Maximum Strength and Endurance Performance?

[Guest guest]

Have any of you used maximum strength and/or power methods to improve

the performance of endurance athletes? If so, to what result?

I recently came across this from a lecture from Newton, PhD,

CSCS in regard to endurance athletics:

-Endurance is a matter of relative load

-If (a) rowing stroke requires 40% of maximal pull strength then a

10% increase in 1RM results in a 10% decrease in relative load

-Or can row with 10% more force output to work 40% effort

-Same applies for power

I recently also came across the following article which can be found at

http://www.titansportsperformance.com/missinglink.html

STRENGTH TRAINING AND ENDURANCE ATHLETES - THE MISSING LINK

By Jacques DeVore, CSCS President, Titan Sports Performance Center

The debate rages on. Is it effective for endurance athletes to add

strength training and if so when and how? Numerous studies have shown

differing results, however the consensus seems to be leading to

numerous benefits from the addition of strength training.

How force production impacts endurance sports performance is still

not totally clear because a majority of the research is limited in

scope. However as a cycling coach and strength and conditioning coach

the goal in training the endurance athlete is producing greater

amounts of sustainable power. The training should result in the

athlete producing power outputs at or below lactate threshold that

are a greater and greater percentage of VO2 max. Different training

sessions are prescribed to overload the different energy systems

furthering the goal of higher maximum sustained power. For example,

if during a long duration tempo ride (65-75% of VO2 max) the athlete

is able to produce a greater amount of average power without

exceeding the prescribed intensity the athlete will receives a

greater overload during the same duration of time. This increased

average power output allows the athlete to receive a greater overload

and subsequently greater adaptation. Properly managed resistance

training provides the athlete the ability to generate higher levels

of sustainable power throughout sport specific training sessions.

It is encouraging that the majority of research does support the

benefit of strength training because most of the studies have only

looked at the direct results in a 6-8 week strength program and how

increases in absolute strength impact typical measurements of

endurance sport performance (VO2max, anaerobic capacity,etc.)

immediately following a strength training program.(Millet et al.

2002, Wisloff and Helgerud 1998, Hoff et al. 1999) The larger direct

sports specific benefit outside of the immediate improvement in

strength is the ability to achieve greater overloads in subsequent

training than the pre-resistance trained endurance athlete.

The limitation with most of the research is that the majority of the

studies have looked at the correlation between absolute strength and

endurance performance after a short bout of resistance training. Most

of the studies do not turn the corner and look at the correlation of

increased strength and subsequent increases in power as well as other

underlying benefits. In addition if trained properly the ability to

increase overloads in the specific sport are greatly enhanced by

increases in power production.

In many cases the exercise protocol prescribe for endurance athletes

leans more toward hypertrophy which will in the short run produce

lower performance in most endurance training programs. This is caused

because as muscle tissue is added the percentage of capillary dense

and mitochondria rich muscle is diminished. In other words this

muscle has not been endurance trained. Most endurance sport

performance is driven by the ability to sustain maximum power but

most resistance programs are strength and sometimes mistakenly

hypertrophy driven.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE RESISTANCE TRAINING

FOR THE ENDURANCE ATHLETE?

The goal in endurance training typically focuses on improving the

maximum oxygen delivery (VO2 max) and the ability to efficiently

utilize the oxygen that is being delivered. It is not always the

highest VO2 max that wins the race. The ability to sustain power at

the highest percentage of VO2 max is typically the major contributor

to success in endurance events. It is with this in mind that a

resistance training program should be developed. Therefore the goal

of the resistance training should not necessarily be absolute

strength but how added strength aids the athlete in producing greater

sustainable power sport specifically. The goal of increased power

also needs to be balanced with the issue of weight gain in the

endurance athlete, as well as timing the resistance training so as

not to compromise sport specific training. In most endurance sports

power to weight ratio is of great importance, and many endurance

athletes are very body composition focused so a coach has to be

careful how an athlete perceives added weight.

Understanding the goal of producing maximum sustained power(msp) the

coach should initially evaluate the athlete to determine on a

relative basis what type of power the athlete is currently producing.

Tests to determine absolute measurements of power such as vertical

jump, med-ball chest throw, isokinetic testing to measure velocity of

jump and time to peak force can help us understand the current level

of short term power output. Eventhough these tests are only a

snapshot of the athlete they provide a window into the athletes

absolute power that when coupled with a sports specific evaluation

and needs analysis will start to connect the dots as to where

training time should be spent. Typically endurance athletes will have

decent relative strength but poor velocity of movement. You will find

that many endurance athletes because of the nature of endurance

sports have poor relative measurements of short-term power to other

more explosive sports. Other more sophisticated tests for

measurements of sustainable power are recommended such as Wingate,

time vs. distance, watt meters etc.. However, the simple tests can

inform a coach about athletes and their competitive performance. For

example: If you have a cyclist that shows tremendous power output but

does not win races you can look at other reasons other than ability

to sprint that may be limiting their ability to win.

THE MISSING LINK:

A CYCLIST AS AN EXAMPLE

THE REAL MEASUREMENT OF A GOOD RESISTANCE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR A

CYCLIST OR OTHER ENDURANCE ATHLETE IS THAT IT CREATES A PLATFORM FOR

THE ATHLETE TO PRODUCE GREATER POWER OUTPUT DURING SPORTS SPECIFIC

TRAINING SESSIONS. THIS ALLOWS THE ATHLETES TO HAVE GREATER OVERLOADS

IN THEIR ACTUAL SPORT SPECIFIC TRAINING.

This is the missing link that most of the research misses. Most of

the research is looking for the direct correlation between strength

and endurance performance. However the long term benefit, especially

with elite athletes, of allowing the athlete to produce greater

average power output throughout all training sessions leads to higher

overloads in the sports specific training, and subsequently higher

levels of adaptation. The difficulty in obtaining larger overloads in

the elite athlete becomes even more difficult as the athlete reaches

higher levels of performance and greater maturity in their respective

sports.

Let’s look at correlation for a moment because it is important to

understand this concept when developing proper training for the

endurance athlete. Correlation ® is a statistical measurement of

the relationship that one variable has on another. Correlation is

measured intuitively by most strength and conditioning professionals.

It would be very obvious that the ability to perform a forearm curl

would have very little impact on an athlete’s ability to run a 100-

meter dash. However vertical jump would intuitively have a much

higher correlation to an athlete’s ability to run 100 meters.

Correlation is measured in a range of 1.0 to -1.0. By multiplying ®

by itself one obtains a co-variance coefficient or measurement of one

variable to another. A more positive correlation means that the

variables are closely related and move in tandem. A negative

correlation would mean that one variable has very little impact on

the movement of the other. It is the responsibility of the coach to

identify these degrees of correlation to the specific sport to

effectively develop a program. Oftentimes a coach must look to an

exercise that on the surface has no direct link to the specific sport

but is highly correlated to performing other exercises that have a

high correlation to the specific sport.

Ex: A cyclist is conducting an interval session. He is producing an

average of 400 watts of power over every three min session. If the

athlete completes 8 intervals he has completed a total wattage of

8x400x3min=9600 watts of total power output. If the athlete through

resistance training can produce a 15% increase in power through

resistance training then the total overload is increased to 11,040

watts during the session. During longer training bouts the average

power output over the season starts to really compound and provide

bigger and bigger benefits. During longer tempo types of rides the

athlete is able to produce greater average watts at a lower

percentage of maximum wattage. Over time this ability to

incrementally increase power output at lower than maximum levels is a

huge advantage for an elite endurance athlete’s efficient production

of sustainable power. Efficiency in oxygen utilization by longer

duration stress at 60-80% of VO2 max is where a large percentage of

an endurance athlete’s gains are made. This is evidenced by the

ability of older athletes to be at world-class levels of performance

in endurance sports. The body will adapt to these greater overloads

after a period of time and the athlete will see the increased

performance results because of the increased overload and subsequent

adaptation.

When evaluating winning race times and top quartile performance times

in endurance sports the disparity is typically separated by less than

10%. In many cases the margin is even lower than 10%. A small

increase in the ability to produce maximum sustained power can make a

top 15th to 20th place athlete move into a top 5 finish.

Research shows that there are a number of increases in anaerobic

performance after a 6-8 week strength program, (Nokes 1988) however

the bigger benefit comes later when the endurance athlete has had

enough time to train at the higher power output over multiple

training sessions.

SUMMARY:

1) Research shows that resistance training aids endurance athletes.

2) Properly managed resistance programs goal should be focused on

power development.

3) Coaches should understand the correlation of resistance training

protocols and the sports specific training required.

4) The ability of the athlete to produce higher overloads in sports

specific training sessions is the biggest benefit for the endurance

athlete.

5) Increased core strength and overall improvement in muscle

imbalances helps prevent overuse injuries. This is in addition to the

added benefits of power production from appropriate resistance

training programs.

===============

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Cowell

Raleigh, NC

[Guest guest]

--- Cowell wrote:

> Hi Dr Giarnella,

> I appreciate your comments. I too am, well

> actually was a cyclist.

> I raced for several years on the national racing

> circuit as a Cat 1.

> I completely agree with your assessment. Strength

> to weight ratio

> and specificity of training are paramount to the

> success of a rider.

> All that being taken into consideration, does my

> original question of

> does a cyclist with a max wattage output of 1000

> attempting to

> maintain 200 watts have a harder time than he would

> have if he were

> able to increase his maximum output to 1300 watts?

> By the way, I am

> talking about road cycling, not track. In terms of

> endurance being a

> product of relative load, then yes it should be and

> my professional

> (empirical) experience confirms this. I>

> Thanks for your time,

>

***

I don't have a scientific answer to your question ( no

studies) however in my opinion there is a big

physiological difference between riding at 200 watts

and riding at 1000 or 1200 watts.

I will cite an article written by Allan Lim PHD

(Floyd Landis' trainer) during the 2005 Tour de

France.

****************************

" Some Thoughts on Peak Power:?

Because, I'm often referring to Floyd's peak power

data, I'd thought I'd

take a little bit of time and officially introduce

this very important variable. I'll start by saying

that everyone is always asking me what Floyd's maximum

power is. As if, he's some sort of racecar and they

want a horsepower rating before they haggle with the

salesman. ??

The reality is, there is no such thing as

a single maximum power output value for a cyclist.

Rather, there are different maximum or peak power

values for different time frames. So instead of saying

that Floyd's max power is an arbitrary 475 watts, I

can say for 5 minutes the highest we've ever seen him

hold is 475 watts. That's also why we use the term

" peak " instead of " max. " When we say " peak, " it's a

subtle distinction that means the value is the highest

we've ever measured to date. When we say, " max "

there's the understanding that the value is the

highest that has ever and will ever be measured.

SinceFloyd is still improving, we stick with peak.

When he

retires, we'll tell you what his max was. ??In any

case, just like runners can have personal bests or

PR's for different distances (the mile, a 10 km run,

or a marathon), a cyclist can have personal bests or

peaks for different time frames. We measure those

bests as the highest wattage a cyclist can for a

distinct time period. In our case, we measure the

highest power Floyd holds each day for 5 seconds, 30

seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and

2 hours. The reason why we chose these different time

frames is because performing all out for each requires

a distinct combination of physiological attributes.

As an example, going all out for 5 seconds is really

dependent on anaerobic energy sources (i.e., energy

production without the use of oxygen), whereas going

all out for 2 hours is completely dependent on aerobic

energy sources (i.e., energy production exclusively

through the use of oxygen).

In addition, an all out effort for 5 minutes is very

close to an athlete's maximal aerobic capacity or VO2

max while an all out effort for 30 minutes to 1 hour

is very close to an athlete's lactate threshold.

Since, these different time frames place distinct

physiological demands on the body, cyclists who are

better at sprinting tend to have better peak power

outputs in the 5 second to 1 minute time frame, while

cyclists who are better at time trialing or climbing

normally have better peak power outputs for the 5

minute to 2 hour time frame.

A sprinter here at the Tour might be able to hold 1700

or more watts for 5 seconds while Floyd probably won't

crack 1000 watts. On the other hand, Floyd will

probably be able to hold over 400 watts for 30

minutes, while a sprinter of equal weight will be

lucky to hold over 350 watts.

*********************

The last paragraph probably answers your question

best. Peak short term power does not correlate to

Peak long term sustainable power.

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington Ct, USA