Strong Endurance™ to prepare for the Olympic Games

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Subject: Strong Endurance™ to prepare for the Olympic Games

Strong Endurance™ for Dutch Women’s Eight Rowing Selection “Project 2020” Preparing for the Olympic Games

The Olympic Games have a unique history that stretches back into antiquity. The games in ancient Greece dated from 776 BC to 393 BC and were only brought into the modern era in 1896. At this time, the concept of professional athletes was emerging, and they would not be fully integrated into the Olympics until 1988.

Amateur athletes were the first Olympians.

What would that look like in the modern era? The Dutch Women’s Eight Rowing ran just such an experiment.

Strong Endurance™ for Dutch Women’s Eight Rowing Selection “Project 2020” Preparing for the Olympic Games

The Dutch Women’s Eight Rowing Selection “Project 2020”

Photo courtesy of Ellen de Monchy

Thom Van Der Meer, StrongFirst Certified SFG Level I, SFB Instructor, who was the strength and conditioning coach for the team, explains:

Their goal was to put a rowing team together from scratch (the athletes would have limited to no prior rowing experience) and design a program allowing them to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In 2014 over 300 women signed up after an initial media campaign and a final 8 athletes were selected to start the project... And so, a multi-year effort began toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

A bold experiment in the original spirit of the games!

Thom took inspiration from Strong Endurance™ and StrongFirst programming “to create and perform the day-to-day physical strength training to complement the large number of weekly rowing sessions the team performed.” While this work accounted for 15-20% of the weekly training volume, it was a vital part of the two-year journey.

Thom summarizes the journey and impact of the strength and conditioning work:

The most valuable takeaway from the results discussed in this article, and the entire two-year journey, is the intelligent application of antiglycolytic training. While more professional athletes, coaches, and sports have begun to recognize the benefits of antiglycolytic training, the traditional “workout” mentality, where training is focused on pushing through fatigue and glycolytic exhaustion, still needs to be better understood and re-evaluated.

The ability to perform movements in high volume and with greater quality under medium to high loads proved to be a key factor in the success of this program. This approach led to increased strength gains, improved work capacity, and faster recovery rates.

Click here to read the full article, the results of this experiment, and the training plan.

You can dive deeper into Strong Endurance™ express during Metal Tuesday starting next week.

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Subject: Strong Endurance™ to prepare for the Olympic Games