Does long distance running prevent muscle/strength gain?
I've read at Mark Rippetoe's website that a long distance running is where catabolic process prevail, and muscle/strength gain is where anabolic process prevail.
Therefore, they should somehow impede each other. The organism can adapt and become good at one thing at a time: either strength or endurance.
But that's just a speculation.
What's going on in reality?
Looks like triathletes are both good in endurance and in strength and they have pretty good hypertrophy of muscles. So, is the concept above wrong?
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It is possible to have both strength and endurance. There are a lot of long distance runners who have significant upper body strength because muscles process oxygen better and help with running.
As Eric says in the comments it is hard to be elite in both strength and endurance training because to be elite at strength training you are all but guaranteed to have to put on some weight while to be an elite runner you will probably need to keep your weight down. These are the adaptations that your body will require as well as the increase in cardiovascular and muscular strength.
Basically the takeaway is that it's possible to be quite good at both. Soccer players are a good example. They can run > 10 miles per game but many maintain a large amount of muscular strength in order to play effectively.
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