Whether you’ve signed up for your first 10k or you’re training for your next ultra-marathon, imagine having the unwavering confidence that physically, you know you’re up to the task ahead. You know that you’re going to be able to complete a solid block of training, get to the start line and complete the race as well as you want to. Now imagine not just having this confidence for one race, but across your whole year.

So, what does it take to get to this point?

There are numerous factors to consider; from having an optimal training schedule that fits into the demands of your lifestyle, to reducing external stressors and getting on top of your nutrition and recovery. But for the purpose of today's article, we’re going to talk about your ‘Physical Competency’. By this we mean; what should you be able to do with your body? How strong and conditioned does your body really need to be to not only reach your goals throughout the year, but to also stay injury free?

Endurance is a hugely broad category, encompassing a wide variety of sports, environments, distances and speeds. However, regardless of the finer details, there are some basic physical requirements that all endurance athletes should be proficient in if you want to get the most out of the sport you love. Essentially, it’s our aim at Strength For Endurance to keep you pain-free, injury-free and ahead of the curve; with the ability to keep asking more of yourself, week-in, week-out.

It's incredibly powerful as an athlete to really know what you need to tick off. If you want to run 100 miles or compete in an Ironman, and do it to the best of your ability, then there are some serious levels of conditioning and strength that you need to find. Now, before we get into numbers, there are two questions you need to ask yourself…

Are you Pain free?

This has to be at the forefront of your mind. If you are currently just trying to get by with a niggle, it's likely going to manifest into something out of your control, and you are going to break at some point. That is what we're looking to avoid at all costs.

We aim to get to a place with all of our clients where our conversations are ones of growth, by asking questions like “What else can you do?” and “What's the next event you want to be competing at?”… rather than troubleshooting all the time because you've got constant niggles.

So getting on top of these issues needs to be the first priority. This is where we start with a large percentage of our clients.

What are the REAL demands of your sport?

Do you really understand the demands of your sport? What are you asking your body to be able to do? What positions are you asking your body to hold? What terrain are you looking to be able to traverse?

Understanding this will give you a clear picture of where your specific strengths need to be and what you need to be including in your training to make sure you get to where you need to be. It shouldn’t be about surviving through something, it's about thriving, and being able to actually pushing that accelerator if you need to halfway into a race, or being able to pick up the pace on that last couple of kilometres because you've got more to give.

So how do you know if you’re strong enough?

In order for our clients to know where they stand and what they should be aiming for, we use our SFE Standards.

These are a set of physical measures developed through a combination of research and experience, showing what you should be able to achieve across a variety of bodyweight movements and weight-based strength exercises. They are numbers you should be aspiring to if you want to maintain an injury-free and successful race year.

We’re learnt through over a decade of clients coming through our doors that the people that make these types of exercises and numbers look easy are generally the ones who never get injured, or the ones that rebound very quickly from events.

Today we’re going to give a few examples of these standards - if you’re interested in taking a more comprehensive look at whether you meet the standards, find out more below:

Find out more

Feet & Ankles

Your feet are the most important real estate that you have as an athlete, yet are commonly one of the most injured; 70% of running injuries occur at the knee or below, be it plantar fasciitis, Achilles, calf, shin splints or knee problems, the lower body is incredibly susceptible to injury. Not only that, your ability to jump, land, hop and change direction are all going to determine how successful you are as an athlete.

The Broad Jump and Single Leg Hop are two of our SFE Standard exercises. In terms of your Broad Jump, you should be able to jump your own body height and you should be able to stick that landing with confidence and comfort - not collapse or stumble through your knees and ankles

When it comes to your single leg and left versus right, you should be able to stand on one leg, explode forward, land and stick that landing on that same leg, at a distance of 50-75% of your body height. You shouldn’t be falling over, or putting the other foot down - stick the landing nice and softly with relative stiffness in the joints.

Being able to express this type of power and confidence in your lower body should be effortless if you want to run and compete across the distances and terrains that you do - because if you multiply that single leg hop by 20,000 steps (or whatever it is during your race), you're in serious trouble if you don't have the same amount of power or competency on your left versus your right.

If you feel fragile, unstable or weak, then there's your homework. Start easy, start simple, get strong, get stable in your ankle joint, keep your feet on the ground, and then start to introduce low level jumping work and build on that.

Calf strength

With regards to your calf strength, we are looking at your ability to be able to perform 20 to 30 single leg calf raises on each side. The quality of the movement for each repetition should be the same height and the same level of control.

We're looking at one of the most utilised muscle groups when it comes to your running, and you should have the level of conditioning to perform 20 to 30 without a problem. If you can't, then it's going to manifest into other things; the lack of control in those major muscle groups is going to creep into the ankle and up into the knee.

HAMSTRINGS

People talk a lot about glutes, and they talk a lot about calves, but they don't talk enough about hamstrings. However, our hamstrings are the powerhouse of our lower body; they give us power, extension and speed, so the more strength you can find in your hamstrings, the better.

Your basic standard here should be to do 20 to 30 single leg hamstring bridges on each leg, with control, with a stable hip position, not arching through your back, but keeping your mid back on the ground and bringing your hips to full extension.

It should be pretty much effortless. Yes, there will be a lactate response - a ‘lactic burn’ - but not the feeling that you’re going to cramp or tear. If you do have that feeling, that suggests a significant lack of conditioning. But this means you've actually got a lot more to give, and it should be exciting knowing that you’re still leaving things on the table and you've actually got a lot more to offer!

Upper Body

Moving up into the upper body, and often the most neglected area by endurance athletes. Yet when we are getting into the latter stages of our races, the upper body is often the first point that crumbles and starts to break down, causing a domino effect into the lower body.

You should be able to perform 5 to 10 Pull Ups and 20 to 30 Push Ups without thought.

Think this is unrealistic? It’s not a coincidence to hear clients say how much stronger their running feels after a few weeks of introducing upper body work into their program. These levels of upper body strength are essential if you want to be able to hold good form and posture whilst you’re running, maintain positions on the bike or pull yourself through the water.

Core

The plank is an interesting one: people love it, they do way too much of it and they don't explore core strength enough. However, when used as a baseline, the ability to hold a 3 to 5 minute plank indicates that you've got great upper body strength, great lower body strength, and a strong core connecting the two.

If you can't do that, then you've got work to do. Rather than just doing a plank, you need to think about your core strength in rotation/anti-rotation patterns, as well as flexion and extension.

It doesn’t end here….

As we’ve said, this is a little insight into the basic standards that you should be expecting of yourself if you really want to be on top of your game. But these bodyweight measures are just the beginning - when we’re talking about increasing loads and what numbers you should be able to squat, lift, push or pull then it’s strongly based around your body weight.

For example, if you weigh 70kg, you should be able to squat, lift, push and pull 70kg.

Why? Simply because you expect your body to be able to carry you across crazy distances. If you can start moving towards these types of weights, you will be in a very, very different place with a lot less pain and a lot less struggle.

Ready to start thriving, rather than just surviving? Get in touch today for a free consultation, and we’ll show you exactly where a great program can take you.

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ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH TO BE AN ENDURANCE ATHLETE?