Scheduling Strength and Endurance Training
Some people get held up trying to schedule strength and endurance training in the week, since there is some research that shows the effectiveness of each can be enhanced or diminished depending on when these sessions occur in the week in relation to each other.
The reality is both strength and endurance training are so important for your overall health and performance, that any potential trade offs or benefits when it comes to scheduling are largely negligible. Most people (myself included) just need to focus on finding the time in their schedule to get each of them done consistently, even if it isn’t optimal.
Here are a couple suggestions for fitting strength and endurance in the week:
If scheduling one immediately after the other, then the one that you are prioritizing at that time of year should go first. In the winter, that probably means doing strength first, and in the summer/race season, that will mean doing endurance first.
If you can, separate strength and endurance workouts by a few hours, ideally one AM and the other PM, with a meal or two and some rest in between. If you can’t, then that is ok.
When scheduling strength the day before a hard/key endurance workout, avoid lifting to failure, high volume, or trying new exercises in order to reduce the likelihood of muscle soreness.
Try keeping your hard days hard and your easy days easy by scheduling strength on your harder interval days. This consolidates the stress to just a couple of days so you can maximize rest and recovery. If you schedule your strength work on your weekly rest day, then it is no longer a rest day.
Whatever schedule you decide on, try to be consistent with it for 3-4 weeks to see how you respond before changing things up. The body will adapt if you give it time. If it doesn’t seem to be working, then try something different.
Remember, the most important thing is to make time for both strength and endurance training in your week, even if it isn’t what the latest research says is optimal. The best strength and endurance schedule is the one you will actually do and stick to consistently!