03/13/10
Weight Training: Is it Really Necessary?
It’s amazing how many athletes—especially female athletes—I have come across that either think they should or have been advised to stay away from weight training.
Category: Training
Posted by: editor
Unfortunately such athletes never received the correct information on the benefits of weight training, or strength & conditioning as I call it, and the mere mention of the words creates an image of a person with muscles of unbelievable proportions.
Well yes I can understand that, so let’s have a brief look at the key two misconceptions surrounding strength & conditioning:
1. “If I do weights I’ll get too big and look ugly.”
This is still the biggest of the misconceptions out there, despite many coaches’ endavours to change it. The term weight training I suppose does give this idea but hopefully the term strength & conditioning provides a better picture of the result. And that is exactly what you should be thinking of: weights helps strengthen and condition your muscles for the ensuing season. By recruiting more of the muscles’ fibres, we become stronger—provided we do the exercise 100% technically correct. By correct I mean that we engage our core to stay stable during the exercise and that we use a weight that is appropriate to the goal we want to achieve.
2. “If I do weights I’ll put on weight and become too slow.”
This is only true if you are:
a. Using 90% of the maximum amount of weight you can correctly handle;
b. Taking a supplement to promote muscle growth (a legal product of course).
While there will be a phase where your muscles will adapt, change shape and, in some cases, increase in size, the proportions of these changes will be insignificant.
Now let’s look at the benefits.
Sport-specific strength & conditioning allows you to develop the four areas that determine your performance in triathlon namely power, speed, agility and endurance. Most of your top athletes do at least one strength & conditioning session a week and they are certainly not heavy or slow. Most athletes think of weight training as having to go to a sweaty gym to train. On top of that, people immediately see a bench press exercise as the most common exercise that they will have to do. Science has moved on and these days you are able to purchase three or four small pieces of equipment that won’t break the budget and allow you to perform all the training you need in the comfort of your own home.
If you have never done any form of strength training before, then you need to know The Four Basic Laws of Strength & Conditioning Training:
• Before developing muscle strength, first develop joint flexibility.
• Develop tendon strength before muscle strength.
• Develop the core/trunk before the limbs.
• Before developing the prime movers develop the stabilisers.
So where to from here. First, get a hold of your coach and ask them to help you develop your strength & conditioning training based on your current strengths and weaknesses.
Use this guide to help determine your strength & conditioning based on the phase of training you’re in:
Objective Amount of Weight Repetitions per set No of Sets Speed Rest between sets
Strength 80%-90% 4-6 3-5 Slow and steady 2–5 mins
Power 25-50% 2-4 4-6 Explosive 1–3 mins
Endurance 50% 15+ 3 Varies <1 min
Last but not least, always remember to change your exercises as you would any training to constantly challenge your muscles and your body to become a stronger, more powerful and faster you.
Jono Rumbelo, Certified ironguides Method Coach – South Africa
http://www.ironguides.net
* * * Your best is our business.™ * * *
Well yes I can understand that, so let’s have a brief look at the key two misconceptions surrounding strength & conditioning:
1. “If I do weights I’ll get too big and look ugly.”
This is still the biggest of the misconceptions out there, despite many coaches’ endavours to change it. The term weight training I suppose does give this idea but hopefully the term strength & conditioning provides a better picture of the result. And that is exactly what you should be thinking of: weights helps strengthen and condition your muscles for the ensuing season. By recruiting more of the muscles’ fibres, we become stronger—provided we do the exercise 100% technically correct. By correct I mean that we engage our core to stay stable during the exercise and that we use a weight that is appropriate to the goal we want to achieve.
2. “If I do weights I’ll put on weight and become too slow.”
This is only true if you are:
a. Using 90% of the maximum amount of weight you can correctly handle;
b. Taking a supplement to promote muscle growth (a legal product of course).
While there will be a phase where your muscles will adapt, change shape and, in some cases, increase in size, the proportions of these changes will be insignificant.
Now let’s look at the benefits.
Sport-specific strength & conditioning allows you to develop the four areas that determine your performance in triathlon namely power, speed, agility and endurance. Most of your top athletes do at least one strength & conditioning session a week and they are certainly not heavy or slow. Most athletes think of weight training as having to go to a sweaty gym to train. On top of that, people immediately see a bench press exercise as the most common exercise that they will have to do. Science has moved on and these days you are able to purchase three or four small pieces of equipment that won’t break the budget and allow you to perform all the training you need in the comfort of your own home.
If you have never done any form of strength training before, then you need to know The Four Basic Laws of Strength & Conditioning Training:
• Before developing muscle strength, first develop joint flexibility.
• Develop tendon strength before muscle strength.
• Develop the core/trunk before the limbs.
• Before developing the prime movers develop the stabilisers.
So where to from here. First, get a hold of your coach and ask them to help you develop your strength & conditioning training based on your current strengths and weaknesses.
Use this guide to help determine your strength & conditioning based on the phase of training you’re in:
Objective Amount of Weight Repetitions per set No of Sets Speed Rest between sets
Strength 80%-90% 4-6 3-5 Slow and steady 2–5 mins
Power 25-50% 2-4 4-6 Explosive 1–3 mins
Endurance 50% 15+ 3 Varies <1 min
Last but not least, always remember to change your exercises as you would any training to constantly challenge your muscles and your body to become a stronger, more powerful and faster you.
Jono Rumbelo, Certified ironguides Method Coach – South Africahttp://www.ironguides.net
* * * Your best is our business.™ * * *