A triathlete looking to stay healthy and injury free should seriously consider including strength training as a part of their training. The pre-habilitation or injury prevention benefits alone will enhance the quality of your training and longevity of your sporting career.
Often, strength training is associated with images of bodybuilders and Olympic power lifters. For triathletes, this is not the kind of strength or muscle mass needed for performance. Unfortunately, there are many myths and fears associated with muscular conditioning. Some of the more common complaints are;
- A fear of weight gain,
- A loss of movement speed,
- A reduced range of motion and
- A fear of increased injuries.
For beginner triathletes, a strength training program is often too much to ask. However, if you are willing to try a tri, including strength training in your preparation is a very good way to have an injury free season!
From a sport specific point of view, a well designed program will prepare you to be stronger, faster, and more powerful. Additional benefits will be obtained through stronger tendons, ligaments and increased joint stability all of which will contribute to better pre-hab.
One of the most important benefits of strength training is the increased ease with which you can activate your muscles. We have often heard how humans use only a small percentage of their brain’s capacity, well the same holds true for muscle. Until a muscle has been trained to work hard, it will seldom do so. This means that it will not be generating maximal stability, force, speed, power or endurance. Muscular conditioning can help you activate more muscle quickly and easily.
In general, a strength training program will follow a pattern. The program usually begins with a phase of basic conditioning, with learning lifting technique, discovering individual limits and familiarization with the equipment. This prepares you and your muscles, for higher intensity work with more resistance and speed that is to come.
Strength training terminology includes references to sets, repetitions and lifting tempo. The number of times you perform a given lift or exercise in succession without a rest are called repetitions (reps.). A group of repetitions is called a sets. The lifting tempo is a guideline for how long a given repetition should last as it is broken down into lifting the weight, pausing, lowering the weight and pausing again.
LIFT: a concentric contraction is one where the muscle shortens. Lifting a bag off a table, or walking up stairs requires a concentric contraction. In strengthening exercises, pulling yourself up into a chin up requires a concentric contraction as does lifting yourself from a squatting to standing position.
LOWERING: an eccentric contraction is one where the muscle is lengthened, such a when you lower a bag onto a table or go down stairs. The resistance provided by the bag or your body weight is lowered. In some common exercises the eccentric contraction occurs when you lower your body from a chin up, or squat down with a weight.
PAUSE: an isometric contraction is a muscular contraction that results in no movement. Any time you push against a resistance that is too great for you, or one that results in no movement is isometric.
Through modifying the number of sets, reps and the lifting tempo, a strength training program leads to different results.
