Table of Contents .......................................................................... 2 Introduction................................................................................... 3 The Importance of Core Work for Runners ................................... 5 The Benefits of Circuit Training for Runners .................................. 7 General strength for runners....................................................... 10 The Benefit of Plyometrics for Runners ....................................... 15 Hard Days Hard, Easy Days Easy .................................................. 19 Progression and Phases in Strength Training............................... 22 Should You Ever Lift Heavy Weights ............................................ 25 Strength Training to Help Transition to Minimalist Running........ 28 Putting it all together................................................................... 30
Introduction
First, we wanted to say thank you for downloading the Strength Training for Runners eBook. This guide has been a labor of love and a collection of research, personal experience, and conversations with
Jeff Gaudette Owner/CEO
some of the best coaches and minds in our sport. By following the principles outlined in this eBook, we are confident you can become a stronger, healthier and faster runner and achieve the results youre looking for. One of our my main reasons for writing this guide was to provide a
simple and practical handbook you can follow and implement into your own training plan. Weve also detailed and outlined the research so you can be confident that the time youre investing in strength training will pay off. If you have any questions or read anything you want to discuss in more detail, please dont hesitate to e-mail me at jeff@runnersconnect.net. Finally, we want this information to benefit as many runners as possible. So, please feel free to e-mail it to all your running friends, share it via Facebook and Twitter, and get the word out. For the latest updates and information, you can visit our website:
http://runnersconnect.net; follow us on Twitter @runners_connect; or join us on Facebook . Enjoy! The RunnersConnect Team
postulated that this increase in pressure facilitates stability throughout the body, essentially hardening the connection between the upper and lower body and thus improving your running form and posture. Researchers have demonstrated a clear connection between stabilization and lower back injuries and the strength of the transverse abdominis muscle.
Circuit training can also be effective if you have a busy schedule or travel frequently and you dont have hours to spend at the gym, yet you want to do both strength work and cardio. A sample circuit routine well include at the end of this article lasts about 30 minutes and can be easily lengthened or shortened by changing the running distance between each set. Finally, circuit training is effective for runners who are looking to lose weight or increase their percentage of lean muscle mass. While running burns more calories than almost any other pure aerobic activity, strength training, and specifically circuit training, has been found to burn more fat per minute than any other type of exercise. A runningspecific circuit training routine gives you the best of both worlds the aerobic development and calorie burn of a run with the fat burning of a strength workout.
More importantly, participants improved running time to exhaustion on a treadmill by 5 to 6 % and saw an 11% increase in VO2max - without doing any running. Finally, circuit training helps you become a better overall athlete. Rather than being a runner who can only move in one plane of motion, circuit training develops balance, strength, athleticism, and flexibility. While this might not seem like a running-specific benefit, having poor athleticism increases the risk of running-related injuries. For example, not being proficient in the frontal plan will result in weak hips and adductors, which is often the cause of IT band problems.
7. Hip thrusts 8. Pike Press Jog 800 meters 9. Prone with twist 10. Running motion v-ups 11. Back extensions 12. Mason Twists Jog 800 meters 13. Lunges w/turn 14. Push-up walk 15. V-ups 16. Squat jumps By keeping each exercise dynamic, specific, and constantly moving, this routine is able to keep your hear rate high, balance general strength with running-specific exercises, and addresses the entire core and hip girdle. If youre a beginner or injury-prone athlete, my recommendation is to add this circuit training routine to your off days. The purpose of the day would be similar to a cross training routine. If youre a more experienced runner and have time, I would add this routine after a threshold workout, much like Shalane Flanagan did in her training leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games.
strength by implementing an intelligent and progressive plan is an investment that will return dividends on the work you put in.
correctly, youll spend very little time moving side-to-side (frontal plane) or twisting/rotating your trunk (transverse plane). Consequently, the muscles used to activate and support the transverse and frontal plane movements become weak and prone to injury. Not only does this increase your risk of injury in activities outside running (like my wiffle ball story), but it also increases your risk of running-related injuries. For example, not being proficient in the frontal plan will result in weak hips and adductors, which is often the cause of IT band problems. So, by performing general strength exercises to ensure you work in all three planes of movement, you decrease your risk of both running-related and general injuries.
Therefore, its important that runners include ancillary routines, such as these general strength routines, into their weekly training plans to speed the development of the muscular system. In doing so, youll improve the strength and resiliency of your muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones and enable the muscular system to keep up with your aerobic developments. Not convinced? Lets use your own training as an example. What is holding you back from running more mileage and faster workouts each week? I am willing to bet it isnt your aerobic system (your heart and lungs). Youre probably more than capable of running further than you currently do or performing more repeats or long longer tempo runs. Most likely, whats holding you back most is how resilient your body holds up to more mileage and harder, longer workouts. If you get hurt every time you build mileage or try to maintain harder training for more than a week or two, I guarantee your aerobic system isnt the problem. Rather, youve lost (or in some cases never had) youre athleticism; meaning, your muscles, tendons, and ligaments arent as supple, flexible and injury resistant as they once were. By developing your overall strength, youll improve your athleticism and be less injury prone and better able to handle a greater volume of training.
result of more powerful muscle contractions with each stride, more efficient form (less wasted energy), and a decrease in oxygen consumption while running at the same speed. Granted, scientific studies all have their holes, but here are some interesting results weve found during out last few years of research: In 2009, Sato and Mokhas (2009) studied 28 recreational runners with 5k PRs just under 30 minutes. During the six week experiment, both groups continued their normal training routines, but the experimental group was given a set of five exercises to be performed four times a week in 2-3 sets of 10-15 repeats each. The experimental group dropped their 5k time by 47 seconds, while the control group only improved 17 seconds. A 2008 study by yvind Stren and coworkers in Norway examined a more rigorous program focusing on raw leg strength. Seventeen runners (nine men and eight women) with 5k bests in the 18:40-range partook. Strens subjects displayed no increase in oxygen intake but a 5% increase in running economy and a startling 21% improvement in a treadmill run to exhaustion at somewhat faster than 3k race pace vs. the control group, who had no improvement on either mark.
want place progressively greater than normal demands on the muscles in for strength gains to be continual. Lastly, enable proper progression by training antagonist as well as agonist muscle groups and balance the strength work throughout the entire body (meaning dont miss any muscle groups).
sample from our Strength Training for Runners Guide. This is our Hades Plyometric Routine: 1. Water pump 2. Water pump hops 3. Height skips 4. Ankle jumps 5. Jumps for distance 6. 1 leg connect four 7. Toe taps 8. Rocket jumps 9. Split squats Because of the explosive requirement, plyometrics are the last building-block of a successful strength training regimen and will only be implemented in your training once a solid foundation has been built. Furthermore, it is essential that you practice good form when performing these exercises. The plyometric routine provided combines multiple plyometric movements to develop power, improve running mechanics, and enhance rhythm, coordination, and specific strength to prevent injuries.
The philosophy behind performing your strength workouts on hard workout days
The philosophy behind keeping your hard days hard and your easy days easy is simple. You want to incorporate your hardest strength training workouts on your hardest workout days so that your easy days remain as easy as possible. This ensures that you recover completely on your easy days and you are able to execute the specific purpose of an easy day - recovery.
On the other hand, performing harder strength workouts, especially anything that involves the lower body, on your easy running day means you take away from your bodys ability to recover by adding stress and by shortening the total time you have to recover before your next hard workout. This is the single most important reason to include strength training on your hard workout days. In addition to allowing you to properly recover between workouts, performing your hard strength training days on your workout days also provides a few additional benefits:
Putting it together
The final piece of the puzzle is how to incorporate the hard days hard, easy days easy principle when you have multiple strength training sessions or only one workout per week. In this case, you should schedule your hardest, most running-specific strength routines after your hardest workouts, your medium effort routines (like basic core or hip routines) on your regular running days, and any preventative routines on your off or recovery days. Here is sample week that incorporates 7 days per week of strength training that you can modify to fit your needs (you dont have to strength train 7 days a week, but this outline should help you see where each type of routine would fit): Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Easy Run + core routine (moderate) Speed Workout + Leg training (difficult) Off or Recovery run + preventive exercises (easy) Easy Run + core routine (moderate) Tempo Workout + plyometrics (difficult) Run + general strength - gym or bodyweight (moderate) Long run + speed and form drills (easy to moderate)
If youve been struggling with how to incorporate strength routines into your training plan, try using the hard days hard, easy days easy approach. Youll ensure that you recover before your next hard workout while still getting maximum benefit from your time spent strength training.
Many runners, whether it be from lack of knowledge or just not putting the proper emphasis on planning their strength training, simply repeat the same routines and exercises, week after week, month after month, with no change in stimulus. While this will help you reach a certain level of fitness, it wont allow you to break through plateaus and continually progress and get stronger year after year.
Likewise, developing specific strength for a race should occur in progressive phases, much like your running training. First, you build-up a general level of fitness (think base phase of a running cycle) and then slowly get more and more specific and specialized as the race gets closer. If you start the harder, more race specific exercises too soon, you may wind up injured while if you only stick with the general exercises, youll never make any progress. Here is a brief breakdown of each cycle of strength training. The specifics of each phase for a particular race distance are detailed in that race distances prescription.
Specifically, what does this mean for a distance runner or any endurance athlete? Let's say that the highest amount of power you could produce and maintain during a run was 1000 watts (not a real number, just hypothetical) and the max amount you could produce at a full sprint was 5000 watts. When we make you stronger we might move your sprint power from 5000 to 8000. In doing so, we move your max sustainable power during a distance event from 1000 to something higher. The research on traditional weight lifting comes from a 1997 study by Johnston et al. Six female distance runners underwent a 10-week strength program with weight sessions three times a week. Each exercise was performed either on a machine or with free weights. Participants alternated between workouts A and B, below, on alternate workout days. Recovery between exercises was approximately two minutes. At the conclusion of the study, cardiovascular markers like VO2 max had not changed, but the experimental groups running economy jumped by 4% while the control group showed no improvement. So, while lifting heavy for a distance runner may not APPEAR to be sport-specific since it is a completely different energy system, it is actually extremely specific, as it will help you to work at a higher capacity during a distance race without accumulating enough fatigue to stop your efforts. While this info is not accepted among the general population, it is common knowledge among most sports scientists and elite sport coaches.
Muscle "bulk" is dependent on several variables, which include adequate nutrition, an optimal stimulus in the form of specific training 4-5 times per week, and enough rest from catabolic activities (such as running) so that adaptation may occur. If any of these variables are not in place "bulk" will not occur. Specifically, you wont be lifting heavy more than once or twice per week and the vast majority of your training will be in the form of running. Therefore, you dont have two of the three variables required to bulk up.
Developing flexibility
The first step is assessing and improving your balance and flexibility. When moving to minimalist shoes, it is critical that you have proper mobility and range of motion in both the ankle and the big toe, which can be weakened due to the rocker effect elicited by traditional running shoes. Without this flexibility in the ankle and big toe, your foot will roll excessively to the inside or the outside, causing a myriad of injury issues.
It should go without saying that you need to cautiously progress the amount of running you do when switching to minimalist shoes. Start with just 3-5 minutes of minimalist running every other day and slowly add 3-5 minutes each week. Begin your run in minimalist footwear and after your allotted run time for the day, switch to your normal training shoes. This will help transfer some of the feel and landing patterns to your stride when you return to traditional shoes. Most importantly, listen to your body and be patient. If you feel a part of your lower leg or foot become excessively sore, take an extra rest day or two. If you progress slow and remain patient, youll be running full-time in minimalist shoes before you know it.
Plantar fascia Achilles tendonitis Shin splints Runners Knee IT band issues Hamstring strains
Prescriptions
While youll find hundreds of different strength exercise strewn around the internet, no one has developed a comprehensive, step-by-step system that shows you exactly how to implement these strength routines into your training. Beyond that, we show you exactly how you need to progress each workout so that you make maximum gains and prime yourself for your best performance as your goal race approaches.
We break down the prescriptions to focus on specific race distances (5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon) Routines and progression for weight loss Strength training for beginners
Strength routines
We have a total of 14 different routines. Each routine contains a PDF for quick reference on the go and includes information on the main muscles targeted as well as the specific benefit they have for runners. You will also receive a video demonstration for each routine so you have a more detailed, visual instruction should you be unfamiliar with any exercise. You dont need a gym, and only three of the routines require anything other than your own bodyweight (A medicine ball and swiss ball will help, but are not needed)
Bonus Material
The bonus material is our collection of research, articles and interviews about strength training for runners. Our mission at RunnersConnect is to not just help our athletes run faster, but to educate them to become well-rounded and more informed runners. We feel it is important that you understand the dynamics and science behind all of these routines rather than blindly implementing them into your schedule. This bonus material is part of that commitment to you. Youll learn about:
Easy ways to fix your form to prevent injuries The purpose and benefit behind all of your new routines Interviews with strength training experts Much, much more being added every week
If youre an injured runner, these routines will help you develop a stronger core, hip girdle, glutes, lower legs, hamstrings and back to help you eliminate structural weaknesses.
If youre trying to take your running to that next level to qualify for Boston or push the boundaries of your PRs, these routines will help you become a more efficient, explosive runner and taper your strength training for optimal peaking.
If you want to build your mileage but cant seem to run more without getting hurt, adding these routines to your training will help strengthen your muscles, tendons and ligaments to handle the stresses and workloads of running more mileage and faster workouts.
If youre a beginner runner, we have specific prescriptions for how to get started even if youve never done any type of strength training before. Moreover, well show you exactly how to incorporate circuit style training so you can exercise at an aerobic level for longer while you slowly increase your mileage.
18 different strength training routines in PDF form to explain target muscles and benefits and professional videos to demonstrate the exact movement and execution of each routine No more guessing why or how to do any exercise.
Specific instructions and prescriptions on how to add to your weekly running routine for beginners, weight loss, those short on time, general fitness, 5k, 10k, HM, and the marathon Injury guides and preventative routines for the most common running injuries. The latest research and scientific literature on running form, strength training, and injuries updated constantly. Interviews with coaches and strength training experts, totaling over 2 hours of content, you can listen to or read to further your knowledge of strength training can work for you. Absolutely everything you need to plan, develop, and understand how strength training fits into YOUR training.
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