How has weight training suprised you, performance-wise??

Wollwead

OK folks, in the last 2 years i've been taking training seriously as i'm in my late 20s and was starting to get quite round from a combo of poor diet and lack of exercise/carrying an injury!!

Obviously people lift weights for various reasons and when I decided to start lifting it was to improve my shape and drop some body fat. But where I was pleasantly surprised was my pace over short distances on the football pitch or playing rugby or whatever.

I'm still not going to win any olympic medals for my sprint times but I have made a drastic improvement, so much so that people i play for/with and against, I can now leave for dust over short distances of say 20-50 metres. I do go for a run say twice a week and maybe practice sprints once/twice a week also but i feel that the largest contribution to my increase in pace has been lifting heavy stuff once a week along with conditioning workouts with plyometric movements and a focus on improving flexibility along the way.

Sandbag and barbell weighted lunges, squats, deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, power cleans, box jumps, burpees I believe have all made a huge contribution to my increase in power and speed.

Sorry about the essay people, just wanted to get it out there as there are so many hidden benefits to lifting weights. Just wondering has anyone else experienced a surprise increase in performance that they had never expected?

I know i'll never go back to simple running only again, struggling away mile after mile is not for me anymore after experiencing the benefits of a good mix of exercises.

mrpink6789

Hmm when I saw "performance-wise" I was thinking something completely different......

G86

mrpink6789 wrote: »

Hmm when I saw "performance-wise" I was thinking something completely different......

You're not the only one.....:o

gymsoldier

mrpink6789 wrote: »

Hmm when I saw "performance-wise" I was thinking something completely different......

Is the not what we're talking about?....

howtomake

gymsoldier wrote: »

Is the not what we're talking about?....

It does certainly help though.

pachey100

Theresalwaysone

Have noticed acceleration differences as you've said.

Also noticed much more stable on the ball. Harder to knock off it and balance a lot better. Can also hold people off a lot easier.

Jump higher, better spring.

Unfortunately, my cardio fitness has dropped off because I'm trying to get stronger, but thats easy enough to get back.

Mellor

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Unfortunately, my cardio fitness has dropped off because I'm trying to get stronger, but thats easy enough to get back.

From the training, or from the massive amounts of food