Preparing for adding weight training to my cardio.

kallemann67

Howdy folks. Just wondering about your collective insight on this. I'm closing down on losing my weight - 9 kg to go - and then looking to build in my weight routine throughout the winter months while I continue to run/ swim/ bike focusing on technique and maintains endurance. This will sound vain but I'm looking to sculpt a bit to give me both strength in the three disciplines but also give me that 'athletic' look- something I never had but thought I'd give it s try. I'm thinking I'd hit the gym 3-4 times a week. Any suggestions or sharing of experience very welcome.

jacksonpt

That's basically what I do... lift during the winter to increase strength and maybe add a bit of mass while doing enough cardio to keep my technique and most of my base.

scott091501

Lift heavy and explosive. s/b/r essentially takes care of all your high rep/low weight work. Find a nice proven program (5x5, Starting Strength, 5/3/1) and go.

Capt_Apollo

this was the first year that i didn't lift while leading up to my first race. i lifted from sept to january, but cut it out in february, concentrating on s/b/r, and it was the best thing i could've done.

i'm going to be doing the same this year, maybe trying to keep doing it a little longer than january. but if you want to be competitive, s/b/r has to come first.

jchite84

In the past I've done Men's Health Spartacus (HIIT) and been happy with the results. This winter I started Oly Lifting, but I'm focused almost exclusively on running this year (training for an ultra), so I can't give any anecdotal evidence on how it translates to Tri, but my instinct tells me that it would be a good off season fit.

kallemann67

Thanks for all your advice and personal experience. I get this feeling we instinctively know what/ where we need improvements and work towards that direction. I'm always surprised at tri meets (up to 70.3 is my distance) at the various body shapes and sizes and this has always confused me. 70.3 and 140.6 obviously take a lot of training but shape does not always follow endurance capability nor strength. Genetics has a heckuva lot to account for.