4min chapter

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This or That? Strength Training vs Power Training

Lattice Training Podcast

CHAPTER

The Pros and Cons of Strength Training

Long term and consistent strength training is very tied to reducing injury risk. And then we're also going to see improvements or gains in muscle mass or hypertrophy through strength training. Now on the downside of strength training, and there are some, so it's not to say that it's all good. But most certainly, if it's involved with climbing and it's going to affect performance, then increase in muscle mass is a good thing.

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Speaker 1
And we're talking about both some metabolic improvements, but also generalized work capacity and fatigue ability of that high intensity capacity in training or performance. We're also going to see a reduction in injury risk for the most part through strength training. And it's not to say that strength training doesn't become with its own risk itself. It does. But long term and consistent strength training is very tied to reducing injury risk. So major pro on this front. And then we're also going to see improvements or gains in muscle mass or hypertrophy through strength training. And depending on the portion of the population and your aims, this is on the whole a really good thing, especially when those gains in muscle mass are associated with sport specific muscle groups. Arguably, it's not going to be the greatest benefit to increase muscle mass in muscles that have very little to do with climbing or not a limiting factor in any kind of way. But most certainly, if it's involved with climbing and it's going to affect performance, then increase in muscle mass is a good thing, especially in our youth athletes and then also in our aging or senior athletes. Now on the downside of strength training, and there are some, so it's not to say that it's all good. It's things to be aware of is that you're going to see a lower speed generated through doing a lot of strength training. If you overemphasize and only exclusively do strength training, you are not going to be the fastest athlete when using those muscle groups associated with that strength training. You're also going to potentially develop a habit or a coordination of over gripping or even over pulling if you want to put it that way on the climbing wall. And it's not to say that all climbers will end up down a deep, dark hole on this front, but it is a repercussion of strength training and it is a higher one in certain types of climbers. I think for the whole, I would say climbers who have watched over the years who are already prone to being strong for the grade and over gripping will go further down on this particular aspect when it comes to a lot of strength training. In contrast to what I just said about increases in muscle mass being a good thing, for some increase in muscle mass can also be seen as a bad thing, or maybe I shouldn't say bad, it can be seen as a factor which needs to be taken into account due to the nature of climbing being a power to weight ratio sport. And it really comes down to hear the benefits of that muscle mass gain and how that relates back into performance. So certain parts of the body we see very, very clear benefits to others, a little bit more debatable. And then further is that we have this equation where it may not just be useful to put on even more muscle mass in a part of the body which is limited by strength training. So let's talk about the shoulder girdle for example, is there may be a point where you don't need to focus on gaining muscle mass or hypertrophy because actually the lower hanging fruit here is a degree of tendons stiffness or muscular coordination or a higher degree of recruitment. All of those are aspects that go into the strength equation and I don't think that we should always see muscle mass as being the sole factor that we can work on. Muscle strength is a multi-factorial thing and I know we've written some articles on this on lattice that you can find on the blog on the multi-factorial element here.

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