Lift Things Up, And Putting Them Down

Lift things up and put them down!

The past 30 years, there has been a great uptick in the use of strength training among endurance athletes.  But is it worth doing?  YES!  Strength training can help athletes on the course, but I’d argue an even better aspect, is how strength training impacts an athletes long term well being/health.  Strength training helps maintain muscle mass and bone density - both of which can pay big dividends over our lifespan.  That said, while there are a million exercises you could use, and styles of strength training you could employ, my suggestion is that you keep it simple.  Endurance athletes are spending a lot of energy doing activity, and multisport folks have different sports they need to juggle - not to mention work, families, etc.  So, while the latest insta-fluencer may have shown of 20 amazing looking exercises yesterday, the basics are often the best place to start.  Here are a few keys to keep in mind when formulating solid strength training sessions for yourself this year:

• Aim for 2 sessions per week.

• Full workout duration should be less < 60 minutes, better would be 30-45 minutes.

• The main structure for a solid workout is to do a level change (squat, step up, lunge, deadlift style of movements), a push (pushup, chest press, shoulder press, dip, style movements), a pull (rowing, pull ups, pull down, style of movements).  That is only 3 exercises!  Allow 1-2 minutes between sets OR do this as a circuit where you do one set of each exercise with now rest, then rest 1-2’ between circuits.  This blends workout performance AND time efficiency.
• If you have a history of calf injury or achillies injury, doing a seated or standing calf raise is worth doing - between the upper body pull and push.

• Doing 1-2 “core” or “connector” exercises to finish the session off, like planks, crunches, medicine ball wood chops, side planks, ball rotations, etc., is great, if time allows.

• The workout flow above covers your full body, and is set up so that you are reducing the impact of tired muscles on other body parts as the workout progresses.

• Warm up and cool down? A warm up which I really love for athletes who can handle it, is to string together several medicine ball chops over about 5 minutes.  This both warms up your full body AND helps build “core” strength.  For cool down, some light stretching or even LIGHT and relaxed yoga for 5-10’ can be good. 



• In a perfect world, I like strength workouts to fall either on swim or run days.  Why?  Logistics mostly.  Many athletes swim and strength train at the same space - trying to do those workouts on opposite days just adds a bunch of commute time to your life, and I like to avoid that added stress on the system.  If you have more flexibility or dont lift where you swim, run days are great.  That allows you to clump workouts with a high eccentric load (think lowering weight, and decelerating your weight as you hit the ground each step) sessions on specific days.  That style of work can be tougher to recover from, so clumping that way helps some athletes recover a bit better over the week.

Strength training is worth doing.  Keep it simple so that it doesn’t eat up tons of time, and it can help you stay healthy over the long haul, and perform well too!

Will Kirousis, MS, CSCS, CISSN
Tri-Hard | Director
USA Cycling Certified Coach

USA Triathlon Certified Coach
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

Certified Sports Nutritionist

508.633.2708 | will@tri-hard.com | www.tri-hard.com | @willkirousis

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