Whats the story about maxing out at 6 reps increasing strength while minimising bulk.
Does higher reps at lighter weights just simulate lactate intolerance?
Answer in relation to a long distance runners strength & stability (10k +), not speed (the fizzer).
Fuck you. FUCK YOU!
I am so confussed.
Most top exercise physiologists who have studied the purpose of strength work for mid to long distance runners will agree that heavy and less reps is the best.
light weight and lots of reps is definitely what you want. For distance runners, I have never heard of anyone recommending heavy lifting with a small number of reps. Heavy lifting will work on your explosiveness, but won't really help you much in a 5K or 10K. I would start at 15 or 20 reps and build up your strength until you can do 30 reps pretty easy. Once you get to this point, you should be doing about 3 sets of 30 reps. Unless you plan on moving down to the 100m, stay away from the heavy lifting.
XC, I was going to ask about whether sprinters (100m) should do heavy weight. Thanks for the info.
Actually Percy Cerutty advocated that distance runners, at least middle distance runners lift heavy weights (for them) with relatively few reps: 6 I think. Steve Spence also did a high weight low rep program. He and Herb Elliot did O.K. as far as I remember.
Not so fast, XC. Straight from mogreene.com:
"less weight with more reps is much better."
While this doesn't entirely answer your question, a friend of mine provided me with this a couple of weeks ago. Take it as you may:
"It's important to remember to take anything I might say with a grain of salt - remember I'm no doctor and I have no formal qualification in the field of strength training or training generally for endurance athletes.
Having said that, let's see if we can proceed to address the question at hand. Resistance training/strength training/weight training are terms that people use interchangeably and however you say it, I'm all for it (provided that it's done properly and with a view to the demands of your particular sport).
I think the last point is important - to be productive (to improve performance in a specific sport), weight training must be targeted to address the requirements of the specific sport. So forget about training for general fitness - your running already does that for you.
Considering that you engage in long distance running, productive weight training for you would have to achieve the following:
-Not take long to do (you spend too much time running already and probably would benefit from maximizing your down time or active rest time).
- Help you run better (be this faster/or more efficiently i.e. get more force/work output for the same or lesser cardiovascular effort)
-Avoid creating a drain on your recovery ability that would take you days to recover from
-Avoid building muscle bulk that would be too calorically expensive (require you to eat more to keep it around) and that would be heavier and thus slow you down - a heavier, bulkier muscle takes longer to move.
-Would have to strengthen muscles/ligaments/tendons significantly while not adding bulk.
The answer to all of these questions probably lies in "power lifting" type training. Power lifters are brutally strong and train exclusively for strength and not for size. This type of training, as a consequence, will maximize functional strength without adding bulk. The exercises are based around low reps and lows sets with heavy weights (while preserving good form and a steady rep speed). An example would be the 5x5 leg press I told you about - 5 reps per set (with one - two minute rests between sets) and then go home. You will gain functional strength, little muscle bulk, have minimal muscle soreness and not spend a lot of time in the gym.
Remember that a human body is a unit (not just a collection of body parts) and the unit is one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Thus the whole body should be trained in the manner described above. Since your goal is only to gain functional strength, I would keep exercises for the upper body simple - body weight dips (which train the whole upper body by working the triceps/shoulders/and lower and medial aspects of the chest) and chin-ups which train the muscles of the upper back and biceps. Again, a productive routine would probably be a 5x5 (5 reps per set with 5 sets).
Remember that when I say heavy weight I mean relatively heavy - don't go piling on more weight than you can handle - start with a weight that allows you to do a 5x5 comfortably and then add weight each time you train.
You'll be surprised at how fast your strength increases.
Incorporate more protein into your diet, as protein is responsible for muscular repair - good sources are eggs/tuna/lean meat (red and white, although white probably has less fat), peanut butter and cheese (which has too high a fat content but tastes good...lets admit it).
Websites to consider - check out power lifting sites by entering the word power lifting on a search engine like goggle. These sites will speak mostly about the big 3 Olympic lifts (squat/bench press/deadlift) but the discussions on functional strength development will give you a sense of where they (and I) are coming from.
For tips on the same sort of stuff (and stretching) try Pavel Tsatsouline (a Russian with a masters in sports and former strength coach to Spetnaz - soviet secret service. Try also the articles on the pro-Pavel website
"
Hope this answered more questions than it created.
Monty
So what kind of gains can you see in basic speed from doing the leg press? Me and basic speed = oxymoron, so yeah, it would be nice if it helped my sprint speed lol.
Thank you Monty.
I am doing 2 x (3 sets x 6 reps at near max). It 'feels good' for posture strength on long hard runs. I am doing 100's of low weight bicep curls also to maintain efficient arm movement. - a complete contrast to the press reps.
Thats good. Legs; strength Arms: endurance?
Good luck!
The latest research says if you are shooting for maiximum strength gains, that you should be doing 8 - 12 reps, and 3 - 5 sets. Also, be sure to incorporate a good amount of fat (the healthy kind, omega-3 - which is found in fish, nuts, and some oils - ideally) into your diet, as fat is what triggers your body to naturally build testosterone. Merely eating more fat dosn't make you fat, it has very little to do with that. It's all about calories, and carbs contains a lot of calories also. Testosterone is what naturally builds muscle, and helps recover, so it is very important to boost your natural levels (no side effects).