3 Ways to Get Faster and Stronger
By Chris Kacyon, MS
In our last blog, we introduced you to the theory of Progressive Overload. To get stronger, you must gradually breakdown your muscles more than previous bouts. To improve your endurance, you must run longer, faster, or implement some varied intensity training.
Here are 3 key points to remember if you want to get faster and stronger:
1. Form Comes First
Only overload tasks you can complete with perfect technical form. Without perfect form, overloading can cause new injuries, exacerbate existing ones, and possibly derail your training. A primary goal of all exercise enthusiasts should be to complete each movement with proper form and no pain.
2. Be Realistic
Just because you and your friend are the same age with 15 years of running experience, doesn’t mean you can drop your mile time splits at the same rate. Everyone’s physiology is different which can affect how quickly the body adapts to training. Additionally, novices will have large adaptations, whereas veterans will see slower progress.
3. Switch it Up and Have Fun
For Strength Training
- Increase the distance of the movement (range of motion)
- Lifting with better form, more control, and less effort (efficiency)
- Lifting a weight for more repetitions (volume)
- Use heavier weight (intensity)
- Decrease the rest time between sets
- Implementing forced reps, negatives, drop sets, static holds, rest pause, partial reps, or post-exhaustion (intensity of effort)
For Endurance
- Increase the distance covered (duration)
- Decrease time to cover a specific distance (speed)
- Reduce rest time if completing intervals
- Introduce hills (downhill or uphill)
- Increase number of sessions per week (frequency)
- Incorporate strength training
- Switch modalities (running, cycling, swimming, rowing)
Progressive overload, which can be applied to any form of exercise, must be implemented for improvements to occur. It is as simple as any deviation from your normal training which forces you to work harder to achieve the goals you are pursuing.
Bottom line: fix your form, set realistic expectations, train hard and begin seeing amazing results once again.
How can we help you be a faster triathlete, runner or cyclist? Check out our coaching programs here.
What changes in your training have you made to see changes?
