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Thread: Endurance Activities' Effect on Muscle

  1. #1
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    Default Endurance Activities' Effect on Muscle

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    I've done some research online and had trouble finding a concise answer on the effects edurance activities on muscle building.

    I'm two months into Starting Strength and experiencing excellent results. I can post numbers if anyone would like but I'll save it here for conciseness.

    Outside of the weightroom, I really like snowboarding, mountain biking, and skating amongst other things. Getting strong has had enormous benefit; I can ride with more power/control and am less prone to injury.

    I understand the science behind strength training: progressive overload on the muscles (linear progression in terms of SS) causes the muscles to tear and then repair themselves in response to this new stimulus (pending that one eats correctly, of course).

    I'm curious, however, what effect more endurance-type activities have on the muscles that I have been building. For example, if I snowboard for 4 hours, I'm sore as hell the next day, but this clearly isn't anaerobic strength training, it is a matter of using the muscles repetitively over time. I've heard the terms "fast twitch muscle" and "slow twitch muscle" thrown around; my understanding is that they are different types of fibers that are used for different types of activities.

    So my questions:
    • Do endurance activities like snowboarding/biking/etc. stimulate muscle growth at ALL? (And do they develop slow twitch fibers vs. fast twitch?)
    • If I eat at a surplus throughout the snowboarding season, will I continue to gain some muscle, or will I just gain body fat and maintain the muscle that I already have?


    Thanks all,
    Josh

  2. #2
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    I'm not sure if this will help you but Jordan wrote this good post about conditioning that may also answer your question about endurance activities, or at least lead you in the right direction. http://barbellmedicine.com/2013/08/2...-conditioning/

  3. #3
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    Really good article...so in simplified terms I am improving my endurance for snowboarding and not much more.

    It doesn't really mention anything as far as muscle growth from conditioning but I am assuming that it is minimal.

  4. #4
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    Well, I am not an expert, but my own experience with extreme endurance activities is that it did indeed waste my muscles away and eventually, although my endurance was pretty good, my speed was terrible and I had no visible muscle mass growth at all that I could see, in fact, I felt flabbier even though I'd lost a few pounds. I hiked a marathon or more every day carrying a backpack along the Pacific Crest Trail for 3 months. Not the same as skiing at all, I know.

    My current experience is that with just strength training and 2x a week conditioning like Jordan suggests, I feel my cardio fitness has improved and my speed and strength feel good. My endurance for hiking has not changed. I tend to get sore after a long hike and my feet can be pretty tired and sore after a long day of backpacking. But I can ramp up to high mileage days pretty quickly and get over the soreness once I get my trail legs. Overall I feel better than ever.

    So basically the way it appears to work for me (for a recreational sport, not a competitive one) is that strength training builds the muscle, conditioning keeps you cardio-fit but the specific sport you are doing needs to be done once a week or so, or for a few days if it's seasonal, before you can be at your best level.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by sbhikes View Post
    Well, I am not an expert, but my own experience with extreme endurance activities is that it did indeed waste my muscles away and eventually, although my endurance was pretty good, my speed was terrible and I had no visible muscle mass growth at all that I could see
    Hmm, that's interesting. Luckily I won't be doing anything extreme, just a few hours of snowboarding here and there. I never do more than a few miles on my bike either. I'll keep lifting so I don't lose my strength over winter.

  6. #6
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    Is snowboarding an endurance activity?

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Jones View Post
    Is snowboarding an endurance activity?
    No, certainly not in the way that running or biking for distance is.

    Rather, it is more repetitive than barbell training (duh). For example, it's not like running a marathon, but snowboarding for a few hours is probably more aerobic than anaerobic.

  8. #8
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    starting strength coach development program
    From experience, snowboarding definitely benefits from stronger legs. I felt as good last year as a stronger 190 pounds as when I boarded as a 150 pound runner. Still, the end of the day is rough. Being conditioned to snowboarding, by snowboarding, is the only thing to prepare for that.

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