Weight training for triathlon

[andygates]

My gut feeling has been that I'm missing something by not doing any weights, but I'd discarded it as I really like weights, and I thought I was just jonesing for some clanky goodness.  However, last night I caught a bunch of studies cited on the Tritalk podcast, which clearly suggested that certain groups of athletes can benefit from a weekly strength session and nobody suffers.  The "you put on heavy useless muscle" idea is, it seems, a myth.  Instead you get a boosted lactate threshold, and the benefit is greatest in novice and masters athletes and women (novices getting the lactate threshold benefit; masters getting reduced muscle loss over time; and women traditionally being less strength-conditioned as most gurls don't lift).
 
What works best, it seems, is explosive and compound action at about 70% of 1RM (one rep max: the biggest weight you can lift once only).  So we're not talking about grinding out a billion reps with teeny dumbbells, but still a bit lighter than the standard 8-10 rep bodybuilder set.  No room for super-slow or negative sets here, either.  It's important not to cripple yourself for four days with a monster weights set when those four days could contain half a dozen other training sessions!

So here's the plan, once a week, using the low-tech gear I already have (a barbell, dumbbells, some sandbags to catch falling bars and a Swiss ball): 

• Clean & jerk - good old olympic-style explosivity, good for posterior chain, legs, leg "jump", and sundry lats, shoulder, tricep and core goodness.  40-60kg on the bar, working to sets of about a dozen.  
• Stiff-legged deadlift - lower back and hamstrings plus sundry grip goodness.  40-80kg probably, sets of a dozen.
• Bent-over barbell row - upper back and biceps, nice and fast, no idea what weights to use yet.  Around 30kg, probably.
• Weighted swiss-ball crunch - abs and sundry core.  This one is ehutch's fault.  Extended arms with a dumbbell, swing it over as you crunch.  Four sets to failure or until I fall off the ball sideways weeping.  

I really want to add squats to this, but I know the C&J is more appropriate - the C&J is explosive and fast, the squat is a slow steady drive.  Squats build limit strength but I already have more than enough of that for triathlon; powerful force development and lactate threshold are what I need, and the C&J is better for that.

Comments

[andygates.livejournal.com]

How can I with you pestering me daily, m'dear? :)