Are Strength and Endurance/Running ability Mutually Exclusive?

S

Spartan 117

0
Hi everyone,

I have gravitated a lot more towards weight lifting in the last few years, with happy gains in maximal strength (I bench about 185 and weigh 150 when in-shape, don't squat or deadlift due to lower back problems). However, I also really enjoy building my strength endurance and distance running abilities. I have felt that breaking my endurance strength (i.e. most pushups without stopping, I'm at 70) and distance running (haven't ran competitively since middle school, 800-2:37, mile-5:49) personal bests gets harder as my muscles get bigger. I haven't met too many people with a good balance of maximal strength and distance running ability/strength-endurance, is it even possible? Is the need to put on weight/muscle mass to get more maximal strength just a myth? I was benching 150 in 10th grade and weighed 140, so my lack of significant weight gain seems to have curtailed strength gains too, but I know lots of people with ridiculous weight-for-weight strength but I don't know how to pull it off.
 
I will chime in-

endurance running is improved with muscle development. Just remember that muscles and veins are two different items. VO2 (oxygen delivery capacity) must be trained by "maintaining" a increased heart rate. BIG muscles burn more calories too, so remeber that,,, EAT BIG!

I have been working on this balance for a while now... unfortuantely for me, I let endurance take a priority, but not for long.

and running will give you the chance ot go out and show off your stuff!!! Nothin like havin them honk as they go by! pure runners get very little of that.
 
It must be damn near impossible to make significant gains in both at the same time, but you can definitely make slow gains in both. Just know you are going to need to eat a hell of a lot of food in order to stay in a surplus while doing a lot of cardio.
 
If you persue both you probably won't be an olympic athlete in neither. However, that doesn't mean you can be strong and a good endurance runner at the same time, you can, just be aware that some of the adaptions to endurance running aren't what you want for strength and visa versa. Specially with though to metabolic adaptions to muscle fibers.

Gaining mass will of course mess with your endurance running. You don't have to be big to be strong, but it does help, there is a reason you don't see a lot of really strong people with small muscles: hypertrophy is actually a strength adaption (myofibrillar), but you can get strong without getting very big, as neural adaptions go a long way. Besides, some hypertrophy probably won't do you much harm as long as you keep your bodyfat low. But again, this all depends how far you want to go with your sport.
 
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