You can make great strides in your sport performance in
weight room. Because strength training can break down a lot of muscle tissue I recommend weight work be done in foundation or base period. This does not mean you will not continue to build strength throughout season. Hill running, slow cadence cycling work outs, and resisted swim work outs are all forms of strength training that are specific to disciplines. Weight training should smoothly transition into strength training in your disciplines.As your season progresses, and your intensity increases, weight work can be detrimental to your more specific work outs and events. Your legs may need up to 72 hours to fully recover from a weight work out. This is a big block of week to give up performance in other areas. Just like your training plan your strength plan will go through specific phases. Endurance athletes should not use body building plans that are focused on muscle mass gains. This can actually be counter productive for a distance athlete. Each phase will have a specific purpose such as acclimation, hypertrophy, muscular endurance and power. If you are weak on sprints and jumps, you may want to emphasize more power training. If you are weak on climbs, muscular endurance is a good focus. If you are generally weak, or new to strength training, I recommend a slightly longer period with weights. Shorter distance athletes may want to emphasize more strength work for speed, while longer distance athletes, that are more slow twitch, will not need as much weight work.
Listen to your body and avoid overreaching yourself with weights. This is especially important in very beginning of your plan. You may feel need to push yourself, but you may also not be walking well next day. This is due to micro trauma in muscles or small muscle tears. These tears have to heal up before you get stronger, so take it easy. You may also find yourself more tired, and you may need more sleep during initial acclimation period. Make sure you refuel after a strength work out just like you would any other.
Core strength is crucial to protecting your back during lifting. I recommend using a variety of exercises to strengthen all core muscles every other day. Core strength also will help with your running, biking, and swimming ability. If your muscles are very sore, do not overstretch them. This may re-injure micro trauma that occurred during training and slow healing process. Light stretching and recovery work is recommended. I do not use a weight belt. These belts are for power lifter who wants to increase inter-abdominal pressure for max lifts. They may actually make your back weaker. Do not use a belt to exceed your limits. In fact you should be no where near this type of lifting. I like to perform my core strength at end of my work out. Performing core exercises first may leave them too fatigued to properly support you.
Choosing when to strength train is very important because it affects your other work outs. I usually try to strength train after a rest day early in week. I make sure I do not have a critical or high stress work out in next few days following my leg work out. Again, this is why weight work is best performed in base or foundation period when there are not a lot of break through work outs.
I generally only strength train my legs heavy one time per week. I may do a lighter session at end of week. Strength training and endurance training are like oil and water for most part. They work well when separated, but do not mix. With a heavy foundation load I do not recommend strength training more than twice per week. You may negatively affect your other training, or more likely over reach yourself.
These are general guidelines. I will not recommend specific work outs. I do recommend core of your routine be compound or multi-joint exercises such as squat, lunge, dead lift, step up, and leg press. The number one rule of strength training is switch up your routine. Your body will acclimate quickly to same routine week after week, and growth will be retarded. Switch up your exercises each week. You may want to get with a certified strength trainer to learn advanced training techniques such as drop sets, compound sets, super sets, and other methods. Try to use a pedal width stance on your exercises and mimic range of motion of running and cycling.
