ENDURANCE SPORTS
STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

ABOUT THE PPG  ENDURANCE SPORTS PROGRAM

The PPG Endurance Sports program takes a multi-faceted approach to preparing you for competitive or recreational endurance events. We are able to take all of the guess work and wasted miles out of your training, replacing them with a program designed for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. We monitor and evaluate every aspect of your competition prep to ensure you are fresh, injury free and ready to compete come race day.

By combining a sophisticated (but simple to implement) heart rate training protocol with a specifically designed strength and nutrition program we are able to produce incredible results while avoiding many of the injuries and ‘burnout’ typically associated with endurance training.

Many athletes are quite understandably sceptical as to the benefits of gym based strength training for endurance sports. This is unfortunate as appropriate strength training can help prevent injury and quickly provide significant improvements in endurance performance.

  • If two athletes weigh exactly the same amount, the one who is capable of producing more power for longer will win the race. A properly designed and executed strength training program will significantly improve your power to weight ratio.
  • A stronger muscle will require a lower proportion of its maximal force potential to move your body towards the finish line with each step or pedal stroke, using less energy and therefore providing better fuel economy.
  • A more powerful leg will put more force into the ground or pedal, propelling you a greater distance with each step or revolution meaning less steps or strokes will now be required to cover the same distance.

A RECENT STUDY

by the University of New Hampshire showed that a 10 week strength training program improved running economy by 4% (running economy is essentially the same as a cars fuel economy, the distance you can cover on a given amount of fuel). That may not sound like a huge amount but it translates into a 96 second improvement on a 40 minute 10k time. It’s worth mentioning that the strength training protocol used in this study wasn’t particularly sophisticated and even greater improvements can be expected with better programming.

The concerns many people have with regards to strength training for endurance sports relate to time and the potential for increased muscle growth and with it associated weight gain.

We understand that you don’t want to be spending all of your time lifting weights in a gym. Our program is efficient and designed to complement your run/bike/swim training not completely replace it.

When it comes to weight gain, this is negated through the application of proper training methods designed to develop the strength and power of your existing muscle as opposed to increasing the muscle size.

WHAT DOES PPG  ENDURANCE SPORTS PROGRAM INVOLVE?

As with all of our programs the first step in the process of joining our Endurance Sports Program involves an information gathering discussion. To build the right training and nutrition plan for you we need to understand your training schedule, diet, work and family life, injury history and reasons for seeking our help. With this in hand the next step is to carry out our performance tests. Testing allows us to understand your strengths and weaknesses as well as providing a baseline against which we can measure your progress through regular re-testing. The endurance sports testing battery covers:

  • Lactate Threshold
  • Body composition
  • Aerobic capacity
  • Anaerobic capacity
  • Strength
  • Power
  • Core stability

"From December 2013 to January 2014, I spent 46 days skiing over 730 miles solo to the Geographic South Pole… Without Will's expert knowledge in training and enthusiasm for the challenge I certainly would have struggled on the ice. Plymouth Performance Gym is the place to train, get fit and meet your personal challenges of tomorrow.2

Antony JinmanPolar Explorer