Get Stronger This Off-Season!

Seasoned fitness and coaching professional Paul Herberger walks us through some baseline training concepts and some of his favorite exercises to build into your off-season program.

Paul Herberger is a running, triathlon, and CrossFit coach and the owner of Epic Fitness Center and CrossFit Send It in Bozeman, Montana. 

Strength training elevates performance and plays an important role in triathlon, and real-life performance. When an athlete balances the competing demands of career, family, and trying to stick to a consistent training structure, spending time in the gym may seem like an overwhelming task to fit into your tightly scheduled week. As we look to enhance the results of your weekly training efforts, it’s never too late to start considering ways to include strength training into your weekly plan. 

Let’s review some of the basic concepts of strength training and how to apply them to triathlon. You are probably familiar with some of these terms that get thrown around when describing training in a gym setting, but do you know the differences between them, and which are more appropriate for “in” vs “out” of season? You’ve probably heard terms like weightlifting, resistance training, HIIT, circuit training, but when you try to fit this into your weekly schedule, what do these terms mean, and how can this exercise benefit your endurance performance? To save you from getting buried in the weeds of strength and conditioning terminologies, let’s start with a basic overview of terms that apply to getting you swimming, biking, and running better, and faster. 

Development of Muscle Tissues

As we aim to improve triathlon results, we know that being strong boosts performance, or as I like to say, “stronger is stronger”. From a physiological standpoint there are adaptations that occur in your muscular system via a structured training program and those benefits can significantly enhance your triathlon performance. As we incorporate strength training into your program for better race results, let’s consider the following examples. Training for muscle development includes working specific muscle groups with the goal of specific performance improvement. You might focus on training your “pulling” muscles to enhance the power you can generate when swimming. 

Muscle Strength vs Muscle Power: Strength can be understood as applying force, where power is the application of force in a short amount of time. As we consider training and racing capacity, we can appreciate the importance of having both to have a rounded-out platform on which to perform. Applying force to the pedals on your bike is a necessity, but applying that force rapidly, and over time is what we really want, right?! This is an example of strength... (force on pedals) vs power (force on pedals over time...a long time)! 

Now that we have some general knowledge surrounding training in the gym, let’s get into some movements that will add benefit to your triathlon training and increase your power and strength to set you up to perform better. Another added benefit of working on your resistance training, is that the stronger you are, the greater reduction of overuse injuries. 

Strength Training

This is an umbrella term that refers to building strength. Getting stronger. The definition of strength is to apply force. Resistance training “is” strength training. Examples you might be familiar with are workouts that include elements such as hill climbing, hill repeats, swimming with paddles, these are all examples of resistance workouts with the resistance being the hill or the paddles. 

HIIT

High Intensity Interval Training. This type of strength training uses time and intensity as factors and includes a variety of movements. Examples of this type of training are squat jumps or mountain climbers on a 15” on / 15” off (rest) cycle. This type of training can be arranged in a huge variety of ways based on the goals of the program. Tabata training is a familiar type of HIIT training that uses a 20” on / 10” off for 8 rounds or (4minutes) pattern. Generally, you can think of HITT as intervals, and usually intervals that leave you wanting to take a break. 

Circuit Training

Like HIIT, circuit training uses time or repetitions as the focal points of the session. Individuals are moving from one exercise to the next in a pattern, and for a set period of time. Circuit training is not necessarily a high intensity or fast paced format. Circuits can be a good way to include different movements, with opportunities to work and rest varied muscle groups in a time efficient way. 

Paul’s Go-To Exercises To Add To Your Off-Season Programming

Hamstring Curls (TRX): Lye on your back with both heels resting snug in the loops and straps hanging vertically. Lift the hips off the floor and perform repetitions by bringing both knees towards the chest in a tucking movement, then return the legs out. It is important to keep strong equal pressure into the straps. This is a very focused hamstring exercise. 

Lunges: While there are many forms of lunges, let’s focus on the reverse lunge. Stand with your feet hip width apart and take a step back while lowering the knee to the floor. Maintain stability and aim to keep the torso vertical. Keep the heel of the forward leg down and step back to the starting position. This exercise can be performed one leg at a time or alternating. Add a set of dumbbells! 

Step Ups: This exercise can be performed using a bench, box, or even a flight of stairs. Aim for strong posture when stepping up and drive the knee up at the finish. Maintain stability in the standing leg by squeezing your glute, and step back down to the floor with a soft controlled return. Repeat using reps and multiple sets. Add dumbbells here too! 

Split Squats: Set up in a split stance, and like the lunge, lower the torso vertically lowering the knee towards the floor. This exercise often utilizes a bench where one leg is elevated, and thus challenges the stability of a single leg. 

Good mornings: Set up in a hip width stance, resting a bar on the upper back and maintain a slight bend in the knees. Using a hinging movement, pull the hips back with a rigid torso and lumbar curve maintained. The torso lowers until you feel tension in the hamstrings. Return to standing with the hips and knees extended. 

Kettle Bell Swings (KBS): Set up with a stance between hip and shoulder width apart. Hinge from the hips with a rigid torso and lumbar curve maintained. Power rapidly from the hamstrings and glutes until the kettlebell elevates to eye level, keeping the arms straight, and finishing the movement with heels on the ground, hips and knees extended. 

Pull ups: Set up with the hands at shoulder width apart, and a full grip on the bar. Pull up until the chin is above the bar then return to hang position with the arms fully extended. Focus on using the muscles in the back while keeping a rigid midline. 

Push Ups: Set up on your knees or toes with the hands at shoulder width apart. Maintain a strong plank position and lower the body to the floor. Push up using the muscles in the chest, shoulders and arms returning to plank position with the arms fully extended. 

Air Squats: Set up with the feet shoulder width apart and the toes slightly pointing outward. With lumbar curve maintained, lower the hips down and back until the hip is slightly below the knee. Keep the chest elevated working towards a vertical torso with lumbar curve maintained. It’s helpful to focus on pushing the floor away and squeezing the glutes until finishing in a standing position with the knees and hips extended. 

Closing Thoughts for The Coming Off-season

Off-season is a terrific time to shift your focus, recover from the grind of training and racing, and place an emphasis on areas of overall fitness that you don’t have time for during the season. Incorporating strength training and resistance exercises into your offseason will pay dividends during the season... you’ll be faster, recover more quicky and have a reduced risk of injury. You won’t get bulky, heavy, or lose speed if you incorporate strength training in the off-season, you’ll get more muscle tone, maintain, or improve your body composition and stimulate hormones that help you perform better. 

The off season is the best time to shift your focus to training that will give you long term benefits, improve your base and create improvements you can’t gain in-season. Get after it!! 

More About the Author

Paul Herberger is a running, triathlon and CrossFit coach and the owner of Epic Fitness Center and CrossFit Send It in Bozeman, Montana. 

He has raced numerous Ironman races around the world and has been coaching endurance athletes of all kinds for many years. You will most likely find him skate skiing at Crosscut, paddling long distances in the Pacific Ocean, or crushing delightfully terrible workouts in his strength training gym in Bozeman.