Why Does Strength Work Wear me Out?

Training Advice/Discussion

8 years ago 09/03/2015 9:57pm EDT

For months now I've been trying to find the right balance between running and strength work. My main focus is running faster, so I never do strength work to gain muscle (high reps, all body weight work). The only reason I do any strength work at all is to help my overall running, however slightly it may be.

The issue I'm having is that even light strength workouts twice a week wear me out like nothing else. Just 20 minutes of push ups and core work seems to destroy my recovery from runs, as my heart rate is all out of wack the day afterwards.

Has anyone else experienced this? For what it's worth, I've been doing peak training lately with a lot of speed, tempo, and hill work.

8 years ago 09/03/2015 10:05pm EDT

re: strengthsapsenergy

probably because you're weak. back off on the frequency, intensity, and duration of the workouts and you should be able to recover from them

8 years ago 09/03/2015 10:06pm EDT

re: strengthsapsenergy

Stop doing low weight high rep stuff. 20 minutes of body weight strength work is a TON of strength work. Do low rep, heavy weight lifting. You'll get sore the first few times but it is not nearly as hard on your body's central nervous system. You're burning yourself out with too much difficult anaerobic circuit-style training in addition to your running training.

Even with tons of heavy lifting, you would never gain much muscle as long as you train. Distance running overrides the cellular signaling pathways that usually lead to muscle hypertrophy.

Low weight/high rep has its uses, but you obviously don't tolerate it well and are already doing a lot of intensity, so knock it off! If you want to strength train, do heavy barbell lifts. 3x5 squat, maybe deadlift 1x5. And nothing else.

8 years ago 09/03/2015 10:13pm EDT

re: aadsfasfdsf

aadsfasfdsf wrote:
Stop doing low weight high rep stuff. 20 minutes of body weight strength work is a TON of strength work. Do low rep, heavy weight lifting. You'll get sore the first few times but it is not nearly as hard on your body's central nervous system. You're burning yourself out with too much difficult anaerobic circuit-style training in addition to your running training.
Even with tons of heavy lifting, you would never gain much muscle as long as you train. Distance running overrides the cellular signaling pathways that usually lead to muscle hypertrophy.
Low weight/high rep has its uses, but you obviously don't tolerate it well and are already doing a lot of intensity, so knock it off! If you want to strength train, do heavy barbell lifts. 3x5 squat, maybe deadlift 1x5. And nothing else.

Wow, this is very interesting. I actually used to do low-volume, high-weight lifting, and I absolutely found it more energizing than the high-rep stuff I'm doing now. But I had read that low rep lifts of heavy weights is actually more taxing on the CNS. And I also thought it would signal muscular growth more than what I'm doing. So when I started upping my mileage, I switched over. Looks like I should switch back. Thank you for your advice.

8 years ago 09/03/2015 10:15pm EDT

re: strengthsapsenergy

strengthsapsenergy wrote:
aadsfasfdsf wrote:
Stop doing low weight high rep stuff. 20 minutes of body weight strength work is a TON of strength work. Do low rep, heavy weight lifting. You'll get sore the first few times but it is not nearly as hard on your body's central nervous system. You're burning yourself out with too much difficult anaerobic circuit-style training in addition to your running training.
Even with tons of heavy lifting, you would never gain much muscle as long as you train. Distance running overrides the cellular signaling pathways that usually lead to muscle hypertrophy.
Low weight/high rep has its uses, but you obviously don't tolerate it well and are already doing a lot of intensity, so knock it off! If you want to strength train, do heavy barbell lifts. 3x5 squat, maybe deadlift 1x5. And nothing else.
Wow, this is very interesting. I actually used to do low-volume, high-weight lifting, and I absolutely found it more energizing than the high-rep stuff I'm doing now. But I had read that low rep lifts of heavy weights is actually more taxing on the CNS. And I also thought it would signal muscular growth more than what I'm doing. So when I started upping my mileage, I switched over. Looks like I should switch back. Thank you for your advice.

Agreed. Go low reps. Much better. You won't put on lbs of muscle as long as you're running enough.

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Why Does Strength Work Wear me Out?

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