🏃♀️🏋️ The interference effect. Do opposites distract?
❓The ever returning question. Can the body adapt to two completely different training stimuli (strength vs. endurance), or will there always be a trade-off.
This study took this question to the extreme. A beautiful study from the 80s. 👀 Active, young people were put through a pretty insane training protocol [see slide 2 for details] in order to improve endurance, strength or both at the same time.
💡 Results pretty clearly showed that strength gains started to level off after 5 weeks when strength was combined with endurance (running). Interestingly, the opposite was not true. Endurance kept improving throughout the 10 week program, even when combined with heavy strength training.
✌️ This is just one study of course, but data in novice lifters or recreational runners/bikers shows that when you are unaccustomed to exercise, you should not worry too much about the ‘interference’ effect. Think about novice CrossFit® participants for instance. It is only when the body gets more trained, interference between strength and endurance seems to increase.
🔖 Read the full study: Hickson et al., European of Applied Phys 1980, PMID: 7193134
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