Weight Training for Triathletes - Why its Important.

Triathlon is a demanding sport that tests an athlete's endurance, strength, and mental resilience. While many triathletes focus on swimming, cycling, and running to improve their performance. I have noticed its a heavily overlooked aspect of training to weight train, let alone do it in an efficient manner. I wanted to dive deep into why triathletes should incorporate weightlifting into their training routine & give my two cents on how I go about programming for my athletes & the principles I deeply believe in when it comes to the weight room as athletes. Resistance Training - My Philosophy

I want to just touch on my philosophy coming from a background in both Strength/Hypertrophy before I got into the sport of endurance. I believe

heavily in prioritizing good technique when your weight training, regardless

of what your goals are (triathlon, marathon, bodybuilding etc.). Unless you're a powerlifter, we lift weights for one reason and one reason only. Generally speaking thats to provide a certain degree of stimulus/disruption to the muscles we are targeting in a given session, to create adaptation to increase muscular strength/size . This past year balancing 16-23 hour training weeks, maintaining my muscle mass, I put a large emphases on technique. "Technique" Doesn't just mean lifting with good form. I have a 3 Rule principal when it comes to strength training that I will apply to nearly 95% of the movements I do in the weight room. My 3 Rule Principal 1. Controlled Eccentrics (slow decent/lengthening of a muscle group) 2. 1/4 sec to 1/2 sec Pause in the Isometric position (Bottom/peak position) 3. Explosive Concentric (Powerful Contraction/shortening of a muscle group)

By training this way, you're getting the most out of the movement creating the highest amount of inter-muscular disruption/high stimulus with the LEAST amount of stress/fatigue on your joints & CNS. You are GREATLY decreasing your risk of getting injured if you follow these 3 core prinicples. As a competitive age group triathlete myself with ambitious goals of winning my age group at IRONMAN events and qualifying for the Ironman World Championships. Training this way lets me get the stimulus I need in the gym to maintain tissue without taking away from my key swim, bike, run sessions in a 16-20 hour Triathlon training week.

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Periodization - How to go about it? Everyone is so different when it comes to how much volume & total workload they should be doing throughout the week from a weight training standpoint. It depends on their goals, past with training, ability to recover etc. I always recommend for this type of thing consulting with a coach who can help you understand yourself as an athlete & put an optimal plan in place for you. Below I am going provide some extremely generalized (take with a grain of salt) examples of how I would go about volume in the midst of training for an endurance related event if your goal is to maintain tissue & really get the most out of your race prep. *Please note that depending on your goals as an athlete this can vary immensely. This is just a general example. WEEKLY VOLUME EXAMPLE:

​During the Off-season:	12-18 Working sets per muscle group a week
​16-12 Weeks out from an event	8-12 Working sets per muscle group a week
12-16 Weeks out from an event	6-8 Working sets per muscle group a week
3-6 Weeks out from an event:	2-6 Working sets per muscle group a week
3 Weeks out from an event	*Consult with a coach, but I would generally remove strength training at this point.

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KEY BENEFITS

1. Injury Prevention and Strengthening Muscles

One of the most compelling reasons to include weightlifting to your training regimen is injury prevention and muscle strengthening. Triathletes subject their bodies to repetitive, high-impact movements during training and races, which can lead to overuse injuries. (Stress fractures, tears, tendonitis, shoulder injuries etc.) Weightlifting, when performed correctly, and done in a complimentary manner helps build strength in both large and smaller stabilizing muscles, reducing the risk of common injuries. In a study published in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" (Smith et al., 2018), it was found that strength training significantly reduced the occurrence of injuries in endurance based athletes.

2. Muscular Strength in the Back Half of a Race

Triathlons are typically divided into swim, bike, and run segments. The run, in particular, can be grueling, and maintaining pace becomes challenging as fatigue sets in. Anyone who has done a full Ironman, I'm sure has experienced that wall you hit at mile 12-16 when everything just gets to a whole other level of difficult. Weightlifting can help address this issue by improving muscular strength, which is essential for endurance and maintaining form in the latter stages of a race being more resilient to the muscular breakdown you're bound to experience in a middle/long distance Triathlon. One of my favourite studies that I have come across - "International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance" (Storen et al., 2019). Discusses how strength training improves overall running economy. It will make you not only a faster runner in your next race, but more resilient in the back half of the run leg.

3. Body Composition

Weightlifting isn't just about building muscle mass; it's also about improving & maintaining healthy body-composition. By reducing body fat percentage and increasing lean muscle mass. As athletes this can make us more efficient. Weightlifting is an essential step towards achieving a well-rounded and injury-resistant athletic physique. When coupled with swim, bike, and run sessions, you are going to significantly improve your overall performance as a triathlete.

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References

1. Smith, L. L., McKune, A. J., & Semple, S. J. (2018). A systematic review of the effect of strength training on endurance performance in male distance runners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(2), 626-632.

2. Storen, O., Helgerud, J., Saelen, H., Hoff, J., & Helgesen, C. (2019). The effect of combined strength and endurance training on running performance in highly trained endurance athletes. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 14(3), 273-279.

3. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ratamess, N. A., Peterson, M. D., Contreras, B., Tiryaki-Sonmez, G., & Alvar, B. A. (2016). Effects of different volume-equated resistance training loading strategies on muscular adaptations in well-trained men. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 28(10), 2909-2918.