What Should Triathlon Strength Training Really Look Like?

Training for triathlon can be very time-consuming, so adding gym sessions to the mix every week may sound like too much for some people. The thing is, you shouldn’t be looking at strength training as an addition, you should view it as a necessity. Hitting the gym (or doing at-home strength workouts) will not only help you get stronger as a swimmer, cyclist and runner, but, more importantly, it will go a long way in keeping you injury-free.

It’s one thing to know you need to be doing some form of strength training, but another thing entirely to know what you should be doing. Many triathletes feel clueless when they walk into a gym, just as avid gym-goers would probably be lost at the pool. To help with this, we spoke with Erin Carson, a certified strength and conditioning specialist based in Boulder, Colo., who has worked with world champions, Olympic medallists and more in their strength training journeys. Carson outlines what triathletes need to do when they get to the gym to ensure they’re making the most of every workout (all without overdoing it).

Simple is Best

Carson says “simplicity is key” when it comes to strength training for triathletes — even when it comes to pros. Among the triathletes she works with at ECFit, her performance strength company, is three-time 70.3 world champion Taylor Knibb, and Carson says “people would be blown away at how simple” her gym program is.

You don’t need to have an endless list of exercises to complete every time you enter the gym, nor do you have to cycle through various routines every session, Carson says. Instead, she points to Knibb, who “prefers to keep things the same and very simple.”

As she points out, “the proof is in the pudding and the performance” when it comes to Knibb, who has won some of the top prizes in the sport of triathlon and is always among the women to beat no matter what race she enters.

“You need to acknowledge and know who you are as an athlete,” Carson says. “The kinds of programs with tons of variety can be good for some people, but they’re more fitness based. Triathletes get most of their fitness from their other training, so I really think the essence is to keep it very simple.”

This simplicity should come in the exercises themselves, too, Carson says. She prescribes programs with “low neural demand” for many of her athletes.

“What that means more than anything is that when you show up in the gym, it’s very simple for you to get these eight to 10 things done,” she says. “That way, you can go home and be with your family or go out and have a social life or whatever.”

Complement Your Training

Before stepping into the gym, Carson says you need to think about how your strength training can complement your swim, bike and run workouts.

“First and foremost with endurance athletes, we have to acknowledge the level of fatigue that they carry,” she says. “Most age groupers have full lives and therefore the strength training regimen can’t impede their ability to recover and adapt to the swim, bike and run training. It has to complement all of that, not take away from any of it.”

One thing that can certainly take away from swim, bike and run training is if you push things too hard with strength work, which is something Carson says not to shoot for in the gym.

“It’s OK to leave the gym not feeling sore,” she says. This may seem counterintuitive to many triathletes, but she reiterates the “primary goal” of strength programs, saying they should “support the sport and the desired outcome.”

Leaving the gym sore could inhibit your training in the days that follow, which is the opposite result of what you’re looking for when it comes to the gym. Carson says she sees a lot of triathlon and endurance coaches who are great at swimming, cycling, running and whatever other cardio activities, but they “don’t do strength for a living.”

Many of these coaches over-prescribe strength work, she says, sending their athletes to the gym too many times a week for too long doing too much. This won’t help the athletes in the long run, it will “just make them tired.”

How Much and How Heavy?

There are two questions you probably have at this point: how often should you be going to the gym and how heavy should you be lifting when you’re there?

“I think twice a week is really solid,” Carson says. “If an athlete is really trying to ascend, but they’ve plateaued, we might add a half session or a full extra session to bring up that level of athleticism, but for most people, two times a week is perfect.”

When it comes to the weight you’re lifting, Carson says she first wants to define “what heavy is” for triathletes. She doesn’t have a set number — results will of course vary from athlete to athlete — but she says you should find a weight that allows you to complete “five to eight repetitions with two to three reps in reserve.”

What does this mean? You should be able to complete those five to eight reps with “really good range of motion” and get to the last one with the knowledge that you could go for two or three more, but you won’t. For most gym-goers, the objective is to work until failure, but according to Carson, that’s not the best option for triathletes.

“If you’re eking out one extra rep, that’s going to do a little bit of tissue damage, maybe too much more than we want,” she says. “You will heal from it, but it’s a little too much.”

Carson has provided a four-week strength training plan for Slowtwitch users, which can be found here. Be sure to use the code “SlowTwitch” to get free access to the plan.

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