Strength training

Strength work is the most skipped part of an amateur's training: time is short and the link to race results is not obvious. We plan it and explain why, but let's be honest: we cannot promise it will take minutes off your race — that evidence does not exist.

Why a triathlete needs it#

Economy. In middle- and long-distance runners, heavy strength work improves running economy — you spend less for the same speed. Confidence is moderate: direct studies on triathletes are few, small and inconsistent.

Strength and tendons. Strength and tendon stiffness go up — that has been measured. But we cannot call it injury prevention: those studies were not about injuries and were never designed to support that conclusion.

Bones and muscle mass. With age, muscle and bone tissue are lost faster, and strength work together with moderate impact work pushes back where endurance alone does not help. This is not a medical recommendation and not a treatment: if you have a diagnosis, your doctor decides on your load.

The level of evidence here is honestly lower than we would like. That is why strength work is a recommended part of the plan for us, not a compulsory one.

The programme is built around you#

Before your first plan, the platform asks about your strength profile: where you train (a gym, home with free weights, bands and body weight), what kit you have, how much experience you have, how many sessions you are up for — none, one or two — and how long each should be: 20, 30, 45 or 60 minutes.

The platform does not guess. An empty field means a question, not “you don't need strength work”: no gym selects a different set of exercises, not an empty week. Saying no outright is a perfectly normal answer too: it is respected, saved along with the reason, and it blocks nothing else in your plan. And if a piece of equipment is not confirmed, no exercise is slotted in just in case: the platform would rather tell you what it is missing than offer a substitute whose safety it cannot check.

Where strength sits in your year#

Strength periodisation follows your annual phase:

• post-season recovery — no heavy sessions, at most one familiar technique session;
• general preparation — the main block for building strength, two sessions a week by default;
• race preparation — one session a week, the goal switches to maintenance;
• competition period — between zero and one short session, no new exercises introduced; in the taper, strength work is the first thing to go.

An honest caveat: the idea that strength is best built in the off-season is not confirmed by direct comparisons — it is coaching practice.

How a session is put together#

If you have no strength training behind you, it all starts with learning the movements: at least four cleanly executed sessions, usually 2–4 weeks at one or two a week — the calendar alone does not close this block. The effort is light: around 5–6 out of 10 by feel, leaving four reps or more in reserve.

The introductory block is the same everywhere — in a gym, at home, or with nothing but a mat. It is five simple bodyweight movements: a squat, a glute bridge, push-ups against a high support, prone arm raises and calf raises. Each is repeated for two or three sets, and a session takes 25–30 minutes. The point is to make the movement familiar, not to sample everything at once. Barbells, dumbbells and machines come in at the next step, once the technique is there.

Then comes development: main movements — 3 sets of 6–10 reps, accessory work — 2 sets of 6–15. Target effort 7–8 out of 10, leaving 2–3 reps before failure. We never work to failure: it is not needed for results, while fatigue and the risk of technique breaking down both go up.

The platform does not prescribe weights. It runs no maximum tests and counts no kilograms — you choose the resistance yourself, by the reps in reserve you need. Progression is double: first you add reps within the range, and only when the whole range has been done twice in a row with reps to spare will the platform suggest taking the next available weight step.

In maintenance mode the usual effort stays and the volume drops: main movements down to 2 sets, accessory work down to one.

How strength work enters your overall fatigue#

The score for a strength session comes from its duration and your rating of the effort. It does not feed aerobic fitness — strength work does not build it — but it goes fully into the muscle and impact counter.

Hence the placement in your calendar. Between hard loads on the same muscle system — at least 48 hours, and 72 after the age of 60. A strength session is never placed in the 24 hours before a key run or ride; on the same day as a key session it goes only after it, with a gap of at least three hours; heavy pulls and presses are never placed before a key swim. The weekly ceiling is no more than two sessions and no more than two hours. A missed strength session is not made up and never doubles up with the next one.

This is not about “endurance killing strength”. Maximal strength and muscle mass coexist with aerobic work perfectly well; explosive qualities turn out to be the sensitive ones — especially when both kinds of work sit in the same session. We separate them in time to protect your key session, not because universal interference has been proven.

Jumps, and what we deliberately leave out#

Before your first jumping block, the platform asks five questions: have you had osteoporosis or osteopenia; after the age of 40, have you broken a bone in a fall from standing height; have you had a stress fracture in the past year; has a doctor ever restricted your impact load; do you currently have bone or joint pain when you run. The questions are triggered by the intention to schedule impact work, not by your age, and they repeat once a year. An answer of “yes” or “I don't know” means we do not plan jumping work and suggest you discuss your training load with a doctor; bone pain removes all impact work until you have been seen.

And honestly: the current version has no jumps, plyometrics or ballistic work at all. Not because they do not work — plyometrics does improve running economy — but because landing quality, footwear, surface and the growth of impact volume are things an app without a coach cannot check.

What else is missing, and why:

• The barbell. Barbell squats and presses need safety pins set or a spotter, and there is no way to verify that from your description. The same strength gains come from dumbbells, kettlebells and machines.
• Bike-specific strength work. The dose in those protocols is set from a maximum test we do not run, and on a home trainer even the measurement itself is unverified. Ordinary low-cadence riding never counts as a substitute for strength work.
• Maximum tests, work to failure, forced reps. Not needed when dosing by feel: the riskiest element there is, for a number we never use.
• Rehabilitation, “preventive” routines and training through pain. Clinical territory: that needs a doctor, not an app. More on where the line runs in “Safety and where medicine begins”.