HOW STRONG DO TRIATHLETES NEED TO BE?
The term ‘Strength and Conditioning’ incorporates all aspects of athletic health and performance, so unless you’re competing in weightlifting there are so many other focuses that you need to be considering, which will improve your daily lifestyle and performance more than just lifting weight.
The first step is to ask yourself what you are training for; whether it be health, aesthetics, rehab, performance or just for fun. Strength training will certainly build you a stronger body and move you towards your goals more quickly, but as triathletes, at what point can you say that you are moving enough weight? How do you determine this? What factors do you base this on? How strong is strong enough?
Consider what you as a triathlete expect of your body on a daily, weekly and yearly basis.
Even if you are on a basic training program, you’re probably training at least four to five times a week, encompassing at least one session of each discipline, and in reality most of you are doubling this without question.
Add on top of this the fact that most of you are probably working full time, have a family and (maybe) some sort of social life… The point being, you expect a great deal of work from your body on a day-to-day basis, and expect it to keep on giving without thought. This might have been okay when you were younger, when the ability to bounce back is much quicker… but now recovery takes longer and you have a lot more on your plate to consider.
How much strength do you need?
First and foremost, you need to be strong enough to live the life you want… with a little bit of recklessness thrown in, for those ‘why not give it a go’ moments!
My primary job as a coach is to keep you healthy and doing the things you love, for the rest of your life. At the end of the day, we want to see you running and being active long into your 80s and 90s and this is a realistic vision as long as your coach helps to build your body to last the length of time.
“But I don’t need to be strong, I need to be fast!” Sound familiar? This is a thought many endurance athletes have had, although it is super important to remember that you will never be fast if you are not strong first.
Strength is the foundation that speed, agility, co-ordination, balance and endurance are built upon.
If you are weak or imbalanced you will be inefficient, wasting energy through poor form and potentially increasing the likelihood of injury when performing at speed and intensity. None of which are ingredients of fast performance.
How strong do you need to be?
A general measure of good health and performance is the ability to move your own bodyweight at will. You will be able to pull, push, squat and lift your own bodyweight.
Why? Simple: this is a measure of survival - can you pull yourself up off the ground, or lift a fallen friend?
What you have to remember is that when you are running, you are transmitting multiples of your bodyweight through your joints. Therefore you need to stimulate your muscles to a point that somewhat replicates these forces, so that when you are running, riding and swimming you aren’t shocking your system and it can keep on giving back!
An important thought for all of us over 30 years of age is that we are all on the ‘slow, downward spiral’ due to the down regulation of our hormones, so implementing a strength program into our lifestyles is a great way to combat these issues.
How do you know when you are strong enough?
That’s easy; you’re life gets so much easier! Injuries and common niggles that you are used to living with, will disappear. Everyday tasks will become simpler to complete: moving up and down stairs, getting up off the floor, changing direction at speed.
A stronger and more balanced body will deliver more sustainable power in the water, on the bike and out on a run.
You will have a more efficient stroke in the water, hold higher and more even watts on the bike, and be able to go faster for longer on the run. Some people find that they recover a lot quicker from tough sessions. Remember, as triathletes we are not looking to lift record-breaking amounts (and if you are, you probably want to rethink your priorities).
Even though we as coaches are looking to gain strength, it should not impact your other components of fitness, such as skill level, endurance etc. This is easily monitored through progressive and well structured programming delivered by an experienced coach.
For a closer look into how we can help you further, check out our free resources here.