Testing Explosive Strength and Speed in Endurance Athletes May Help to Improve the Performance in Running Events

Paavolainen et. al. (1991) reported that national level cross-country skiers who engaged in explosive type strength training in addition to their normal training, were able improve their force-times i.e. improve their ability to produce a given amount of force in shorter time. This was also described by a significant improvement of jump heights in both static and counter movement jumps, whereas their counterparts in control group did not. The authors concluded that the explosive type strength training is beneficial to the cross-country skiers, which improves their force production ability without reduction in aerobic capacity.