Opinions on weights/strength training aside, what are the best strength-training exercises that work the leg’s major muscle groups? Lunges, leg presses, squats, leg ext/curls?
Matt
Hey Matt,
Despite the conflict that came out of the previous post on strength training for athletes, I think a couple of points that the non-strength training post made were legit,
i.e. a) Triathlon is primarily a speed-endurance & force-endurance sport (i.e. elites are not super-strong in the basic sense)
b) Specificity rules the day. You need to know what you’re training as far as muscle groups (and even Range of Motion) goes and also how this strength training relates to performance.
I gave a couple of reasons for why it is preferable to train the stabilizers under controlled conditions (i.e. in a gym). I think it’s really important to train all of the hip muscles so that when the prime movers fatigue, you can hold your biomechanics together. A couple of musts:
- Cable Hip flexion
- Cable Abduction
- Cable Adduction
I think it’s also good to challenge these muscles functionally (under conditions of challenged stability)
- Lunge on a wobble board
- Lunge with a band or cable pulling you to the side
- Lunge with your front knee pressing a stability ball into the wall.
As far as squats, leg press etc go, I think there is an optimal level of strength for a triathlete. E.g. if your slowtwitch fibers are not big enough to produce the force necessary to push you along at your goal pace, then you either need to make your slow twitch fibers bigger or your FOG fibers more aerobic (>mitochondria, capillarization etc).
With this model in mind, I am a big proponent (for the IM athlete) of doing a large volume of your training (20-50%) under conditions of high resistance while keeping your effort levels in and around the Aerobic Threshold. Because of the high volume, I think that it can be fun to mix this up between strength circuits (large muscle group exercises with a focus on single leg exercises - single leg squat, lunge, step up) along with strength endurance training in the hills and tempo/Big Gear training on the flats.
The astute will notce that the muscular endurance exercises can double as exercises for the stabilizers (with appropriate modifications - bands, balls etc), thus improving time efficiency.
Don’t get it twisted, muscular endurance can be a real limiter. Case in point: For Norman Stadler to do his 4:18 bike split required him to push a 55/14 @ 80rpm for most of that 4 and a quarter hours. If you can’t turn a 55/14 around at any cadence, then obviously this is a required step before turning it at 80rpm.
Hope this long-winded explanation is of some value.
Alan Couzens, CSCS, PES, ACC Level 1 Strength and Conditioning Coach
Alan, thanks. Much appreciated.
Matt
No prob Matt.
One more point,
Friel’s strength training targets seem pretty much right-on for the elite triathletes that I have seen the gym numbers on (when determining if force is a limiter).
Cheers,
Alan
Not to be a pest, but would (and how) would your recommendations change if we were strictly talking about a run focus?
Thanks in advance.
Matt
Hey Matt,
Strength endurance becomes substantially less limiting in pure runners v’s cyclists/triathletes.
Witness the pretty extreme difference in somatotype (110-130lb guys in the case of marathoners v’s 150-170lbs for elite Time Trialists).
Of course, if there are conditions of high resistance in your event e.g. hilly ultra-runs, strength-endurance becomes more important, but generally speaking, you want to be as skinny as possible while still having sufficient muscularity to hold your biomechanics together for the duration of the event.
In terms of how this changes the specific exercises, not a whole lot. The key would be making sure that in all cases, the exercise tires the stabilizers before the prime movers (all bodyweight stuff, forget the free-weights)., whereas for cycling/tri training you want a fine balance between both, or, more practically, at the end of a good SE circuit for cycling/tri your prime-movers and your stabilizers are shot.
Hope the above rant is coherent.
Cheers,
Alan
Although I agree with most of what you say your training is all over the place. What happened to periodization. The exercise and concepts are great but without proper application all is lost.
Have to agree to disagree on this one, Gary.
I’m simply not a strict CSCS periodization guy. I don’t believe a maximal strength phase is necessary for all athletes (and neither does Bompa if you carefully read Periodization for Sports).
If a quality is not limiting when compared to standards of other athletes at the target performance level then it is simply not worthy of the time it would take to develop.
However, I diagree with what you said re my training being “all over the place”. If you read my other posts, you would see there is a clear periodization to my athlete’s training plans, beginning with corrective exercise training, progressing to integrated stabilization training, stabilization equivalency training, muscular development training & culminating with power training where appropriate.
The program that I outlined above is strictly an IST program and is therefore appropriate for an individual who is a relative novice to strength training (it just so happens that a well designed high-rep circuit program also trains muscular endurance).
Hope this better explains how the above recommendations fit into my periodization model.
Cheers,
Alan Couzens (CSCS, PES, Level 1 Strength & Conditioning Coach)