How much Strength Training

How much strength training do we require? Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how much strength training you require.

First and foremost, how much can refer to a whole lot of things. How much can refer to:

The training frequency, the amount of strength training sessions per week
The training intensity or Loading, how much weight you are using
The training volume, the amount of sets and reps in a strength training session

This video and article discusses

The goal of strength training for athletes
How much strength training you need for your sport
An applied example of strength training and planning strength training session

The main goal of my training in general, including the strength training, with athletes, is

Performance improvement
Injury prevention

Performance improvements: because the main goal is to achieve the best possible result in their sport, in the competition. Therefore strength training is just a means to an end and not an end.

Injury prevention: Because only a healthy athlete can perform in his sport and secondly the fewer injuries the athlete has, the longer the career of this athlete. Think about the countless athletes that had to end their careers well before their time, because of long lasting and ever-repeating injuries,

How much Strength Training do you need for your sport?

The question that needs to be answered is, what is the ultimate goal and then work backward from that goal.

I have outlined the process of working backward in the articles

If I look at sports I am currently working with like BMX and Track Cycling, these sports are very physically determined sports and the strength levels of these athletes is of major importance for the performance in the sport.

On the other side, another sport I am currently working with is shooting. The influence of strength training on the actual shooting performance is very little, consequently, the focus of our strength training for shooting is maintaining health and general well-being is the primary goal.

How much Strength Training do you need for BMX?

As an applied example, if we look at a sport of BMX and how we incorporate the strength training into the overall training program.

The first question is ‘How much training we need to do and how much strength training we need to do out of that total training?’

As an example, if we do ten training sessions a week, we ask the questions

‘How many sport specific sessions do we need to do?’
‘How many speed sessions do we need to do?’
‘How many endurance sessions we need to do?’
‘How many strength sessions we need to do?’

Answering these questions will give insights into how much strength training is required in a week.

Below is a very simplistic model how training sessions change depending on the season and focus of the particular season, when the total amount of training sessions is kept constant.

	Early Pre-season	Late Pre-season	Competitive Season
Sport-specific training sessions	4	3	3
Speed training sessions		2	3
Endurance training sessions	3	2	2
Strength training sessions	3	3	2
Total Training sessions	10	10	10

In the competitive season, the total number of training sessions change depending on competitions and travel requirements. That can mean one session a week, or two sessions a week or, at the time, we do one session every ten days, again it depends.You can follow this model and adjust to your sport and needs.

How much Strength Training Wrap-up

How much strength training can refer to the training frequency, the training intensity or training volume.

In order to determine how much strength training you require, you need to determine your goals, how strength training can help to achieve those goals and how the strength training sessions fit into the overall plan.