Strength Training Principles for Endurance performance

Key Principles:

When approaching any training, strength training included, we look towards taking a principles driven approach. The adage of 'methods are many, principles are few' is one to live by when we are looking to plan and carry out any of our training. Principles are like universal truths that help us guide our training in a way that will lead to efficient and effective training.

Whilst specific methods may vary significantly in how they approach training, principles help us to align the training we do with the best understandings of how to program, execute and progress our strength and endurance. The key principles we will focus on here are: Specificity, Progressive overload, Individuality, and Reversibility.

Specificity:

Simply, this principle states that training adaptations are specific to the training stimulus provided. This has a few important elements for consideration in strength training for endurance. We are looking to target the specific adaptations that will help our performance and resilience in carrying out our endurance training. This means we are looking to improve our strength, power, movement economy, speed, and robustness.

Trying to improve our VO2 max by doing strength training would be misaligned with this principle. We are looking for a non relevant adaptation from a specific training stimulus. Another point to consider here is in the specifics of what training we are doing in our strength sessions. If we are looking to develop strength in our lower body then lower body strength exercises should be used. Strength is specific to the movements we do, some bicep curls are unlikely to help us gain much lower body strength, whereas squats or hinges are more specific and so more likely to lead to the adaptations we are looking for.

A final part to consider here is that this doesn't mean that we are looking for highly sport-specific exercises. Whilst this might work for making our training highly specific, it also doesn't allow us to fulfil the other principles of training and provide an adequate dose to improving the fitness qualities (strength, power, speed) we are looking for. You can absolutely be too specific to the point of diminishing returns in how you approach and carry out your training.

Progressive Overload:

Physical adaptations are possible due to the process of super compensation. Distilled down, this process shows how when we provide a stress stimulus to our bodies (training), we cause a form of temporary drop in performance, this comes about because of fatigue, small muscle damage, or metabolically changed internal environment. Both acutely, immediately following the session, and then chronically, with repeated exposures to the stressor, our bodies begin to adapt to that stressor to raise our baseline to a higher level. This is a super-compensation pattern whereby our bodies adapts to a higher level so that we are better able to cope with the demands of the stressor. These adaptation can occur because of a huge range of different stressors from heavy weightlifting, to climbing mountains at high altitude, to being in a hot environment for extended durations.

What this process of adaptations shows us then is that we need to provide a suitably challenging stimulus to evoke this adaptive response. If we only do things our body is fully capable of doing then no changes will be made from the baseline. So firstly, our training must in some way challenge the baseline of our performance. Secondly then we must be progressive over time to keep eliciting the adaptations. As we improve by pushing up our bodies baseline physical capability we have to provide greater stimulus to keep that process going. This is our progressive overload principle.

Progressive overload means that over time we need to lift heavier weights, increase volume, or simply just provide a greater challenge to our body. In strength training this is typically through the aforementioned ways: by adding more weight on our exercises or by increasing total volume of the work we are doing. Whilst these are not the only ways we can overload our strength training they are the most commonly used methods.

Individuality:

This principle is slightly different in that it states whilst we are all similar in our abilities to get adapt through the same means, we are all varied in our individual responses to the same training stimuli. An example of this would be that lifting weights will make everyone stronger if we adhere to the other principles, however the degree to which we improve and the needs and requirements of us all will vary.

This is the often missed component of scientific research and theoretical understanding in physical performance. When we conduct training research or follow a program we can make broad assumptions based on the general consensus of understanding on how you will adapt to that program. But it is near impossible to make accurate predictions of how much better you will get or whether you will achieve any specific outcome. To this end, a large part of the training process is trial and error. We try something. We measure performance before and after. We see the result. We adjust and repeat.

Through this process and by adjusting a program to the individual rather than the individual to the program, we can hone down on what will best suit that individual at the current time. The important part to understand here is that this may not follow or even remotely resemble the most 'optimal' approach as defined by theory or elite level practice. What works for one person very likely won't work for another.

What this means practically is that we should start with general principles, and a broad approach. Over time and with repeat exposure to training, we then begin to change, adapt and refine the process so that it then individually represents the best approach for the person. We may end up with a training approach that looks very different to the initial, or we may find that the initial approach actually worked well for that individual. Just remember, we are are broadly similar, but we also are all very different in our needs and requirements with physical training. Whilst the same approach can get different people results, they might be differ in the degree to which that training works as intended.

Reversibility: 

This principle is one that is a cornerstone of the idea of hybrid or concurrent training. It lays the foundations for why I believe there is such value in strength training for endurance performance. Moreover, why I think it should be an active component, to some degree, year round in any endurance athletes training.

The more traditional preconception that strength training is an off-season thing for endurance performance ignores this principle I think to the detriment to its value as a performance enhancing tool.

Reversibility is the 'use it or lose it' principle. It states that any physical qualities that we all together stop training will begin to decline and eventually return to the pre-training baselines or potentially lower. This is most evident in the off-season strength training approach. whereby a program is followed in the off-season and any strength gains are made. Once the season then formally begins, this strength training is removed or reduced heavily so that any of the gains made begin to drop off. over time this results in nearly all strength being lost and any benefits gains diminished to zero. When strength work is again reintroduced the start point is back at zero. So rather than compounding and building over months and years strength is just gains and lost to a low degree continually. I am here to argue that any training quality that is deemed important for performance should be trained year round to a degree. This absolutely includes strength, speed/power and the resilience work mentioned in this resource.

What must be understood, is that all of the physical qualities we train exist on a sliding scale. We only have so many 'physical adaptation points' to spend and so when we are approaching races or events, or simply when our endurance volumes are higher, strength training should be appropriately dialled down to maintain and support rather than actively build. But, importantly, it is still present so that when we come round to a more balanced spread of training we have not lost all of the strength we previously gained.

Helpfully, we do not lose most physical qualities we train all that quickly. It takes around 1-2 weeks for speed and power to drop off, strength around 2-4 weeks to significantly decrease. So at a minimum if we are able to train these physical qualities at least every 2 weeks, we will be maintaining the qualities we have gained. Realistically, this means that If we aim to train these qualities once a week, we can maintain or even continue to build strength, speed and power. Without causing excessive fatigue or at the detriment of endurance training performance even during times of higher volumes or races.

Patterns before Movements:

Whilst this is maybe not a principle in the same sense as the others, I think this is a good guiding idea to work from when putting together a strength program for endurance or indeed any goal. It certainly aligns with the 'methods are many, principles are few' idea put forward earlier.

The difference between this and the other principles I think comes in the change of focus from broader concepts to the specifics of planning the actual sessions you'll be carrying out. When we are selecting and planning which exercise we should be including in our program, I always look first to patterns before settling on an individual movement or exercise. Whilst the exact list of these patterns does vary slightly depending on the who you listen to, they are generally similar. We are looking at the big patterns: squatting (knee dominant), Hinging (hip dominant), Pushing (vertical and horizontal), Pulling (Vertical and horizontal). Then we can include variations of: Core (this is a fairly broad one, but generally looks at dynamic and static elements), Single leg/arm (variations that might not strictly fall into the other patterns), and then combined patterns (that again, may not strictly fall into the other patterns or might be combinations of several).

What this does do, is allow us to ensure a relevant and complete approach to human movement in a strength program. We can make sure that all the elements are ticked off, and the most important qualities for our sport are included.

What this doesn't do, is confine us to only using a narrow set of specific exercises because of a arbitrary classifications as 'strength exercises' that might well be defined by a different sport or method of training.

For example, we might think of the barbell back squat as a vital exercise in strength training and think it has to be included in a program for that to be a worthwhile strength program. But that ignores the individuality principle whereby that might not be the most suitable exercise for that person. Instead, if we say that we need to include the squatting pattern in our program, then we are not committing to a specific movement but rather a global movement pattern. This gives us the freedom to select an exercise that is most appropriate rather than just the one exercise that we 'have' to include.

This disconnect is evident in the realms of social media where we see frequent examples of the 'best exercise for X goal'. There are no best exercises. Only the option of using an exercise alongside a whole host of other options that might serve the individual much better whilst still training the same movement pattern and getting the same overall training stimulus.

Hopefully, this section has shined some light on some of the previous myths to show how they might not be true and lays the foundation for planning out a strength training program. The next sections will begin to break down how we apply theory to practice and actual put together a strength training program for endurance performance.