Weight training for triathalons?

I do curls every night.  16 oz is my standard, but occasionally I bump it up.  Several reps, usually 2-3 sets, except on my heavy nights, then I'll up it to 6+ sets.

As with any training, you need to establish why you are doing it first (i.e., what are your goals?) and where your priorities lie (e.g., more important to improve your running speed or your general fitness level through variety?). 

Then you'll get answers to your question that might help more, as well as some that might not help at all--it is the internet after all. 

I agree with looking at the weight training forum but your post is a bit concerning regarding avoiding leg exercises.

I have bad knees and one of the best ways to protect your knees is to strengthen the muscles in the legs.  You should work on squats, lunges, dead lifts and other leg exercises although you don't have to go deep in the exercises at first.   

If you are doing it for your health and overall balance in your workouts and body, it is a great thing to do.

If you are doing it to be a faster triathlete, your time is better spent doing s/b/r activities.

And as mentioned, there is a whole separate forum that BT created to talk about various excercises and weights that people enjoy and to encourage other like-minded individuals.

First, keep in mind that i've been a bodybuilder/powerlifter alot longer (5+ years) than a triathlete (a few months, plus i suppose about half a year of crossfit.)

First, 90 minutes of weight training is almost universally too much. Anything over an hour (really more than about 30 minutes) is just spinning your wheels. 

"I do very little with my legs."

eek. Thats one of the most damning statements anybody can make in a real gym. 

Almost every exercise you listed doing could be replaced with a much more efficient movement. Bench/Flyes < Weighted/Ring dips/Push Ups, Lateral Pulls < Pull Ups (also works your bi's) Rows are fine, leg curls < Romanian Deadlifts / Ball Leg curls.  Way too many crunches... more importantly work on core strength/stability... Planks work wonders (side planks also) woodchop motions work good too. If you MUST do a crunch activity, Knee's to Elbows is the staple in my arsenal.

Almost always somebody with "bad knees" would actually have stronger knee's IF they incorporated squats (NOT SMITH MACHINE SQUATS) into their routines.  I personally cannot think of a single exercise routine that I could reccomend which doesn't incorporate ALL of the following exercises.

1. Squats

2. Deadlifts

3. Shoulder Press'es of some variety (Power cleans I include here)

4. Pull-ups

I personally Love Crossfit. It is universally challenging (scalable) to all, and they cover all the important bases, and it is mostly functional strength you'll be gaining. 

Also, without knowing your level of experience / years training, I can't tell for sure, but it looks as if you are very close to overtraining, depending on the length / difficulty of your workouts.

Anything else I can help with please just lemme know. 

Oh I didn't even notice it was 90 minutes of weight training.  My weight workout yesterday took me 20 minutes from start to finish.  (I did shorter than recommended rest periods though) Then I took a few minutes for stretching. 

 Crossfit is a good recommendation but I'd also recommend "The New Rules of Lifting" Book.  I have the women's version and it is awesome. 

Seems like your workouts are very regimented. not that it's a bad thing, but changing it up a bit prevents you from hitting plateaus.

I too keep my gym workouts to 35 mins or less. I feel like I am getting better workouts than when i used to spend an hour or two in the gym...

usually, per week, i'm lifting maybe (max) 1.5-2 hours (1/4 of my total training).

I'd suggest doing less crunches and maybe other ab workouts

Here's a good article: Core Strength

I'd also recommend more leg work. as others suggested, you'll strengthen your legs to prevent injury

good luck

That is physically impossible to prove.  While weight lifting is a great way to re-hab an injury and build your strength back up afterwords to balance your muscles, there is no possible way to prove that weight training "prevents" injuries and it is a bogus claim that proponents of weight lifting use as one of their main arguments.

I haven't had a serious injury that has kept me from running from more than a few days in my entire running career.  It is because I eat at least one pint Ben and Jerry's a week.  See the similar analogy and complete lack of evidence needed??

Shhhhhh!  I was never here!

That sentence goes against everything else you said.  Specifically, if you build up balanced muscles, there is a greatly reduced risk of injury... take for example two people, very similar in everything but one of them has tight hamstrings (lack of deadlifts....sigh) and the other is balanced throughout his/her body. Sports related injuries are going to be greater in the person with tight hams, barring something unforseen.

Don't do it Rick! 

i'm not being a jerk or anything, i seriously am interested. I've been weightlifting for around 8 years and have no problem learning something new and helpful... I just don't happen to agree with the above stated, i'm not forum bashing.

Again, not flaming, just interested. Maybe I misunderstood what you said, but I simply can't agree that two people who have different training habits, one a healthy routine (including weight training), one eating ben&jerry's and sitting on a couch, subjected to the same intense physical activity, have the same chance of becoming injured. Again, not trying to start a war, I just don't agree with the way it was said. 

I just had my first physical therapy session last night to rehab a strained hamstring. I have lifted twice a week for the last 3 years and have not had any injuries. This spring I decided to give up the weight lifting in exchange for more time in the pool. After reviewing my training log my doctor told me that he thinks this was a big mistake. His reason was that cycling really builds the front leg muscles and front core muscles which are important to cycling. The hamstring has to slow the leg down to allow you to plant your foot for the next pushoff. His theory is that my legs got out of balance due to dropping the weight workouts which caused the strained hamstring. It all makes sense to me. I am going back to my lifting routine with special attention to the hamstrings. My doctor recommends squats, lunges and hamstring curls as the basic movements to focus on. I won't say everyone should lift weights, but I think it is right for me.

chevy57

If you have a specific injury or imbalance that is exacerbated by your sport of choice, weight training can be useful to address that issue.  But if you have no known issue, then weight training (even a 'healthy' routine) may do nothing at all to fix a problem.  It could, in concept, even cause one.  Basically, there's no evidence that those who weight train suffer injuries from, say running, at a rate different from those who don't.  The correlation is much stronger for how they constructed their run training alone. 

Not trying to dissuade anyone from lifting, but there is no evidence that it helps prevent overuse injuries for endurance sports.  Now, if you like to play soccer or basketball or something with some frequency then weights could, in fact, be useful to address support muscles that might come into play when you 'cut' or change direction quickly.  These muscles would not be used in running or biking in straight lines.  And if you have a known problem and specifically target that issue with wieght training, that could also be useful.

Hope that helps.

I think I can agree with what your saying, maybe I was just reading what was said incorrectly.

I will agree that weight training won't necessarily stop somebody from becoming injured, or stop them from re-injuring themselves from something previous... but only in the same context as I can say a seat-belt won't necessarily keep you from being killed in a car wreck.   I mean, a seat-belt or airbag "could" actually be what kills you...

I just think that (take for example cycling, specifically in an aero position) somebody with tight hip flexors / imbalanced movement/flexibility/strength in the legs would be at higher risk  for injury than somebody without those problems (I know you could say you could have perfectly fine hip flexors/overall leg balance without ever lifting weights, but for arguments sake) - this in much the same way as somebody who squats too shallow or on their toes (excluding sissy squats...) is more at risk than somebody doing a deep controlled full squat.

Now for endurance sports, I admit I just don't know. I'm too new to the subject to have a very knowledgable opinion. I was speaking in the broadest sense of strength training and its effect on the body, not for one sport specifically.

Again, I *think* I agree with you said, and if I do my apologies for keeping this going.  Thanks for the reply though.