Research on Power and Endurance Training

A recent meta-analysis, that looked at many different studies and compared them, found that if you combined resistance training with endurance training, you didn't achieve as much power as if you only did the resistance training alone. There was not a significant difference in the size of the muscle or the strength, but there was a significant difference in power.

Power is very important in our sport. Strength is the ability to perform a task, but power is the ability to do it quickly. Sports such as sprinting, throwing, and jumping require power.

If you are an endurance athlete, the study shows that there is no decrease in endurance if you are doing weight training at the same time. Or, if you are only looking for strength or size gains, there is no problem with doing endurance training when doing resistance training. However, if your sport requires power (such as whitewater slalom), it would be better to minimize or eliminate endurance training because you will not gain as much power as you would without the endurance training.

This study looked at lots of other studies done over many years so it is pretty reliable. It clearly shows that endurance training leads to significantly lower outcomes in terms of power than just doing resistance training without endurance training.

Here is the link to a summary of the research:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22002517