Specificity.

If you wanted to improve your basketball skills, would you go to the shooting range once a week?

If you wanted to improve your balance beam technique, would you include 30 miles per week of running in your workout schedule?

If you wanted to be a better golfer, would it help to take batting practice a few times a month?

If you wanted to improve your swimming, cycling and running, would you attend a class in “muscle activation” once per week?

Most would answer “no” to the first three questions, but change their tune when it comes to triathlon. Evidently many triathletes feel that strength training is a vital component of their training programs. Why? I’m not sure.

To be fair, for some triathletes, strength training is extremely important. Older athletes lose muscle mass as they continue to age, and regular strength training helps maintain strength and minimize muscle loss. Athletes recovering from injuries would also do well to utilize strength training on a regular basis, to rehabilitate the injured muscles in a controlled environment before returning to sport-specific training.

But for most triathletes, the best way to get better at swimming, biking and running is to do lots of–you guessed it–swimming, biking and running!

The principal of specificity is one that many of us, particularly those of us that are still young and healthy, should consider before devoting our precious training time to attending strength sessions.

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