Nate Helming

Welcome to episode seventeen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Nate Helming. Nate is an endurance, strength and mobility coach and co-founder of The Run Experience. Lots of great training tips in this episode so be ready to take some notes.

We learned this week that the shelter in place order for the Bay Area where we live is going to be extended through the end of the month of May. While we are bummed, we know that we are doing our part to slow the spread of the virus. As usual, we encourage everyone to listen to the medical and science experts about best practices and hopefully we will be past this and back to racing soon.

For shout outs this week we wanted to give props to Brent Molsberry. His race report for Ötillö Catalina in an amazing read and we encourage everyone to check it out. Brent is also the Race Director for the Odyssey Swimrun Orcas Island race and it might surprise folks to read that Catalina was his first swimrun race!

Now on to this week’s interview. We were fortunate to get some time on Nate’s busy schedule to chat about the importance of strength training and mobility for endurance athletes. Nate has been Chris’s triathlon and endurance coach for years and we think that everyone will get some benefit from listening to this episode.

Nate has extensive running, triathlete and strength training experience and has channeled it all into his coaching. He believes that being fit means having the training that allows you to be a complete athlete. He preaches against sport specificity because training variety is what keeps athletes healthy and strong. After being injured and not being able to race the Ironman World Championship he realized that endurance athletes were slipping through the cracks with injuries because most endurance athletes were not focusing on cross-training and getting injured in their chosen sport.

Nate recommends adding strength and mobility to any endurance training plan. With just four basic movements athletes can start easing into strength work with. These movements are the squat, the pushup, the lunge and (everyone’s favorite) the burpee. Just adding these movements 2-3 times per week in addition to their endurance sport specific training. These sessions can be as short as 20-30 minutes and you can just do body weight and focus on technique. Nate has a ton of videos on their Youtube page that explain all the movements and provide training tips.

You can check out Nate and The Run Experience on their website or on Youtube. Finally, you can be a part of the “Together We Move” free daily programming on their app.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.