 rep max is 100 pounds, working at 75 pounds or less for 8 to 12 reps. Okay, so those were the first 0 to 12 weeks. And I think having said that, I think that a lot of the challenge for triathletes is that they're not giving it enough of a chance or they're not doing it long enough, or they say they do it for like 4 weeks and they're like, well, it didn't work. Um, time is also an issue. Like, okay, well, in order for me to get all my bikes and all my runs and all my swims in, something's gonna have to give. And you're not wrong, right? But I would encourage you to try some of this stuff out because your body is pretty amazing. And that being said, I'm also thinking from a longevity perspective. Perspective, and from a nutrition perspective, being a dietitian as well, knowing, okay, for longevity, especially if you are 40+, you need to be picking up heavy things because that is gonna help maintain your lean body mass. And in conjunction with ingesting the right amount of essential amino acids or protein, ideally somewhere around 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Sorry, y'all, you know, we're using metric here. Get a calculator out. You got this, you can do it. So take your weight, divide it by 2.2, that gives you how many kilograms you are, and then multiply it by 1.5, which, you know, sometimes it's roughly 1 pound per body weight. Anyway, we work in, uh, the metric system, but I would love to see that most of my athletes can get in that 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. You can get upwards of 2, but I definitely don't want to see less than 1.2. Because that's where we want to get that stimulation of that lean body mass in conjunction with your strength training. You're picking up heavy things, that's going to help our bone density, that's going to help our lean body mass. And that's going to help us prevent falls as we age. Because even if you're 40 now, even if you're 30, even if you're 50, I'm thinking, what happens when you're 70? What happens when you're 80? And that is one of the biggest issues as we age, is that we lose lean body mass, we lose activity, and we overall put ourselves at greater risk for bones and overall health when we fall. So I know that we're talking about triathlon right now, but that's where my brain goes when I'm thinking about programming workouts. How can we get you doing this now and how can we keep getting you to do this? Anyway, I'm literally still staring at the same sentence in their methods, uh, but that got me on a little bit of rant, so apologies. Anyhow, um, other things that they're looking at. So they did a simulated triathlon. They were a little bit more specific in terms of what they were doing. So they did a 1500-meter swim, a 60-minute cycle, and a 20-minute run. They did it at at the initial start. So like this morning we didn't do a simulated triathlon, but we did a high rep ma— or sorry, low rep max back squat. We also did pushup tests, we did a plank test. So we did some testing this morning and then we'll do 'em again kind of at certain intervals in particular over this 12-week training period. So anyway, This simulated triathlon in this particular research article was done at 0 weeks, 14 weeks, and 26 weeks. 1500-meter swim, 60-minute cycle, 20-minute run. Cool. The other thing that was measured were anthropometric measures. They did skinfold tests and also body mass, and then they also did maximal strength tests. And the results that they saw were the endurance strength group significantly improved their maximal strength measures at weeks 14 and 16. Their cycling economy. So just like we saw in the last research article, from 0 to 14 weeks and their running economy from 14 to 26 weeks, no changes in overall body mass. So, and don't hear it as much, but some women are like, oh, I don't wanna get big. Well, clearly, you know, you won't necessarily get big doing this type of a protocol. So the endurance-only group did not significantly improve in any of their economy measures. So their conclusions were the addition of progressive load strength training to long distance triathletes training programs can significantly improve running and cycling economy without an increase in body mass. So all that to say is that, like I said, we just started this morning our 12-week progressive overload with strength training. So if you feel, if you are local and you feel like you need some support in that arena of somebody keeping your eyes on you. Looking at your form and doing the work for you in terms of the progressive load, come check us out, theenduranceedge.com. And then under services, you can find the, uh, group sessions, the group triathlon training, or the classes. You can sign up for a 1-month trial. It's $99, or you can come to each individual class on its own. If you are doing this on your own, I know that there are tons of different training plans, but keep in mind that you want this progressive overload. You wanna include big, uh, muscle movements. So like your squats, your lunges, your single leg squats that are using knees, ankles, hips, because of course those are important for triathletes movements. And then also, uh, shoulders like your lat pulldown, like your pushups, things like that that are gonna be, generally speaking, multi-joint. So in a push-up, you've got some movement in your wrist, you've got some movement in your elbow, you've got your shoulders, you've got your core. Like, we got a lot going on there. Same thing with squats. You've got knees moving, hips moving. I will have to say, in my experience with the athletes that I work with, which are, generally speaking, recreational, mostly middle-aged folks who just want to do something really super cool for themselves, the big challenges I see is there is a lack of quad strength. So especially, uh, anything single-legged like a pistol squat or a single-leg squat, um, that is done like on a bench, uh, single-leg split squat, that is, those things are really crucial. You can do those body weight and then you can load them as we've been kind of discussing over these last two articles that I have been digging into here. So that's a big one that I see. I also see a, a big lack of calf strength, especially in my runners. So that is a single leg movement, obviously, but I told you about that in that first article of, you know, looking at increasing strength in calf muscles. I find that oftentimes, and talked a little bit to a local running PT about this too, that if you don't have the strength in the calf muscle, oftentimes the hamstring will have to kind of figure it out. And then that's where sometimes we have some injuries, tears, or cramping and things like that. So calves are a big one to make sure you're strengthening. Quads for sure are a big one to be strengthening. The other thing I see is a lot of, um, sort of progressive kyphosis. So like as we're sitting at our desks for a long time, which generally speaking, a lot of us have desk jobs. Then also we're in arrow position. So we're sort of hunched over there and then we're running and then we do the majority of things in front of us. There is some shortening of the pec muscles. The shoulders tend to come forward a little bit. And then we don't have good shoulder mobility. So I'll do a lot of bar hangs with folks in addition to doing things like lat pull-ups, and I try to break the movement down, especially if somebody cannot do a full pull-up, and that's okay, but that's what we're working on right now. And then similarly, strengthening— of course I'm moving here as if you can see me, but I'm— but strengthening the upper back So the, any sort of rowing motion is going to be important to pull to strengthen those rhomboids in particular, like the same type of movement that you would do with like a, say, a reverse fly, or a rowing type of motion, but with your elbows out, right to get that upper body strength. And then also doing chest openers in terms of like mobility and stretching. So those are some of the key things that I see with our athletes, and I am guessing that you perhaps may not be any different being probably, um, a middle-aged male or female, doesn't matter, recreational triathlete who wants to do amazing things. Now that doesn't mean that fast triathletes or elite triathletes don't need those similar types of movements. It's really critical, right? So opening up the chest. Strengthening the quads, strengthening the calves. But this is not specifically, uh, giving you advice. Make sure that you get that from your healthcare provider, your physical therapist. So anyway, hopefully this was helpful. This was interesting. These are things that I could literally talk to people, or in my case, talk to a microphone about, because I get so excited to see what is the latest research, especially in a sport like triathlon, which is still relatively new. And how that is the amazing thing that I love about this sport is not only do we have 3 different sports, then we have to transition, then we also have to fuel ourselves. And oh, by the way, now we have to do mobility and strength training. So there's a lot of pieces. That's why I love it. And also, again, it's a relatively new sport and physiology is physiology. But man, we're getting so amazing as time goes by. So trying to figure out How do we rearrange? And that's what we love. That's why we love being coaches. That's why we love doing our coach meetings every week, is that we can nerd out on this stuff. Okay. Like, we have this specific person. Here are her challenges in terms of time constraints. Here's what— here's her goals. How do we program appropriately to get her better for her goals? And then again, always with an eye on longevity. How can we make sure that this person can either swim or bike or run or all three for life, and then also feel accomplished and feel successful in their sport? Anyway, you know, I could keep talking, but let us know if you like this format. Hopefully we'll do this a couple more times, see if you dig it. And, uh, hey y'all, thanks for listening. Appreciate it. Check us out at theenduranceedge.com. Otherwise, I will catch you next time. Bye.

Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again, and we'll catch you next time.