How to strength train as an endurance athlete

My athletes all get lovely, personalised training plans that are built after a review of their mobility, flexibility, muscular balance and so on, conducted in a dynamic screening. Nonetheless, I try to always make sure they understand the fundamentals, so if life throws in a curve ball, they know how to adapt. The fundamentals tend to look like the following questions.

Reps and sets depend on the focus of the block. If you've just enjoyed an end of season break, or had a hiatus from strength training, you will need to prepare your body before you start to go heavy. That means something like 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps of relatively low load, whilst focusing on form and full range of movement.

From there it again depends on the focus of the training phase and the idiosyncrasies of the athlete. For a max strength phase, for example, probably something like 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps. The variations from there are endless depending on the objectives, but hopefully you see the point regarding manipulating the reps, sets, weights and the way an exercise is performed to match the goal.

I really like my athletes to have at least 6 consecutive weeks before we change things up. I'll typically give them an 8-week block to give a couple of weeks' buffer and, depending on their consistency, assess where to go from there.

Strength programmes should be seen as stepping stones. You can only get to the next one when you've done enough of the last to make that step forwards.

Once or twice a week is what most people can manage alongside their endurance training. If strength is seen as a real limiter, though, for instance a runner who struggles with lifting their knees, we might even get them doing three sessions a week out of season and drop run sessions to accommodate.

Less than an hour, realistically. If it takes longer, the session needs to be tighter, or split into muscle groups, or upper body and legs.

I would also recommend timing your rest, to prevent you from procrastinating or wandering off to do other things. This is something I have to be really strict about, or I start tinkering with bikes.

It does depend on the exercises and the training phase, but as a general rule, about three seconds on the way down (the eccentric phase), and two seconds on the way up (the concentric phase).

Think in joint angles. You usually want to move the joint through its full range. If you are limited by mobility or flexibility, then I would suggest that is what you should be working on before you look to load the exercise further.

There was actually some recent research on this, and they saw the best results with 3 minutes of recovery. Essentially, you want enough rest so you can repeat the exercise with real quality and stress the muscle or muscles in a maximal way. As mentioned above, time it, to keep you from drifting or, conversely, to avoid skimping on recovery.

This means performing two, sometimes three, exercises back to back, followed by a recovery period. Often an opposing pair, like chest and then into a back exercise (antagonistic supersets). Sometimes it could also be a compound lift and then an unrelated isolation exercise, such as a Romanian deadlift and then calf raises.

So, so badly. You really need your muscles to be warm and your joints to be loose before you start lifting. Think about it like stretching a cold rubber band. It snaps. Roll it around a bit between your hands and suddenly it's a lot more pliable and stretchy.

Start by performing more reps within the prescribed range. If you can max out the range and the sets whilst maintaining good form, then look to increase the load.

As a general rule, only increase single-limb exercises by a maximum of 2.5 kg, and for bilateral exercises a maximum of 5 kg.

Alternatively, if mobility or flexibility is an issue for you, keep the weight constant and only look to increase it if you are confident that your technique is spot on. My athletes all know they can send me videos for comment, but if you don't have that luxury, performing in front of a mirror, or filming yourself, and remembering the point above about joint angles, should help you assess.

Each week, though, you should be looking to make some form of step forwards based on the above.

For an endurance athlete? Definitely not. I completely understand that strength training isn't everyone's cup of tea, and going to a class can help massively with motivation. So if it's the difference between doing some form of strength work or doing nothing, then do book that class.

However, it's important to understand what HIIT training is. It's just more cardiovascular training on top of your endurance training load.

Strength work is about testing your ability to lift or move things. So it should be done with focus, and it should stress the capacity of your muscles to produce power.

If you struggle for motivation, I would argue the greatest motivator is truly understanding why you are doing something, and ensuring you have targets to achieve.

For instance, do you suffer from Achilles tendinopathy? Then those calf raises are going to introduce length to that Achilles and really encourage it back to health. They'll hopefully also improve ankle mobility and stability. That exercise is going to help make the injury a thing of the past.