Hi all. I am about to start a triathlon training program and I am looking for a good strength training program to supplement my tri training. I just finished ABBH 1 and had tremendous gains and success on that program.
I don’t have the time to dedicate to splits with the tri training, which will consist of daily anerobic workouts, sometimes twice daily. So I’d like some advice on a solid 3 day full body workout that you think would best supplement a taxing tri program. Thanks!
I actually think I’d need a split routine to avoid the general fatigue of a full full body workout. I suppose I’d be strength training more times per week than if I was doing a full body program, but I think they’d be much better workouts for my postion. Any thoughts?
Try Waterbury’s Total Body Training. He made sure each of the weekly sessions is different enough so as to not overtax the nervous and muscular systems. Also just go to the ‘authors’ section and look up earlier articles by Chad, he’s got plenty of what you need in his repertoir.
Dan John says that the best way to motivate yourself is to sign up for an event and send in your check. I’ve needed to lose fat for some time now, so I figured I would do a sprint tri in August to motivate me. My goal is first and foremost to finish. I also don’t want to have to rest on the swim or walk during the run.
I picked up a copy of The Triathlete’s Training Bible. It’s not bad. Weight training is divided into a strength phase (heavy weights, 1-5 reps) and later some endurance work (15+ reps). Keep in mind that all the swimming, running, and biking won’t leave you with too much in the tank for weights. I think that Chad’s Total Body Training might be a bit much. However, Chad’s Triple Total Training would be almost ideal. One max strength day, one strength-endurance day, and an explosive day. The explosive day is important as this will add power to your biking and swimming, and to a lesser extent your running. Lots of tri training programs recommend plyometrics and/or explosive time moves for improving power output.
Here’s a decent article on strength training for tris. It recommends lots of Olympic lifts, which is interesting. I’ve read a few articles here and there on tri traing and was pretty amazed at the emphasis placed on strength training. They say that it will help a lot with the biking. From my experience, that’s true. I’m a fat guy with some decent strength (at least compared to most endurance athletes) and I can say that leg strength definately helps with biking. That’s my favorite event and I can bike all day long. Conversely, strength helps running the least. As you would expect, my run sucks - I need some endurance big time.
The bottom line here is don’t just focus your lifting on high-rep endurance work. You’ll need to work on max strength and explosiveness as well.
http://www.strengthfit.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5
There is an article on here called “Gym To Road” which tackles weight training and triathalons, search for it in the articles archive.
Also, there is a high level triathlete who posts on T-Nation under the name TriGWU, send him a PM and he could give you lots of advice. He also has a thread called “Road to Kona” under the Perfomance Photos forum which has more details.
Cheers,
Ben
Hey Duffyemt,
Check your PM.
There’s some good advice on here too. I’m not on the forum as much anymore as I am now in the bulk of the season starting up.