[Cody Hanning is an Exercise Physiology student at Ohio University and an Athletic Development Intern at Athletic Lab.]

The importance of strength training for endurance events is often underestimated. Whether you’re training for your first 5k or your next Ironman, strength training can have a positive impact on your race times. Often, endurance athletes neglect strength training entirely or follow a high rep, low weight training scheme. One of the more popular reasons to forgo strength training is the fear of bulking up and putting on weight. Ask anyone who has or is trying to put on additional lean muscle and I’m sure they’ll let you know it’s not that easy. Endurance athletes can benefit from additional strength with little to no weight gain.

Due to the typical omission of strength training, any addition of strength training will grant beneficial results, but to maximize your results the emphasis should be on heavy load or explosive lower body exercises.(1,2) Rather than training muscular endurance with high reps and low weight, this method trains neuromuscular strength. This allows more muscle fiber recruitment and therefore more power.

These forms of exercise have been shown to significantly improve running economy.(1) For those unfamiliar with running economy, it is a measure of how efficiently you can use oxygen at a given pace. Basically the higher running economy you have the easier it is to run faster.

Strength training can be implemented by performing heavy weight exercises for set rep schemes similar to 4×4 or 5×3 at 80-90% of your 1RM with complex movements such as squats or lunges or explosive plyometric work such as box jumps or squat jumps. These exercises should be performed with high rest intervals (2-3 minutes) to ensure full recovery between sets. You can even reap benefits from exercises outside of the gym with sprint work. I’m not talking about quarter mile repeats or even 100 meter repeats. I’m referring to a 40m-60m all out sprint. To make it even more interesting you can use a hill with a slight incline. Do 4 to 6 of these with a full recovery in between sprints and you’ll gain similar neuromuscular benefits. Keep in mind that a more extensive warm-up may be required to ensure your muscles are ready for these higher intensity exercises.

Overall strength training sessions should only take up a small part of training with the majority of the time spent training the main disciplines whether it is running, cycling, or swimming. A session should revolve around one exercise similar to that mentioned above with the possible addition of upper body and core work to improve overall fitness levels. Two to three days a week of strength training will be enough to achieve benefits.

References: 1. K Stkren, J Helgerud, E Stka, and J Hoff. Maximal Strength Training Improves Running Economy in Distance Runners. MSSE 2008

2. RW Spurrs, ML Watsford, AJ Murphy. The effect of plyometric training on distance running performance. Eur J Appl Physiol (2003) 89: 1 7.