Discussion: Strength

Seems like Tom knows his way around a weight room - ask if he can build you up to plyos. I feel like those are more effective for running/running up hills/running through swamps than just straight squats. But, squats and lunges are a good start!

Ok, being obnoxious, I had to google for some research onto benefits of plyos versus strength training for endurance athletes. Most articles I found just had a plyo group and a control group, no just basic strength group too. But one did and while both plyo and normal strength groups improved, on measures including a 3k, the plyo group improved more. I would totally link to the study if I could find it again, but alas...

So anyways - plyos don't sound that tricky and are actually a lot of things I already do and call 'drills' or 'ankle plyos'. But I could probably give them more focus and energy as a workout in their own right instead of a warm-up type exercise. And I have been wussing out of my ankle plyos too much recently, they're hard, but gotta do them!

I recall Emil Wingstedt doing a lot of weight training to strengthen his legs a couple of years ago. My feeling is he wasn´t particularly weak when he started either, but definitely improved his running - both sprints (obviously) and distances...

Found some more info on Emil´s training (a rather bad Google Translate, but I think you´ll get it...):

To peak Emil adds an interval period ending about a week before race day. this in order to secure their maximum level. In addition to the above training exercises Emil also adds some strength training that aims at becoming stronger without becoming significantly heavier. This he achieves by max strength training which improves his maximum strength, mainly by improving nerve-muscle co-operation so that a larger portion of the muscle is used and that the muscle is activated faster. Thus, not by getting bigger or more muscle fibers and thus a heavier muscle. Maximum strength is trained by few repetitions (1-6) with a high load. Emil for example, practice squats to about 90 degrees with the knee up to 200 kg load.

Plyometrics are also v.important for sprint orienteering (in my opinion) - remember that you are not running a 3km race. You are running a 3km race, where you decelerate, punch, accelerate 20 times and probably change direction around 50 times, sprint up and down steps etc. You'd want a study that showed the affects of plyometric training on orienteering not on 3km times - that most likely doesn't exist, but I think that plyos would have a bigger impact on orienteering performance than 3k performance.

Mårten Boström gave a talk at the Bergen Sprint Camp and spoke a bit about the special preparation he did leading up to his 2013 WOC sprint. The presentation pdf isn't terribly informative in general (and it's mostly in Swedish) but he does have a slide with his basic strength training routine. Looks like he did a lot of squats:

styrka
december
1 leg squats x20 x4/3' (rod+12kg) + 2 leg squats x20 x4/3' (rod+22kg) + abducters x20 (50kg) inc.
overall trunk exercises between

januari
Squats 3x10'/3' (70kg) + 1 leg squats 3x10/3' (50kg) + overall trunk exercises between

februari
Squats(47kg) 3x20/3' + Bench rise(35kg) 2x3x8/3' inc. trunk during recovery + 8 strides afterwards

mars
Squats(70kg) 3x8/3' + 1leg squats(45kg) 2x3x15/3' inc. trunk ex during recovery

april-may-juni
Drills & accelerations + motståndsrusher


As for jumping and plyo exercises, I know the Swiss started doing a lot of it a few years ago and Sandra can probably give a good list of exercises to build up to. In both cases (Boström and the Swiss team) whatever it is they're doing has certainly not hindered them.

I agree you do a lot of hoppy agility work with your running drills and whatnot (and zumba! that's clearly the secret that the rest of us haven't quite figured out we need to incorporate into our training=) - I guess what I mean by plyos is more max strength, i.e. you can't actually do more than 6-8 jumps in a set. You can probably just take existing ankle plyos and up the intensity for a similar benefit. Not like I'm doing these right now, so much easier to give advice than to actually do it!

We did plyos back when I played ultimate Frisbee in college. They were popular among the field sports players, who also do a lots of accelerating/decelerating/changing direction.

Hmm, I definitely wouldn't have thought of plyos as max strength. I've always been told that the key thing is to deliver the pushoff force as a quick impulse. In other words, when you're jumping or hopping or whatever, spend as little time on the ground as possible.