The Fitness Junction

This week:

• Knowledge Corner: The Interference Effect

• Monthly Challenge Update: June read-athon

• Meme Center: Silly Robin

Knowledge Corner: The Interference Effect

For the past few decades, it has been thought that training for endurance and strength concurrently was bad to go. The theory that endurance training has detrimental effects on strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth) is known as the interference effect. But thanks to contemporary research, support for the interference effect has waned. This is good news. It means that training programs can be developed that enable you to simultaneously increase endurance and strength/muscle size.

A 2022 meta-analysis of 43 studies is the latest investigation of the interference effect. This literature review concluded that endurance training does not reduce strength or hypertrophy gains. Again, good news for those of us who’d like to get stronger and build endurance concurrently. The one area that was shown to be negatively impacted by endurance training was power development. Power is your ability to move your body quickly and explosively - strength times speed. But max power is not something that is high on most people’s list of fitness goals. Unless you are a recreational javelin thrower or you take your beer-league softball very seriously, you probably don’t need to be concerned with less-than-optimal power training. Based on the literature, we can be confident in several recommendations:

1. It is possible to be a “hybrid” athlete - e.g. someone who trains for a marathon and the 1000lbs club at the same time. When designing your program, you’ll want to put focus on the nearest event. If you normally split your training time 50/50 between improving max strength and improving endurance, adjust that balance according to when you want to perform in one area. If the marathon is coming up, maybe you adjust to 70/30 or 80/20 in favor of endurance training. The key is that you never need to completely stop training in one area to focus on improvement in another.  

2. If you are training hard for both strength/hypertrophy and endurance, then recovery and nutrition will be more important than ever. You’ll need to step up your caloric intake to ensure you are getting the nutrients you need to continue improving in both areas. You’ll also need to prioritize sleep, otherwise all that hard work will be for naught.

3. When doing concurrent training, avoid combining your endurance and strength/hypertrophy in the same workout. Per the 2022 study, you should aim to have at least 3 hours in between an endurance session and hitting the weights. I would recommend even more of a break in between workouts. Do one workout in the AM and one in the PM, or have a whole day in between training sessions.

_{Sources: This meta-analysis, Stronger by Science, The Hybrid Athlete}

Trivia

Besides being the trophy for the best NHL team, what other purposes has the Stanley Cup served?

• A. A beer cooler

• B. Baptisms

• C. Dog food bowl

• D. Horse food bowl for a Kentucky Derby winner

• E. All of the above

June Challenge: Read a chapter 5x per week

Off to a good start! Helps to have nice weather to go and read in. So grab a summer shandy and that book you’ve been putting off and get outside!

Meme Center:

Trivia answer: E. All of the above. Quite a lot of shenanigans have gone on with the Stanley Cup. It’s probably why the NHL now requires a professional handler to always be present with the cup whenever it’s in the possession of a player from the winning team.

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