Strength Training for Triathletes: The Complete Program to Build Triathlon Power, Speed, and Muscular Endurance Paperback – July 25, 2023

This book really does demystify strength training. You no longer have to blindly navigate the gym hoping to accomplish something!Let's start with who this book is NOT for. This book is not for someone who wants a few bullet point tips on how to bulk up in the gym. This book is not for someone who just wants a one-size-fits-all training program spoon fed to them. The point of this book is to give you the knowledge and flexibility necessary to formulate your own strength training program specific to your needs - and it truly provides a wealth of knowledge in an easy to absorb format!If you are willing to actually read the entire book (a quick and easy read) and spend some time building your own custom training program, then this book is absolutely for you. While the author provides virtually all of the information you will need to build your program, he does not provide unnecessary detail. It's a perfect balance between brevity and comprehensive information.Now that I have read every chapter and reviewed the appendices, I understand what I have been doing right, and the numerous things I have been doing wrong in my training. The author explains the strategic importance of choosing the right weight, reps, and sets to accomplish your goals. I will no longer just blindly lift weights in sets of 10!The author also explains the importance of a proper warm-up and cool-down in a way that I did not previously understand. Based on his explanation, I will never again do an intense work-out without a proper cool-down.Contrary to another reviewer (who probably just wanted to be spoon fed a one-size fits all program), the book does explain how to identify weaknesses. It is only a page or two, but that's all you need. Give me a break! If you can't identify your own triathlon weaknesses then you're running triathlons from the couch. Get off the couch and run a few races and I promise your weaknesses will be obvious to you.Finally, the author provides a long list of exercises (machines, free-weights, resistance bands, and body weight) targeted to both upper and lower body for each triathlon discipline. For instance, there is a list for lower-body bike strength, and upper-body swim strength, and so on.If you are willing to put in some time to read the book and use the information to craft your own customized training plan, I doubt you could find a better resource!As an aside, one reviewer questioned whether this author had ever done a triathlon. I don't know him personally, but his biography indicates the following: "Hagerman went on to coach for USA Weightlifting and USA Triathlon and to serve on the USA Triathlon Coaching Commission." Just Google the author's name.One minor critique - very similar (but not identical) exercises appear several times for different disciplines. It would be nice to know why one type of squat is good for the bike, but a different type of squat is good for the run. You can't do all the exercises, so can I get away with just doing one type of squat? If so, which one is best?

I am an age-group triathlete (M60) at the end of his 3rd season. This book says it all - but at the expense of complexity. The best thing is to get started with a good personal strength trainer. When you have hands-on experience the book contains loads of useful advice and things will fall into place.

**review copy provided by publisher**Most of the time I read and review genre fiction type books (mainly in the romance genre) – but occasionally, I’ll review a book that is something completely different. Maybe it was because there was something about it that caught my eye, or because I used the book as part of my athletic training (as is the case with this book). So I like to mix it up a bit. Anyways, while I was browsing Edelweiss one day (and with some nudging from a reading friend – Naomi), I came across a review copy of Strength Training for Triathletes. Now, while not suffering through my evil day job, blogging or being a manic PhD student, I’m a age group triathlete and completed my first Ironman in 2014 (yes, I am slightly insane). One of things, when I look back on my last year of training, was that I neglected not only my strength training, but also flexibility training, in favor of event specific (either swimming, riding or running) and it came back to bite me in the butt. Cardiowise, I may be stronger than I was previously, but I feel more inflexible and weak/muscle imbalance in places due to that focus. So when I picked up Strength Training, I was hoping for a book that could provide me some direction in creating a program that I could use and to an extent it did.While I was provided a review copy in Kindle format, I quickly realized that it was a book that was better read/reviewed in print due to the amount of tables of data that didn’t render well into an ebook format, and the exercise images in the later chapters. But it is a book that has been added to my permanent library and I see myself taking it with me to the gym, as needed, for a reference guide.One of the things I took away from the book, aside from all the different strength training exercises there are out there (many of which I’d never heard of) – was the different ways that you could develop a strength program based on your goals. It even goes on to outline several potential programs that triathletes at the Sprint and Olympic distance could use to train. That being said, I do wish that the author had devoted a little bit more time to the longer races. While I know they are much more customized in terms of training plans, I know that personally, I struggled to figure out how to tackle strength training on top of my other 12-15 hours of week (at peak training).The most valuable part of the book to me was the sections towards the end that outlines all the different exercises. I really liked the way that it was organized – into swimming upper body; swimming lower body; Cycling – upper and lower and then runner – upper and lower. So I could easily look at see how the various exercises worked with each other. There was also a really good table at the back of the book which outlined all of the exercises used and cross-referenced between the three sports.I’m looking forward to using this book and working exercises into my training program and will be sure to report back on it down the road. While this is a hard book to rate, I’m tentatively giving it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Amazon because of the value added from the examples in the back

The book is in very good condition, better than it was written.