70.3's nutrition and supplements

There are two types of muscle fiber: (ST) SlowTwitch and (FT) FastTwitch. 

For endurance sports, you want to focus of developing the ST muscle fibers.  In the weight room, this is achieved by lifting moderate weights/high reps.  If you just want to bulk up for general health and looks then include heavy weights/low reps to primarily develope the FT fibers.  Developing either will increase muscle mass/weight.

That is the short answer.

Edited by bhc 2010-10-19 9:21 PM

5'8" 130????  Test and Eq is your best bet..... I kid, I kid.

I love both Beta Alanine and BCAAs.  They are both included in my supplement regiment.  There is some good science out there for lifters on the usefulness of BA but not so much for endurance athletes.  Doesn't mean it doesn't help though and you'll just have to try it out for yourself.  BA increases blood flow to the muscles.  Many times this means you get what lifters call "pumps" in the muscle.  This isn't good for endurance athletes.  I however don't find this to be the case.  BCAAs help deal with muscle repair and endurance.  I like to take them during the workout.  Drinks like Body Mortar from Advance Muscle Science get those to you in the correct ratio.  I've added Nuun to the drink for really long workouts.  Creatine is something you can take all the time honestly.   It bloats me.

Workout wise there are actually more than 2 types of muscle fibers.  There are quite a few.  There was a study posted a few weeks ago that showed lifting heavy weights is actually beneficial to endurance athletes.  This flies in the face of the accepted way of doing things though.  Basically there are muscle fibers that respond to high weights and low reps.  Generally you find a ton of these in world class power lifters.  You also have the slow twitch which you honestly could develop better just doing s/b/r.  There is an intermediate type though.  One that responds to moderate to heavy weight and has endurance properties as well.  My personal opinion is that spending gym time developing these is beneficial.  Hypertrophy workouts best develop them.   I'd just google hypertrophy workouts and go from there.

IMO you don't need supplements at all. Eat real food and maintain a healthy, balanced diet. Remember that the nutraceutical industry is completely unregulated. The claims they make are often not backed up by scientific studies that would stand in a peer reviewed journal. Dosages are another problem b/c what is claimed to be on the bottle is not necessarily what is in the bottle and there is a lot of variations between bottles in the same brand.

Weight training is fine but you need to ask yourself. If you have the time to go to the gym are you swimming/biking/running enough? Specificity of training is the key. So instead of lifting it MAY be more beneficial for your tri goals to do:

swimming: paddles, lactate sets etc
biking: big gears, intervals, hills
run: intervals, hills

Just a thought.

Ahhhhh the old supplement debate again.  FYI OP, beta alanine and bcaas are some of the only scientifically proven results.  BA for increased blood flow minus pumps and BCAAs at a 2:1 or 4:1 ratio for recover/endurance.  Again these are "supplements" and they supplement a solid diet.