Training for improved work capacity without
a well-developed strength base is a waste of time!
I would imagine that statement
has sent shivers down the spines of the jogging community – but its true. Strength
training is the most effective way to increase your work capacity. If your one and
only goal is to become more effective at moving yourself/sub maximal/maximal
loads better, then strength training will contribute much more to your goal
achievement than training for endurance.
It sounds crazy to some of you,
but hear me out!
The reason should be obvious to
see (I hope). Let’s look at it from a real mans point of view. Loading bricks
up flights of stairs is a pretty good example of “work”. To me I would imagine
that carrying a 40kg block of bricks up a flight of stairs would be the norm
for any labourer. 100 trips may well be a days work. If you can power clean
40kg (which I hope you can), then lifting 40kg of bricks isn’t going to be as
tough for you, as it would be for some paleo-eating marathon runner who doesn’t
lift weights and can only clean 20kg.
His 4 minute mile is irrelevant
because lugging 40kg of bricks up a flight of stairs is only an endurance task
to a guy that is strong enough to actually perform the work.
So how would one get better at
carrying bricks up flights of stairs (when I say that I actually mean “how would
you increase work capacity” but god damn it....I’m trying to make a point)? I would
bet my last pennies that the skinny marathon runner would go away and run 5
miles per day. Why? Because when he performed the task his heart rate spiked
and the next day he was fooked! However, running 5 miles a day would be a great
example of avoiding the issue!
The best and ultimately correct
way to adapt your body to carrying multiple loads all over the place would be
to spend more time getting your squat, press’s and deadlift max’s up.
The most important thing to
understand is that “strength is the most general of all athletic adaptations. All
the other physical components such as power, endurance, balance, and co-ordination
depend on the production of force within the physical environment” (Jim
Wendler). Basically, if your strength improves, all the other components will.
For a guy who isn’t very strong,
spending time improving his strength will be much more beneficial to improving
his work capacity than spending time on the other derivative components. This point
is especially true when you realise that improving your strength does not take
that long. I guarantee that any athlete you train will tell you that strength
training has the biggest positive impact on their other abilities.
When looking at the “huffing and
puffing” aspect, strength training can actually
improve VO2 Max values [in untrained populations]. Not a lot I'll grant you
that, but it does have a slight improvement. For the novice lifters out there,
strength training improves that aspect
of fitness as efficiently as the millions of conditioning programs that are
floating around out there on the web.
Before you “strength and
conditioning specialists” out there start slating me, remember that we are talking
about skinny marathon runners that do near to no strength training at all. I agree
that past a certain point of strength development, some heavy sled pushing on a
regular basis is beneficial.
Another point to look at is the difference between a STRENGTH
adaptation and a CONDITIONING adaptation.
A man’s strength improves quickly at first, but will soon
plateau and ultimately can be developed for years and years – strength training
is “a long term adaptation because it requires the construction of new tissue
and the restructuring of tissue already in place” (Cal Dietz). Strength training
does not disappear after a layoff. Once a dude gets strong, he’s always
stronger than he was before, even if he stops his training. This is because the
long term adaptations have raised his baseline strength.
However....conditioning develops rapidly but goes away just
as quickly. As I would imagine most of you have realised at some point in your
training life. You can run 4 miles a day for four weeks and get into pretty
good shape. But rest up a couple of weeks and....woops....your back to square
one. “A conditioning adaptation changes the metabolic environment in the cells
without the need for the large scale tissue remodelling necessary for a
strength adaptation” (Cal Dietz...again). Conditioning is like a lap dance – it
comes on quickly, it can be maintained (as long as you pay/work hard), but if
you neglect it for just a second it (she) will disappear.
Why neglect conditioning if it comes on quickly and is easy
to maintain? Because if you're weak as piss you definitely don’t need it as much
as you need to be strong. And as we all know...time is money gentlemen.
Doing loads of “CV” work, or busting your gut by doing “Met-Cons”
every bloody day will have a disgusting effect on your strength gains, where as
getting stronger will improve your work capacity all by its self. Strength
training is like a faithful wife....she’s going to be there for a long time,
and she will get better if you treat her kindly. You can go away with the lads
for 2 weeks...come back...and she’ll be at the door greeting you with a cool
alcoholic drink of your choice (no brand promotion on this blog!).
The programs that are thrown around the internet to make
guys strong and fit are merely allowing them to become good at running away
from things.
If you’re not strong....getting stronger IS getting fitter. Geeting stronger IS
getting more conditioned. If you’re a novice, don’t weaken your program by doing loads of
sweaty work until you need to.
But hey...that’s my opinion.
Stay STRONG!
E
