From the Guidelines
Endurance athletes should adopt a weightlifting approach that focuses on moderate to high repetitions with lower weights, specifically 8-15 repetitions at 50-80% of their 1-repetition maximum, to minimize injury risk and enhance performance. This approach is supported by the American Heart Association's guidelines for resistance training, which recommend a repetition range of 8 to 12 for healthy participants and 10 to 15 repetitions at a lower relative resistance for older or debilitated subjects 1. The guidelines also emphasize the importance of proper technique, safety precautions, and progressive overload to achieve a balanced increase in both muscular strength and endurance.
When designing a weightlifting program for endurance athletes, it's essential to consider the following key points:
- Frequency: 2-3 times per week, with at least 48 hours between sessions targeting the same muscle groups 1
- Intensity: 50-80% of 1-repetition maximum, with a focus on moderate to high repetitions (8-15) 1
- Modality: Compound movements like leg extensions, leg curls, leg press, bench press, lateral pulldowns, biceps curl, and triceps extension 1
- Duration: 30-45 minutes per session 1
- Progressive overload: Gradually increase weight by no more than 5-10% when current weights become manageable, to continue challenging the muscles and promoting adaptation.
By following this approach, endurance athletes can reduce their risk of injury, improve their muscular endurance, and enhance their overall performance, as supported by the guidelines and recommendations from the American Heart Association 1.
From the Research
Weightlifting Approach for Endurance Athletes
To minimize injury risk, endurance athletes should consider a weightlifting approach that focuses on improving strength, power, and speed.
- The study 2 suggests that weightlifting training (WLT) can be beneficial for athletic development, resulting in greater improvements in weightlifting and jumping performance compared to traditional resistance training (TRT).
- Additionally, WLT and plyometric training (PLYO) may result in similar improvements in speed, power, and strength, with negligible to moderate, non-significant effects in favor of WLT 2.
Training Considerations
When designing a weightlifting program for endurance athletes, several factors should be considered:
- The importance of muscular strength, including improving maximal force expression and time-limited force expression 3.
- The use of bilateral training, eccentric training, and accentuated eccentric loading, which may produce comprehensive strength adaptations 3.
- The selection of loads, with participants tend to select loads equal to an average of 53% of their 1RM, which can sufficiently stimulate hypertrophy and increase maximal strength for novices 4.
Benefits of Resistance Training
Resistance training can have numerous benefits for endurance athletes, including:
- Improved physical performance, movement control, walking speed, functional independence, cognitive abilities, and self-esteem 5.
- Enhanced cardiovascular health, with reductions in resting blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides, and increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol 5.
- Improved running economy, with explosive training and heavy weight training being effective for improving running economy in endurance athletes 6.
Effective Training Methods
Effective training methods for endurance athletes include:
- Explosive training, which can improve running economy and enhance power and speed 6.
- Heavy weight training, which can improve running economy and increase maximal strength 6.
- Concurrent training programs that combine strength and endurance training, which can have a small beneficial effect on running economy 6.