[Mike Prevost]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Mike:

There's many studies that show positive effects of strength training on endurance.

Of course, diet needs to be programmed to ensure that there is no loss of body mass, AND the strength training MUST be programmed along with concurrent endurance work so that endurance adaptations are not lost.

There is a reason why elite endurance runners and such do have power/strength work in their training.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18545191
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19816215
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18978605
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19077735

etc.

Steven

Study one, strength training prevent loss of stride length..OK...maybe relevant...maybe not. Second..soccer players..not endurance athletes. More of a stop and go sport. Third study a review in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. It is an OK journal. I subscribe, but they have a large pro strength training bias. Not sure I would look there for a balanced review on the subject. Third study, core strength training. Not sure what they did.

Consistently what is found is that in some cases running economy can be improved with some strength training. Probably resulting from an increase in the elastic properties of the muscle (stiffer series elastic component). There is SOME evidence to support strength training for runners, but it is not overwhelming and most elite runners do not employ strength training regularly. Some include some in the off season. Rarely do they continue it into racing season.

For other sports like swimming and cycling, the research is much more consistent; strength training does not improve endurance performance.