Beyond the Barbell

This edition was sparked by a comment from French fitness coach Lucile Woodward, who said: “No one talks about stretching. It's all muscle lately. But especially when it comes to aging gracefully and feeling less rough, I feel stretching is super important.” That insight hit home.

In endurance sport, we obsess over power, pace, and VO₂ max - but overlook the foundational role that strength, mobility, and movement play in longevity. This article explores what it really means to stay fast, fluid, and injury-resistant for the long haul - especially for the aging athlete.

Endurance athletes are creatures of habit. We swim, bike, run - day after day, week after week - driven by discipline, routine, and the chase for marginal gains. We master repetition, building engines that go long and smooth.

Yet in the singular pursuit of endurance, we often become one-dimensional. Our hips tighten. Our shoulders lose range. Our bodies adapt beautifully to forward motion, yet struggle outside that narrow groove. The result? Imbalances, injuries, and a body that performs brilliantly in one domain - until it breaks down elsewhere.

How do we fix this?

Most advice starts and ends with one mantra: lift heavy. And to be clear, that's not wrong. Heavy compound lifts like squats and deadlifts are foundational - they build strength, reinforce joints, and boost economy.

But what if there’s more?

What if real longevity - the kind that keeps you training, competing, and thriving into your 50s and beyond - demands more than brute strength? What if the barbell is just the beginning?

School of Thought #1: The Strength Training Doctrine

This is the classic approach. Think Mark Rippetoe and check out the Starting Strength approach. Strength is king. Train it first, and everything else gets easier.

• Force Production: More strength = more power per stride or stroke.

• Injury Resistance: Stronger muscles, bones, and connective tissue are harder to break.

• Core Integrity: Big lifts demand global tension - no crunch required.

• Neuromuscular Efficiency: Strength work improves your nervous system’s ability to recruit muscle fibers efficiently, making every movement more economical.

There’s also a systemic benefit, heavy lifting increases anabolic hormones and restores balance in a body often worn thin by long hours of endurance training. Think of it as nervous system recalibration - critical for performance and recovery.

But here’s the problem: it’s planar. Most strength programs live in the sagittal plane - forward and back. That’s fine… until you stumble on a trail, twist awkwardly, or try to sidestep mid-run. Adaptability is missing.

School of Thought #2: The Movement Culture Perspective

This isn’t lifting. This is learning to move - like a human animal.

Popularized by Ido Portal, this approach emphasizes physical literacy: crawling, balancing, rolling, reacting. It’s about building a body that can do whatever life throws at it - not just swim in a straight line. This is where practices like yoga and pilates are also incredibly valuable, focusing on bodyweight control and core stability through a variety of movement patterns.

• Adaptability: You don’t just run better - you recover better when things go sideways.

• Joint Mobility: Strength at end range = long-term joint health.

• Multi-Planar Strength: Movement isn’t restricted to gym lifts. It’s dynamic, fluid, and often unpredictable.

• Mental Refreshment: These sessions often feel playful, stimulating your brain in new ways and recharging motivation.

This style of training also sharpens your proprioception and spatial awareness - crucial for trails, swimrun exits, rough waters, or fatigue-induced clumsiness. You’ll not only move better; you’ll react better when things go wrong.

And yes, movement can be progressed. Start with crawling. Build toward dynamic ground flow, inversion work, or gymnastic rings. Like mileage or watts, skill in movement is measurable - and deeply satisfying.

School of Thought #3: The Hybrid Athlete Model

This is where things get exciting.

The Hybrid Athlete isn’t a lifter who dabbles in running or a runner who lifts because they “should.” This athlete trains across disciplines - lifting heavy, moving dynamically, and performing with intent.

Take Jujimufu, for example - doing chair splits one day, squatting 180 kg the next. Or Nsima Inyang, who merges bodybuilding, BJJ, powerlifting, and movement into one practice. 

Or closer to home consider the world-record-holding ultrarunner Zach Bitter, who has built a career on a highly intentional, data-driven approach to longevity. Other great examples include Fergus Crawley, known for his balanced take on strength and endurance, and coaches like Andrew Simmons of Lifelong Endurance, who specializes in masters athlete development.

This type of athlete doesn’t hit a plateau because they’re always cultivating new capabilities. If your race times have stagnated, it might not be your aerobic engine - it might be your structural ceiling. Raise the ceiling, and you expand both your performance potential and your athletic lifespan.

The Forgotten Pillar: Mobility as a Performance Driver

(And Why "Stretching" Isn’t Dead - Just Misunderstood)

Let’s clear up the confusion around stretching. You’ve likely heard conflicting messages:

• “Never stretch before a workout - it kills your performance.”

• “Dynamic warmups are all you need.”

• “Mobility is more important than flexibility.”

• “Just foam roll instead.”

So what’s the truth?

What Stretching Used to Mean

Traditional static stretching - holding a hamstring stretch for 60 seconds - was often overused. And yes, research shows that static stretching before exercise can reduce power output temporarily, which led many to abandon it entirely.

What We Now Understand

Stretching still has a role - but it's evolved.

True mobility - the kind endurance athletes need - is the combination of:

• Flexibility (your available range of motion)

• Strength at Range (your ability to control and generate force at those ranges)

This is where modern mobility work shines. A great example of this is the work of Ben Patrick, the "Knees Over Toes Guy." His philosophy focuses on strengthening the tendons and muscles through their full range of motion, which is foundational for joint health and injury prevention. Another key figure is physical therapist Dr. Kelly Starrett, whose work with The Ready State emphasizes daily mobility and proper movement patterns as a preventative tool for athletes. Think:

• Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs): Slow, controlled circles of a joint (like your hip or shoulder) to improve its range of motion.

• Deep lunge isometrics with active muscle engagement

• Loaded end-range work (like goblet squats with a pause)

• Joint-specific banded mobilizations

These build a resilient, usable range of motion - not just bendiness. That’s the combination that protects against injury and sharpens technique under fatigue.

What Most Athletes Miss

If your idea of stretching is a few half-hearted quad pulls after a run, you’re engaging in routine without purpose.

What About Swimming?

Swimming, of course, offers some built-in mobility benefits. It promotes shoulder and thoracic range of motion, integrates full-body rotation, and maintains flexibility without joint compression. It’s one reason swimmers tend to stay looser than runners or cyclists.

That said, swimming doesn’t develop strength at end range, nor does it train joints to stabilize under load or on unstable ground. It also doesn’t correct joint-specific restrictions - like limited ankle dorsiflexion or hip internal rotation - that can quietly undermine efficiency on land.

If you swim regularly, you already have a head start in preserving range of motion. But to translate that flexibility into resilience - especially for running, cycling, and strength work - you still need dedicated mobility training that strengthens and stabilizes your joints under varying conditions.

The Practical Blueprint: Build Your 3D Strength

This isn’t abstract. Here’s how to build a strength system that supports your endurance goals.

1. Heavy Lifting Still Matters

• 2 sessions/week

• Focus on squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, and overhead pressing.

• Progressive overload builds your engine - particularly in the off-season or early prep phases.

• Tip: As race day approaches, reduce intensity but maintain key lifts once per week. This preserves strength without interfering with endurance gains.

2. Mobility Is Maintenance - and Performance

• 2–3 sessions/week, 15–20 minutes

• Target hips, shoulders, ankles, and thoracic spine.

• Use CARs, banded stretches, and end-range isometrics.

• Tip: Pair mobility with easy runs or use it as a primer before strength days.

3. Move Like a Human, Not a Machine

• 1 movement-based session/week

• Include crawling patterns, balance drills, and ground-based flows. A simple ground flow might involve moving from a crouched position to a quadrupedal crawl and back again, exploring different angles and rotations.

• Tip: Progress from static drills to dynamic flows. Track fluency like you track splits or watts.

4. Build It into Your Week

Here’s how a hybrid week might look alongside endurance training:

• Monday: Swim + Mobility

• Tuesday: Run Intervals + Strength

• Wednesday: Movement session (flow/rings/balance/ground/yoga/pilates)

• Thursday: Bike or Swim + Mobility

• Friday: Long Run

• Saturday: Strength Session

• Sunday: Long Bike or Open Water + Recovery

This is a sample, not a prescription. The goal is integration, not perfection.

The Bottom Line

The barbell is not the enemy. It’s just not the whole picture.

If your goal is longevity, resilience, and performance without breakdown, you need a holistic strength approach. One that blends raw power with supple mobility and dynamic movement.

This becomes even more important - as we age as the stakes rise:

• Muscle mass and bone density decline

• Injury recovery slows

• Balance and coordination begin to fade - unless we train them

Heavy lifting preserves muscle and bone. Mobility and movement work preserve confidence, adaptability, and independence. Together, they extend your athletic lifespan, not just your race results.

• Endurance athletes aren’t fragile. But we are often incomplete.

• Complete the picture. Move beyond the barbell.

• Because the strongest version of you isn’t just fast or strong. It’s efficient, reactive, mobile - and built to last.

Thanks Lucile for the topic. It did get me thinking. I am also very aware that my frame of reference is very English language constrained. If you have any French resources that you think we should check out, please let us know.