Just wondering if any of y'all do it? I spent many years just lifting and am about as big as I want to be for now. I started doing Tris a couple years ago and fell in love. After that, I quit lifting to focus on the three disciplines.

Anyway, I was talking with a friend yesterday, and he was telling me I needed to be lifting to help my times. I just find it hard to believe that I could find time more than once or twice a week to lift. If even that.

Is there a happy medium out there?

Depends on your age and background, I can look at a weight and gain 10 pounds I was by far faster when I was at my lightest. I think to stay injury free mobility is more beneficial than being "strong" so light weight/body weight is enough and just once or twice a week if you have time. Once you get over 40 a lifting day is important to keep hormone levels up and try to eliminate any imbalances.

If you want to complete and be fit doing sprints and olympics then there can be a balance. Once you get into longer distance the time required on the bike does not leave much time for heavy weight workouts. Well if you have a job that is

I personally don't but I'm a firm MOP guy Also I just don't enjoy lifting that much so am happy to not make time for it on top of all the tri time.

I think most triathletes I know would say the biggest initial gains in speed would come from strength training inside the discipline itself, that is hill workouts, time trials, interval workouts, practice spinning in a higher gear, etc. Next would probably be core strength workouts. Then would come weights.

i can guarantee just about every single pro is lifting. But their lifting regimen is WAY different than what you were doing when you were focusing on "getting big."

MOP?

middle of the pack. There is also BOP and FOP.

Jim nailed it, hill repeats and using gear for swimming will make you faster than weights.

Pros have all day to train, I would say most age groupers train 6-10 hours a week. Big difference in time available. But even a 30 minute workout will pay off in the end so shoot for once a week, twice a week if you have time. That is if you want to be competitive. If not maintain a balance and workout more

I've found that increasing core strength has paid off nicely. I try to do weights once a week, usually squats / lunges / deadlift / cable twist types of stuff. Typically lower weight / higher reps.

I try to lift 2x per week - one pull (deadlift/back/etc) and one push (bench/squat/the like) covers most of the bases. Do core on the pull day, stretch extra on the push day.

I suspect leg day is important. I dropped it (and lifting all together) when I started triathlons 2.5 years ago. I was doing legs once or twice a week right up until my first tri. I went 17.9 mph on a mountain bike stuck in the top gear.

Then I dropped legs and all lifting completely. My bike has got slower and slower. I was 15.6 mph on a road bike 6 weeks ago.

I'm a skinny guy and I've lost lots of power and leg muscle. I'm 43. But my run and swim times are improving. I PRd the half marathon a few months ago at a 7:19 pace.

Anyway - I WOuld do legs if I could fit it in. I wonder if I should drop a bike to add legs. Dunno.

JDL 96 said:

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I'm 43. But my run and swim times are improving. I PRd the half marathon a few months ago at a 7:19 pace.

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Well done, sir.

I try to do 1 lower body and 1 upper body lifting per week and 1 core combined with 1 of those. Its not easy fitting it all in.