Helping endurance athletes to overcome their motivational hangups when it comes to strength training is a speciality of ours. The solution is very simple. Our personal training relationships focus on educating athletes on exactly what they need to focus on and most importantly, why.
Whilst the performance benefits of strength training may not always be direct, they are still very real. Our personal training relationships and associated strength programmes could have a significant impact on your consistency and athletic performance.
Enlisting a RIAK personal trainer not only means you will receive training tailored to your specific needs, it also means you will benefit from the knowledge and experience of your personal trainer. Ultimately, our goal is to teach you to become an expert in your own requirements and how to satisfy them.
You may well be able to find a great class or online programme, but what happens when things don’t go according to plan or you get ill or injured? That is one of the main benefits of engaging a personal trainer, you are not alone in your journey. They are there not only for when things are going well but to help problem solve when challenges come your way.
Another benefit is that whilst generally speaking, most forms of strength training are better than nothing for an endurance athlete, group classes and online programmes are rarely designed for endurance athletes and are certainly not personalised to you. Your cardiovascular training will be chosen to steer you towards certain objectives, so why would your strength training be any different? Especially when you consider how significantly it can reduce injury risk.
It doesn’t matter who you are or what your level is, strength training has so much to offer beyond stamping on a pedal harder or running up a hill faster. Strength training has massive health benefits. It can help you lose weight if that is a goal. It can help end your seemingly eternal injury woes. It can provide for your future health by maintaining lean muscle mass and bone desnity. Both of which we begin to lose as we get older.
The answer to this depends on the individual’s needs, experience level and budget. We would suggest a weekly session would be a good starting point.
Again this depends on the individual and their needs. However, commonly, athletes inexperienced in strength training typically lack mobility in key areas and have weak glutes and core. So mobility exercises, bulgarian split squats and static holds like planks are often used tools for us.
Most exercises will also be unilateral i.e. single arm or single leg, in order to encourage muscular balance.
We are endurance athlete specific and endurance athletes ourselves. There are a lot of good personal trainers out there but we would argue that few understand the real strength needs of an endurance athlete and how to balance that alongside a no doubt busy cardiovascular training schedule.
Our strength programmes are periodised to work alongside your cardiovascular training programme, so for example, more heavy lifting in the off-season or more explosive work in the lead up to the start of the racing season or a goal event.
One of the first things we do though is to set up a dynamic screening. This is just a few squat movements, mobility tests and conditioning assessments. It is not a tough session, so don’t be anxious. It just allows us to assess an athlete’s strength and mobility needs so we can build them a bespoke strength and conditioning plan.
In this session we will also seek to set some specific and attainable goals and lay out what success would look like.
Online sessions are planned according to the equipment you have at home and we are very good at getting creative in terms of what you can use around the house to achieve appropriate loading.
However, if you are considering investing in the help of an online personal trainer, we would suggest it would be equally sensible to consider investing in a couple of key pieces equipment:
For both the one-to-one and online personal training sessions, we offer discounts when purchasing a block of sessions:
One-to-one
15% discount for a 10 session block = £55.25 per session
29% discount for a 20 session block = £46.15 per session
Online
10% discount for a 10 session block = £42.30 per session
15% discount for a 20 session block = £39.95 per session
We use My Fit Pod in Berkhamsted off Greene Field Road.
We love training in this venue because we would have exclusive use of one of the two ‘pods’. They are essentially little personal gyms, which is great if you are someone for whom gyms are a source of anxiety.
Ready to begin working with an experienced personal trainer? Hit the link below to set up your free consultation to discuss which of our training options is most appropriate for you and for us to answer any questions you might have.