Shifting Gears from Strength to Endurance Work: Part II

In Part I of this series, we started to discuss the different physical capacities known as endurance, strength, and power. Evidence is mixed but there it appears possible that strength gains may be hindered if one engages in endurance work at the same time. The jury is still out. What about endurance and power?

Endurance Work Seems to Inhibit Max Power Production

The previously mentioned NSCA document Concurrent Strength and Endurance Training for Strength/Power Athletes discusses several studies in which endurance training hindered the production of maximal power. That is, short-duration, high intensity activities such as sprinting, jumping, shot put, discus, and Olympic weightlifting will be compromised if an athlete trains for endurance while also training for one of these events. Similar findings are found here, here, and here.

As for why this interference occurs, it’s more than I can go into here. If you want to get into it, you might look at this ACSM document by Nader titled Concurrent Strength and Endurance Training: from Molecules to Man or Stone’s Maximum Strength & Strength Training – Relationship to Endurance?

Strength & Power Work Enhances Endurance Performance

In contrast to the negative effects endurance work has for the strength and power athlete, strength and power work seem to benefit the endurance athlete. Heavy strength training has been shown to increase running economy in triathletes, cross-country skiers, and cyclists. Explosive (power) work has been shown to increase running economy (here, and here) when part of the runners’ endurance work was replaced with plyometric/jumping work. There are many more studies with similar findings. I’ve also posted a series Strength Training for Runners Part I and Part II that covers these issues.

Final Considerations

Please remember though that everyone is an experiment of one and that a program that works very well for one person may not work well at all for another. You may lie somewhere along a continuum. Perhaps you need more strength. Perhaps you’re strong enough. The only way to find out is experiment and observe your results. Joel Freel offers a valuable observation on his blog:

“Will weight lifting help every athlete become more economical and therefore faster? Nope. I’ve coached a few endurance athletes who came to their sport with a long history of body building or power lifting. These athletes had plenty of strength. They needed less. Athletes who are the peak of performance probably won’t benefit either. If I took a Kenyan runner who had just won the New York City Marathon and put him on a weight lifting program for several weeks it’s doubtful he would be a better runner. But if someone who was a complete novice–say to cycling–lifted weights doing cycling-related strength exercises for several weeks he or she would undoubtedly improve cycling performance without even turning the cranks once. Most of us fall between these extremes. And most of us will improve our endurance performances by lifting weights. My experience tells me this is so.”

In my experience, it’s vital to recognize that if you’re increasing stress in one direction, then you must decrease stress in another. For example, if you’re training for an endurance event then you must scale back your strength work. Otherwise you’re stressing the organism too much and something’s going to break.

A little bit of strength and/or power work seem to compliment endurance work pretty well. Err on the conservative side when deciding your loading parameters. Two workouts per week at most seem ideal. Select one or two exercises (squats and/or deadlifts for example for strength work; body weight jump exercises or barbell cleans for power work) and start with perhaps one set. Next week add two sets followed by three sets the third week. Don’t work to failure. These workouts shouldn’t be terribly taxing. See what happens.

Shifting Gears from Strength to Endurance Work: Part I

Springtime in Denver means it’s time to bicycle. So now I’ve shifted my focus from heavy strength and power work to endurance work. (I never did hit 500 lbs. on the deadlift. I did however pull 435 lbs. for two reps. I’m content with that.) Endurance activity and strength/power work lie at two opposite ends of the exercise/movement/exertion continuum. From what I’ve read and in my own personally experience, it’s very difficult if not impossible to develop a high-end level of strength while also training for an endurance event like the Sunrise Century (which I’ll be doing in June.) Simply put, trying to maximize one area of performance means the other will suffer. If you try to maximize all areas then you won’t reach your potential in any one.

Terminology: Endurance, Strength, Power

I’ll define some terms. Endurance work is something like long distance cycling, running, or cross-country skiing. These are long-duration activities executed well below the participants’ maximal abilities.

Maximal strength work is often a slow moving, short duration type of thing. If you attempt to lift a maximum weight you won’t be moving it very quickly. Heavy deadlifting, bench pressing and squatting typically move slowly. These activities can only be sustained for a very brief amount of time–several seconds at most–before the muscles fatigue significantly.

Power sports require a combination of strength and speed. Think of a shot putter, long jumper or an Olympic weight lifter. These athletes must move a fairly heavy object very quickly. Maximal power may be expressed in two seconds or less. Power sports and endurance sports occupy the furthest opposite ends of the exercise spectrum.

So what happens if we decide to mix endurance work, strength work and power work together?

Endurance Work May Inhibit Strength Abilities

The National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) offers a document titled Concurrent Strength and Endurance Training for Strength/Power Athletes. Here we have evidence that suggests mixed results for combined strength and endurance work. Several studies suggest that endurance work impedes strength gains. Other studies show no interference.

Confusion and questions come up when we start to dissect the studies. The article states:

“Differences between these studies may have been due to differences in the length of the studies, experience level of the subjects, and the training protocols utilized. For example, studies differed with respect to the specific exercises performed, whether strength and endurance training were performed on the same or different days per week, the sequence of training modes (strength before endurance or endurance before strength).”

We don’t have a definite answer to this question.

In my personal experience I run into difficulty if I ride/run a lot while also lifting a lot. I become too sore and stiff from one activity to perform well at the other. So I have to reduce one type of stress as I increase the other. Further, I find that riding my bike up mountains quite sufficiently addresses my strength needs. (Now we’re starting to get into the SAID Principle or Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Then we start to ask whether strength developed in the gym has any effect on strength expressed on a bike…)

In subsequent posts I’ll examine the effects of endurance work on power performance. Then we’ll drive the other way up this street and ask the question, “To what degree does strength and power work affect endurance performance?”

Wanna See Something Cool?

Icelandic powerlifter Benedikt Magnússon (You’ve GOT to be strong with a name like that) recently recorded a world-record deadlift 1015 lbs! He did this “raw,” meaning he wasn’t wearing a powerlifting suit. (In a nutshell, these suits are incredibly tight things that actually aid the effort of the lifter. Lifting raw means someone is wearing something like a t-shirt and shorts.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4jO21-a2W0

Okay, so I find this effort simply astonishing. I love to deadlift so watching this is fun for me personally. But what else do we see? This large lad is graceful. Elegant! Look at the ease with which he performs the lift. He makes it look easy. He even gives a big grin to the crowd while he’s locked out at the top of the lift. If you’re a Z-Health person, then this is exactly the sort of thing we want to strive for whether it’s during our joint mobility drills or our conventional “workout.” Or for that matter, during your golf swing, tennis serve, swim stroke–whatever activity we’re doing. To become excellent at something, we must establish precise command of all of our joints in every position at all speeds.

For further reading on creating excellent movement, I suggest you have a look at this article, Making the Hard Possible and the Easy Elegant from Todd Hargrove’s blog Better Movement. He does a superb job at explaining concepts of movement, central nervous system function, proprioception and lots of other similar stuff.

Bench Press Instruction continued

The previous post consisted of the first three videos of a seven-part series on the bench press. Here are the final four videos. It’s pretty detailed stuff that you might find quite useful. It all comes from the powerlifters at EliteFTS.

Key points to remember are:

The bench press is a total body lift, not just an upper body lift.
Keep the shoulder blades pinched back and pressed into the bench.
Keep a tight arch in the low back.
Keep the legs and glutes tight while pressing the feet firmly into the ground.
Hold the breath during the upward push.
Think of pulling the bar apart, or think of pulling the wrists apart.
Keep the entire body tight and tense the whole time you’re under the bar. Don’t relax.

Bench Press Instruction

Recently I posted an instructional series on the squat (here, and here). It came from the very knowledgeable and very strong lads at EliteFTS.com. The next in this series called So You Think You Can Bench. It’s a seven-part series. I’m posting the first three here.

You may not be a powerlifter looking for a massive bench press but much of the discussion is very useful. The bench press is a total body lift, not just an upper body lift. The whole body should be tight: legs, glutes and abs included. There should be a tight arch in the low back. (Dave Tate suggests in this video that you should actually be quite uncomfortable while you benching due to this excessively arched posture. I’m not sure we should spend much if any of our time being terribly uncomfortable. But the overall idea of tightness and tension is spot on.) The shoulder blades should be pulled back and pressed tightly into the bench. You should think of pulling the bar apart sort of like pulling apart a piece of chewing gum. Watch and learn.

Vibration Training and Athletic Performance

Vibration plates have been around for a few years. You may have one in your gym. I’ve never used one and I don’t know much about them but I’ve been aware of them for a while. A recent edition of the New York Times Personal Best section discusses these contraptions in the article Jury is Out on Vibrations’ Effect on Athletic Ability.

I was and to some degree still am skeptical of the whole idea of vibration plate training. The machine makes me think of any number of goofy magical exercise machines that one might see on a late-night infomercial. But some research suggests that there may be some positive and “real” effects of vibration plate training. Vibration plate training may improve strength and jump performance (look here, here, and here), bone density (here, here), among other benefits.

One issue we must consider is the fact that many of these positive studies were funded by vibration plate manufacturers, so there may be a conflict of interest inherent to these studies. Further, no one seems sure that vibration plate offers any benefits over and above other types of training such as plyometric work or weight training. The article states:

“There is something to it,” said William J. Kraemer, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut and the editor in chief of The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, calling it “another tool” for athletic conditioning. But he added that other conditioning methods might yield the same or better results.

“If you think of conditioning as a toolbox, there are lots of tools,” he said. “But when companies are selling something, they want to pretend that one tool does everything.”

Interestingly, no one seems to know how or why vibration plate training works. The effects seem to be short-lived. For instance, a high jumper might use the vibration plate just prior to his or her jump and gain a slight advantage for that jump only.

My personal theory is that perhaps the vibration may drive up the sympathetic nervous system, or the part of our nervous system associated with the fight-or-flight response. If you watch various athletes prior to competition, you often see them jumping up and down, shaking their arms, tossing their head about. Boxers and martial artists do this all the time prior to a fight. I’ve seen Olympic swimmers shaking their arms vigorously prior to their heat. Perhaps all this vigorous shaking is creating a similar effect to the vibration plate. More research is needed to figure this out.

All-and-all, vibration plate training may provide some benefits but as yet, these plates don’t appear to be any sort of miracle device. Money spent on one of these machines might better be spent on a barbell and a few weight plates.

Basic Barbell Training

My newly (re) discovered enthusiasm for barbell lifting has led me to start a new class at the gym called Basic Barbell Training. As the name suggests it’s a class based around traditional, tried-and-true barbell lifts: squats, presses, the deadlift, the clean and variations of these lifts.

Getting stronger is the goal.

photo by Jon Tunnell

To start the process, I’m holding several free seminars in order to generate interest in small group barbell training at the Cherry Creek Athletic Club where I work. Ideally I’d like groups of no more than three people. The class would meet two or three times per week, depending on how often people can attend. We’ll progress from simply learning the lifts, to upping our poundage and getting stronger, to developing power. This type of general strength and power development will benefit anyone from endurance athletes to golfers to anyone looking to improve daily physical function.

Seminar content will include footwear, posture, breathing and tension. We’ll cover two basic exercises in the seminar, the goblet squat and the overhead press. Both are bare-bones exercises that require minimal equipment. No racks or benches required.

Though the air/goblet squat doesn’t involve a barbell, it is an essential movement in learning how to squat and deadlift. The overhead press is a fantastic total-body exercise that translates to real life. Though only the arms are moving, the entire body must work at stability and balance.

Anyone may attend the seminars whether you’re a Cherry Creek member or not. Dates, times and location are as follows:

Dates & Times:

Saturday, January 22, 11AM
Monday, January 24, 6PM

Location:

Cherry Creek Athletic Club
500 South Cherry Street
Denver, Colorado 80246
www.cherrycreekclub.com

Both members and non-members may attend. For more information, please contact me at DenverFitnessJournal@Gmail.com or by calling 720.587.7038.

Sports and Pregnancy

So I emailed several acquaintances and asked for blog post ideas. A former client suggested I discuss exercise considerations for the pregnant athlete. Seemed like a good idea to me. Being that I’m a man and I and my wife have no kids on the horizon, I don’t give much thought to pregnancy but perhaps I should.

Like a lot of our general fitness information, much of the popular information for the pregnant athlete falls on the very conservative side. On some issues though there is not a consensus. On other issues there is very little research. It seems possible though that healthy, active mothers-to-be can safely exercise beyond these conservative limits. Most of my information came from an article titled the Pregnant Athlete from the IDEA Health & Fitness Association. It’s a very complete and well researched article. I suggest you read it if you’d like more information on this topic. Meanwhile, here are a few things to consider for pregnant athletes.

Currently Exercising vs. Starting New Exercise

There is a solid consensus that it is safe for athletes to continue exercising once pregnant. There also is a consensus that women unaccustomed to exercise should not start exercising when pregnant.

Sport and Exercise Selection

First and foremost it seems like a good idea to choose an exercise modality that’s safe. At any stage of pregnancy, a strong enough jolt or impact to the abdomen can severely damage the fetus. Therefore choosing low-risk sports and activities is vital. Martial arts, downhill skiing, mountain biking (perhaps road biking too), and skating (roller and ice) are a few examples of sports in which NOT to engage while pregnant. Running is safe for many pregnant women. Swimming, walking, cross-country skiing and strength training may be very good ideas.

Heart Rate Recommendations

Physicians commonly recommend pregnant athletes keep their heart rate at 140 beats per minute (bpm). Anyone who exercises knows that 140 bpm is fairly low. The 140 bpm recommendation was put forward in 1985 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The ACOG has since left that recommendation behind in favor of using the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale or RPE. Women should pay attention to how they feel when they exercise. If everything feels OK then good. Don’t exercise to blithering exhaustion though.

Heat

One concern about vigorous exercise or exercise in the heat is hyperthermia or a high body temperature and possible overheating of the fetus that could lead to birth defects. Research however has yet to show any higher rate of birth defects among women who exercise at high intensities. To the contrary, women who exercise can more effectively dissipate heat. The following paragraph comes from the article, the Pregnant Athlete:

“It is during the first trimester that the fetus cannot regulate its own body temperature and is most susceptible to the mother’s. In this period, pregnant athletes should be cautious about exercising in hot conditions and for long durations. They should wear light-colored, breathable fabrics to keep cool and should drink water throughout the day and during exercise bouts; their urine should be diluted to the point that it is virtually clear in color. Some experts recommend that pregnant athletes take their temperature either vaginally or rectally (orally is less accurate) immediately before their longest weekly workout and again immediately after, before the body cools down. Clapp recommends a temperature increase of no more than 1.6 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit [F]) and a postexercise temperature no higher than 102 degrees F (Clapp 2002).”

Strength Training

There’s not much research on strength training and the pregnant athlete. The ACOG guidelines recommend a single set consisting of at least 12 to 15 repetitions without undue fatigue for each resistance exercise. My guess is that pregnant women can probably lift a little heavier but looking for your PR on the deadlift probably isn’t wise during this time. Moderate exertion sounds fine.

(I’d be quite interested to see what sort of levels of exertion we might see in pregnant women in 3rd world countries; places where avoidance of taxing physical labor isn’t an option.)

Flexibility Work

Relaxin is a hormone that increases joint mobility. Production of relaxin goes up during pregnancy so as to soften and relax the pelvic structure in preparation for birth. Because of this increased flexibility, it’s generally recommended that pregnant women should not seek to increase their flexibility.

(I personally don’t recommend static isolated stretching for anyone [look here, and here]. Active or dynamic flexibility work is the way to go for several reasons.)

Further Information

The National Forum on Pregnancy and Sport was conducted in Sydney, Australia, in 2001. What follows is a summary of the medical advice presented:

Medical evidence suggests that healthy pregnant women (with normal pregnancies) can participate in sports without affecting the course or outcome of the pregnancy. (The panel did make some provisos in terms of type, intensity, duration and frequency of exercise.)

Pregnant athletes should avoid maximal-intensity exercise, have a thorough cool-down period of gentle exercise, avoid excessive stretching and jerky ballistic movements, ensure adequate fluid intake and pay attention to core body temperature.

The fetus is extremely well protected from blows to the abdomen during the first trimester (first 3 months) of pregnancy.

The risk of abdominal injuries during sports (for both men and women) is extremely low. Current research indicates that fewer than 2 percent of all injuries, including those that occur during contact sports, involve the abdomen or chest area.

The pregnant woman, herself, is best placed to know (generally from discomfort and lack of coordination) when to stop participating.

Pregnant women should seek advice from medical professionals and, if appropriate, seek a second opinion.

No medical evidence has linked adverse outcomes for the fetus (including miscarriage) to sporting injuries. Statistics and research on adverse outcomes following severe or catastrophic trauma to pregnant women relate almost exclusively to road trauma and domestic violence.

Stories of Pregnant Athletes

Finally, if you’re interested, Pregnant athletes don’t have to sit out is a story from ESPN. Several amateur and professional athletes are profiled as they balanced their lives as competitors and mothers-to-be.

References:

Clapp, J. 2002. Exercising Through Your Pregnancy. Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.

Thoughts on Getting Stronger

Get Strong!

I’m reading Marty Gallagher’s Purposeful Primitive right now and it’s fascinating. If you’re a fitness professional or someone who’s dedicated to exercise, then I suggest you check it out. It’s all real-life stories of Marty’s time in the trenches of big-time weightlifting. He profiles various elite strong men such as Paul Anderson and Ed Coan, bodybuilders such as Bill Pearl and Dorian Yates, and other freakishly strong individuals. Most interesting to me are their methods to getting stronger–and it’s all fairly simple: Lift Heavy & Use Perfect Technique. Barbells and dumbbells are the tools for the job. Lifting more is the task, not exhausting the muscle with 10-15 reps.

Go pick up something heavy!

Similar to Pavel Tsatsouline’s advice, lifting heavy for a very few reps–five and under–is the ideal way to get genuinely strong. There should be one very high quality “top set.” That is, there should be a few warm-up sets performed on the way to one all-out maximal effort set. Stop a rep or two before failure. The technique must be perfect. Lifting heavy can be dangerous. Going to out-and-out exhaustion is a good way to get injured.

This concept is in contrast to many of the popular gym classes in which participants lift very light weights for an endless number of reps. This won’t make anyone stronger. It may not necessarily be bad but it’s probably not the best use of your time if your goal is a) getting stronger or b) looking stronger. Now, this strategy can turn bad if you lift to the point of utter fatigue and your technique fails. From what I’ve seen of some of the “sculpting” classes and such, technique is not a prime concern of many instructors. “A few more reps!” does seem to be the primary concern though. But guess what, “a few more reps” won’t work any miracles for your physique, but if you’ve hit the failure point then those extra reps may well push you to the point of pain and possible injury. That may mean no exercise for you for a while.

Very few exercises are needed to create more strength. Squats, bench press, deadlift, overhead pressing, and various rows are essential. Complicated pulley machines are useless except to sell gym memberships. Plastic inflatable objects like BOSUs and Dyna Disks are junk that have more in common with kids pool toys than strength and muscle building implements.

Typical Gym Mindset

Whether we admit it or not, the main reason we’re in the gym is to look good–to look strong. Physique building developed from the old-fashioned strongmen–those guys with the funny bathing suits, handlebar mustaches, and who could hoist hundreds of pounds overhead with one hand. These guys were strong number one. The impressive physiques were a nice byproduct of their ability to perform. But most gym goers aren’t actually interested in being strong. The cart has become far more important than the horse it seems.

It’s quite funny to observe our modern fitness center environment. I often see people working really hard doing easy exercises! Popular ineffective waste-of-time exercises include partial range pec deck flyes, hunched over triceps extensions, and the always famous 50 reps of 1/4 inch wiggle cruncheson an odd, overly technical crunch machine.

These complex machines actually make exercise easier. Balance and precise control is eliminated from the process. Most of these popular machine exercises are done while seated or lying down. Sounds comfy right? But why come to the gym for easy exercise?? These machines allow for half-hearted effort disguised as hard work. Further, machine exercises tend to promote poor posture: forward head, hunched shoulders, tight hip flexors. This is the opposite of tall and strong. This is no way to achieve a strong physique!

Getting Strong is Fun.

My reading has caused me to rethink not only how I train myself but also how I train my clients. For a while now I’ve scaled back on the number of exercises I’m using and I’m focusing on training in that strength zone of 3-5 reps–maybe up to 8 reps–and avoiding failure at the end. Turns out lifting heavy objects does some cool stuff. First, it’s quite safe. Using perfect technique and working only to exertion but not exhaustion is the ideal way to avoid pain. Ending the workout just when fatigue begins to set in means we avoid aggravating the nervous system. Plus, knowing that you could’ve done just a few more reps means you’ll be raring to go at the next workout.

Further, picking up heavy objects does good things for our brain. Again, whether we really want to admit it out loud, some part of what drives us into the gym is self-image and/or self-esteem. We want to like ourselves more. Be it through physique change or performance goals, we exercise to make ourselves proud. So lifting heavy is a great way to feel a sense of accomplishment. As the weeks go by and the poundage goes up, you can’t help but get excited! And somewhere along the line you might accidentally create a better looking you. What more can you ask for?

Four laps around this radio equals a mile.

Many of us listen to music while we exercise. (Some of us even proceed to sing and dance too.) Do you think it makes you stronger? Faster? Is it easier for you to grind through your workout with music? The New York Times Health Section tells us more about why we like music and how it affects our performance.

The Times piece describes research done at Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences in Liverpool, England. Twelve male cyclists listened to music set to three different tempos. Popular music was played either at the regular tempo, increased by 10 percent, or decreased by 10 percent. Researchers tracked heart rate, power output, pedal cadence, enjoyment of the music and perception of exertion.

Participants rode faster, produced more power, had higher heart rates and enjoyed the faster music more. In contrast, slower music brought on slowe rides, less power, lower heart rates and less enjoyment of the music which stayed the same. Interestingly, participants perception of their effort didn’t drop with the increased music but rather it went up. Seems the music motivated them to ride harder.

There may be an upper limit to the effect of music on our performance though. Research shows the following:

“While running on a treadmill at 85% of aerobic capacity (VO2max), listening to music will not make the task seem easier in terms of information that the muscles and vital organs send the brain. Nevertheless, the runner is likely to find the experience more pleasurable. The bottom line is that during a hard session, music has limited power to influence what the athlete feels, but it does have considerable leverage on how the athlete feels.”

What we’ve got here is a nice thorough intermingling of auditory input, psychological motivation, and physiological performance. It’s fascinating that though we may very much feel the effect of exhaustive work, we can through music actually perceive the work differently. Does anyone still think there’s some sort of difference between the “body” and the “mind?”

Denver Fitness Journal

All Things Health and Fitness by Kyle Norman, MS, CSCS, FMS, RRCA Running Coach

Strength & Power Conditioning