Endurance sports: differences in attitude to strength training

[Goatamon]

Endurance sports and strength training have been discussed almost ad nauseam on these forums, but I thought I'd add to the pile anyways.


I made the observation a few days ago (probably old news to some), that cross country skiing as a sport seems to embrace strength training as an important part of the athletes regimen, but as we all know, most endurance athletes seem to shy away from anything involving heavy weights like it's fucking super AIDS. I just read a skiing training article for a sports "club" (unsure of what to call it, "seura" in Finnish, basically lots of sports under the same club name) that, funnily enough, advocated things like the bench press, back squat and deadlift for "sets of 2-5 with about as much weight as you can handle". Being as I am from Finland, I unsurprisingly know quite a few skiers and they have always said that strength training with barbells takes place pretty much year round. They are still endurance athletes though, so they are of course still pretty wiry, but from what I recall they can put up some pretty good numbers for their size.

Judging from the physiques of some of the Norwegian skiers, it seems that they agree on the importance of being strawng.

björgen.jpg


Now, I don't know how it is in the States and Canada, but I imagine the training is at least somewhat similar.


But why the hell do so many other endurance sports just hate the very idea of stronk? You'd sort of expect all the myriad endurance sports to have sort of similar ideas about what's important in training. Of course Skiing is a different sport to Marathon or Road Cycling, but surely the physical demands are at least reasonably similar? In Skiing, you are still looking at, for example, 30km distances, which of course falls very much into turbo endurance territory.


Personally, being utterly shit at skiing, which I blame on living in Coppell from ages 5-10 (not a lot of snow around there as you know, Rip), I can't really comment on the performance elements involved too much, so if someone who knows about these things wants to chime in, I would love to hear it. I'm also shit at endurance in general, so if someone who is more familiar with endurance sports wants to talk differences here, be my guest.

Anyways, thought this might at least develop some discussion. I'd love to hear the thoughts of Rip and everyone else.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Okay, Goat, talk away.

[Scaldrew]

Now, I don't know how it is in the States and Canada, but I imagine the training is at least somewhat similar.

Nah, mang. That's probably why their injury rates are so high and the American ollies aren't making it to the Olympdicks anymore. Copious articles by Rip and others about this on the site.

But why the hell do so many other endurance sports just hate the very idea of stronk? You'd sort of expect all the myriad endurance sports to have sort of similar ideas about what's important in training. Of course Skiing is a different sport to Marathon or Road Cycling, but surely the physical demands are at least reasonably similar?

The long and short of it is that people: are ok with doing things that are easy because doing things that are hard is hard; and in many cases do not know any better. Suggesting they merely strive to add 1-200lbs to their squat over the course of several months and not do much else is so mind-blowing to them that they think of it as being "insufficient". Complex is better because more is more, as the saying goes.

Seriously, though, there's a ton of discussion on this very topic already on both the board and the site. You know, the site? The site site? With all the walls of text? That one.

Oh and if you don't think that that woman is on some kind of pharmaceutical assistance, I have some beans of otherwordly quality you may be interested in.

[Chris McCarthy]

There's a huge god-damned difference between between the demands of X-Country Skiing and Marathon Running / Road Cycling...put the Cyclists on a large fixed gear and have them cycle through treacle and you'd be getting closer, for instance.

[Goatamon]

Okay, Goat, talk away.

Oh I don't have a lot to add. Just thought it was both odd, and a nice little strike against the idea that ANY amount of muscle kills endurance.

Seriously, though, there's a ton of discussion on this very topic already on both the board and the site. You know, the site? The site site? With all the walls of text? That one.

I am aware, but I figured since skiing has not really been discussed (at least as far as I've seen) and it's an endurance sport where athletes train for strength, it might be an interesting topic.

Oh and if you don't think that that woman is on some kind of pharmaceutical assistance, I have some beans of otherwordly quality you may be interested in.

No

Shit

[Mark Rippetoe]

Oh and if you don't think that that woman is on some kind of pharmaceutical assistance, I have some beans of otherwordly quality you may be interested in.

Let's be very careful about who we accuse of doing things we cannot prove, shall we?

[Scaldrew]

Let's be very careful about who we accuse of doing things we cannot prove, shall we?

Yes. Disregard what I said. Please, no-one sue me.

Is that really an accusation, though? I don't even know who that person is. Not that I'm really at all familiar with the law to know the difference.

[PizzaDad]

I don't think that woman is all that muscular. She's definitely fit and had good muscle composition but it doesn't look so outrageous that I think it's enhanced. Perhaps I'm naive.

[Andersgj]

She is most likely clean. She is probably the most tested athlete in Norway, so she would have to be good/lucky to be able to dope in a meaningful way.

[Mark Rippetoe]

She is clean until somebody proves otherwise, and that MUST be the assumption. It will be the assumption on this board. And even then, it is absolutely none of our business.