terrymorse It is a great question to ask…how to do strength training for endurance. Or ask, once I have a goal in mind for cycling, how can I add strength training to optimize my performance.
I have been trying to make strength training operational and optimized to support my cycling. It seems like a fools errand. I can definitely increase my strength in the gym. And stronger muscles seem more fatigue resistant. And, I do not want to lose general strength due to aging.
I think studies are pretty useless and knock yourself out trying to put them into practice.
I have used personal trainers at the gym and observed their workouts they do themselves and what they prescribe for other clients - interesting and I always learn something.
There are two different types of strength training - power lifting and body building / fitness. Power lifting is about increasing the myofibril content of the muscle fiber. The more myofibril content, the stronger the muscle. Increasing myofibril content is about heavy lift I.e. 1 max efforts. As the myofibril content increases, muscles get larger and stronger. Then there is
sarcoplasmic increase. Myofibril fibers are surrounded by sarcoplasmic fluid. Embedded in the sarcoplasmic fluid is mitochondria. To increase sarcoplasmic fluid one must do more repetitions and sets. Muscles get ever larger with more facility to support myofibril contractions - more reps.
Taking that very simplistic model, and BTW you can search myofibril and sarcoplasmic terms and find a host of information, diagrams and studies, one can vary workouts to favor increasing muscle size, weight, strength and endurance. And then of course there is the different muscle types - slow twitch and fast twitch and those that can become either.
So a slow twitch muscle can be trained with more repetitions and greater strength increasing sarcoplasmic content and potentially, mitochondria density. And that potential is about genetics.
I find it very complicated to figure out an optimization routine. My conclusion is: myofibril content increase is good and
sarcoplasmic increase is good as well and can be gained on the bike. That biases the strength workout to lower reps and higher weight leaning toward power lifting routines. The downside is heavier weight increases the chance of injury.
I am very careful with dead lifts and back squats. I use a target for back squats that a personal trainer set up for me. I lower the weight until my butt hits the target - no lower. My goal is one set of 6 reps with a weight such that 3 additional reps would put me at failure. I build to that optimum weight with lower weight warmup sets. I am very careful not to overcook too many reps and sets. The same is true for other exercises.