Strength Training for Triathletes
Strength Training for Triathletes
by Maylene Wise 2.18.04
(www.slowtwitch.com)
Editor’s note: Maylene Wise is a strength and conditioning coach in Raleigh, North Carolina. She can be found at atp4athletes.com. She is a triathlete herself, and the subject in the photos below. She can be contacted at maylene@atp4athletes.com.
Strength training does not increase capillary density to any great degree. It exerts marginal impact on mitochondrial size and number, same with myoglobin content, intramuscular substrate stores, oxidative capacity or use of glycogen. It doesn’t help you burn fat more efficiently.
So why would any endurance athlete want to devote precious training time to strength training when it appears there is no apparent benefit?
I’m glad you asked.
INJURY PREVENTION OR “THE NEILLY FACTOR”
A few years back I was training a buddy of mine who was picked to represent the USA in baseball at the 2000 Olympics. During a strength session he looked at me and said, “Honestly, how do you think me doing all this crap is going to help me become a better ball player?” Obviously, we’d had better training days but I did have the answer:
“Doing all this crap may help to prevent those nagging little injuries that keep you off the field,” I replied. “The more at bats you get, the better your chances of increasing your productivity. The more field time you get, the more chances you have to perform the plays that produce outs.”
After 11 years playing ball, Mike Neilly has retired and is now a successful financial advisor with UBS. He did have a great stint in Sydney, hitting the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 13th against Japan and catching the final out against Cuba to win the Gold. Looking back, Neilly wishes he was taught the functional exercises to help strengthen himself in addition to the traditional lifting methods he imposed. He feels he worked very hard during his career but realizes he could have been more efficient.
Sure, no big finding here, a ball player should do strength training and it correlates with the anaerobic functioning of the game. There is nothing aerobic about baseball. But how does strength training help triathletes? Well, I am still going to use my Neilly Factor: It will help keep those nagging injuries away and help to keep you in the best training shape to get faster and last longer.
Overuse injuries occur when repetitive stress to bone and soft tissue produces damage at a greater rate than the body can repair. Malalignment issues are frequently cited as an implication for overuse injuries. Although orthotics can be prescribed to alter subtalar joint alignment, which can improve knee alignment, many times the malalignment will begin from the pelvic or other anatomical region which cannot be corrected by orthotics. These are normally due to imbalance issues that can respond to a proper strengthening program.
Swimmers are often plagued with shoulder impingement pain, anterior pain due to shoulder cuff tendonitis, biceps tendonitis and glenohumeral instability. Improving muscular balance around the affected joints through strength training can lessen pain and improve function (1,2).
Runners and cyclists have their own share of common overuse injuries. Patellofemoral pain due to patellar malalignment has been alleviated through programs that strengthen the vastus medialis (the “inner” quadricep) oblique. Strengthening this muscle has demonstrated less lateral patella tracking (3, 6). Overpronation is a visible sign that the athlete may have one or more unstable joints. Strengthening of the inversion and eversion muscles surrounding the subtalar joint (4) has provided relief for many athletes. And the ever-prominent Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS) might be alleviated, or staved off in the first place, by increasing hip abduction strength with a routine that targets the gluteus medius (5).
Crabwalk (photo left): Using tubing, place your feet about hip distance apart and make sure the tension is tight. Move one foot to the side without raising your hips (bend your knees!) or dragging the foot on the floor. Follow with the other foot, but again, do not drag it. Do not “sumo walk”, meaning raising the hip to unload the foot. Keep your spine in a neutral alignment through the neck, knees do not cross the toe line, and hips and shoulders in alignment.
Most people associate strength training with hypertrophy, which is the enlargement of the muscle fibers (7). This enlargement can produce an increase in force development. However, neural factors are the immediate reason strength is increased (8), especially when accompanied by a large volume of endurance training. Strength training provides neural changes affecting the recruitment and frequency modulation of motor units (a motor neuron and the muscle fibers it innervates). I will delve into the importance of motor units in a future article on force production, but the firing frequency does play a role in injury prevention as well. For instance, when all motor units are firing to produce the optimal contractions in the muscles surrounding a joint, it enhances stability in that joint. When the firing is not optimal say, in the vastus medialis, but the vastus lateralis (the “outer” quadricep) is firing optimally, unwanted lateral patellar movement can occur and cause patellofemoral pain.
Neuromuscular training also increases proprioception or kinesthetic sense, an awareness of the body in all planes (frontal, saggital and transverse) of movement. However, not all strength training techniques will enhance proprioception. This is why it is important that your routine be as specific to the movements of your sport, or functional, so that the strength transfers to your performance.
CLOSED CHAIN EXERCISES
These are excellent forms of functional training. Think of the various joints of your body that are activated during a movement as a chain. If the movement was running, then the chain would start with the joints in the foot followed by the ankle, knee and hip and follows up through the opposite shoulder. A closed chain exercise promoting strength for running may be a one-legged squat with the foot producing force directly to the floor. The open chain exercise may be a seated leg extension where the foot is not producing any force therefore leaving an “opening” in the chain.
Closed chain exercises, which more closely replicate normal function, provide compression to various joints which help strengthen the surrounding muscles, stabilizing the joint. These exercises are commonly used instead of, or in conjunction with, open chain exercises in rehabilitation (9). A closed-chain exercise helps strengthen muscle groups rather than single muscles and helps the muscles to work together. Open chain exercises tend to involve more shearing force at all angles to the joint.
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, TELL ME SOMETHING THAT I CAN USE
I hope I have established that a strength routine for a triathlete be comprised of exercises that are functional, specific to the sport of triathlon and closed-chain. What are some examples of these exercises? Let’s look at movement patterns in each activity and think of exercises that mimic them.
RUNNING. Your foot produces force against the ground, provides ankle, knee and hip extension moving the body forward. This is the same motion as a walking lunge.
CYCLING. Your foot produces force against the pedal providing ankle, knee and hip extension similar to a one-legged squat.
SWIMMING. Your hand enters the water, flexion at the elbow creates the “catch”, then push that arm parallel to your body to your thigh. This movement can be reproduced with your hand pulling down on a cable pulley attachment, a closed chain exercise with the hand providing the contact force. Make sure you are performing the same body rotation you would in the water. For example, you will start with your right arm extended, hand in the pulley attachment, body elongated and in alignment with cable pattern (most likely a diagonal position when using a high pulley attachment) and belly button facing just to the left (see above). As you pull down your body will rotate on it’s axis to the right, and end with
the belly button facing the right. With this motion and making sure the hand is proceeding down your midline and your elbow remains high, you should avoid impingement. Eventually as you gain strength you can lift the leg which will increase the diagonal torso stability from the working shoulder to the opposite hip. My clients and I feel this motion transfers very well to the water.
Sounds simple, right? Well, I have a few things to expand on. First, in order for the exercise to truly transfer strength gains it has to replicate the movement as much as possible. Most studies show that even the best dry-land resistance exercises did not improve swim performance (10) but still have importance in providing stability to the glenohumeral joint. Replicating the movement includes not using “props” to help stabilize yourself while doing the movement. While running do you find yourself holding on to the nearest tree branches to stabilize yourself? Then don’t do it while strength training. This will increase the firing of those muscles that will help stabilize you.
You heard of this, the big emphasis on “core” exercises. Then you know the more stable the core the stronger the energy is transferred from limb to limb. Well, let’s take it a step further. I mentioned above that your exercises should be closed-chain in order to provide stresses to all the muscle groups involved in the movement. So why are the majority of your “core” exercises performed with your bum, pelvis or knees on the ground? I would consider this open-chain. Now, like I said earlier in this article, open-chain exercises have their use in providing strength, however I use them as supplemental exercises to overload the musculature surrounding the torso, hip and shoulder. I also perform these supplemental exercises at the end of my strength routine for reasons I will discuss in a future article.
So what do you do if you cannot do a one-legged squat without support? When I train clients for the first time I start them on a 2-legged squat. I make sure they sit back so their knees do not go over their toes and watch how far they can squat. If they can comfortably bring their femur to a parallel position with the floor and not tip over, knees or ankles not moving about, then I feel they may be ready for the one-legged version. This starts with a bit of support by holding a finger or two to a wall and eventually letting go. The desired end result would be a one-legged squat, femur to parallel or thereabouts with no lateral movement in the ankles, knees or tilting of the hips and shoulders and keeping the knees from protruding over the toes. This is a form of progressive overload, providing a greater stress or load on the body than it is normally accustomed to handling.
Progressive overload is the systematic increase in frequency, volume or intensity by itself or in various combinations. Athletes must be very careful in applying overload, especially in a new program, and progress slowly to prevent injuries. Overload is the basis of all gains in strength which leads to why many of the best exercises to strengthen a triathlete is NOT on the bike, run or swim. Basically, there is only so much stress one can put on the body during these activities that would provide enough overload to strengthen it. I know this is a controversial subject so this issue will be closely looked at when I write about performance enhancement.
Another thing to look for while performing your exercises is body alignment. Make sure you are not shifting your weight so that you are leaning to one side. Pretend you have a line bisecting your body and try to keep both sides “balanced”. Again, this will enhance your body’s ability to stabilize itself.
Plank: The exercise is a progression. Once you are able to stay upright with your forearms on the floor in a stable position for 60 seconds, making sure the back/bum does not sink, try it on a physio ball. Make sure there are no objects around you as many of us have fallen on our first attempts! Check that your body stays in alignment, top of the head down to the ankles. Arms should be about 90 degrees, hands apart.
One final note: To cut down on the emails that may be sent in response to this article I have two other points I’d like to address. First, it is a known fact that as we age we lose our ability to keep strength without training. For those of you that are strong and young (I would say, under 25), I could understand the point of focusing your efforts to the swim/bike/run. However, I do not agree you should forego strength training, especially when it comes to enhancing stability. I still believe even the “strongest” athlete should continue stability training since studies have shown strength gained can be lost quickly, usually within weeks (7, 11). It does not have to consume too much time, as my clients usually finish their strength workouts in 30 minutes, twice a week. Also, there will be the argument of omitting strength training unless you are injured or previously inactive. Honestly, do you know an endurance athlete that has not suffered an injury that has set their training back?
References…
1. Bak K. Nontraumatic glenohumeral instability and coracoacromial impingement in swimmers. Sc and J Med Sci Sports. Jun;6(3):132-44. 1996.
2. Johnson JE, Sim FH, Scott SG. Musculoskeletal injuries in competitive swimmers. Myo Clin Proc. Apr;62(4):289-304. 1987.
3. Doucette SA, Goble EM. The effect of exercise on patellar tracking in lateral patellar compression syndrome. Am J Sports Med. Jul-Aug;20(4):434-40. 1992.
4. Feltner ME, MacRae HS, MacRae PG, Turner NS, Hartman CA, Summers ML, Welch MD. Strength training effects on rear foot motion in running. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Aug;26(8):1021-7. 1994.
5. Fredericson M, Cookingham CL, Chaudhari AM, Dowdell BC, Oestreicher N, Sahrmann SA. Hip abductor weakness in distance runners with iliotibial band syndrome. Hip abductor weakness in distance runners with iliotibial band syndrome. Clin J Sport Med. Jul;10(3):169-75. 2000.
6. Neptune RR, Wright IC, van den Bogert AJ. The influence of orthotic devices and vastus medialis strength and timing on patellofemoral loads during running. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). Oct;15(8):611-8. 2000.
7. Hather, BM, PA Tesch, P Buchanan, and G.A Dudley. Influence of eccentric actions on skeletal muscle adaptions to resistance training. Acta Physiol. Scand. 143:177-185. 1991.
8. Komi PV, Training of muscle strength and power: Interactions of neuromotoric, hypertrophic, and mechanical factors. Int. J. Sports Med. 7:10-15. 1986.
9. Beutler AI, Cooper LW, Kirkendall DT, Garrett Jr, WE. Electromyographic analysis of single-leg, closed chain exercises: Implications for rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. J Athl Train. March; 37 (1): 13–18. 2002.
10. Tanaka H, Costill DL, Thomas R, Fink WJ, Widrick JJ. Dry-land resistance training for competitive swimming. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Aug;25(8):952-9. 1993.
11. Tucci JT, Carpenter DM, Pollock ML, Graves JE, Leggett SH. Effect of reduced frequency of training and detraining on lumbar extension strength. Spine. Dec;17(12):1497-501. 1992.
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