The document discusses strength endurance in athletes, highlighting its significance in maintaining speed during fatigue and performance. It outlines training methods, including strength training, hill sprints, and circuits, to improve muscle fiber recruitment and endurance capacity. The goal is to enhance athletes' capacity to use maximum strength over longer periods and resist fatigue.

1. Development of Strength Endurance Steve Magness www.ScienceofRunning.com [email_address]

2. What we will cover: Define Strength Endurance Look at Fatigue Look at Muscle Fiber Physiology

3. What is Strength Endurance? Strength endurance is: preserving a high percentage of your strength. Increasing the ability to use a certain percentage of your maximum strength over a longer period of time. Increasing the percentage of max strength that can be used over X time. = ability to maintain force production during fatigue.

4. Strength Endurance and Fatigue What happens at the end of a race? Nummella et al.(1992,1994) study: Tested athletes running 400m, then had them run 300m, 200, and 100m using the same pacing strategy to see what happened during each 100m segment of 400m race. They found: Force production drops 16% after 300m and 25% after 400m. Increase in muscle activity (measured by EMG) to compensate for failure of muscle fibers that were doing the work. Increase in Ground Contact Time Implications: First half of the race speed could be maintained and compensated for. The last part of the race, the speed decrease depends on strength endurance (ability to recruit and use fibers to try and maintain load (speed).)

5. Strength Endurance and Fatigue Follow up study- Miguel et al. (2004) Compared Fast (400m-47sec or better) and slower runners (400m-49sec or slower) Fast runners had better strength endurance Allowed Fast runners to maintain ground contact times during end of race. Miguel concluded: “ The greater the ability of the athlete to oppose fatigue (by maintaining strength levels), the smaller the drop in speed and consequently the better the performance.” Better Strength Endurance= Better Maintenance of Speed during fatigue= Better performance. Miguel, P. J. P. & Reis, V. M. M. (2004). Speed strength endurance and 400m performance. New Studies in Athletics .

6. Does this apply to distance events? HAYES 2010 During 1500m races: Average Ground Contact Time: Lap 1: 167ms Lap 4: 176ms “ Over the course of a 1500m race ground contact time increased irrespective of foot strike position. This implies an element of fatigue, with runners presumably requiring longer to generate the same impulse.”

7. Muscle fibers Best to think of Muscle Fiber type as a continuum Far left= Pure Slow Twitch Far right= Pure Fast Twitch In between, many variations.

8. Muscle Fibers (cont.) Simple view-Muscle fiber recruitment dependent on force requirement. Greater the force required, the more fibers recruited (in particular, the more Fast Twitch fibers). Looking at our continuum, for low intensity jogging, only fibers in far left are recruited, as intensity increases, more FT fibers recruited.

9. Muscle Fiber Pool We can never Fully recruit all of our muscle fibers. Body limits recruitment to protect itself. Only violation occurs under extreme conditions (Think of stories where mom lifts car to save kid…) How close we get to maximum recruitment can be increased. Have to train Central Nervous System to send strong stimulus to recruit more fibers. Have to learn new motor programming to establish pathways to recruit those fibers.

10. Muscle Fiber Pool The muscle fiber pool is how many fibers an athlete can actually recruit. Total Pool- total recruitment in any situation Usable pool- Total max recruitment during activity= usable fibers.

11. Muscle Fiber Pool During endurance events, this is important because: Increase recruitment pool means more fibers to “choose” from during prolonged exercise. During Endurance exercise, our fibers rotate in and out of doing work to resist fatigue. More fibers available to do the same amount of work, means less work per fiber, means longer time before “failure.” Increased CNS signalling and established pathways means: During heavy fatigue when fibers are “failing”, the person can recruit the hard to access FT fibers to take over part of the workload. Think of the ‘kick’ in distance running or cycling.

12. Physiological Goals of Strength Endurance Increase Total Fiber pool Increase amount of fibers you can recruit during specific activity (i.e. Running) Train to recruit fibers during endurance activity Extend endurance of those fibers Train to recruit fibers under heavy fatigue and increase their fatigue resistance

13. Step 1:Increase Total Fiber Pool Goals: Increase Signal from Nervous System to recruit fibers. Establish general motor programming for recruitment of those fibers How to Accomplish: Strength Training Ballistic/Power Training

14. Strength Training Recommendations: Focus on prime movers in your sport (i.e. for runners, legs- glutes, hamstrings, quads, minimal upper body work) Aim for full body work, not isolation Lift HEAVY, Rep range of 2-6 reps. Heavy lifting needed for recruitment and Nervous system changes. Multiple Sets (2-4x) 1-2x per week depending on competition/training. Down weeks with minimal lifting recommended to provide recovery Long recovery between sets

15. Strength Training (cont.) Power Exercises Violates muscle recruitment size principle allowing for recruitment of hard to access Fast Twitch fibers. Ballistic exercises: Different from plyometrics Emphasis is on explosion and power, not concerned with ground contact time or coming off ground quickly. 2-8 reps of an exercise, long recovery Start with body weight, increase to low to moderate weight.

16. Strength Training Exercises (Full)Squat Power Clean Dead Lift

17. Strength Training Exercise-Ballistics Box Jump Squat Jump Standing Broad Jump

18. Strength Training: Fears Heavy lifting will not increase body mass if done with endurance activity Majority of endurance athletes do not have spare protein to use on muscle building Signalling pathway for endurance training inhibits signalling pathway (MTOR pathway) that increase muscle size (hypertrophy)

19. Strength Training Sample Workouts Week 1: 3-4 sets of 6 reps- Squats w/ 5min b/t sets 3 sets of 5 reps of Cleans w/ 5min rest b/t sets Week 4: 2-3 sets of 4 reps- Squats w/ 5min rest 6x body weight box jump 6x body weight broad jump Week 8 6x box jump w/ 20lb weight 6x squat jump with Bar Periodization Must mesh with endurance training. Have to consider residual and CNS fatigue.

20. Step 2: Increase fiber recruitment during specific activity Goals Translate increase in total fiber pool to an increase in usable fiber pool during running. Establish motor programming of recruitment during running. How to Accomplish: Hill Sprints Flat Sprints

21. Hill Sprints Start with sprinting uphill because: Lowered injury risk Hill makes for increase strength requirement (increase force requirement/muscle recruitment)

22. Hill Sprints Steepness of hill Depends on goal. Steeper the hill, the more strength orientated. Think of a steep hill as being like ballistic strength training and a shallow hill being more specific. In general, best to start with steeper hill and progress to slight hill. This increases specificity as you progress and changes focus from just total force production to force production as quickly as possible (due to shorter ground contact time as hill gets shallowed).

23. Hill Sprints How many: Start with a few, increase to 10-12 for most people. How far: Should take 8-10 seconds total How fast: Sprinting, 99%, as fast as you can go while maintaining good technique. How much rest: Long rest, minimal of 2min, preferably more. As long as it takes to recover

24. Flat Sprints How many: Between 200-1000m worth of total work. How far: Start with 40-60m, extend to 100m How fast: Sprinting, 99%, as fast as you can go while maintaining good technique. How much rest: Long rest, at least 2:30 rest, preferably more

25. Example Sprint workouts/progression Progression: 4x 8sec HS(hill sprint) 6x 8sec HS 8x 8sec HS 6x60m flat sprints 10x HS 3x60m, 2x70m, 1x80m Flat sprints 3x80m, 2x90m, 1x100m Flat sprint 6x100m Flat Sprints Entire Season Samples of training can be found on: http://www.ScienceofRunning.com Search “Sprint Training”

26. Step 3: Train to recruit fibers during endurance activity Goals: start the process of extending our ability to use a high proportion of our strength over a longer period of time Translate increases in strength to general strength endurance. How to Accomplish General Hill Circuits General Flat Circuits Sprints in between endurance work

27. General Circuits Idea is to “force” recruitment during exercises, then train those fibers to endure during running portion Hills Hills add an additional strength component The makeup and design is similar between the two.

28. General Circuits Total length- same as you’d use for long aerobic intervals. 3-6miles total in general Length of Repeats Depends on purpose, but 2-6min. Make total duration of rep similar to length of aerobic intervals for that athlete. Rest between Jog down recovery for hill, equal jogging rest at least Intensity Running- 75-80%- a steady intensity between that done on easy runs and threshold work Exercises- 75-80% effort

29. General Circuit Exercises Alternate a running portion with an exercise Running portion can vary between 15sec-2min or more depending on goal of circuit. Most of the time it should be between 20-60sec Exercises- should take between 10-60seconds, generally shorter than running portion Exercise selection: Goal during general circuits is to increase fiber recruitment, increase lactate slightly, and then use during running portion Select exercises that focus on prime movers. Remember, higher force required exercises=greater fiber recruitment For beginners start with exercises that don’t require leaving the ground. Ex: body squats, one legged squats, lunges For advanced include ballistic and plyometric exercises: Squat jumps, bounding, skipping for height, sprinting

30. Sample General Circuit 10x full squats 200m or 45 seconds of running 100m of skipping 200m or 45sec 10xlunges 200m or 45sec 10xsquat jumps 200m or 40sec 50m of bounding 10sec of sprinting Repeat 4x, jog down recovery Video of Hill circuit can found on: http://www.scienceofrunning.com Click “Video”

31. Sprints in between Workouts Another possible way to increase strength endurance is to combine sprints with endurance training This creates a situation where the sprints “force” fiber recruitment in the middle of the endurance training. Fibers are then used and “trained” during the endurance portion

32. Sprints in between Workouts How? Insert hill sprints or flat sprints in the middle and at the end of your endurance workouts. Start off with doing them during aerobic workouts (tempo, long repeats) and progress to doing them in between specific endurance workouts What does in between mean? Insert the sprints in between sets of repeats. For example, instead of doing 6x1000m, do 3x1000m, 4x 60m sprints, 3x1000m, 4x60m sprints

33. Example Workouts 2x800, 4xHS, 2x800, 4xHS, 2x800 at 5k pace 3 sets of 4x400m at 3k pace with 45sec between repeats and 4x70m sprints between sets

34. Step 5:Train to recruit fibers under heavy fatigue and increase their fatigue resistance Goals: Train to recruit fibers under heavy fatigue Increase fatigue resistance of those fibers How to Accomplish High Intensity Circuits Kick Workouts

35. High Intensity Circuits Similar to General Circuits Difference is exercises and running portion have to be carried out at a much higher intensity Exercises needed to be performed at near maximum to force fiber recruitment

36. High Intensity Circuits Total length- similar to total amount you’d use for specific or speed workouts 1-3 miles generally Length of Repeats Depends on purpose, but 1-3min generally Rest between Long recovery Intensity Running- 85-95% Exercises- 85-100%% effort

37. High Intensity Circuits Running segments: Short in duration Range from 10-60sec Exercises Maximum intensity, so low volume

38. Sample General Circuit 100m running 85% 8xsquat jumps for height 100m running 85% 10x skipping for height 60m sprint 8xfull body squats 100m at 85% 50m of bounding 10sec of sprinting Repeat 4x, 6min recovery

39. Kick Workouts Specific workouts designed to maintain recruitment and force during intense running Focus on finishing strong A repeat ran at high speed seperated by one exercise that “forces” fiber recruitment Ex: 500m repeat with 200m at 800 pace, 100m bounding, 200m kick in.

40. Kick Workouts Total volume Low, 800m-2mi Length of Repeats 1-4 repeats between 300-600m total in length Rest between Long recovery Speed/Intensity 800m pace down to all out

41. Kick Workouts Examples 2-3x 500m (200m at 800 pace, 100m bounding, 200m kick in) w/ 6-8min rest 2-3x800m (500m at 1mi pace, 100m bounding, 200m kick in) w/ 6-10min rest 2-3x600m of 300m on flat ground at 1mi pace, 100m sprinting uphill, 100m sprinting flat ground)

42. End Results: Larger Fiber pool that is usable Increased fatigue resistance Maintenance of force production Maintenance of Stride length and Ground Contact time Better Finishing Kick Faster Race times!

43. Is this new? NO!!! Lydiard: Hill Circuit Bounding Percy Cerutty: Heavy Weight Lifting+ Sand Dune Running Luciano Giggliotti and Renato Canova: Strength Endurance Circuits George Gandy/Peter Coe Circuit training

44. www.ScienceofRunning.com