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Comment by stinos | Hacker News Reader

Would you say strength in general would be a better (more healthy in the long term) goal than just endurance/condition?

Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: ... and coordination

Do you mean eye-hand type of coordination? Anyway it sounds a bit odd to me: training coordination (as in a basketball shot, a frisbee throw, a bunnyhop with a bike) to me always seemed to be pretty much seperate from training strength/muscle volume? Sure strength would allow you to throw a ball/disc further or make you jump higher, but not necessarily with better accuracy?

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I've found strength to be extremely useful in golf. Before I made a concerted effort to get stronger, I could hit a drive in the 275 yard range if I swung hard and got lucky with it not slicing too badly. Now I can take a more measured swing and I hit it just as far, but much straighter. This goes doubly for iron shots, because I'm now 1-2 clubs lower for the same distance, giving me much more control and forgiveness.

The other benefit, especially of a barbell program like Starting Strength, is stronger stabilizer muscles (both core and others), which provide a better "platform" for whatever skill you're exercising.

I'm not sure if it applies to all skills, but intuitively it makes sense to me that you can use more muscle for finesse without sacrificing power if you're stronger.

>Would you say strength in general would be a better (more healthy in the long term) goal than just endurance/condition?

I would definitely say this when speaking in general terms. Strength training normally focuses on full-body exercises, but endurance training (think cross-country running or cycling--not sprinting) does not. I was just reading an article talking about the importance of strength training for runners which emphasized that most injuries come from muscle imbalances.

Personally, I do both. My goal is to lift three times a week and then do endurance the other days. If I had to choose I would stick with lifting for health reasons.

It also depends what your goals are. Once you get to a certain point, you can't do endurance exercise and expect to hypertrophy.

I think you need both, I don't think it's an either or situation. I think strength is the most important thing for a novice, and then after that you need to add conditioning as appropriate for your goals (ie: are you just trying to be healthy or are you training for a marathon?)

> Sure strength would allow you to throw a ball/disc further or make you jump higher, but not necessarily with better accuracy?

Imagine hitting an incoming baseball pitch. Do you think it's easier to make the bat go exactly where you want it to be when the bat feels heavier or lighter?

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