Fitter & Faster Podcast: Everything Triathletes Need to Know About Strength Training

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Welcome to Triathlete’s training podcast, Fitter & Faster, where we cover one training topic in-depth each month—from the basics to your questions, plus all the gear you need.

Fitter & Faster and all our Triathlete podcasts are now on one feed, so you can get all your triathlon news in one place. Be sure to subscribe to our Triathlete podcast feed so you don’t miss anything: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Soundcloud | Spotify | iHeartRadio

You can also listen to past Fitter & Faster episodes with Dr. Stacy Sims, Jay Dicharry, Dean Karnazes, Matt Dixon, cycling guru Matt Bottrill, sports psychologist Jeff Troesch, and plenty more.

In this episode of Fitter & Faster, strength and conditioning coach Nate Helming joins host Emma-Kate Lidbury to talk through all aspects of strength training. We kick off by talking about why strength training is important for triathletes and what it should look like. Helming gives us plenty of examples of movements and exercises he likes to see endurance athletes master, regardless of their experience, ability, or aspirations. We talk about the role that strength, conditioning, and mobility work can (and should) play in injury prevention—and how improving efficiency of movement is the triathlete’s holy grail.

We reference this article when we talk about how minimizing risk in the weight room can actually create greater risk of injury (Helming is a big advocate of using free weights versus machines in order to make exercises more functional). We also discuss the hormonal response to heavy lifting—and how this can be of huge benefit to the endurance athlete.