The countless debates on the science behind why and how we train got me thinking … (after reading the why you lift post). Seems to me that whether it be stretching, weight lifting, volume of training vs intensity, etc… we will never truly “figure out” the human body since everybody is different. Sure we may have a good idea of basic training principles that work but whats wrong with saying we dont fully understand everything about perfomance and what works for one person may not work for another.
Take stretching for example. some coaches say static stretch before activity, others say after, others say static stretching is pointless. With all that we know about performance and the human body we cant get “experts” to agree on something as simple as stretching.
What about lifting…Lance armstrong lifts but some studies have shown lifting does nothing to improve bike performance. Michael phelps lifts and hes pretty good. Kenyon runners do not lift and they seem to be doing fine.
I for one do not do well doing high mileage. when in college my coach recognized this and adjusted my training to almost 30 miles per week less than some other runners on the team and just like that I was a different runner.
Same goes for weight training. I personally dont know the scientific benefit regarding performance or injury prevention but I do know I got/get injured less and certainly have not gotten slower triathlons.
It is obviously to our benefit to use scientific data to better our training principles but as I said we are not clones and I think people might be best served to try different training modalities and figure out which one works best for you. I aplogize for the rant.
i think the reason we don’t have it figured out yet is simply due to how complex we are and how hard performance is to measure precisely, rather than our differences.
In other words, with regard to stretching.
How do you figure out if it works?
you can’t double blind test it, dudes gonna know if he was stretched or not. to really get an idea you would need to test 100s of athletes in highly controlled environments. hard to do =)
rather than worrying your head over all the disagreements in coaching lore
notice the similarities
bike every day
swim every day
run as much as you can without falling apart
get rid of your bodyfat
don’t be a sail in the wind
get your swim technique dialed in
focus on those things that we all agree on
we will never truly “figure out” the human body
since everybody is different. .
Are there a lot of people still recommending static stretching before a workout as a blanket recommendation?
On the other hand if you have muscles that are habitually tight and if loosening them and impeding their contraction will make you somehow perform better then static stretching for THOSE muscles before a workout or race would be an excellent thing to do.
Everyone agrees that you should bike and swim everyday?
I believe 5 out of 5 sports injury surgeons looking to help rebuild their 401k recommend riding and swimming EVERYDAY.
We are all individuals. There is no way on earth that any study can possibly be big enough to provide answers that apply to us all. Use the studies and other peoples experiences to try things out and find what works best for you.
We do not lift weights and are very much behind the drag curve with stretching. Has it affected us? Possibly, but it certainly does not appear to be harming us. If we had more time, or felt the need to see if there was anything to be gained, we might look to incorporate a weights program or mroe structured stretching into our program. But we don’t have the time, the need or the inclination. However, if a study could prove, unequivocally that something worked for 100% of people, then we would probably consider implementation.