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29.01.2014

Endurance training reduces strength training gains in muscle mass and strength

The combination of endurance training and strength training makes fat people slimmer and healthier, and works better than cardio or strength training alone, we wrote yesterday. Putting together a good combo-training schedule is not easy though. Endurance training and strength training reduce each other's effect. A new piece of fundamental research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by British sports scientists at Northumbria University confirms this.
The combination of endurance training and strength training makes fat people slimmer and healthier, and works better than cardio or strength training alone, we wrote yesterday. Putting together a good combo-training schedule is not easy though. Endurance training and strength training reduce each other's effect. A new piece of fundamental research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by British sports scientists at Northumbria University confirms this.

The researchers did their experiment on 24 men, average age 25, all of whom had been doing recreational weight training for at least two years.

The researchers got most of the men to train on a leg-extension machine 3 times a week for 6 weeks. A small group did no training and functioned as the control group [Control; CON].

The researchers got one group of men to train their quads, doing 5 sets at a weight with which they could just manage 6 reps [Strength training; ST].

A second experimental group did endurance training once a week after the strength training [Str/end training 3:1, CT3]. The endurance training consisted of leg-extensions too, but these were done using a weight with which the participants could keep going for half an hour.

A third experimental group did endurance training after each weight training session [Str/end training 1:1, CT1].

At the end of the six weeks, the researchers saw that the men who had done strength training only had become stronger. The men who combined strength training and endurance training had also gained strength, but less than the first group had done.

The figure below shows that in the group that did endurance training after each strength training session the increase in strength was almost nil.


The combination of endurance training and strength training makes fat people slimmer and healthier, and works better than cardio or strength training alone, we wrote yesterday. Putting together a good combo-training schedule is not easy though. Endurance training and strength training reduce each other's effect. A new piece of fundamental research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by British sports scientists at Northumbria University confirms this.


The combination of endurance training and strength training makes fat people slimmer and healthier, and works better than cardio or strength training alone, we wrote yesterday. Putting together a good combo-training schedule is not easy though. Endurance training and strength training reduce each other's effect. A new piece of fundamental research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by British sports scientists at Northumbria University confirms this.


The figure above shows that endurance training also reduced the effect of strength training on muscle girth. The more endurance training the men had done, the less their muscles had grown.

At the end of the six weeks the researchers also measured how long the men could keep going with leg extensions using low weights [Time to exhaustion]. Adding endurance training to strength training had a positive effect on this parameter.

The figure below summarises the research findings.


The combination of endurance training and strength training makes fat people slimmer and healthier, and works better than cardio or strength training alone, we wrote yesterday. Putting together a good combo-training schedule is not easy though. Endurance training and strength training reduce each other's effect. A new piece of fundamental research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by British sports scientists at Northumbria University confirms this.


"If [...] strength and hypertrophy are the primary aims frequency and volume of endurance components should conceivably remain low as it seems that increased volumes of endurance training results in amplified inhibition of strength and muscular growth responses", the Brits conclude. "As such, practitioners involved in sports and events that require both strength and endurance capabilities should carefully monitor the volume of endurance training prescribed if interference is to be avoided."

Source:
J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Dec;27(12):3342-51.

More:
Overweight people can best combine cardio and strength training (28.01.2014)
Combination training speeds up weight loss (30.11.2012)
Modest cardio speeds up post-weight training recovery (22.11.2012)