5 Strength TRAINING exercises for runners. In other cases, I get the runner to do their strength and core workout on these non-running days… it really depends on the individual. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t do the same! With these factors in mind, we can be specific with which types of exercise we choose when looking to develop more resilient running bodies. The hang clean is a posterior chain dominant movement that has a lifter perform a clean (either full squat or power) with the barbell from a hanging position. The work-life-training balance is a delicate thing, after all! Hi James Single-Leg Balance: This exercise improves hamstring & glute strength, core control and improves the range of motion in your hips. When it comes to posture in particular, we need to view the body as a whole. Just a short question, how long rest would you recommend in between the sets/exercises? Whatever the exercise, it’s important to understand what you’re trying to achieve – what that should feel like – and which cues to focus on to do so. I am a 52 year old male cyclist training for a marathon but suffer recurrent calf strains. It’s understandable to many runners associate strength training in general with becoming muscle-bound and increasing bodyweight in such a way that will detrimentally affect their running. If you’re in the middle of a marathon training block, and your weekly mileage is building nicely, the last thing your legs are going to want is an extra session or two of heavy squats and deadlifts to recover from. : The conventional deadlift can increase strength, muscle hypertrophy, and endurance of the hamstring, glutes, and erectors; all of which are primary muscle groups used in human locomotion (running). These are all running injuries I’m guaranteed to see lots of during marathon training season. Q&A About the Strength Training for Runners Program. If you’re one of the runners who messaged me – thank you! Empower Team USA athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence and well-being. Mainstream strength training workouts for runners are antiquated, with new approaches relying on both basic movements and sports specific exercises that emphasize strength, balance, and power, with short workouts 1-2x per week. In the past I’ve tried to balance my marathon training (I run 6 days a week) with 2 swim sessions a week as a way of stretching out and developing more core strength. A general maximal strength–orientated programme (2 × week, with low-volume plyometrics) during the preseason is an appropriate and efficient method for improving both maximal and reactive strength capabilities in distance runners. I’m certainly not trying to convince you that you need to develop bulging biceps and boulder-like shoulders. The Benefits Of Strength Training For Runners. Keep your diet in check, and your ‘strength training for distance runners’ plan will keep you strong and lean; a combination that equates to resilient and fast. I too get them. Things like heavy (relatively speaking!) Obviously, our legs carry us as we run, so we need strong quads, calf muscles, hamstrings, glutes, adductors, etc. is a unilateral deadlift variation that can help to increase development of the hamstrings, glutes, and establish greater knee, hip, and core stability. That said, years of experience has shown me that getting a runner onto an appropriate strength training programme has a powerfully positive effect on their ability to remain injury free. When it comes to strength training for distance runners, getting the exercises done is one a big part of the battle, but take the time to learn and execute great technique throughout each exercise. : The trap bar deadlift can be used to increase lower body strength and muscle mass while lifting lower back strain/stress, a common overuse and injury prone area for lifters. Butt‐Kick Hold. Take a single leg squat for example; as I describe in the video below, there are subtle tweaks that can make the exercise more quad biased, and other tweaks that make it more glute biased. Movement like the snatch and clean can help athletes increase coordination of muscle contraction, proprioception, and movement. Strength Training for Runners When executed properly, a strength training program for distance runners can make you a stronger, more efficient runner while reducing your chance of injury. This can be done to also simplify the movement to allow an athlete to attack heavier loads with confidence and power. Olympic Weightlifting Training Causes Different Knee Muscle–Coactivation Adaptations Compared with Traditional Weight Training. Below are three (3) reasons why performing cleans and snatch with distance may lead to increased performance of general athleticism. But don’t forget your upper body! I’m a new to your site, this all sounds great. I’ve just started doing glutes strengthening but it’s too early for me to notice a difference. Is this a common issue for cyclists and does the glute focus sound about right? How many days per week and when should I strength train? I hope you find it helpful . Great info as always! Runners Full Body Workout. When your torso is rotated one way, your pelvis rotates the other… This asymmetrical and reciprocal repeats cyclically all over the body as we move from stride to stride. As with everything, technique is super-important when it come to lifting weights, so be sure to have somebody check your form. Below is a detailed look at a year-long macro cycle and how we have designed the strength-training program for each phase. As you figure out which weights challenge you, you can up the weight and … It’s not the marathon itself that breaks most runners, it’s the necessary mile after mile in training before you even make the start line. Your email address will not be published. Great article as always and cheers for the free download! : The sumo deadlift can be done to increase general hip and hamstring strength, muscle mass, and develop the posterior chain. I’ll be following your tips as I’ve always found it hard to integrate strength into my training plans.. No problem James! We asked our experts to come up with 10 essential strength exercises for runners. can be done to increase unilateral strength, power, muscle development, and challenge balance needed in single-legged sports. I’m of the opinion that there are a huge number of runners who would benefit from developing the fundamental strength that a 8-12 week programme of heavy squats and deadlifts (and other compound exercises) will provide. This ‘hip drop’ or Trendelenburg gait is a typical example of poor glute medius function on the standing leg. With stronger muscles, connective tissues, joints, and more resilience to fatigue, you’ll get hurt less often. Within this phase, the athlete should focus on addressing muscle asymmetries, increasing lean body mass, and developing maximal strength and power. This study demonstrated that this structure of strength programming can significantly improve economy and VV[Combining Dot Above]O2max over a 20-week preseason period. Check out James' marathon training plan for beginners [PDF]. His transition into distance running has taught him what his body is capable of, a process which is ongoing! I’m not saying you need to hit the bench press hard, in fact it’s the back muscles I’m more interested in developing as these are largely the muscles that hold us tall, and maintain posture as we run. Weightlifting, in the form of snatches and clean and jerks offer distance runners a unique opportunity to tap into more muscle tissue and increase muscular power. Weightlifting movements offer runners the ability to not only strengthen and increase development of these muscle groups, but also reinforce synchronization of muscle contractions at higher speeds which could improve firing rates and patterning during locomotive movements (, The snatch and clean are dynamic movements that require great amounts of strength, power and synchronization of muscular contractions. Thanks James, this a fantastic article! Weightlifting Movements: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? Thanks for the support Esme! However, if you can just dedicate 2-4 blocks of twenty-five minutes per week to completing a handful of targeted core exercises for runners, in your lounge, office, bedroom, home gym after a run session your body will feel the benefits. The power clean is a clean variation that can be done to incorporate more pulling strength into the program, as this clean is done from the floor (rather than the hang). Like the power clean, the power snatch can improve the power output capacities of an athlete, yet also increase upper body involvement as the end with the load overhead. The research on traditional weight lifting comes from a 1997 study by Johnston et al.2 Six female distance runners underwent a 10-week strength program with weight sessions three times a week. Whenever one leg is going backwards, the other is coming forwards, the same can be said for the arms. Researchers correlated an 8% increase in running efficiency with runners who trained regularly with weights, many of which performed strength and power exercises (, Running, and most human locomotive endeavors, is highly dependent on posterior chain muscles (hamstring, glutes, and erectors). Instead of lifting light to moderate weights for high reps, as is the common wisdom amongst runners, aim to build up to heavy lifts of 4-6 reps, and perform 5 sets with lots of recovery. Clean pulls are an exercise that allows an athlete to produce high amounts of power without having to turn the barbell over into the clean receiving position. I just quickly want to address one of the major objections I hear regularly when it comes to getting people into regular strength training workouts for runners. Start with 3–4 sets of 10 reps of the following moves. I could easily write the rest of this article with a heavy slant towards the performance benefits of strength training for runners. Benefits of strength and weighttraining for distance runners is a basis for building leg strength and posterior chain development. James Marshall looks at the evidence. Many of the overuse injuries I see in distance runners are multi-factorial in their causes, with muscular imbalance and lack of mobility in certain areas being big parts of the puzzle. The ability to tap into more muscle fibers, regardless of composition, could give the runner a competitive edge at higher intensities or under high amounts of fatigue. But runners need a different strength-training program than your standard gym rat. Movement like the snatch and clean can help athletes increase coordination of muscle contraction, proprioception, and movement. Improve general strength, core strength, balance/stability, mobility and range of motion - i.e. If so, what follows will hopefully provide a helpful resource to help you combine your running schedule with an effective strength training plan…. Thanks Cat! The same has to be said for the exercises intended to support your running too! Full-body workouts that involves a blend of strength training, yoga, Pilates and physical therapy-inspired moves, carefully curated for runners’ needs. If you’re currently training for a marathon and looking for a schedule of strength training workouts for runners to fit well alongside your training. Formerly a professional rugby player, James’ route into endurance sports coaching hasn’t exactly been conventional. In a similar but slightly different way, when we run we’re only ever supported on one leg, or no legs – unlike walking gait when we have the luxury of double limb support at times. Locomotion, such as running, is dependent on these interactions, therefore making the hang clean viable option to enhancing these performance properties. Below is a sample 3-day off-season program that includes power and strength movements, along with accessory exercises. If an exercise hurts, stop. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, you can enjoy running. “With a proper strength-training program, this muscle breakdown can be assisted, and strength can be maintained through long-distance and endurance training,” he adds. But you can get strong and remain lean. Therefore, in this article we will set out to discuss the following aspects to help coaches gain a deeper insight on the pros and cons of using the Olympic lifts (snatch, clean, and jerk) with distance runners and aid in the decision process: It’s not secret that resistance training is beneficial for runners. Your email address will not be published. Randy is a USA Weightlifting National Coach, former record holder, and strength coach to many elite runners in Boulder Colorado. Here are a list of tips which will help you more effectively implement strength training and core training for runners into your marathon training plan: Let’s get this straight; I’m not expecting you to find the time to add a couple ninety-minute gym sessions to your existing weekly running schedule. Resistance training (RT) takes many forms, including strength training, power training, plyometric training, muscular endurance and hypertrophy (increasing muscle size) work. A fair while ago I published an article with the title “Stretching Doesn’t Work…?“. For the sake of simplicity, let’s also assume that the power and strength exercises are progressed in linear fashion, with the loading being increased 5lbs per week, or 1-2% of max. Strength training’s biggest benefit for distance athletes is not only to improve power, but to help prevent injuries. Below are weightlifting variations that can be used with distance runners to increase lower body power and general athleticism. Once I started strength training regularly a year or so ago, it started to feel easier to work into my routine. All of them largely avoidable. This can also be done to demand athletes to create more power since the cannot simply squat lower clean the load. All of them overuse related. A post shared by 3-Sjøersløpet (@3sjoerslopet) on Nov 3, 2018 at 10:21am PDT. Strength training for injury prevention in runners is an area of relative dearth in terms of scientific research, as Running Physio Tom Goom discusses here. As you can see in the video below, many of the weak links we see in runners occur in the frontal (side to side) and transverse (rotational) planes of motion. It made me sit down and write this article, at last. Not to mention the benefits to your stability on the run, especially for trail runners. I’ve also had detailed a (modest :)) 5-exercise core strength training for runners on my blog: push-ups, planks, crunches, russian twists, and jacknife sit-ups. Benefits of Weightlifting Training for Distance Runners It’s not secret that resistance training is beneficial for runners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(8), 2192-2201. doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e31823b087a. I think my glutes need strengthening to provide more stability to the system overall. By that I mean not high-intensity days, and not high volume days. can improve the power output capacities of an athlete, yet also increase upper body involvement as the end with the load overhead. suggests that strength training has a positive effect on reducing overuse injuries in athletes (not runners specifically though). Hi John. : The front squat can be used to increase quadriceps development, enhance anterior core strength, and decrease load upon the lower back in times looking to decrease training volume. Recently I’ve received a number of emails asking how best to build a specific strength training plan for runners. This is fantastic and I’m sure will help a lot of people . Periodized Strength Training for Runners Published by Brian on May 10, 2018 May 10, 2018 After seeing many articles on the “best strength exercises for runners” and “how to build a strong core”, I wanted to offer a way to integrate this within an existing running plan. Sports Medicine, 33(7), 539-552. doi:10.2165/00007256-200333070-00005, Follow on , Female Referee National Testing Assistance Fund, Sports Medicine Society Athlete Safety Policy (.pdf), Local Weightlifting Committee Information, U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Brand Usage Guidelines, A post shared by 3-Sjøersløpet (@3sjoerslopet), Hedrick, A., & Wada, H. (2008). A good example is the crab walk exercise demonstrated in the video below: Regular visitors to this site with know that I’m quite a stickler for technique when it comes to running. More time on our feet means more strain for us to deal with. No wonder that when speaking to any given runner, the conversation often turns to injury. In fact, if you’re running four-to-six days per week, the chances of this happening are remote at best in my experience. I’m also a big fan of my foam roller which sorts out a lot of my post run recovery. A well-rounded strength training program, like the one below, will help get you stronger from head to toe, especially in your hips and glutes—two chronically weak areas for most runners. I’ve been meaning create this strength training guide for a long time. A second point is that strength training is most likely to be effective if it mimics the movements and actions of the athlete's sport. Note, this exercise still allows for a lifer to place the other foot on the floor, decreasing the balance needed when compared to the Bulgarian split squat. The goal of runners' strength training is to get their muscles to increase their rate of force production, so they can have stronger muscle contractions in a shorter time. You need to be eat big to get big! john. Then I’ll do the more focused bits afterwards. This can also be done to demand athletes to create more power since the cannot simply squat lower clean the load. Exercises such as pull-ups and reverse flyes are so simple, but often ignored in place of working from the hips downwards. I hope you find the info and workouts helpful Good luck! Sample Off-Season Distance Running Strength Program (3-Day), Hang Power Clean 5 sets (3 reps) / 60-65%, Kneeling Dumbbell Overhead Press 3(10-12), Sample In-Season Distance Running Strength Program (2-Day), Hang Power Clean 3 sets (3 reps) / 60-65%, Jung, A. P. (2003). That said, strength training for runners is different than it is for your standard gym rat. Despite the compelling evidence supporting the inclusion of strength training in a runner’s programme, there are still plenty of runners who just run. Strength training for distance runners can be addressed in many forms. A good cross-training plan for runners will incorporate elements of both. Additionally, this can help increase hip mobility and strength. Thanks Stuart. However, what I really want to convey is that you should make sure that you give your body an opportunity to recover as effectively as possible when a rest day is scheduled. Your training frequency should be keyed to the number of runs you perform in a week and their intensity. Thank you for this James – this is a very valuable article and I look forward to implementing the workouts. For example, if you run twice a week, strength training can be performed three, maybe even four times a week. However a relatively recent meta-analysis from Danish researchers Lauersen et.al. Home » Blog » Strength & Stability for Runners » Strength Training for Distance Runners. But studies show if you lined up 100 endurance runners according to their 10K times, and they rearranged themselves based on their 50m sprint times, the two lines would look strikingly similar. Instead of pushing weight away from the body with bicep curls, leg extensions, and bench presses, runners should focus on targeting the key muscles that will keep them balanced. Note: Strength training should be performed according to your fitness level and training goals. Running is very much a linear movement, at least on the surface in comparison to the twisting and turning we see from athletes in sports such as football. If you’re suffering with a pain or niggle as you run, get yourself to a physio and get it looked it properly assessed. ITB syndrome, plantar fasciitis, shin splints… the list goes on. However, there are some important considerations before enforcing a program. Feel free to download this free plan using the link below: I want to quickly address the topic of weight training for runners, as I am asked about it quite often, along with more specific queries about whether runners should perform exercises like heavy squats and deadlifts. The vast majority of running injuries will get worse over time if you try to run through the pain, rather than better. Instead of pushing weight away from the body with bicep … The important point to appreciate is that there is often a reason why a muscle gets tight; sometimes it’s protecting a poorly stabilised joint, or because it’s being overworked due to weakness elsewhere. You may well be reading this nodding your head? Olympic lifts offer distance runners, who are primary made up of slow twitch muscle fiber, to tap into more athletic potentials by targeting muscle fibers (fast twitch) that may not be getting trained efficiently. When it comes to strength training for distance runners, getting the exercises done is one a big part of the battle, but take the time to learn and execute great technique throughout each exercise. is a clean variation that can be done to incorporate more pulling strength into the program, as this clean is done from the floor (rather than the hang). I recommend doing this program 2-3 times per week. Here’s my secret: Strategic strength moves BEFORE you set out for your run — as a warm up. Given how different various marathon training schedules are, the advice for where best to place your strength and core sessions will be different from person to person. Despite the advancements in our understanding of the role strength training plays in our development as long distance runners, there are still some pervasive myths in the running community about the best way to approach improving running-specific strength. Often bodyweight cross-training exercises for runners are adequate for achieving this. But light and strong is faster! It is advised that during the racing season, strength sessions are performed once per week to maintain str… If you’re one of the many who have bought into the hype surrounding all the research that supposedly tells us that runners shouldn’t stretch, I’d suggest giving the article a read… with an open mind! 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