Sports Med Newsletter

Email Sign Up

Preferred email format:
Text HTML

Strength Training: Your Philosophy
-by Kevin Reid of Acceleration Richmond

One’s perceptions and philosophies of strength training are influenced by their past experiences. This is true of the athlete and of the fitness trainer. What is your philosophy and how was it developed? For that matter what is the philosophy of your trainer and how was their philosophy developed? If you don’t know, take a moment to do some reflection before reading on. By not being aware of your and/or your trainer’s philosophy and its foundations you will be ill prepared to embark on the road to running success through strength training.

For runners, the idea of strength training as unnecessary mass building has been ingrained from a very early age. Whether the reasoning being that muscle tissue is extra weight to carry or that time spent in the gym is not time spent on the road, strength training has been long ignored by the endurance running community at large.

For those who have embraced strength training into their weekly regimen, do you know why you strength train? What is the benefit for you? Are you lifting because you know you should or because someone told you it would be beneficial? Do you know how the exercises you are doing benefit your running?

Do’s and Don’ts

1. There is no strength training for strength’s sake. For maximum results your time in the gym must play a physiological and/or bio mechanical role

2. Apply proper periodization to match your training/racing season

3. Be careful whom you listen to. Find someone who has knowledge, not just someone who is with knowledge (i.e. a little knowledge can be dangerous)

4. Be very selective whom you take as a strength coach. Do they understand the demands of the marathon and its training

First Things First

Before beginning a strength training program there are certain things you must do:
1. Plan your running season
2. Find a trainer you are comfortable with (knowledge, experience, personality, etc.)
3. Identify gait and/or postural irregularities
4. Identify musculoskeletal imbalances and/or weaknesses
5. Establish goals for your strength development

Musculature of Strength Training

Strength training is critical for stride efficiency, an increased capacity to resist fatigue, and an increased ability to respond with power when terrain or situation necessitate.

Quadriceps – increase absorptive power at foot strike

Hip Flexors – allow a strong and powerful high knee drive

Hip Extensors – increase strength through stance phase and toe off

Hip Abductors – strengthen outer hip for joint stability and integrity while under strain, and aid in hip flexion

Hamstrings – increase strength through stance phase, toe off, and heel lift in swing phase

Gastorcnemius and Soleus – powerful toe off and minimize the increase in loss of negative power at foot strike

Core Musculature – maintain pelvic and trunk posture, power transfer from the upper to lower body, balance, stability, and shock absorption

Upper Body – maintain good posture to allow for proper lung expansion, resist fatigue from holding proper shoulder/arm position

Periodization of Strength Training

Much as run training should be cycled throughout the year, so too should your attention and focus in strength training. Strength training as a runner means the movements should be functional to your sport and physiologically relevant. Exercises that emphasize core training, balance, and agility should be a staple of each strength training session regardless of time of season.

-relatively light weight (45-60% 1RM) done for 1-3 sets of 10-12 repetitions. Exercises should focus on large, prime mover muscle groups. This phase should be your reintroduction to strength training after an extended lay off due to injury or heavy racing.

Muscular Strength

– heavier weights (85-180% 1RM) done for 1-3 sets of 4-8 repetitions. Exercises should focus on large, prime mover muscle groups. This phase should compliment your off season, low mileage running. A focus on imbalances and acknowledged weaknesses is a must.

Muscular Endurance

– lighter weights (20-45% 1RM) done for 1-2 sets of 15-50 repetitions. Exercises should focus on multiple muscle groups per movement. Linking together two or three exercises with no rest will also build muscular endurance. This phase, at heavier weights, should compliment your building mileage. At lower intensities, this phase can compliment your running all season long.

Muscular Power

– Body weight is acceptable. If machines are necessary, weights of 60-85% 1 RM are suitable. Exercises should focus on strong, explosive movement involving many muscle groups. Plyometrics and Olympic style lifts are the most commonly recognized types of muscular power training. This phase may be incorporated during any part of the running season and in multiple phases, but after the muscular strength phase.

Benefits of Strength Training

– Strength training not only improves the muscle tissue, but enhances joint integrity by strengthening the connective tissue (ligaments and tendons). Bone density is improved, or retained, as a result of strength training as well. Stronger bones, ligaments, tendons, and musculature directly weaken the impact, or magnitude, of the moment of injury. Where previously a turned ankle may have broken or severely sprained, now you run it off in a matter of strides.

– With aging comes a natural progressive loss of lean muscle tissue. Strength training can slow, and often stabilize this loss until much later in life. Since lean muscle tissue is a contributor to resting metabolism, weight gain as a result of aging can also be controlled more easily.

– As a compliment to good running mechanics, strength training will allow you to run efficiently and without breakdown longer into your chosen event. This translates to faster times and fresher legs for that finishing stretch.