Nicole
We’re talking about off-season strength training in the last of a multi-part series with off-season tips for endurance athletes. We started with off-season nutrition, swimming, and cycling, running, and are wrapping it up with this one!
Strength training is extremely important component to endurance training, but it is often neglected for “lack of time.” If you’re backing off your swimming, cycling, and/or running for a few months to recharge, adding in that much needed strength training is a really good idea. Once you get to your race season, you’ll ramp down, but you’ll have been in a strength training routine and it’ll be easier to continue the key exercises for in-season strength.
Here are six things to consider to get some strength sessions in the off-season:
1. Sign up for sessions with a personal trainer who is familiar with the needs of endurance athletes.
2. Take a group strength class a couple times a week at your local gym. These can often get your heart rate up as well, and are usually total body workouts.
3. Do your rehab/prehab exercises. If you’ve had an injury before and have been to physical therapy, you probably have a list of exercises to do. Keep doing them! If you haven’t had any injuries, congrats! (Keeping up with strength and flexibility will help keep you that way!)
4. Meet with a physical therapist who can do a movement screen and help you with strength exercises to fix any imbalances that could cause issues. (We all have imbalances, and some just are more likely to cause injury with repetitive motion than others.)
5. Start a bodyweight strength program at home (for an example, check out Mark Lauren’s EFX or You Are Your Own Gym.)
6. Take yoga classes that focus on strength. In-season may not be the time for power yoga, but the off-season can be!
Staying strong and keeping muscle mass, especially as you get older, will help stave off injuries and can improve performance. Get in the habit now, and reap the rewards next season!
What do you do in the off-season for strength?
Nicole
