weight training?

It's definitely not needed for triathlon.  Some still recommend it.  And many do it for a variety of other good reasons.

If you really like it then do it, we are about having un after all.  But in my opinion most people on this forum would benefit more from increased time training the 3 sports rather than weight training.

I pretty much agree with everything else that's been written.

Here's something I wrote elsewhere on BT:

I'm actually a proponent of strength training for everybody, including most triathletes. The benefits are many and you really have to put so little in ... even 10min 2x/week is good. Core training (some types demonstrably more, some less demonstrably less) will help in all three disciplines, although in different ways for each. They can indeed help delay some muscular fatigue, but not more so than strength training within the disciplines (eg., hard swim intervals, or hills). Some types of core and strength may help you hold good swim technique for longer, swimming being where body position is really important.

But not everyone *needs* to do it.

What prevents (training-related) injury is proper training. Training related injuries nearly always result from too much and/or too hard too quickly.

The reasons that I'm a proponent of strength training for everybody generally don't have to do with better performance in triathlon. (Most people don't do triathlon anyway!)

If my 82-year-old mom didn't run up and down long flights of stairs all day and walk the dog to death and still carry lots of stuff around, I'd make her do strength (that is, some kind of resistance, weight-bearing) work.

+2

I was a gym rat before I started doing triathlons twelve years ago.  But over the years I found the less lifting and the more s/b/r that I did, the faster I got.   I even gave up my gym membership this past year because I was never using it.

The only strength training I do these days are the dryland exercises that my swim coach has me do a couple times a week.  It's mostly body-weight, and stretch tubing exercises with some yoga stretching thrown in.

Mark

I have been a skinny runner for 30 years and have never done much weigh training.  Even as a wrestler for 6 years through junior high and high school I didn't do much of any weight training (to the dismay of my coaches) except after my knee surgery my Junior year of high school when that is about all I was doing for my rehab for 5 months.  I was a undefeated district champion wrestle in Junior high the only underclassman to make the varsity Cross Country team my first year of high school, etc.  So do you need to lift weights to compete well in sports.  No...I wouldn't think so, but I am making it a concerted effort this year to get in two 30 minute sessions in the weight room every week.  I am going to try and see how it goes.  In the past is has never been convenient to lift weights and made time management for difficult.  I am trying to improve this year and weight training is part of that plan.  Good luck. 

Curious about how anything in this was selected? With the way things were described it looks like several arbitrary amounts or frequencies were picked and are being used to judge an overly broad concept. 

My view is everyone can benefit from strength training specific to the three disciplines, especially if you're over 40 and muscle density naturally starts to decline.

Funny enough I wrote published a blog post about this topic today, would be interested in your comments?

http://triathlondaddy.com/resistance-training-legs/

Weight training, no.....strength training, absolutely.  Strength training that works the core is essential in my mind.  Planks,  work on an exercise ball, lunges, medicine ball passes, etc. etc.  While swimming learn to dolphin kick, especially underwater dolphin kicks.......builds a very strong core and will make you a better swimmer, hill strides at the end of your run, hill repeats on your bike.....all strength work that carries over well to triathlon.  Be creative , it will pay dividends.

Dolphin kicking on your back in streamline is one of the best ab exercises ever.

Mark

My opinion...Strength training can help most athletes achieve their goals.  The devil is in the details.

When and how an athlete approaches their strength training is almost as individual as there are people.

The time crunched amateur triathlete who is younger and/or male whose only goal is racing performance is usually best off only doing some strength training during the off season when their training is more general.  When they get into race specific periods of the year, their time is usually best spent on s/b/r.

For anyone whose goals are more health focused than performance focused will benefit from a more extensive strength program throughout the year.

An athlete with performance goals who has identified specific bio mechanical performance limitations will benefit from a strength program designed specifically to address those limitations.

Aging female athletes can especially benefit from strength training to mitigate the risks associated with osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Most people will not benefit much from beginning a random strength program with no consideration of what they're doing, how they're doing it, and how it fits into their overall health, fitness, and athletic training program.

I am choosing to do weights this year because I am embracing the concept of 'Total Fitness".  I am nearly 40 years old and at my age muscle mass is wasting away.  Weight training slows the loss of muscle mass so I feel it is more important for me now than when I was younger.  Lifting weights increases flexibility and helps prevent injury.  It also helps in a multi-sport event by increasing strength so that you aren't fatigued later in the race.  Your arms for example are used a lot more in cycling than most people would think.  Strengthening them through weight training may keep you on pace in a run where you otherwise would start to fatigue.  Others have said that they have been heated debates on weight training.  I have no strong opinions on this and am not prepared to debate either side of the arguments, but my conclusion after looking at what I wanted to do for training this spring was that 1) if I didn't embrace the concept of "total fitness" that I would be left behind in a multi-sport event 2) that if I couldn't commit a minimum of two days a week to do weight training that I might as well forget about doing weights because that was the bare minimum to get any benefit whatsoever.  I have a plan and am following it.  What is your plan?

Thinking that it has to be one side or the other creates a false dichotomy and that is the issue. You'll have the primary activities you want to do and in general it's best to do them to get better at them. The supplemental work being done (lifting some type of weight could be one) should have some aspect of this in mind. And it for better results it should be more specific than a vague getting stronger. Stronger how? Maximal strength? Holding a faster speed for a race, or holding a speed longer? Are you trying to increase some supporting muscle strength for better positioning? Some of these may not go to any lifting type strength building as they could be better addressed by some drills or skills work. Like adding in some running skips and kicks can help get things firing better, very fast running can help find the position better and then just run more with that improved form. Recovering from a knee operation a number of years ago needed some lifting for awhile as the leg wasn't strong enough for the desired activity. Once it was the need for the other work went away. There are things like the AlterG treadmill or underwater treadmills that can help this now (though not likely I would have had access anyway). They lessen the impact so I wouldn't have had to lift as long to support my full bodyweight before starting up again. Though this still may have been too complex of a motion in the earlier going. Age is growing some as a concern (I'm just a few years behind you), but what does that mean? What does aging do so that you know how to address this? For endurance athletes, it's usually addressing maximal strength, like 1 rep or a few rep max. We can get tens of thousands of reps in our other activities. We can alter workouts to include short hard bursts or surges too, possibly addressing this. That way we are doing the work right in the primary activity to get the best results out of it. If that's what you want to address. So saying you're doing to do 2 x 30 minutes of lifting doesn't necessary make the most sense, but trying to determine what is best for you to do in the 2 x 30' you have allocated for strength work does. It may not take 30' minutes to do, that's just the most time you could put in for it.