Learn from Other Sports to Train for your Sport at He's Fit

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Learn from Other Sports to Train for your Sport

Posted March 18, 2008 at 01:00 PM by Parth Shah

Section: His Fitness, Cardio Training, Strength Training, His Health, Physical Health

man running on treadmill endurance workout building endurance width= I had a conversation with a friend a while back and he was asking me about increasing his endurance. The question was: Do you really need to run in order to build endurance, or are there other ways of doing it?

Here is how I answered the question:

Basically it depends on what kind of endurance you want to develop. I think the biggest thing that people don’t realize is that everything is connected. If you increase you base strength, it’ll help you increase your endurance. Running distance will help with recovery. Calisthenics will help you improve your max lifts and vice versa. Your body is designed for survival, and hence all your workout should revolve around elements of … well … EVERYTHING. Does that make any sense?

The conversation continued on to the same topic, but to make it short here is what I am saying: Do not limit yourself to just one method of training. If your goal is to increase your endurance, there is no reason why you need to disregard strength training. Strength training helps with endurance as well. When you run you are essentially using your muscles to move. You will not be able to move without some muscular contraction going on. Don’t you want your muscles to be at their prime when training for a running event or other endurance-oriented sport.

Many runners talk about performing only high-rep training, and many powerlifters talk only about low-rep training. Why not include both into your training?

High-repetition training will allow a powerlifter to develop a good base of conditioning which is necessary for more advanced training. Dropping the amount of weight a powerlifter performs, and focusing on endurance will also aid in recovery after a tough meet or after a heavy cycle.

For a distance runner, heavy training will help with injury prevention by developing stronger muscles, tendons, fascia, ligaments, and bones. The performance of a runner can also be improved dramatically due to improvements in muscular endurance, joint flexibility, increased power, and metabolic rate.

Try to think outside the box when training. There is nothing wrong with a marathon running that can put up his own bodyweight and a powerlifter who can run a 7-minute mile.

Sources: [DiscoverStrength.com], [USA Power Lifting]

To see the full conversation:

http://shahtraining.com/2008/01/17/differences-in-training/