Something I plan to work on this year as part of my goal in running is to incorporate strength training. At first I was thinking that I just wanted to do more leg work; but as I am doing research and talked to my chiropractor; he mentioned it is best to do exercises that don’t just isolate one area. Do more dynamic exercises that involve the entire body and fluid movement all at once. We don’t just run and leave our arms by our side. And we don’t just move our arms and our legs are still when we run. So do a lunge walk with light weights and do shoulder presses at the same time. All in one movement. But remember to start off slowly and easily. Don’t do 50 of these with heavy weights on your first day doing it. Beginning off with using your own body strength at first is also good advice. Focus on your form and then increase weight after you know how you feel the days following your new routine.
I realize you want to feel like you worked out and like how muscle soreness indicates that you did something (or at least I do); but you don’t want the extreme where the soreness is so bad that you can’t resume your regular workout or running schedule because you did too much in the beginning. It’s similar to when you began running. I know it happened to me. I loved the feeling of getting out there to run; but I did too much too soon and had terrible shin splints and could barely walk, let alone run, and I lost time because of it.
I was listening to the Another Mother Runner Podcast recently in episode 194 that discussed with Angie Krueger how you should include it as part of your training. For me the biggest question was when do I do the training. The day before you have a run, the same day after you finish your run? This article from Runners World helps clear it up for me. It does recommend to do your strength training on the same day as your run for two reasons. The first reason is so that you can have recovery time from both the run and the weight training. The second is because then it will force you to be a little more conservative on the weights that you use or your intensity on the strength training so that you don’t overdo it to the point where you cannot walk or run for several days later.
I ran into a friend of mine, Nick Takacs, during the marathon (my Dopey challenge) and he was telling me that he started to do a new training program called Iron Strength by Runners World. But he started doing it the week before the marathon and said it wasn’t the best decision! His legs and butt were sore in muscles he didn’t even realize he had! But I had seen that exercise routine going around on Facebook and it interested me to add it to my weekly routine.
The videos are good to watch to learn what you want to focus on for your workouts. They use a lot of dynamic movements to get your body warmed up and loose without “stretching”. The key in this workout is to strengthen your running muscles because when you run you use them but you don’t actually strengthen or build them. Having a dedicated workout routine to focus on those muscles are what I want to work on during this year to help me be a stronger runner and to avoid injury because of overuse of these muscles.
The workouts also focus on your core. Core strength is important not just in running, but in all areas of your life. Unfortunately, we sit too much at work. Having a strong core helps protect our backs. Working our upper body will also help us in running because it will help prevent us from slumping forwards as we become tired during our long runs and longer races. By remaining upright and strong we will finish stronger and will again avoid injury.
I haven’t started this routine yet; but I plan to so that I can get stronger and more fit and become a better, and hopefully faster runner.