Can strength training improve endurance

The answer is yes, but the premise is to choose the right training mode. If you expect to be able to run a full marathon without panting by training with heavy weight and low reps for muscle building in two months, you are really overthinking.

I met an enthusiast who ran a half-marathon two years ago. He used to be very dedicated to running 50 kilometers every week, but every time he reached 15 kilometers, he would lose speed. His legs were as soft as if he had stepped on cotton. His pace in the second half of the race would drop by more than 1 point. Later, he was advised to increase his pace by 20 kilometers twice a week. Minutes of lower limb strength training included Bulgarian split squats, light deadlifts, and bodyweight box jumps. No weight was added. Each group was done 15 to 20 times. After two months of training, I took the half-marathon test. I was PB for 4 minutes, and the problem of slowing down in the second half basically didn’t happen again.

In the early years, many people in the endurance circle were opposed to strength training. They thought that practicing strength would grow larger muscles, and increasing weight would drag down endurance. This statement is not entirely wrong. If you practice traditional bodybuilding’s low-rep, heavy-weight hypertrophy training, it is indeed easy to increase excess muscle mass and add weight to long-distance events. Increase the burden, but the strength training we are talking about to improve endurance is not this method at all. Most of them are strength endurance training with small loads and high reps, or rapid strength training that focuses on nerve recruitment. It cannot increase the size of large muscles at all, but can improve the fatigue resistance of muscles and the efficiency of nerve mobilization.

This is like if you only had 10 workers working in shifts to pull goods before. After practicing your strength, you have hired 3 more backup workers who can take over at any time. With less work assigned to each worker, they can naturally carry the goods for a longer time without going on strike in the middle of the work.

If the endurance you are talking about is strength-driven endurance such as carrying a 20-pound box for half an hour without getting sore, and doing 100 push-ups without gasping, then the improvement effect of strength training is better than pure aerobics. I once took care of a young man who wanted to take the auxiliary police exam. At first, I was okay with heights, but I was paralyzed for half a day after running 1,000 meters. During the round-trip running of the physical test, my legs gave out in the second half and fell. Later, after practicing core and lower limb strength and endurance for a month, I lifted 1,000 meters by 20 seconds without losing speed throughout the round-trip running. If you are talking about cardiopulmonary-oriented endurance such as long-distance running and long-distance cycling, then strength training cannot replace aerobic training, but it can make up for the shortcomings of aerobic training. For example, many long-distance runners have knee pain after running for a long time. This is because their core and lower limb strength are not enough.

Of course, it does not mean that just practicing strength will definitely be beneficial. I once met a marathon novice who heard others say that strength training is useful. He went to practice heavy squats with a bodybuilding blogger and squatted 1RM three times a week. After two months, his legs became thicker, his weight increased by 3 pounds, and he felt more tired when running. This is actually a wrong method, not a problem with strength training itself.

To put it bluntly, strength training is more like a "buff bonus" for endurance. Choosing the right training method can get twice the result with half the effort. If you practice blindly, it will easily hinder your performance.