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Commentary on High-Resistance Training Improves 40-km Time-Trial Performance in Competitive Cyclists

Carl D Paton

Sportscience 9, 32 (sportsci.org/jour/05/cpd.htm)
Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, Waikato Institute of Technology, Hamilton, NZ. Email.
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In a recent article, Will Hopkins and I reported a study we performed in 2003 on the benefits for short-term endurance of adding high-intensity resistance training to the program of already well-trained cyclists (Paton ande Hopkins, 2005). Unbeknown to us, Amy Mason was performing a very similar study.

In contrast to almost all previous authors (see review by Paton and Hopkins, 2004), Amy had the foresight to trial the training strategy in the athlete’s competitive season, when the results would be more meaningful. Her findings are remarkably similar to ours and clearly support the beneficial effects of sport-specific resistance training in endurance cycling events. While the mechanisms underlying the improvement in performance are not yet clearly established, the fact is that this type of resistance training works for competitive cyclists, and probably other endurance athletes.

While I acknowledge the difficulty in conducting interventions with athletes during their competitive season, it appears that this is the next logical step to take if we wish to provide more meaningful advice to the athletes. I hope that Amy’s success will encourage others to adopt this approach not only for training studies but also other interventions aimed at performance enhancement.

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Paton CD, Hopkins WG (2004). Effects of high-intensity training on performance and physiology of endurance athletes. Sportscience 8, 25-40

Paton CD, Hopkins WG (2005). Combining explosive and high-resistance training improves performance in competitive cyclists. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 19, 826-830

Published Dec 2005

©2005