4 Pillars of Holistic Training:Functional Strength

Last week we discussed sport-specific, or endurance training, and the many factors that go into swimming, biking, and/or running (see below if you missed it). This week, we turn to the second pillar of performance (endurance, functional strength, nutrition, recovery). By definition, functional strength is 1. Ensuring an athlete has the strength (and flexibility) to perform the movements his/her sport demands in the best and most efficient way possible, 2. Without becoming injured. While these two facets of functional strength almost always go together, I will examine them separately for the sake of structure in this post. And while what's left to say will be pretty short, do not be fooled. Functional strength may be one of the easiest things to comprehend and explain, yet it is one of the hardest things to actually make time for and do.

1. Strong/flexible enough to excel at sport(s): Push-off on the run, power on the pedal down-stroke, and pull on the swim. Stride length, lower-back reach in the aero-position, streamlined horizontal posture in the pool. These are just a few examples of things that make an enormous difference in your performance that cannot be achieved solely by sport-specific endurance training. As a matter of fact, sport-specific endurance training often works against these aspects of solid performance, as your body tends to default to "what is most normal/comfortable" and hard-wiring current muscle memory, even though it likely isn't optimal. Rather, a much more efficient and accurate way to target the muscles and joints needed for sport is through functional-strength training. Since this is not an area of my expertise, I will not recommend specific exercises, but will say, this generally does not mean power-lifting and heavy weights, but rather, very controlled and refined movements that often use one's own body weight for resistance. The best exercises bake in strength, flexibility, and balance. If you read on and commit to getting serious about functional strength training, purplepatch has some great resources, such as their functional strength for runner's program (click and scroll down).

2. Without becoming injured: Being able to complete high volume sport-specific training requires incredible structural (muscular-skeletal) support. Think of strength and flexibility as an enabler to your high-volume training; lay the foundation by building good functional strength, and your body will better tolerate and adapt to the endurance training. The most simple reason for this is that toward the end of long days, weeks, monthly cycles, when you are most prone to lose proper form, you won't. Losing proper form means muscle imbalance and compensation patterns, which are probably the largest culprit of injuries in our sport(s). There is research showing that even some bone injuries (e.g., stress fractures) result just as much from torque on the bone (e.g., tight muscles, ligaments pulling the bone at attachments points) as they do from sheer impact.

Earlier I said this is one of the hardest things to actually do...and I will just tell it like it is. Most endurance athletes always default to using that last 15 minutes to get in another few miles or lengths of the pool. Stop. The marginal benefit from using that time to stretch or perform functional strength exercises is literally 10x more than those last few miles. This *does not* mean start cutting your workouts short. It does mean designing a training program that includes and makes the time for this, and if that means shortening some of your workouts, then so be it.

I'll end my post with a great quote from a yoga teacher. "Strength without flexibility leads to rigidity, and flexibility without strength leads to instability." For endurance athletes, I will add one last part..."and having neither leads to total meltdown and injury."

For more detail on functional strength (and all the pillars of performance for that matter) check out the purplepatch knowledge+ page. For runners, check out the purplepatch running plans.

Like I said before, there are other options out there, but I have started working with purplepatch because I truly believe in the approach and philosophy, and have seen how well it works first-hand, and in some of the athletes that I work with.

4 Pillars of Holistic Training: Sport-Specific Training

I’ll start by saying I am intentionally keeping these pillar-specific posts on the short side. They are simply meant to serve as a primer on each component of a holistic approach to training. If you want more detail, I highly recommend that you visit the purplepatch fitness knowledge page where there is an extensive amount of excellent material.

Sport-specific training, or endurance training, is obviously fundamental to an endurance athlete’s progress in the sport(s). I hate to say it, but anyone who says that you can become a better runner without running is wrong. So, while a large part of your training should be running (I use running as an example from here on out, but for triathletes, the same goes for swimming, biking, and running), the type and timing of your runs matter more than most think.

Type: Without being overly long winded, simply “running” is not enough. In order to improve as a runner, you need a good mix of endurance runs, pace-particular runs, long runs, hill-repeats, speed sessions, and recovery runs. The key here is that every run should have a purpose: from building strength and form (hill repeats) to building muscular endurance (long runs) to building speed (speed-sessions) to building feel and confidence (pace-particular runs). Making sizeable gains (especially for those already more advanced in their training) requires a shift in thinking from “going out for a run,” to “doing hard hill-repeats to build strength followed by two recovery run days to trigger physiological adaptations from the hill-repeats.” To enable this shift in thinking, it’s critical that the athlete has an understanding of what different runs accomplish, or is confident in a coach/program that does.

Timing: Once an athlete has mapped out all the different types of sport-specific workouts (e.g., the running examples listed above) the timing of when to complete these workouts becomes critical. Timing can and should be designed on a micro and macro level: For a triathlete doing a 2-a-day, should the bike or run come in the morning? What days of the week should my hardest workouts be on, and what days should my active recovery be on? At what point of my season should I be doing hill-repeats vs. speed sessions? Much like I mentioned above regarding the type of run, it takes both a thorough knowledge of sport-specific training, as well as a 30,000 foot view of an entire season to be able to time workouts properly. And one more additional note here; timing should not only consider the other sport-specific workouts, but also fit and align with all the pillars (functional strength, nutrition, recovery) of performance.

So, to summarize, with sport-specific training, the type and timing of workouts are very important, and always work together. Once an athlete understands that every training session has a purpose, the key becomes to balance those sessions and time them correctly to allow for the best physiological and psychological gains. Well this seems complicated enough for the running example I follow above, it becomes exponentially harder for multisport athletes, who must balance and integrate the 2-3 sports (love to Duathletes out there!) that comprise "sport-specific" training.

To that end, I think it takes one of two things to make all this work. 1) A lot of time and passion about the sport(s) to do the research and develop one’s own training plan...and also, a lot of discipline to stick to it and evaluate the results objectively, something I personally find impossible to do... or 2) A good coach or program, and a lot of trust and confidence in that good coach or program.

Personally, I take the later route (I have a pretty good knowledge of this stuff, but lack the ability to evaluate my own results objectively) and recommend it for almost everyone that is serious about improving as an endurance athlete. If you think this is some kind of “sales pitch,” re-read the above, remember that there are subsequent posts coming on functional strength, nutrition, and recovery, and then try to honestly tell me that you can integrate all of this on your own, and stick to (and also adjust at times) what you come up with. I would be hard pressed to find anyone that can do that.

So, with all of that in mind, I urge you to evaluate your current sport-specific training. If you are considering incorporating/using outside resources to enhance your training, for runners, check out the newly released purplepatch running plans , which I can personally vouge for. Furthermore, if you want more information on additional programs and coaching options, just reach out to me - I am familiar with many.

Next week’s post will focus on the second pillar: functional strength. In the mean-time, if you like what you are reading and want more in the form of very short blurbs, follow me on twitter.

Until next time, live hard, train hard!