Strength Training for the Triathlon

"In addition to swim, bike, and run training, you need to do some strength training. For sure during the off season, and once you're over 35, you need to do that year 'round. So I'm going to demonstrate some exercises that again, kind of emphasizing that quality over quantity approach, give you the most bang for the buck, and are most applicable to the demands of triathlon. We think about strength training, it should be periodized just like the training year, and during the base period start with moderate, light to moderate weights and high repetitions, so working three sets of the different activities, probably twelve to eighteen reps. After two to three months of that type of activity, you can go into more of a muscle strength based program, where you're working three to four sets, you bring the weight up and the the reps come down to six to eight. As you come into your pre-competitive phase, a lot of that high intensity work will be happening within your specific sports. So you want to start going to two times a week, and that will prepare you to move into a maintenance phase. Depending what you do in the other sports, if you do some power training on the bike with over-gearing efforts and you do some crunches on the side and things like that, you might be able to drop to one time a week during the competitive phase or two if you don't do those other things. But just like the rest of your year, your strength training should be periodized."