The Importance of Strength & Mobility for Endurance Athletes
Written by Jim Levesque, Head Coach at Grit Endurance. Learn more about Jim’s background here!
Strength and mobility should be a core tenet of any endurance athlete’s training program. Unfortunately, with the time demands of everyday life, along with trying to fit in all the training, it’s often neglected or can fall by the wayside. But even doing strength and mobility two times per week for 30-minutes each time can prove beneficial. Here are 4 simple reasons why you should include these workouts in your training program:
Injury prevention – Focusing on your functional strength and mobility improves your core strength, stability, and ability for your muscles to properly contract, while reducing imbalances, which all help prevent injuries, and are often the result of putting too much pressure on a muscle or joint due to an issue elsewhere in the body.
Better movement efficiency – Mobility work is often not hard, but it is critical to help your body move smoothly and efficiently. Increasing mobility will allow you to move more freely which means going faster at less effort!
Increased longevity – Strength and mobility work becomes exponentially more important as we age in order to help us maintain our balance, coordination and flexibility.
Enhanced performance – Just because your heart rate isn’t through the roof, doesn’t mean strength and mobility training won’t help your performance. Similar to what I stated in number 2, increasing your body’s ability to move freely, efficiently, and balanced, will make you a faster athlete!