If you are a cardio-first athlete who knows you should be strength training but keeps pushing it to the bottom of the list, this episode is for you. I sat down with Derek Teel, founder of Dialed Health and a trainer who has spent years helping endurance athletes build strength that actually translates to performance, durability, and longevity.

We covered the bare minimum you need to see results, how to schedule strength sessions around your training week, the difference between strength and activation work, and the one movement pattern every endurance athlete should be doing consistently.

Why Strength Training Matters for Endurance Athletes

Most endurance athletes already know the benefits in theory. Injury prevention, improved power output, better durability, and body composition support are all well-documented reasons to add strength work.

But Derek made a point that I think reframes the whole conversation: the benefits you get from strength training cannot be replicated by just doing more endurance volume. A slower cadence effort on the bike, more miles in the pool, or an extra-long run will not give you the muscle-building, maximum power output, or connective tissue durability that a well-designed strength session will.

The goal is not to become a powerlifter. It is to build a body that can sustain a lifetime of sport.

The Bare Minimum: Two Sessions Per Week

For busy endurance athletes, the question is not whether strength training is worth it. The question is how little you can do while still making progress. Derek’s answer is clear: two sessions per week is the minimum for forward progress.

Here is why one session per week falls short. After a strength session, your body goes through a recovery and adaptation curve. Performance dips initially from fatigue, recovers back to baseline within 2-3 days, and then peaks above your starting point around four to five days later. That peak is when you want to catch your next session to continue building. If you miss your single weekly session even once, you go two weeks between sessions, and you are already trending backward.

One session per week is maintenance at best, and only if you hit it consistently. Miss a few over the course of a month, and you are essentially starting over every season.

Two sessions per week solves this. They do not have to be long or intense. A 20-30 minute bodyweight session at home counts. The frequency is what drives adaptation over the long term.

How to Schedule Strength Around Your Training Week

This is where endurance athletes tend to get stuck. Derek’s framework is to keep hard days hard and easy days easy, which means pairing your strength sessions with your higher intensity ride or run days rather than stacking them onto your easy recovery days.

His other key rule: protect at least one full rest day with no structured training intensity. Not a light swim, not a casual ride with the kids counted toward your training plan, just genuine rest.

For a typical week that includes long weekend rides and midweek intensity, Derek suggests considering something like this:

Flip any zone two midweek day to a higher intensity effort and stack your strength session there on the same day. Then keep the following day as your zone two or easier effort. That alternating pattern of hard day, easy day builds a better flow for recovery and allows at least one day between strength sessions for the muscles to adapt.

For the double day question of which to do first, Derek’s answer is honest: do whatever fits your schedule. But if your riding performance is the priority, and for most endurance athletes it is, then doing your ride first when you are freshest makes scientific sense. The strength session gets the leftovers, and that is fine because consistency matters more than squeezing out a few extra pounds on a lift.

Strength Versus Activation: What Is the Difference?

These two terms get used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.

Strength training involves overloading the muscle to the point of fatigue so that it breaks down and rebuilds stronger. It creates meaningful recovery demand and takes time to adapt to.

Activation is the opposite. It is a short, light movement sequence designed to wake up specific muscle groups without creating any fatigue. Think of it as turning on a light switch, specifically the neural connection between your brain and the muscles you need to fire efficiently during your workout or race.

A few minutes of band work around the ankles before a hard ride, some glute medius activation before a long run, or shoulder band exercises before a swim are all examples of activation. It takes 3-5 minutes, and the goal is simply to make sure the right muscles are responding and engaged from the start. Derek pointed out that training your body to compensate for inactive muscles just reinforces the compensation. Activation helps break that cycle.

Pre-race activation is especially valuable because your heart rate and effort will be higher than in training, and having those neuromuscular connections already firing helps from the first pedal stroke or footfall.

The One Movement Every Endurance Athlete Needs

Derek’s go-to recommendation for endurance athletes is some form of hinging movement. A deadlift, a kettlebell swing, a single-leg Romanian deadlift, or even a bodyweight wide-stance hinge all count.

The reason hinging is so important comes down to our daily lives and our sport. We sit in chairs, hunch over handlebars, and move almost exclusively in a forward and backward plane. The muscles along the entire back side of the body, including the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors, become weak and underused over time.

A hinging movement directly targets the posterior chain, and when done consistently, it improves low back stability, hip power, and posture. Derek pointed to the Foundations Training protocol from Dr. Eric Goodman as a bodyweight-friendly option that requires no equipment and creates surprisingly intense tension through the posterior chain. He recommends searching for it on YouTube.

What About Back Pain on the Bike?

This came up in our conversation because I personally experience low back pain during longer races but not during training rides. Derek’s explanation made a lot of sense.

For most cyclists without structural disc issues, low back pain is typically a signal that the core and glutes are not firing as well as they should be. The erector muscles around the spine step in to compensate, and they simply are not designed for that role over hours of effort.

The solution is twofold. First, strengthen the core and glutes off the bike consistently enough that those muscles are capable of doing their job without you thinking about it. Second, practice deliberately bracing your core on the bike. Derek described it as a dial rather than an on-and-off switch. You do not need a full bracing contraction at 175 heart rate, just enough engagement, maybe 30 percent, to take the load off your lower back.

He also introduced the concept of the posterior pelvic tilt for core work. When you are doing floor-based core exercises, pressing your lower back flat against the ground activates the lower abs in a way that translates directly to better on-bike stability. Most people have very little awareness of or strength in those lower ab fibers, and that is often what is missing.

What Equipment Do You Actually Need? (Affiliate links provided)

Derek’s starter list for home strength training, in order of value and affordability:

Foam roller. $20 on Amazon and it’s more versatile than most people realize. Beyond self-massage, you can use it as a prop in strength exercises to add load and instability.

Mini loop bands. Essential for lateral hip work that endurance athletes rarely get in their sport. Side-to-side movement patterns directly offset the repetitive forward motion of running and cycling.

Full-length looped bands. Great for pulling movements, upper back work, and travel-friendly maintenance during race season.

Pull-up bar. Hanging alone improves shoulder mobility, grip strength, and spinal decompression. It is one of the most underrated tools for endurance athletes.

Kettlebells. This is Derek’s favorite piece of equipment because of its versatility and the quality of movements it enables.

Adjustable dumbbells and an adjustable bench. Once you have these, the variety of exercises available is nearly endless for home training.

You can see the full list of my favorite products and gear here.

Key Takeaways

• Two sessions per week is the minimum for strength progress in endurance athletes, not one
• Pair strength sessions with your high-intensity training days to keep hard days hard and easy days easy
• Protect at least one complete rest day per week
• Activation and strength training are different tools. Activation takes three to five minutes before hard workouts and races, and wakes up the neuromuscular system without creating fatigue
• Hinging movements are the single most valuable pattern for endurance athletes due to the posterior chain demands and the seated, forward posture of daily life and sport
• Low back pain on the bike is usually a core and glute firing issue, not a structural one, and can often be addressed with consistent strength training and deliberate core engagement during rides
• You do not need a gym. A foam roller, a set of bands, and bodyweight movements are enough to build real durability and injury resilience