Make the most of your strength training.

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TRAINING BREAKDOWN

“It’s not just what you do, but how you do it.”

By Emma O’Toole

Hi there,

Time is the biggest challenge we face with strength training according to a recent poll in our free online community. It may already be difficult for you to get your running and riding into a jam-packed schedule and hence strength training falls by the wayside- this is another challenge we overcome here. Instead today is about making the most of your strength training with the time you have dedicated to it.

Technique is what most runners and cyclists fear as the biggest mistake they can make. We use a range of techniques and video analysis to help with technique and guidance where relevant. They’re often left surprised when I explain that, actually, it is lack of intent, or better put, just ‘going through the motions’ that let most down with their strength training.

Intent will shape your outcome and drive the adaptations you are seeking with strength training; from improved speed, power, robustness to improved body composition.

In today’s newsletter, we take a deep dive into 3 methods you can implement in your strength training to move with intent and elicit the best possible results for your running and cycling performance.

Method 1: Work to tempo

In this video, we are purposely working to a 3-1-3-1 tempo:

- 3 second eccentric lowering phase,
- 1 second pause at the bottom of the movement,
- 3 second concentric push phase,
- 1 second reset.

This tempo helps you to develop movement patterns, before adding lots of excess load (a great exercise for those new, or returning, to strength training) and encourages you to think about your execution of the exercise, eg. how do my glutes feel? Is my spine rounding? How deep into this movement am I going?

Working to different tempos can also elicit different results and can be used a different points in your season; eccentric loading is what fatigues us the most, so one we want to try to keep under control before a key race!

Method 2: Work to varying ranges of motion.

In this exercise, we are using a box to help us work to a deeper range of motion in the goblet squat exercise. The box provides a reference point to how deep into the squat we are and can be manipulated in the following 2 ways.

1. We can use the box as a metric to help with your current squat technique. If you are trying to lower too deeply into the squat and your technique falls apart, we can use a box to keep you at a range of motion where your technique is strong and progressively reduce the height of the box to increase range of motion.

2. We can use the box to work to partial ranges of motion depending on where you are in your season to help keep your body fresh and firing without inducing excess fatigue. An example would be the inclusion of partial squats / ¼ squats before a key race.

Method 3: Focus on technique and HOW you’re moving the load.

Which muscles can you feel working in each exercise?

Here, we are performing the stiff-leg single leg deadlift exercise:

• We are focused on initiating the exercise with a hinge movement from the hips.

• We feel our lower back, hamstring and glute muscles begin to work to control and stabilize us when lowering the weight towards the ground.

• We return to standing by “pushing the floor” away using the heel and ‘knuckle’ of the foot remaining on the ground.

This is far different to swinging up and down.

Ask yourself: Which muscles can I feel working in each exercise?

Moving with intent is fundamental to getting the most out of your strength training.

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