Ep 14: How Heavy Should Endurance Athletes Lift? Measuring Strength Training Intensity

If you are a runner, triathlete, or endurance athlete who has ever walked into the gym and thought, how much weight am I actually supposed to lift? this episode is for you.In endurance sport, we usually have clear intensity markers like pace, power, heart rate and cadence. In the gym, it often feels much less obvious. In this episode, I break down the 3 main ways to measure strength training intensity: percentage of repetition maximum, RPE, and reps in reserve.I explain what each method means, where each one can be useful, and why I generally prefer reps in reserve for endurance athletes. We also cover how to apply these methods to heavy strength work versus muscular endurance work, why gym intensity often gets confused with cardio effort, and the common mistakes that can leave endurance athletes underloading their strength training.If you want your gym work to actually transfer to performance, durability and meaningful adaptation, this episode will help you stop guessing your loads and start training with more intent.