Interference Effect With Large Amounts Of Running

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi,

Thanks for having this forum and doing the podcast. I’m a regular listener.

I listened to your episode awhile back about interference effect. If I remember correctly, you said that conditioning while weight training does not diminish (significantly) weight training gains.

To give a little background about me – I run about 75-80 miles per week (have been above 60 miles per week for a long time now). This type of running takes me about 11-12 hours per week. I also weight train three hours per week.

Most of my lifts, but especially my squat are really stalled. I’m 140 pounds bodyweight (runner’s body). I cant squat much above 150lb times 6 reps. I can usually deadlift a bit over 200 pounds, but that’s not very impressive. My bench has been getting better. I usually do dumbbell bench press and can do 120lb times 6 reps.

At the moment, running is my main sport and leaves me pretty exhausted for lifting. I still lift because I think it’s important. But, it really feels like I’m getting an (strong) interference effect since my core lifts improve extremely slowly for where I’m at with them.

Is there any evidence for the interference effect when combined with substantial conditioning? Or am I just making excuses?

Do you know of any good weightlifting resources for people in my situation that are primarily endurance athletes, but still would like to make gains lifting?

2

Not really evidence for interference effect at this level of endurance training, as those training this much have other factors limiting their strength gains such as time, body weight, and genetics that got them into endurance training in the first place. I do not think it’s likely most people will be the strongest version of themselves when doing 2-3x greater than the activity guidelines for conditioning or more. However, that doesn’t mean these folks can’t get stronger.

I’m not sure what type of training you’re doing, but we have lots of programs that would be suitable for you, particularly with adjustments made iteratively base on your response.