Increasing Max leading to better conditioning?

Expert Discussion Strength Training
1

i was just thinking about this last night and it seemed to me that were one to increase the amount of weight he could lift (in major lifts - bench, deadlift, squats), his conditioning should improve. the logic may be flawed but it is as follows. I figure that by increasing the amount of weight one can lift and thus improving your bodyweight:strength ratio (i guess simply put, improving your relative strength), your conditioning should improve in turn simply based on the fact that it takes a lesser percentage of your maximum effort to complete the same task.

for instance, if i can squat 100 pounds and deadlift 100 pounds and i can run one mile in 8 minutes and then im completely exhausted. if i were to maintain the same bodyweight, but improve each lift to 200lbs, it would almost seem to follow that i could run 2 miles in 16 minutes and then be completely exhausted. while the conversions may not be exact, the arguement seems to make sense logically. perhaps i am leaving something out?

2

Strength/muscular endurance is increased when you increase maximal strength, but not as much as when you work specifically on strength endurance.

3

Agreed, I can bench press 400 lbs and I could bench the 45lb bar from dusk till dawn but if I ran the first mile in 7 min the weight training alone doesn’t mean I will run the 2 mile in 7 min.

  1. The weights will help you in terms of muscular endurance.

  2. They will not help you in terms of energy system training. Your aerobic energy system requires oxygen and the best way to train the aerobic system is to do the event itself.

  3. You also have to think about fibre conversion. Your type IIa fibres will behave like type I fibres with aerobic training. With MxS (anaerobic glycotic) training in weights your type IIa fibres will behave like type IIb. I believe Zatsiorsky mentions something about doing MxS in an earlier/later phase before endurance training (I can’t remember if it was earlier or later).

I’m no endurance expert so maybe we can get a few those guys to share their opinion?

4

There is a pretty decent amount of studies that contribute explosive weight training to more efficient running via shorter ground contact, greater force production, and perhaps lower mu recruitment, and therefore to faster 5-10k times.

In terms of max strength I would suppose the same carry overs would occur to a lesser extent.

The longer the race the more important the aerobic energy system becomes, however distance runners will still benefit from the use of some weight training. I would imagine a careful balance would need to be taken with more work being done on the track and the strength work not taking time away from the more important aerobic work.