Winter at the gym
Keep resistance and endurance apart, says Will...
With the changing of the seasons many of you will be getting off the roads and looking to the turbo and the gym for winter gains and strength work. Combining endurance and strength/resistance work is called ‘concurrent training’; funnily enough because you’re doing them concurrently. Another term you may have come across is the ‘interference effect’. Endurance training creates one signal and resistance training creates a different signal. Combining these two training types together will, as you can imagine, scramble the signals, meaning that you’re not getting the maximum benefit of either.
Research has shown that by separating different types of training sessions by at least six hours and up to 24 hours yields optimal results in both areas. Alternating days of lifting and riding would be the best approach, however, if you do have to do both on the same day, start the day with the more important session and do the less important one later on. I would also make one an easy session, for example, do a strength session in the morning followed by an easy zone 2 ride in the evening.
If you are doing concurrent training there are also nutritional recommendations, largely that you focus on higher protein intakes of more than 2g per kg of body weight per day. This will result in more muscle gain with no detriment to your endurance improvement.
I may be stating the obvious here, but the longer the duration of your ride, the longer you should leave between that sessions and the resistance training: the longer the session, the stronger the signals created.
So let’s make it easy with a quick-tick list of the rules to follow if you’re planning a winter of concurrent training:
• Separate resistance training and endurance training by six to 24 hours
• If you’re doing both sessions on one day, always do the more important one first
• Eat high protein levels of 2g/kg/bw a day
• Leave a longer period between the types of sessions if you are doing an endurance ride (more than three hours)
Will Girling MSc sports and performance nutritionist; willgirling.com