Phasing Your Strength
When & How To Focus
John & I promised you a comprehensive section on strength and we delivered.
In-Sport Strength
Traditional Strength
I’m going to close out the section by explaining how to use the info we’ve shared with you.
There are five phases to apply across your training year:
Return
Build
Focus
Maintain
Unload
Return Block (4-6 Weeks)
If you back off strength heading into your A-Race (see Unload Phase below)
...then recover
...then have a transition block/low season
It can be a month, or more, between strength sessions. To avoid long gaps, I recommend:
Use the Whole Body Protocol
Start with 1x20 of each exercise
Keep it LIGHT
Repeat every 4th day across your off-season
As fatigue/soreness clears from the season/race...
Add Sets, Not Load
Take Squat/Leg Press to 2x20 (still light)
Then Add Key Upper Body Lifts
Then Add Accessory Exercises
This progression will be across 7-8 sessions, spanning approximately one month. It should come naturally, without any strain during/after the session.
You are not seeking to add, or even maintain, strength during this phase. You are using your body, with light loads.
You may be surprised at the fatigue that comes from 1x20 light.
The fatigue should clear quickly (in hours, not days) with minimum soreness. It's useful stress.
The 1x20 is tedious and you’ll be tempted to speed up your rep rate or drop reps. Don’t. Stick with it.
This phase will take 4-6 weeks depending on how long it’s been since your last strength workout.
Build Block (11-15 Weeks)
Having completed the Return Phase, you will find yourself in Fall. I want you to do three things:
Pause.
Consider What Time Of Year Is Best For A Strength Focus Block.
Count How Many Weeks Between Then and Now.
Placing your Strength Focus Block mid-winter, you’ll find you have 11-15 weeks.
The “game” you’ll play across the Build Phase is dropping reps, and adding sets.
For example:
3x15
3x12
3x10
3x8
Or… you drop reps within the workout:
Sets of 15/12/10/8
Sets of 15/12/12/6
The exact protocol you use does not matter. What does matter is a gradual progression of:
The total weight moved in your session.
The peak weight moved in your last set.
Between these two, endurance athletes should focus on total weight moved in priority.
This phase will take you into winter. There will be a natural reduction in your endurance load due to weather. You are likely to feel a slow down due to shorter days, colder temps and seasonal variation in energy.
Don’t fight Mother Nature.
Do place more emphasis on building yourself up.
Focus Block (3-5 Weeks)
Northern Hemisphere athletes should place this block in December or January.
Considerations for placement:
When we go heavy, our endurance capacity tanks. There will be a short-term dip with endurance metrics.
Never push run load when pushing strength load. Keep important run training, and run events, well away from a strength focus block.
Zone 1 training is beneficial for endurance maintenance and enhancing recovery from heavy strength work.
Heavy strength work is time effective. It’s as area where you can make progress when your schedule is tight. It fits well over the holidays.
With all that said, I recommend you consider:
Tactical unload over the holidays.
Starting the year at a rested, healthy baseline.
Get strong in January.
In a strength focus block, I recommend:
Choose one exercise where you’ll focus.
Cap your total session time at 60 minutes.
Place the session in Day One of your microcycle.
Odds are, the second strength session of the microcycle will need to be mellow. That’s OK. Hitting it once a week is enough to see major gains.
This approach is different from a powerlifter, body builder or competitive strength athlete. That’s OK. You are an endurance athlete and your needs are different.
I want you to do WORK.
Examples follow:
In a calendar year, there will be fewer than ten days where it makes sense for an endurance athlete to go truly heavy. Probably 5-6 days, total.
Make your heavy days count and build up to them gradually.
Using a pyramidal approach (below) is the easiest way to build strength capacity.
On Leg Press you can ramp each set by:
Adding 45 pound / 20 kilo plate
Adding a plate each side
Adding 25 pounds / 10 kilos
The specific protocol does not matter. What matters is:
Moving a lot of weight.
Working up to a strong effort at some point in the session.
Do not approach failure. It’s not required.
Just move (a lot of) weight.
Maintain Block (Most Of Your Year)
From a late-winter strength peak, our focus shifts back towards endurance. Refer to the articles that started this series for how to approach strength training.
Done right, you’ll be maintaining from a higher level than you achieved last year.
One tactic I’ve used successfully with myself, and my team:
After a late-spring / early-summer unload (usually done after a B-Race)
Insert a shorter Build-Focus Block while you re-establish base.
The Focus block might only be two weeks long and contain 2 or 3 key sessions.
These sessions act as a “top up” and are useful as the athlete likely backed off strength as they approached the start of their competitive season.
The Maintain Phase is where your in-sport strength work is most effective.
Unload Block (1-2 Weeks)
How much to maintain? When & how to unload leading into key events? These are important considerations for the Competitive Amateur.
My advice:
Outside of a Focus Block, strength training should not interfere with endurance training. If you’re having to back off to fit in your strength program then adjust the focus back towards endurance.
A little bit, done consistently, will enable you to hold most of your gains. Don’t be binary with your approach. Manage the strength load up/down across the year based on your feeling and tolerance.
Strength performance is subordinate to race performance. Hit your key endurance sessions with fresh legs.
One true unload per year. This advice applies to both endurance and strength. There’s no need to be constantly backing off and freshening up. Erratic loading is a sign that baseline targets are set too high.
Simple rules of thumb leading into an A-Race.
Cut your normal session in half 7-10 days out from race day.
No strength training during race week.
For a B-Race:
Train normally up to race week.
Cut the first strength session of race week in half.
Skip the second.
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Gordo, can I ask what brand that squat rack in the photo is? I'm looking for one for my home gym and the one you're standing at checks all the boxes and doesn't look too lightweight.