As an athlete, you want to be explosive. If you are not explosive, you're probably not an athlete; or you're not all that good. You can be as strong as you dream to be, but if you're not explosive, that strength is useless. I have seen many powerlifter/bodybuilder types that are not athlete material. Yes, they are muscular. Yes, they are really strong. Unfortunately, they have trained their muscles to be slow. Not all, but most. Especially in today's day of age, it is rare to see a bodybuilder with the true, brute strength that it takes to be an athlete. I have seen powerlifters who are strong as hell, not be able to throw a shot put worth a damn. It's because they train their body's to be slow and non-explosive. As a shot putter you need to be explosive!
I am not a big believer in training anything that can be considered long distance and slow moving. I feel that it defeats the purpose of attaining utmost explosiveness as an athlete. You train your body to be explosive, but then you break down all that you've worked for to take a mile or two mile run? I find that silly.
You may question, "If you are telling me that running one, two or even more miles is silly, then how do I become enduranced for my sport?" It's simple. Running long and slow distances is not the only way to achieve muscular endurance. Have you ever done sprints and then you were gasping for air? Yea, that would be endurance. Those sprints will keep you fast and explosive, at the same time as increasing your endurance. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Do beware though, doing these sprints will take a little more effort and stronger mentality. I don't know about you, but when I take a really slow run, I become extremely bored; really, really fast. You might be brutally exhausted after doing the sprints, but at least you won't fall into a pit of never-ending boredom. If prevention of boredom, increases in endurance, and increases in explosiveness are not enough to convince you, let me add that you will also be saving some time. It can take you anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to run 2 miles. It may only take you 10 to 15 minutes for a good, explosive, muscular endurance workout. Time is a valuable thing!
Sprints are not the only workouts you can do either. You can do anything that is explosive! Make a circuit if you want too. Circuits can be a real good way to train, and have some fun all at the same time. You can flip tires, pull sleds, and jump everyway that you can think of. They are all explosive, and will build up your endurance mightily if you do it for an extended period of time.
Let's say you were on a basketball team, and your team didn't do any conditioning what-so-ever. You started the season, had your first game and your whole team was gasping for air. Each player had to be subbed in for every so often. You end up losing the game. You actually end up losing a lot of games. However, you start to get to the end of the season and you notice that your endurance is almost in tip-top shape. How can this be? We never did any conditioning work... The answer to this question is that playing basketball was actually your conditioning. There is nothing slow about basketball. It is one of the most explosive sports that you can play. Okay so, playing basketball is explosive and it is a type of conditioning? Get outta here! I hope you see where I am going with this. I am not telling you in order to increase your muscular endurance you need to play full court, 5-on-5 basketball. What I am telling you is that you can work on your muscular endurance by doing explosive activities for a certain period of time. As I said earlier, you can kill two birds with one stone; maintain your explosiveness, at the same time as increasing your muscular endurance.
I believe I have proved my point as to why I do not believe in doing anything slow and long distance.
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