Giving Back to Jetcareers

NoSoup4U

Well-Known Member
Hi Everyone,

Well, I have been a part of JC for roughly 5 years now, and come on here from time to time to read about everyone's aviation experiences, training advice, career advice, and thoughts about various subjects. It's always a fantastic community, and I've learned a great deal. I will be restarting my flight training again soon to make professional aviation my career. It's the right choice for me after many years of thought and preparation.

For the last 5 years or so I have pursued my Bachelors and Masters Degree in Kinesiology and Biomechanics because it's my only other passion, and it will be used as a fall back career (another props to JC for instilling that importance to others) and my current career until I can become established in aviation. With that said, since the great people of JC have provided me with a lot of valuable information in regards to aviation, I will provide the best information I can in regards to Kinesiology related matters with what time allows. Health and Fitness is important regardless of profession, but even more so with a profession that requires an individual to pass their medical screening. :)

This thread is pretty quiet, but people always have health and fitness related questions, so it can easily pick up speed. ;)

Thanks
 
Hey, thanks for posting! Good to see this stuff. Sometimes I wish I could be more as helpful to others!
I could have a ton of questions for you Heath/fitness wise, you sure you wana open that can haha? But it's really just eating stuff and aging/changing metabolism. I just wish mine would slow down haha!
 
Ha-ha. Trust me, that's understandable. Health ane fitness is so incredibly broad that sometimes the simplest questions can have long in depth answers. I'll try my best to give adequate responses that answer the question(s) as direct as possible with the time I have to answer it. If I have a lot of time, I'll answer them with more depth. I'm sure any questions you have many others have the same exact ones.

Ask some of what's on your mind and I'm sure it will spark other questions by either yourself or lots of other members. Then, members can also look back and read your questions and the corresponding responses that will likely answer their questions as well.
 
If I'm lifting regularily, and I take a week off to come back onky to lift more, doesn't that mean I'm not giving myself enough time to rest on a normal lift cycle?
 
If I'm lifting regularily, and I take a week off to come back onky to lift more, doesn't that mean I'm not giving myself enough time to rest on a normal lift cycle?

Not necessarily considering how many variables effect this, but it is possible. What does your lifting schedule look like, as well as the volume, progression in intensity (weight), volume (sets and rep range for a given intensity), and frequency (how often your are lifting)? Also, when you take your week, which I do as well after consistently lifting, how many weeks or months are you lifting before you take your week break?
 
Well, at 28, I've been the same weight as about 10yrs ago. Going to the gym only makes me get more toned, not so much build up. Kinda wondering if there's a different technique to working out than the usual pyramid/drop set/ 4 sets.
The diet is a whole other can, I can't seem to ear enough. Now on that, I'm betting others wish to have that problem.. But I'd like to gain weight...
Thanks again for your time and help here!!
 
Well, at 28, I've been the same weight as about 10yrs ago. Going to the gym only makes me get more toned, not so much build up. Kinda wondering if there's a different technique to working out than the usual pyramid/drop set/ 4 sets.
The diet is a whole other can, I can't seem to ear enough. Now on that, I'm betting others wish to have that problem.. But I'd like to gain weight...
Thanks again for your time and help here!!

Anytime!

Without a doubt, people all over the world wish they had your "problematic" metabolism, ha-ha ;). You are a fortunate person. First things first, do you have any idea how many calories you intake daily, and what is your current weight and activity level (include all activity whether that be resistance, cardio, leisure activity, etc.) during the week? Calorie intake will be one of the key elements here, as well as your exercise regimen.

To gain muscle mass (known as hypertrophy), many things have to come together in harmony:

First, You must intake sufficient calories beyond what your body needs to run it's daily processes, tissue maintenance, cell repair, immune system reponse, muscle contraction, repiratory function, etc. Beyond this maintenance energy level is where you can sufficiently supply the body with the added calories needed to support new tissue (the progression of addition of muscle mass), and the quality of food has a lot to do with it just as much as the quantity of food. There are lots of foods that are calorie dense, but not nutrient dense. You will need to provide the body with additional healthy calories (carbs, protein, and fat: macronutrients) beyond what you intake now, but from sources that contain adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). If you don't already know how many calories you intake per day on average, it's best you begin a food diary for exactly 7 days that includes the calories (possibly good to write down the grams of carbs, protein, and fat you intake as well just for reference, so you can see where these calories are coming from) you are injesting daily, and that will give us a good starting point. Many people like to do the "guess and check method" for the calories they need for their gender, age, weight, and activity level, but it's best to get a reference point first via food diary, then we'll do a calculation to estimate calorie intake for either maintenance of weight, weight gain, or weight loss. Counting calories is a for sure way to know you are gaining weight, lossing weight, etc. without gaining or lossing too quickly. If you eat far too many calories, you will gain fat mass too quickly in relation to the speed in which you can grow additional muscle mass. If you aren't eating enough calories, the muscle mass gain will be slower and at a lesser extent, but fat mass gain will be at a minimum. With that said, I always tell people to pick a goal, gain muscle and accept a little fat mass with it, or loose weight and don't try to gain much muscle. Muscle gain and fat loss aren't synonymous. For the most part, the only individuals gaining muscle mass and loosing fat mass at the same time are either breginner exercisers, soemtimes obese individuals, or people using anabolic steroids. This may be due to a difference in nutrient partitioning.

Secondly, you need to supply the body with adequate protein levels to help support and grow more lean body mass (muscle tissue). The body needs a minimum amount of protein to fuel regular body functions daily, but individuals who are regularly more active, especially one's who wish to pack on more muscle mass need to consume beyond the minimum amount of protein required. There has been a lot of various research performed on the protein requirements for athletes. In general, the consumer market for protein supplementation has blown the need a bit out of propotion making it seem like you need to eat a darn cow to make gains in muscle mass. However, we do need additional protein in the diet when invloved in more rigourous activities. How much is the question, and it's never been asnwered as a perfect set amount for every person. However, most research shows that protein levels should be more than sufficient at .8 grams to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. So, if you weight 150 pounds, a protein consumption of 120 to 150 grams of protein will do. Many people believe the more is better principle here, just like a lot of aspects in regards to fitness, but I haven't seen any backing explaining that more than 1g per pound of bodyweight works better in the least bit. In fact, many athletes do just fine on less than the .8g-1g per pound of bodyweight. I personally eat between .8g-1g per pound of bodyweight, and I nor any of my clients have ever had any issue gaining muscle mass as long as calories are adequate for weight gain, and that's KEY.

Last but not least, your exercise regimen will also be of the utmost importance as you balance the other two aspects described above. The volume, load, and frequency of exercise must be enough to stimulate muscle growth via processes in the muscle like natural hormone levels (testosterone, IGF-1 aka insulin like growth factor), satellite cell activity in the muscle cells, and microscopic tears in the muscle cells (aka muscle fibers because they look more like a fiber than they do a cell, which is typically thought of as a cylindrical shape), etc. Provide me with an example of your workout routine throughout the week, or even months as your progress and we can see if there are any issues that may arise from it that could be limiting your potential :). Pyramids, drop sets, 4 sets is no problem, but we need to get down to the nitty griddy of how many sets per muscle group(s) you perform, at what rep range this is done, how many days per week this is done, etc. Without a doubt, there is more than one way to skin a cat so to speak when designing workout routines, but we'll use physiology to see if there is a way to organize one that may be more optimal for your goal(s).
 
Hey, thanks for the offer to ask questions! I got one.
For the body to function properly, you must take in a variety of essential nutrients. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Reference_Intake
Now from what I have found, a majority of these nutrients are not found in the common American diet.
What problems can arise from not taking in the required nutrients? And what benefits would come out from getting the required amount? (muscle gain? :))
Its amazing when you think about this issue in regards to flying. If your plane needs air in the tires, oil in the engine, hydraulic fluid in the actuators, fuel in the tanks, ect...., would you ever takeoff without making sure you had a sufficient amount of each? So why would you do the same to your body? (rhetorical question)
Thanks in advance
 
If I'm lifting regularily, and I take a week off to come back onky to lift more, doesn't that mean I'm not giving myself enough time to rest on a normal lift cycle?
What I have found to work in regards to building muscle, is not to take breaks but to just change your routine. There are a lot of options. Crossfit for a couple weeks, then one muscle only workouts, then two muscle, then a bunch of high rep sets, then low rep sets, bodyweight workouts, p90x, and dropset workouts. It really depends what you're going for. Mass or function or both? Im going for both but more function. I've also noticed amazing benefits to running about 10 miles a week. I have noticed more muscle definition (of course) and more muscle growth (probably because Im eating a lot more).
GET PUMPED SON!
 
Very cool Nosoup4you. A lot of good info so far in this thread. I have a simple question.....lets say you work out 3 times a week at a relatively high intensity (crossfit ish) but then you get sick (like a cold or flu). Is it better to wait till you are back at 100% maybe taking 7-14 days off or do what you can when you are say 50%+? Thx!
 
Hey, thanks for the offer to ask questions! I got one.
For the body to function properly, you must take in a variety of essential nutrients. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Reference_Intake
Now from what I have found, a majority of these nutrients are not found in the common American diet.
What problems can arise from not taking in the required nutrients? And what benefits would come out from getting the required amount? (muscle gain? :))
Its amazing when you think about this issue in regards to flying. If your plane needs air in the tires, oil in the engine, hydraulic fluid in the actuators, fuel in the tanks, ect...., would you ever takeoff without making sure you had a sufficient amount of each? So why would you do the same to your body? (rhetorical question)
Thanks in advance

You are very welcome :). Without a doubt, nutrient dense food is one of the primary keys to maximize your gains and performance from and during your workout(s), as well as optimal health. A great saying has always been, "you're a product of what you eat". The average American diet is definitely far from optimal. One reason the amount of nutrient deficiency isn't as high in America as it could be is because the sheer quantity of food that is eaten makes up for a bit of the lack of nutrient dense food that is eaten. However, look at what has caused much of the health problems we commonly see today.....unhealthy/poor quality calorie dense foods. Malnutrition and deficiencies may cause various health conditions with the skeletal, neurological, cardiovascular, and muscular systems, as well as issues with skin, hair, nails, teeth, etc. even though some are only seen in acute cases and others are seen in more severe cases.

By supplying adequate nutrients to the body, it can synthesize what's necessary to replenish, repair, and build what it needs to with better efficiency. Among many processes by the body, protein synthesis via amino acids, and glycogen (is the storage form of glucose and is a simple carbohydrate that is used largely in the bodies energy processes within the cells) replenishment are very important factors. The body can only synthesize certain amino acids called non essential amino acids, while other amino's called essential amino acids need to be supplied via certain foods because they cannot be made by the body. Now, the body needs both, essential and non-essential amino acids to synthesize protein (which as you know is what muscle mass consists of among other components) via the ribosomes in the muscle cells. If a person is lacking sufficient amounts of the various amino acids, potential to synthesize protein will be limited, thus limiting muscle recovery and muscle hypertrophy (aka growth of the muscle tissue). A food that contains the amino acids that are essential to proper health are called "complete". Animal products like meat, milk, cheese, eggs, etc. contain these essential amino acids. However, not all plant life contain these essential nutrients and the ones that don't are called "incomplete". So, it's crucial for vegetarians that don't have any animal products to pick and chose their meals wisely with varied sources of plant life in order to obtain complete protein meals. When an individual supplies well balanced nutrition to the body, it has the micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) it needs to generate all the processes your body performs daily, and allows the body metabolize macro-nutrients more effectively.

I hope this helps a bit.
 
Wow. You went over and beyond. Thanks!
How much of the required nutrients do you think that average person gets daily?
 
Very cool Nosoup4you. A lot of good info so far in this thread. I have a simple question.....lets say you work out 3 times a week at a relatively high intensity (crossfit ish) but then you get sick (like a cold or flu). Is it better to wait till you are back at 100% maybe taking 7-14 days off or do what you can when you are say 50%+? Thx!

Thanks! More than glad to help in any way I can.

As you know already, regular exercise helps strengthen your immune system and may help reduce the severity of a cold, and may reduce the chance of actually getting a cold (there is a cap to this though, as high too much high intensity work without enough recovery will inhibit the bodies ability to fight infections to it's maximal extent). However, when a person gets sick (which is bound to happen sooner or later regardless of how good the immune system is), it's best to lay low and eliminate exercise until most of the cold or flu symptoms lessen or disappear. It varies greatly on the severity of the cold though, and the best thing to do is to pay very close attention to what your body feels like and what it's capable of doing. When you are ill, your immune systems has been taxed to a high degree, and moderate to strenuous exercise will further stress your immune system. In turn, you'll likely see an increase in cold or flu symptoms like coughing, sneezing, dizziness, stability issues, and have an abnormally high heart rate and respiratory rate. Once you return to exercise, and still continue seeing any of the symptoms described in the last sentence, stop immediately as your body isn't ready to return to exercise quite yet. You may actually make your cold or flu worse, and delay your return to a regular exercise routine. With a flu, usually exercise won't occur for at least a week, and if more time is needed, then it's best to take more time. However, if it's a small cold, you may only be out as little as a half a week. Regardless of severity, what's of major importance is to gradually get back to exercise over 2-3 days after the end of your illness. Some research has suggested that low intensity exercise may have a positive effect on the immune system, and taking things gradually will prepare the body for higher intensity sessions that may occur within that week.
 
Wow. You went over and beyond. Thanks!
How much of the required nutrients do you think that average person gets daily?

My pleasure :).

That's a great question, and looking for statistical numbers from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) would be interesting if they have them. Amazingly, if memory serves right, many Americans receive enough of the required nutrients daily to limit chance of disease because the amount of food eaten on average is so large, they can cover some lost ground via quantity, and therefore we aren't seeing as much of the problems with nutrient deficiency as we could. However, the average American diet is definitely not close to optimal, and there is much to improve upon with micro-nutrient intake. Instead, the large quantity of processed and fatty foods are causing different diseases than associated with deficiency. Ask many friends and family how many vegetables and legumes they eat daily in comparison to refined dense food products, and the trend becomes pretty visible unfortunately. The American diet consists of way too many nutrient stripped foods like white refined crackers, pastas, cereals, breads, etc. that are low in nutrients, high in calories, low in fiber, and high in sugar. So, they cause blood glucose levels to rise to high levels and quickly, and they provide veryyyy little satiety, and constant cravings even though the calories that were ingested were much too high for the meal. Unfortunately, adding to that is the fat consumed in the average American diet, which is usually high in saturated and trans fat, which is greatly linked to much of the heart disease issues we see today. Trans fat is created synthetically by man where hydrogen is added to unsaturated fats, thus changing there chemical structure to a very dangerous saturated fat. The reason behind hydrogenation is to increase the taste and texture of the fat on the pallet, and to increase shelf life drastically. Trans fat increase LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol (aka the "bad" kind in high amounts), and lower HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol (aka the "good" kind). As the LDL levels increase, they can imbed themselves in the arterial walls, and there isn't as many HDL's around to remove them, so they accumulate. The body treats it as an intruder, so macrophages from the immune system are sent in defense to engulf it, which eventually lead to plaque build-up and narrowing of the arterial pathways (aka atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis). Ever wonder why so many processed, refined, hydrogenated products like peanut butter crackers are found in many man-made recommended earthquake kits......the shelf life is tremendous, ha-ha. Peanut butter isn't as great as everyone makes it out to be IF it's unnatural. It's not just many processed peanut butters, it's many packaged products that are on the shelves of stores worldwide and possibly in your pantry at home. If any of your the ingredients labels on your foods at home say hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, throw it out.
 
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Thanks for helping! I've got a few for ya.

I supplement my running with strength work until I get to my taper phase, which is when I start to reduce the load. My question is about specificity. The running I do includes completely different target workouts during each week, but my strength work does not. I basically do the same routine 3 days a week, with at least one day "off" in between each lifting day. Would it be better to pick 2 more types of strength workouts for each week and reduce my main strength workout to once a week. Would that suffice?

What about whey protein? I get protein from other sources, but I do use whey after workouts to help a little. Is it worth it?

I had a 3rd question, but I forgot what it was. If I remember I'll post it.
 
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Thanks for helping! I've got a few for ya.

I supplement my running with strength work until I get to my taper phase, which is when I start to reduce the load. My question is about specificity. The running I do includes completely different target workouts during each week, but my strength work does not. I basically do the same routine 3 days a week, with at least one day "off" in between each lifting day. Would it be better to pick 2 more types of strength workouts for each week and reduce my main strength workout to once a week. Would that suffice?

What about whey protein? I get protein from other sources, but I do use whey after workouts to help a little. Is it worth it?

I had a 3rd question, but I forgot what it was. If I remember I'll post it.

Great question!

What are your primary goals? Do you want to maintain a lean yet strong and muscular body, but still have sufficient muscular/cardiovascular endurance, or is your primary focus cardiovascular conditioning and muscular endurance without the addition of packing on more muscle mass?

Just from the information in your post, I have a few recommendations. You are doing things right in regards to performing your strength training 3X per week. Having 48-72 hours rest in between resistance training sessions for the same muscle groups is for proper recovery. This is MUCH more effective than training a muscle group(s) 1X per week. The way your running workouts are designed from what you told is fantastic in regards to progression and intensity changes. You want your resistance training sessions to contain the same principles. You must force the body to change instead of waiting for it to change. The longer you stay with a specified load on a given exercise for the same amount of volume the same times per week, etc. the easier it becomes for the body to build up a tolerance to the demand and stimulus being placed upon it. With that said, there are many ways to create workout routines that fit for various schedules, etc. However, it's all about we use physiological principles to create the most effective and productive strength training workouts, all while keeping the chances of falling into the ruts of exercise routines over time like plateaus, etc. A particular routine I provide for my clients, and follow myself is a resistance training routine that involves training the full body each workout 3X per week with 48 hours of rest in between training sessions. The reason to train each muscle group three times per week is to take advantage of the "window of opportunity" so-to-speak in regards to the physiological stimulus that your training session provides. Some research suggests that the stimulus from resistance training exercise may last between 48-72 hours. So, the stimulus your provided to the muscle tissue to tell it to change, specifically muscle hypertophy (growth), but can be muscular endurance as well, and all that comes from a bout a resistance exercise such as increased mitochondria (depending upon the intensity), increased ribosome activity to synthesize protein, satellite cell activity, etc. no longer has that effect after 48-72 hours until the muscle is trained again. Many people train a single muscle group 1X per week and beat the hell out of it, but don't work it again for another 5-7 days. That's simply not ideal in regards to muscle gains if the window for the stimulus is 48-72 hours. However, the people that work it 1X per week may do so many sets that they are so unbelievably sore and weak for almost a week until they can train it again. Their muscle still need to recover from the damage that was done to it, but that stimulus to actually change and improve upon has now decreased tremendously after the 48-72 hour mark. They shouldn't see many gains after that window even though they are still beat up from their workout. Those individuals would be much more wise to lower the total volume and increase the frequency. Now, many people change their workouts much too slowly, such as the load, frequency, exercise, volume, etc. I change the routine within the same week to provide the muscle with a stimulus that is set for a particular goal.

So, the workout week will look like this:

Monday: Musuclar Endurance Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3-4 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 15-20 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with only 30-60 seconds max rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between working the same muscle group for each set. So, on this day, it may be best to pick a muscle group to work, then complete ALL your sets for that muscle group one after another until you complete 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps with only 30 seconds rest in between. Now, we stay at the same evercise simply because 30 sec rest doesn't leave much time to get to another muscle group to work, and then get back to the original one all within 30 seconds, so we stick with one muscle the whole time until the sets are complete. You'll feel high levels of lactic acid and blood in the muscle tissue and you should experience some muscle discomfort, not pain, which is obviously a huge difference. Now, many people in this repetition range don't need warm-up sets since the load is so light that the chance of injury is less than lifting heavier. This rep range, volume, and rest time between sets will allow the muscle to change by responding in a manner that will allow it to perform work for an extended period of time (one of those changes is an increase in mitochondria in the muscle cells).

Wednesday: Muscle Hypertophy Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 8-10 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with only 60-90 seconds max rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between getting back to working the same muscle group for the next set(s). As you notice, the rest time increased just a bit due to the increase in load. However, the discomfort felt in the Monday workout should feel very similar to this one with the increased blood flow and lactic acid acumulation in the muscle.

Damn, work is calling, but I'm not even close to done with this post, so I'll have to come back tonight after work and edit the post to reflect the additional changes. Sorry guys...
 
Thanks for helping! I've got a few for ya.

I supplement my running with strength work until I get to my taper phase, which is when I start to reduce the load. My question is about specificity. The running I do includes completely different target workouts during each week, but my strength work does not. I basically do the same routine 3 days a week, with at least one day "off" in between each lifting day. Would it be better to pick 2 more types of strength workouts for each week and reduce my main strength workout to once a week. Would that suffice?

What about whey protein? I get protein from other sources, but I do use whey after workouts to help a little. Is it worth it?

I had a 3rd question, but I forgot what it was. If I remember I'll post it.

Great question! I'll answer this in detail because I think others would benefit from the routine I describe below. It wouldn't allow me to edit my post above to reflect all the added info., so I just finished it and re-posted the whole thing. :)

What are your primary goals? Do you want to maintain a lean yet strong and muscular body, but still have sufficient muscular/cardiovascular endurance, or is your primary focus cardiovascular conditioning and muscular endurance without the addition of packing on more muscle mass?

Just from the information in your post, I have a few recommendations. You are doing things right in regards to performing your strength training 3X per week. Having 48-72 hours rest in between resistance training sessions for the same muscle groups is for proper recovery. This is MUCH more effective than training a muscle group(s) 1X per week. The way your running workouts are designed from what you told is fantastic in regards to progression and intensity changes. You want your resistance training sessions to contain the same principles. You must force the body to change instead of waiting for it to change. The longer you stay with a specified load on a given exercise for the same amount of volume the same times per week, etc. the easier it becomes for the body to build up a tolerance to the demand and stimulus being placed upon it. With that said, there are many ways to create workout routines that fit for various schedules, etc. However, it's all about we use physiological principles to create the most effective and productive strength training workouts, all while keeping the chances of falling into the ruts of exercise routines over time like plateaus, etc. A particular routine I provide for my clients, and follow myself is a resistance training routine that involves training the full body each workout 3X per week with 48 hours of rest in between training sessions. The reason to train each muscle group three times per week is to take advantage of the "window of opportunity" so-to-speak in regards to the physiological stimulus that your training session provides. Some research suggests that the stimulus from resistance training exercise may last between 48-72 hours. So, the stimulus your provided to the muscle tissue to tell it to change, specifically muscle hypertrophy (growth), but can be muscular endurance as well, and all that comes from a bout a resistance exercise such as increased mitochondria (depending upon the intensity), increased ribosome activity to synthesize protein, satellite cell activity, etc. no longer has that effect after 48-72 hours until the muscle is trained again. Many people train a single muscle group 1X per week and beat the hell out of it, but don't work it again for another 5-7 days. That's simply not ideal in regards to muscle gains if the window for the stimulus is 48-72 hours. However, the people that work it 1X per week may do so many sets that they are so unbelievably sore and weak for almost a week until they can train it again. Their muscle still need to recover from the damage that was done to it, but that stimulus to actually change and improve upon has now decreased tremendously after the 48-72 hour mark. They shouldn't see many gains after that window even though they are still beat up from their workout. Those individuals would be much more wise to lower the total volume and increase the frequency. Now, many people change their workouts much too slowly, such as the load, frequency, exercise, volume, etc. I change the routine within the same week to provide the muscle with a stimulus that is set for a particular goal.

So, the workout week will look like this (all the workouts below can be completed under an hour, and sometimes 30 minutes):

Monday: Muscular Endurance Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3-4 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 15-20 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with only 30-60 seconds max rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between working the same muscle group for each set. So, on this day, it may be best to pick a muscle group to work, then complete ALL your sets for that muscle group one after another until you complete 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps with only 30 seconds rest in between. Now, we stay at the same exercise simply because 30 sec rest doesn't leave much time to get to another muscle group to work, and then get back to the original one all within 30 seconds, so we stick with one muscle the whole time until the sets are complete. You'll feel high levels of lactic acid and blood in the muscle tissue and you should experience some muscle discomfort, not pain, which is obviously a huge difference. Now, many people in this repetition range don't need warm-up sets since the load is so light that the chance of injury is less than lifting heavier. This rep range, volume, and rest time between sets will allow the muscle to change by responding in a manner that will allow it to perform work for an extended period of time (one of those changes is an increase in mitochondria in the muscle cells). Also, it doesn't necessarily matter what order you do the muscle groups. However, I recommend performing the larger muscle groups first, or lagging body parts at the beginning of the workout to help them achieve symmetry with the rest of the body. Also, whatever my order of muscle groups performed last week, I completely reverse and the new week I'll go from bottom of the list to the top of the list, as this allows many different muscle groups to get a more fair share of the energy allowance and strength you have during the beginning versus the end of a workout. These recommendations described in the last two sentences I also recommend for the Wednesday and Friday workouts as well.

Wednesday: Muscle Hypertrophy Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 8-10 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with only 60-90 seconds max rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between getting back to working the same muscle group for the next set(s). As you notice, the rest time increased just a bit due to the increase in load. However, the discomfort felt in the Monday workout should feel very similar to this one with the increased blood flow and lactic acid accumulation in the muscle due to the low rest time between sets, yet the load has been increased to provide a different stimulus to achieve our new goal of this workout more effectively. It has still not been 100% shown exactly why this repetition range and rest time stimulates hypertrophy best, but it is thought that there is a stimulation of anabolic hormones (IGF-1, and testosterone), along with the load and total volume that is sufficient enough to cause changes in cellular growth of the muscle tissue. Now, with Monday's workout, we simply stayed with the same exercise to complete all the sets before moving onto the next muscle group. On this day, we will chose two muscle groups to work between since the rest time of 60 seconds allows sufficient time to work between a pair of muscles. I recommend choosing antagonistic muscle groups, as some research suggests there may be an added effect on hypertrophy by doing so. Say we picked biceps and triceps since they are opposing, then we will now perform a set of say....standing bicep curls, and after completing the set we look and make a mental note of the clocks second hand (we'll say the we ended the set at 11:04:40PM). Immediately when we finish, we will go to a triceps exercise and perform a set of say....lying tricep barbell extensions. Check the clock and ensure you get back to your second set of bicep curls by 60 seconds, which would be 11:05:40 in our example. Complete all your sets for these pairs. Once you're done, choose the next pair of antagonistic muscle groups and complete the same process, and so on until the whole body is complete. Some antagonistic muscle groups include: pectoralis major and middle back (ex. chest press and reverse fly), latissimus dorsi and deltoids (ex. pull-ups and dumbbell lateral raise), quadriceps and hamstrings (ex. leg extension and hamstring curl), biceps and triceps (seated incline bicep curl and standing tricep press-down machine), abdominals and low back extensors (resistance band standing spinal rotations and back extension machine), and then you can do calves if needed by themselves. Now, a warm-up sets isn't necessary for Mondays workout since it's light, but this workout it's a good idea to do so. Warm-ups are always done at the beginning of a pairing and can be done within the pairs you chose. In our previous example, you'll warm up with a set of 50-60% of your 10 rep max and perform 10 of those reps, which is obviously not to fatigue for good reason since the goal is to warm up the muscle by increased blood flow, and enzyme activity. Then, warm-up with your triceps extension with 50-60% of your 10 rep max and perform 10 reps of those. Then, begin your true 8-10 rep workout as we described above :). If you need an additional warm up set, simply perform another warm up set between the pairs but use 80% of your 10 rep max and perform 6-8 reps without going to fatigue obviously.

Friday: Muscle Strength Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 5-6 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with 3-4 minutes rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between getting back to working the muscle group your began with first. You can see that the rest time is significantly more here due to the high increase in load. We want enough rest for the muscle to recoup to have strength to perform future sets in the workout, but you don't want to wait too long causing the muscle to get cold. So, we can't do the pairing we did in Wednesday's work-out. Instead, we chose four different muscle groups, and preferably not antagonistic ones, but it's okay if there are. Remember, the goal here is muscle strength, not just hypertrophy, even though hypertrophy will still be seen in this rep range. This repetition range has been shown to provide great gains in muscular strength, not only due to increases in muscular size and it's ability to withstand greater tensile forces, but also do to central nervous system adaptations that increase efficiency of contracting muscle tissue like frequency coding. So, say you chose pectoralis, quads, biceps, and abs. Before beginning your heavy sets, you'll perform warm ups sets like explained above, but you'll perform a warm-up for all 4 muscle groups you chose. After you warm-up, begin performing a set for your pects with a 5-6 rep max range, move onto your quads, then biceps, and abs all working in the 5-6 rep range until muscular fatigue. Then, start at your pecs again for set 2, then quads, biceps, and abs. Then, onto your 3rd set for the same 4 muscle groups. After that, repeat this process for another 4 muscle groups until the whole body is complete :).

As you can see, with this routine, we not only take advantage of physiology, we also reduce the chance of plateau considering the load progressively gets heavier throughout the week, and overload occurs over time. We never really give the muscle a chance to stagnate or allow the stimulus of a certain load to lessen because the load is changing constantly during the week. This routine also provides a well rounded physique since we train for three different muscular goals during the week, endurance, hypertrophy, and strength. In other words, we learn to perform work for longer periods of time, then we grow new muscle tissue, and then we gain even more strength with that new muscle tissue via neural pathways. As you get stronger, adjust to load so you are always working with your true, 15-20, 8-10, and 5-6 rep range. Many people just wait to see changes in strength by lifting the sameeeeee load for a long time until they can finally add a rep or so, then they add weight. We don't do that, as we tell the muscle to change via load and goal changes, and the load and rest time between sets are important for this. Think of a muscle like a callus on the hand. The callus grows because it builds a tolerance to the friction or pressure that caused it. The more you work with the hands, and the more friction and pressure it sees, it get's thicker so it doesn't get damaged as easily. So, when you lift with the same load for a muscle group over and over again, the stimulus for the muscle to change lessens. That's a primary reason why we progress in the way described above.

Also, as a side note, I keep the same exercises throughout the week for the different muscle groups because I want the chance for the muscle to feel the stress in the same exercise in each rep range throughout the week. The next week, I'll chose a completely different exercise for every muscle and do that for every rep range during that week. This doesn't have to be done, but it's something I like. You can switch it up as much as needed to keep it "fresh" so you don't find any of your workouts monotonous.

In regards to whey protein supplementation, I do prefer whey protein after workouts, as well as simple carbohydrates with it. Be sure to have carbs and protein together after your work-out. Carbohydrates are just as important immediately following a workout. Carbohydrates signal the body to shift from a catabolic mode (breaking down of molecules) to an anabolic mode (building of molecules) with a sharp shift in insulin, which means it's in "recovery" mode now. After a workout, your natural hormone levels go a bit haywire (testosterone will decrease as the workout goes on and cortisol increases). Cortisol is a stress hormone that will eventually use protein (amino acids) for energy when it sees stored carbs (aka glycogen) in the muscle and liver get lower during the workout. Therefore, you are degrading more muscle tissue than needed during the workout, and producing more waste products, and reducing recovery rate, and potential for new growth of lean tissue. A great way to lessen this effect DURING your workout is to drink a sports drink with simple sugars, electrolytes, and vitamins and minerals. It may be beneficial to have a drink that contains somewhere around 25-30 grams of carbs and 3-5 grams of whey protein (this small amount of protein also helps to lessen muscle degradation during workouts, but as you can see it doesn't take much), which I believe is information provided by several great sports dieticians that wrote a book on the timing of nutrients before, during, and exercise (if you need the name of the book let me know and I'll get the title and authors names for you). There are many different brands out there, and non I am particularly partial too, but it's a little more difficult finding a carb sports drink that also has a small of protein in it, but Accelerade does and some others. Other wise, find a sports drink like Gatorade that's widely available and put your own whey protein in it in the small amount listed. Simple carbs are very easy to digest, allows very quick energy to be had for the muscles to use, and keep insulin levels higher during the workout to lessen muscle degradation, keep cortisol at bay, among many other things, and fuel your work-out. Now for after your work-out, a ratio of 3-1 or 4-1 of carbs to protein after a work out is the recommended amount by many professionals, as this causes a great shift in insulin and sparks recovery on a large level. The carbs should also be simple sugars and as close to glucose as possible, and make sure your post work-out drink or food doesn't contain fiber, and contains minimal if any fat. A sports drink in this scenario works well again because it contains simple sugars, micronutrients, and electrolytes. Except now, we want roughly 60-80 grams of high Glycemic index (GI) carbs and 20 grams of Whey protein (because it's bio-availability is great, it digest very quickly, and has essential amino acids considering it's from dairy) after a workout, but the amount needed may also change if a long endurance event has been performed. The numbers above are assuming your worked out for about an hour or so.

I hope all this helps. I know it's a lot to digest, but it all becomes very simple to do and understand with very little time and practice.
 
Great question! I'll answer this in detail because I think others would benefit from the routine I describe below. It wouldn't allow me to edit my post above to reflect all the added info., so I just finished it and re-posted the whole thing. :)

What are your primary goals? Do you want to maintain a lean yet strong and muscular body, but still have sufficient muscular/cardiovascular endurance, or is your primary focus cardiovascular conditioning and muscular endurance without the addition of packing on more muscle mass?

Just from the information in your post, I have a few recommendations. You are doing things right in regards to performing your strength training 3X per week. Having 48-72 hours rest in between resistance training sessions for the same muscle groups is for proper recovery. This is MUCH more effective than training a muscle group(s) 1X per week. The way your running workouts are designed from what you told is fantastic in regards to progression and intensity changes. You want your resistance training sessions to contain the same principles. You must force the body to change instead of waiting for it to change. The longer you stay with a specified load on a given exercise for the same amount of volume the same times per week, etc. the easier it becomes for the body to build up a tolerance to the demand and stimulus being placed upon it. With that said, there are many ways to create workout routines that fit for various schedules, etc. However, it's all about we use physiological principles to create the most effective and productive strength training workouts, all while keeping the chances of falling into the ruts of exercise routines over time like plateaus, etc. A particular routine I provide for my clients, and follow myself is a resistance training routine that involves training the full body each workout 3X per week with 48 hours of rest in between training sessions. The reason to train each muscle group three times per week is to take advantage of the "window of opportunity" so-to-speak in regards to the physiological stimulus that your training session provides. Some research suggests that the stimulus from resistance training exercise may last between 48-72 hours. So, the stimulus your provided to the muscle tissue to tell it to change, specifically muscle hypertrophy (growth), but can be muscular endurance as well, and all that comes from a bout a resistance exercise such as increased mitochondria (depending upon the intensity), increased ribosome activity to synthesize protein, satellite cell activity, etc. no longer has that effect after 48-72 hours until the muscle is trained again. Many people train a single muscle group 1X per week and beat the hell out of it, but don't work it again for another 5-7 days. That's simply not ideal in regards to muscle gains if the window for the stimulus is 48-72 hours. However, the people that work it 1X per week may do so many sets that they are so unbelievably sore and weak for almost a week until they can train it again. Their muscle still need to recover from the damage that was done to it, but that stimulus to actually change and improve upon has now decreased tremendously after the 48-72 hour mark. They shouldn't see many gains after that window even though they are still beat up from their workout. Those individuals would be much more wise to lower the total volume and increase the frequency. Now, many people change their workouts much too slowly, such as the load, frequency, exercise, volume, etc. I change the routine within the same week to provide the muscle with a stimulus that is set for a particular goal.

So, the workout week will look like this (all the workouts below can be completed under an hour, and sometimes 30 minutes):

Monday: Muscular Endurance Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3-4 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 15-20 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with only 30-60 seconds max rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between working the same muscle group for each set. So, on this day, it may be best to pick a muscle group to work, then complete ALL your sets for that muscle group one after another until you complete 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps with only 30 seconds rest in between. Now, we stay at the same exercise simply because 30 sec rest doesn't leave much time to get to another muscle group to work, and then get back to the original one all within 30 seconds, so we stick with one muscle the whole time until the sets are complete. You'll feel high levels of lactic acid and blood in the muscle tissue and you should experience some muscle discomfort, not pain, which is obviously a huge difference. Now, many people in this repetition range don't need warm-up sets since the load is so light that the chance of injury is less than lifting heavier. This rep range, volume, and rest time between sets will allow the muscle to change by responding in a manner that will allow it to perform work for an extended period of time (one of those changes is an increase in mitochondria in the muscle cells). Also, it doesn't necessarily matter what order you do the muscle groups. However, I recommend performing the larger muscle groups first, or lagging body parts at the beginning of the workout to help them achieve symmetry with the rest of the body. Also, whatever my order of muscle groups performed last week, I completely reverse and the new week I'll go from bottom of the list to the top of the list, as this allows many different muscle groups to get a more fair share of the energy allowance and strength you have during the beginning versus the end of a workout. These recommendations described in the last two sentences I also recommend for the Wednesday and Friday workouts as well.

Wednesday: Muscle Hypertrophy Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 8-10 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with only 60-90 seconds max rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between getting back to working the same muscle group for the next set(s). As you notice, the rest time increased just a bit due to the increase in load. However, the discomfort felt in the Monday workout should feel very similar to this one with the increased blood flow and lactic acid accumulation in the muscle due to the low rest time between sets, yet the load has been increased to provide a different stimulus to achieve our new goal of this workout more effectively. It has still not been 100% shown exactly why this repetition range and rest time stimulates hypertrophy best, but it is thought that there is a stimulation of anabolic hormones (IGF-1, and testosterone), along with the load and total volume that is sufficient enough to cause changes in cellular growth of the muscle tissue. Now, with Monday's workout, we simply stayed with the same exercise to complete all the sets before moving onto the next muscle group. On this day, we will chose two muscle groups to work between since the rest time of 60 seconds allows sufficient time to work between a pair of muscles. I recommend choosing antagonistic muscle groups, as some research suggests there may be an added effect on hypertrophy by doing so. Say we picked biceps and triceps since they are opposing, then we will now perform a set of say....standing bicep curls, and after completing the set we look and make a mental note of the clocks second hand (we'll say the we ended the set at 11:04:40PM). Immediately when we finish, we will go to a triceps exercise and perform a set of say....lying tricep barbell extensions. Check the clock and ensure you get back to your second set of bicep curls by 60 seconds, which would be 11:05:40 in our example. Complete all your sets for these pairs. Once you're done, choose the next pair of antagonistic muscle groups and complete the same process, and so on until the whole body is complete. Some antagonistic muscle groups include: pectoralis major and middle back (ex. chest press and reverse fly), latissimus dorsi and deltoids (ex. pull-ups and dumbbell lateral raise), quadriceps and hamstrings (ex. leg extension and hamstring curl), biceps and triceps (seated incline bicep curl and standing tricep press-down machine), abdominals and low back extensors (resistance band standing spinal rotations and back extension machine), and then you can do calves if needed by themselves. Now, a warm-up sets isn't necessary for Mondays workout since it's light, but this workout it's a good idea to do so. Warm-ups are always done at the beginning of a pairing and can be done within the pairs you chose. In our previous example, you'll warm up with a set of 50-60% of your 10 rep max and perform 10 of those reps, which is obviously not to fatigue for good reason since the goal is to warm up the muscle by increased blood flow, and enzyme activity. Then, warm-up with your triceps extension with 50-60% of your 10 rep max and perform 10 reps of those. Then, begin your true 8-10 rep workout as we described above :). If you need an additional warm up set, simply perform another warm up set between the pairs but use 80% of your 10 rep max and perform 6-8 reps without going to fatigue obviously.

Friday: Muscle Strength Day, Full-Body Routine: Involves performing 3 sets per muscle group with a load that allows at and no more than 5-6 repetitions (with perfect technique and with a tempo of say 2 seconds eccentric: aka lengthening of the muscle phase, and 1 second concentric: aka shortening of the muscle) with 3-4 minutes rest (unless you need more due to heart rate) between getting back to working the muscle group your began with first. You can see that the rest time is significantly more here due to the high increase in load. We want enough rest for the muscle to recoup to have strength to perform future sets in the workout, but you don't want to wait too long causing the muscle to get cold. So, we can't do the pairing we did in Wednesday's work-out. Instead, we chose four different muscle groups, and preferably not antagonistic ones, but it's okay if there are. Remember, the goal here is muscle strength, not just hypertrophy, even though hypertrophy will still be seen in this rep range. This repetition range has been shown to provide great gains in muscular strength, not only due to increases in muscular size and it's ability to withstand greater tensile forces, but also do to central nervous system adaptations that increase efficiency of contracting muscle tissue like frequency coding. So, say you chose pectoralis, quads, biceps, and abs. Before beginning your heavy sets, you'll perform warm ups sets like explained above, but you'll perform a warm-up for all 4 muscle groups you chose. After you warm-up, begin performing a set for your pects with a 5-6 rep max range, move onto your quads, then biceps, and abs all working in the 5-6 rep range until muscular fatigue. Then, start at your pecs again for set 2, then quads, biceps, and abs. Then, onto your 3rd set for the same 4 muscle groups. After that, repeat this process for another 4 muscle groups until the whole body is complete :).

As you can see, with this routine, we not only take advantage of physiology, we also reduce the chance of plateau considering the load progressively gets heavier throughout the week, and overload occurs over time. We never really give the muscle a chance to stagnate or allow the stimulus of a certain load to lessen because the load is changing constantly during the week. This routine also provides a well rounded physique since we train for three different muscular goals during the week, endurance, hypertrophy, and strength. In other words, we learn to perform work for longer periods of time, then we grow new muscle tissue, and then we gain even more strength with that new muscle tissue via neural pathways. As you get stronger, adjust to load so you are always working with your true, 15-20, 8-10, and 5-6 rep range. Many people just wait to see changes in strength by lifting the sameeeeee load for a long time until they can finally add a rep or so, then they add weight. We don't do that, as we tell the muscle to change via load and goal changes, and the load and rest time between sets are important for this. Think of a muscle like a callus on the hand. The callus grows because it builds a tolerance to the friction or pressure that caused it. The more you work with the hands, and the more friction and pressure it sees, it get's thicker so it doesn't get damaged as easily. So, when you lift with the same load for a muscle group over and over again, the stimulus for the muscle to change lessens. That's a primary reason why we progress in the way described above.

Also, as a side note, I keep the same exercises throughout the week for the different muscle groups because I want the chance for the muscle to feel the stress in the same exercise in each rep range throughout the week. The next week, I'll chose a completely different exercise for every muscle and do that for every rep range during that week. This doesn't have to be done, but it's something I like. You can switch it up as much as needed to keep it "fresh" so you don't find any of your workouts monotonous.

In regards to whey protein supplementation, I do prefer whey protein after workouts, as well as simple carbohydrates with it. Be sure to have carbs and protein together after your work-out. Carbohydrates are just as important immediately following a workout. Carbohydrates signal the body to shift from a catabolic mode (breaking down of molecules) to an anabolic mode (building of molecules) with a sharp shift in insulin, which means it's in "recovery" mode now. After a workout, your natural hormone levels go a bit haywire (testosterone will decrease as the workout goes on and cortisol increases). Cortisol is a stress hormone that will eventually use protein (amino acids) for energy when it sees stored carbs (aka glycogen) in the muscle and liver get lower during the workout. Therefore, you are degrading more muscle tissue than needed during the workout, and producing more waste products, and reducing recovery rate, and potential for new growth of lean tissue. A great way to lessen this effect DURING your workout is to drink a sports drink with simple sugars, electrolytes, and vitamins and minerals. It may be beneficial to have a drink that contains somewhere around 25-30 grams of carbs and 3-5 grams of whey protein (this small amount of protein also helps to lessen muscle degradation during workouts, but as you can see it doesn't take much), which I believe is information provided by several great sports dieticians that wrote a book on the timing of nutrients before, during, and exercise (if you need the name of the book let me know and I'll get the title and authors names for you). There are many different brands out there, and non I am particularly partial too, but it's a little more difficult finding a carb sports drink that also has a small of protein in it, but Accelerade does and some others. Other wise, find a sports drink like Gatorade that's widely available and put your own whey protein in it in the small amount listed. Simple carbs are very easy to digest, allows very quick energy to be had for the muscles to use, and keep insulin levels higher during the workout to lessen muscle degradation, keep cortisol at bay, among many other things, and fuel your work-out. Now for after your work-out, a ratio of 3-1 or 4-1 of carbs to protein after a work out is the recommended amount by many professionals, as this causes a great shift in insulin and sparks recovery on a large level. The carbs should also be simple sugars and as close to glucose as possible, and make sure your post work-out drink or food doesn't contain fiber, and contains minimal if any fat. A sports drink in this scenario works well again because it contains simple sugars, micronutrients, and electrolytes. Except now, we want roughly 60-80 grams of high Glycemic index (GI) carbs and 20 grams of Whey protein (because it's bio-availability is great, it digest very quickly, and has essential amino acids considering it's from dairy) after a workout, but the amount needed may also change if a long endurance event has been performed. The numbers above are assuming your worked out for about an hour or so.

I hope all this helps. I know it's a lot to digest, but it all becomes very simple to do and understand with very little time and practice.

I'm glad you posted all that. My lifting schedule includes the same exact exercises with the same weight, until I'm comfortable to add. I've been adding weight during the 1st half of each training season and I am getting stronger, but I've been wondering if I would benefit more from adjusting the lifting schedule to a more specific target for each day, like you mentioned.

I'm currently satisfied with my cardiovascular fitness level. When I'm well rested I can easily maintain my maximum "easy" pace for 90 minutes and I can't tell the next day, the difference between an easy 30 minute day and an easy 90 minute day. I'm happy with my current body fat level. I'm making very small adjustments, but I'm around average for a professional marathoner and I'm tooling around with it and avoiding getting too close to essential levels.
My lactate threshold and burst strength are a different story. I spent the summer working on my speed and strength. I was successful at increasing my 200 meter Repetition speed comfortably but anything beyond that is questionable so I know my threshold has plateaued. I don't want to add a lot of muscle mass so the targets of my strength program are very important to me at the moment. I definitely feel tired 2 days after lifting. For example, my last running threshold workout called for repeat miles, which are not very long for threshold repeats and I was not able to maintain the pace that I should be able to maintain, because I was still fatigued from a lifting workout 2 days prior. Not too alarming, because threshold to me is mainly effort and not necessarily target pace, but it would be nice to be able to obtain the pace I'm looking for early in the season. Not sure if my old arse will be able to do that, though lol. My main goal is to increase
strength in specific muscles, which I have discovered need attention more than others. That leads me to my 3rd question, which I suddenly remembered as I was struggling through the threshold miles.

Where should strength training fit into a running schedule? I've heard people say that they do nothing but easy runs on their "recovery days" because recovery days are for recovery, but that means potentially lifting on quality days, which is really tasking on the body. I'll show an example of what I'm currently doing:

Day

1 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Strength

2 Morning- Recovery Run
Afternoon- Rest

3 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Strength

4 Morning- Recovery Run
Afternoon- Rest

5 Morning- Discretionary Run
Afternoon- Rest

6 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Strength

7 Morning- Long Run
Afternoon- Rest

Every 3 weeks I take one full day off and do nothing.

If I would like to increase speed and strength, while maintaining cardio (for now) and body fat, would it be prudent for me to adjust my other lifting days to lower reps higher weights? Could I benefit from moving my lifting to different days?

Lots of great info, thanks for posting! I noticed you mentioned avoiding fiber on recovery meals. Is that because fiber moves things along?
 
I'm glad you posted all that. My lifting schedule includes the same exact exercises with the same weight, until I'm comfortable to add. I've been adding weight during the 1st half of each training season and I am getting stronger, but I've been wondering if I would benefit more from adjusting the lifting schedule to a more specific target for each day, like you mentioned.

I'm currently satisfied with my cardiovascular fitness level. When I'm well rested I can easily maintain my maximum "easy" pace for 90 minutes and I can't tell the next day, the difference between an easy 30 minute day and an easy 90 minute day. I'm happy with my current body fat level. I'm making very small adjustments, but I'm around average for a professional marathoner and I'm tooling around with it and avoiding getting too close to essential levels.
My lactate threshold and burst strength are a different story. I spent the summer working on my speed and strength. I was successful at increasing my 200 meter Repetition speed comfortably but anything beyond that is questionable so I know my threshold has plateaued. I don't want to add a lot of muscle mass so the targets of my strength program are very important to me at the moment. I definitely feel tired 2 days after lifting. For example, my last running threshold workout called for repeat miles, which are not very long for threshold repeats and I was not able to maintain the pace that I should be able to maintain, because I was still fatigued from a lifting workout 2 days prior. Not too alarming, because threshold to me is mainly effort and not necessarily target pace, but it would be nice to be able to obtain the pace I'm looking for early in the season. Not sure if my old arse will be able to do that, though lol. My main goal is to increase
strength in specific muscles, which I have discovered need attention more than others. That leads me to my 3rd question, which I suddenly remembered as I was struggling through the threshold miles.

Where should strength training fit into a running schedule? I've heard people say that they do nothing but easy runs on their "recovery days" because recovery days are for recovery, but that means potentially lifting on quality days, which is really tasking on the body. I'll show an example of what I'm currently doing:

Day

1 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Strength

2 Morning- Recovery Run
Afternoon- Rest

3 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Strength

4 Morning- Recovery Run
Afternoon- Rest

5 Morning- Discretionary Run
Afternoon- Rest

6 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Strength

7 Morning- Long Run
Afternoon- Rest

Every 3 weeks I take one full day off and do nothing.

If I would like to increase speed and strength, while maintaining cardio (for now) and body fat, would it be prudent for me to adjust my other lifting days to lower reps higher weights? Could I benefit from moving my lifting to different days?

Lots of great info, thanks for posting! I noticed you mentioned avoiding fiber on recovery meals. Is that because fiber moves things along?

That is amazing to hear, as it sounds like you are great athlete, and know a lot about health and fitness :). So, that puts you ahead of the game in regards to dialing in your routine. Chances are, you'll benefit more by changing the target workout like I mentioned to different rep ranges, loads, and goals for each workout.

That is also a good sign that when you are rested you can't tell the difference in how you feel when comparing your shorter and longer runs. In regards to body fat, without a doubt, being lean allows the body to function more efficiently within reason on course. You'll simply have to keep tooling with it a bit to see how low you can personally go without seeing the detriments of too low of body fat percentage where your hormone levels begin to shift in negative directions for optimal health and fitness. Everyone will be different in that area. I have tested this on myself, and I can hold 6% BF for as long as needed without any negative side effects. However, appetite begins to grow a bit, the "fun" factor with foods isn't nearly as great, it takes more psychological "tuffness" to maintain and not break from the exercise and nutrition routine. Those are trade-offs though, and you can definitely relate that when you are an athlete, it means enough to you to maintain. The best strength to weight ratio a person has, the better a person will perform.

The next question you have is more challenging because there is a lot of variables that come into play, and you'll have to play around with things a bit to get it right for you and the way your body is feeling. It's good to know you are doing short explosive running training like 200 meters intervals. The rough part about being a marathon runner, yet still want to maintain a strong body, is that the resistance training program has to be scaled down or up according to how you feel after various runs, and to find that "sweet spot" that works well with your athletic lifestyle and goals. It's definitely normal to still feel the fatigue after a couple days of lifting while doing your runs. However, now we have to find a way to have you feel a tad less fatigue, and have you increase strength and power enough to hold a faster pace when you doing your long and quality runs. The eventual goal is to keep improving your pace in which you can run long distance as a marathon runner. That is done with quality speed work like you are doing in your 200 meter training, and to find a pace in which it's very uncomfortable in regards to lactic acid and H+ accumulation in the muscles that lead to the "burn".

I definitely see what you're saying about fitting your lifting schedule into your run schedule. That is without a doubt a controversial topic considering there are so many ways to organize it. If it were me, I would actually do your strength work on your recovery run days. So, your example would be shifted like this:

Day

1 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Rest

2 Morning- Strength
Afternoon- Recovery Run

3 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Rest

4 Morning- Strength
Afternoon- Recovery Run

5 Morning- Quality Run
Afternoon- Rest

6 Morning- Strength
Afternoon- Recovery Run

7 Morning- Long Run
Afternoon- Rest

In this manner, the aspects of training that mean the most to you, improving strength, power, and speed in your resistance workouts, and then endurance and pace during your runs all get the most effort from the body. By separating the difficult target workouts for resistance and quality runs on different days, you allow the body to put forth the most effort it can on the workouts. As you notice, I also shifted the strength workout (make sure to get at least one meal or proper supplementation in before training) to the beginning of the day before your recovery run so you can put max effort into the resistance. Since the recovery run is easier, it can be done in the afternoon sometime after getting in another meal after your strength workout. I Just don't recommend performing the strength workout and immediately doing the recovery run (unless this run was something short like 15-20 minutes). The reason being that the longer the workout is extended the more drastic negative shift occurs in natural hormone levels, as testosterone decreases, and cortisol increases, which leads to excessive breakdown/degradation of muscle tissue, more soreness, and increased recovery rate, all which isn't beneficial in which you are trying to accomplish. If memory serves right, I believe this was roughly around 48 minutes of exercise or so. I usually make my workouts no longer than an hour, unless I am doing a long endurance run, but I have plenty of nutrition during exercise to help combat some of the negative side effects.

Since your goal is to maintain or improve cardio, and also increase strength and speed, it would be beneficial to do lower reps/higher weight in the workouts. So, you may want to do something like the below variations, but find out which works well for you depending upon how you feel in the runs:

Resistance Workout #1: (say we do it on Monday): You can perform a 5-6 rep range for strength X 3 sets with the rest time I described in the previous post as well as how to organize it around choosing 4 different muscles and working between them, then move onto another 4 and so on.

Resistance Workout #2: (say we do it on Wednesday): You can perform a 15-20 rep range for muscular endurance X 3 sets with the rest time I described in the previous post, and this lighter load may allow your joints some rest and recoup.

Resistance Workout #3: (say we do it on Friday): You can go back to your 5-6 rep range for strength like Mondays workouts.

This organization of the three allows two pure strength days separated by a lighter day.

OR

Resistance Workout #1: (say we do it on Monday): You can perform a 15-20 rep range for muscular endurance X 3 sets with the rest time I described in the previous post, and this lighter load may allow your joints some rest and recoup.

Resistance Workout #2: (say we do it on Wednesday): You can perform a 5-6 rep range for strength X 3 sets with the rest time I described in the previous post as well as how to organize it around choosing 4 different muscles and working between them, then move onto another 4 and so on.

Resistance Workout #3: (say we do it on Friday): You can try a new lower rep range with higher weight consisting of 3 reps range for strength and power X 3 sets, and the sets can be more explosive but smooth and controlled like power-lifting motions, but if you feel uncomfortable than do the sets at a normal pace as any other day. To emphasize power training, the speed of movement must increase. You'll be performing more work over a given period of time to produce power. Just be reallyyyy sure to warm-up incredibly well and do the movement flawlessly, as this rep range will have an increased chances of injury, especially when not done correctly.

This organization emphasize more strength and power as the week goes on.

Now with any of the choices above, there are even more combos that I'm sure you can make, and that's a good thing. You'll adjust it to what your goals need to be. What you still want to maintain is the principles behind it, which are progressive overload within the same week and from workout to workout, as well as strength every 48 hours. If you feel the volume is too high, simply adjust the amount of sets you are performing (doing less not more sets), but this may only be needed for your legs. If you need to only do legs 2 times per week with strength, then do so with a good split of time in between like on Mondays session and Friday's session. Or, keep doing legs 3 times per week, and try performing only 2 sets instead of 3 so the total volume of work is decreased.

In regards to the fiber question after workouts, it isn't recommended because it may lower the Glycemic Load of the meal, and in-turn slow digestion, and not spark insulin nearly as high. If this occurs, the body won't take nearly as large of a shift in recovery from a catabolic to an anabolic mode. You want the meal to digest as quickly as possible so increase insulin and glucose levels and get the nutrients into the blood stream and muscles and fast as possible. Fiber in general after a workout slows digestion rate (even though some speeds things up, but it's still not recommended after the workout), as does fat (which you probably won't have more than an average of 2g after a workout or so).

Also, here is a great article by a very well known physiologist, and it's a great read.
http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/lactatethreshold.html
 
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