After my last major race of the season back in October of last year, I hit the weight room in a big way, well at least for me, doing a routine that included core/arms/legs three days of the week. After a "practice period" of about three weeks, I started to gradually increase the weights on lifts such as arm curls, lat pull downs, and bench press.

The results were/are very satisfactory, although not all directly helpful to swim/bike/run. One thing that I did notice is that I have not become faster in the pool, my muscle endurance has increased, in both my arms and legs. having the extra "beef" is allowing me to spend more time thinking about maintaining good form in the later parts of my swim sets. Another thing I have noticed is that my kick board sets are getting easier to complete. Hope this helps.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Did you keep up the weight training or just do it for a couple of months or so?

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http://www.thedeludedcyclist.wordpress.com

I kept it up a part of a schedule that looked like this:

Monday: weights at lunch, 60 min swim at night

Tuesday: fast run at lunch, 80 minute masters swim at night

Wednesday: weights at lunch, 80 minutes Spinervals bike

Thursday: tempo run at lunch, 80 minutes masters swim at night

Friday: weights at lunch, that's all

Saturday: 80 minute swim in morning, 40 minute bike in afternoon

Sunday: 60/80 minute run in morning

I did this until last week, when I went to San Diego and did a bunch of biking, and a bit of running.

Hope this helps.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Mostly it is a load of shit.

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Simplify, Train, Live

x2

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Not much is going to help you swim, bike and run better except more swim, bike and run training. I do 1-2 upper body and core workouts a week just to break up the monotony and it makes me feel better, and my wife likes the results.

If you have Kona aspirations then I wouldn't spend much time on upper body. Yoga or Pilates would be a good substitute for flexibility, balance and core and some strength - which are beneficial to Tri. Just my opinion.

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Loud pawls save lives

Swimming in and of itself is one hell of an upper body workout. There is a reason why virtually 100% of all elite swimmers, and most non-elite swimmers, have a V-shaped torso. A significant percentage of swimmers who are natural mesomorphs will develop a body-builder's physique, albeit not as ripped since the swimmers aren't trying to get down to 4% BF:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

You're going to get a lot of "swim, bike, and run more"

I lift 3x per week for a total of 2-3 hours. I train about 15-18hrs per week total, so I get enough of everything. I lift MWF, same thing each time, whole body. I keep the intensity high.

I like the results. I couldn't tell you if it's made a big difference, but it's helped my swimming (that plus swimming 25k/week) and I feel better on the bike.

I understand the people who don't have enough time for it, but for those that avoid it because it isn't swimming, biking, or running, they may be missing out on something.

Off the top of my head, notable endurance athletes who lift weights/strength and core train:
Galen Rupp, Mark Allen, Dave Scott, TJ Tollakson, Ben Hoffman, Starykowicz

On an age group level, I'm inspired in part by guys like Eric Hinman, who lifts hard 2-3x/week and is a beast.

My coach has multiple top-10 AG Kona finishes and religiously strength trains 3x/week.

I realize this is all largely anecdotal - I have no idea about the science side of things. I like to lift and it isn't slowing me down. When I stopped lifting for ~4 months, I felt weaker, looked worse, and performed worse.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

I like to lift and it isn't slowing me down. When I stopped lifting for ~4 months, I felt weaker, looked worse, and performed worse.

Really??? I lifted seriously for my last 2 yrs in college, then got back into swimming more. I gained about 15 lbs or so during my 2 yrs of "serious" lifting, and of course looked more muscular. However, when i stopped lifting and went back to just swimming, and allowed myself to gain another 10 lbs, i looked even more muscular after that. So, to each his own but my experience is that just swimming will put muscle on a person, IF they eat enough to actually gain that muscle. Obv you have to eat enough though:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Some further info on this - an article from Mark Allen that I have found very useful in aiding my training.

I haven't followed it to the letter. I do one session per week rather than two, and I tend to "live" in phase 2 (with some phase 3 in the winter), but haven't had any noticable mass gain and have found that it has helped me feel stable and maintain form in all three disciplines (N=1, obviously)

http://www.active.com/...t-strength-exercises

Does anyone have any opinions on the value of upper body weight training?

The womens dig the results

deludedcyclist wrote:

Does anyone have any opinions on the value of upper body weight training? Obviously the extra weight can be a disadvantage especially for running and hill cycling. However, is there anything to be said for it increasing the levels of HGH and testosterone leading to endurance training improvements or is that just a load of sh1t?

Anyone remember this thread where we learned that Alistair Brownlee can barely bench press the empty barbell and can only do three pullups?

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...um.cgi?post=3699982;

I guess that's one extreme of weight training.

I damaged my rotator cuff muscles in September and am only just starting to recover. I was trying to figure out how it had affected my endurance training, aside from being a bit lighter

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http://www.thedeludedcyclist.wordpress.com

I don't know. But in the thread it says he hits the gym twice a week. Strength training doesn't have to mean giant weights and uber sets to have benefits.

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Ian

x2

i'm lifting weights, after a run or bike, for about 15-20 mins to strengthen back and core. i hurt my shoulder a while back, so doc and pt stated that i should work on those muscles for support and to prevent injury. i actually really enjoy it. i don't lift after a swim.

i'm marathon training right now and can tell a difference towards the end of my longer runs. back doesn't feel as tired out.

"To increase the probability of improved endurance performance subsequent to a strength training period, the strength training exercises should involve similar muscle groups and imitate the sports-specific movements."
Ronnestad & Mujika, 2013


So bench press, curls, and dips may help swimming, but swimming will probably help swimming more. And I would guess only core/back exercises might help cycling.


But if you're already in the weightroom getting the benefits of lower body exercise such as:


You might as well throw in some bench press reps to attract the ladies because strength training doesn't seem to have a negative effect, and it doesn't really appear to substantially increase total body mass when paired with endurance training.

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Dtyrrell

I specifically go into see my physiotherapist every year for a checkup and find out what parts of me are rearing themselves as weak points. From there we develop a program and I stick to that. Upper and or lower body. I certainly see more speed and way fewer injuries now, with less running/swimming/biking. Sure sport specific might be better, but I always ended up with injuries sidelining me and limiting my workouts anyway. This way I focus my workouts, get faster and am generally happier.

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Ian

I don't think I was swimming enough to gain that kinda muscle. This was this past winter/early spring, and I was still learning to swim, open turns and the like and only swimming 6-8k/week.

I think I could probably get away with cutting out the weights now that I'm at 20-25k/week. I would still probably do the abs stuff and some pullups though, just because I love pullups and I'm good at them.

I'm headed to college for engineering this fall (UVA), so it's likely that I won't have any time to lift anymore. At that point, I'll probably just s/b/r and do some core/pullups like above.

I do find that it's easy to fit in small amounts of strength stuff with no time cost. For example: I usually do 100 pushups as soon as I wake up (about 2.5 minutes). When I get out of the pool after a swim, I walk by the pullup bars on the way to the locker room (they're right there on deck). I always do 10 pullups after a swim.

Over the course of the week, that's 700 pushups, and 40-60pullups, on top of my dedicated strength training.

Like you said, to each his own - and I'm willing to admit that strength training is the first workout to get cut if I'm tired or busy. And like I said, soon it probably won't even be a possibility. Can't say I'm sad about it :D

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

THIS

You have to eat big to get big.
If you keep your calorie intake balanced then you're not going to start gaining extra bulk, you might look more muscular but you won't gain weight.
Calorie excess is one of the fundamental requirements of weight gain.

Exactly, and this is one of my main points also:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."