It is no secret that RUNNING is the key to success when it comes to improving your ability to RUN. While strength training is a vital component to get faster, if you aren’t actually practicing the skill of running, you will not improve. Tom Brady didn’t develop the ability to throw tight spirals by solely doing wrist curls – he practiced the actual skill repeatedly over time. Without that regular, practical, application of the skill in practice, he’d just have strong, well-defined forearms! Great for bodybuilding, not for quarterbacking.
Point being, if you want to improve your running, RUN! As athletes, unless you are a bodybuilder, powerlifter, or weightlifter (Olympic lifts), strength training is a tool that supplements your actual activity and makes you better at whatever it is you’re trying to improve upon. Whether that is running, riding a bike, or tossing your kid as high in the air as possible while freaking your spouse out (my personal favorite), the time spent strength training is utilized to improve our abilities at all of those things.
So how do we balance the two?
Point being, if you want to improve your running, RUN! As athletes, unless you are a bodybuilder, powerlifter, or weightlifter (Olympic lifts), strength training is a tool that supplements your actual activity and makes you better at whatever it is you’re trying to improve upon. Whether that is running, riding a bike, or tossing your kid as high in the air as possible while freaking your spouse out (my personal favorite), the time spent strength training is utilized to improve our abilities at all of those things.
So how do we balance the two?
Properly Timing Your Strength Workouts:
This is where many runners tend to get lost. The secret is balance. There is little benefit in running 9 hard miles and then heading to the weight room for 90 minutes of heavy back squats. And any short term benefit you may get, is lost when you can’t do anything the following day because you’re still recovering from that workout.
Generally speaking, your high volume strength days would be when you are doing a “shorter” run. If you are limited in the amount of time you have to train, as most of us are, break up your day so that you strength train in the morning and run in the afternoon/evening. For many people, arranging two separate times during the day for a workout isn’t ideal (the extra shower, the warm up, sweating up two sets of clothes, other #firstworldproblems), but it is a great way to ensure execution of the entire program. If the objective is to pack your daily workout into one session, than strength training before a run (or the cardio component of your workout) is a solid approach, as an athlete is less likely to bypass the strength routine and more willing to give it the necessary intensity if it’s done before the workout. After tough interval training, it can be difficult to get motivated to lift heavy, and your technique and intensity may suffer as a result.
How much should you strength train?
There are many nuances to the precise programming volume/intensity (an individual’s specific fitness level, time until their next race, etc.), so providing every scenario would be pretty tough in a short blog like this. A good takeaway would be: 2-3 days/week is sufficient for beginner level individuals to see strength gains and 3-5 days/week for intermediate and well-trained athletes. Strength training fewer than 3 days/week would consist of compound lifts that cover a variety of muscle groups and provide the most bang for your buck, while 3+ days/week plans would be much shorter routines, and have more specific lifts that isolate and target adaptations in certain muscle groups.
What About Core Work?
No matter the amount of running and strength training being done in the course of a workout, ALWAYS MAKE TIME FOR YOUR CORE. This is the most important element in your ability to become a better runner, and as we’ve stated in previous blogs, a weak core opens the door to a host of injury issues and running inefficiencies. It doesn’t have to be high intensity core work every day, but specific, targeted core work on a daily basis is key. A good way to look at it is if you are on a day where you aren’t strength training, a few sets of simple exercises either before or after a run will do the trick. On rest days, simply “activating” the core muscles in an athletic fashion would be sufficient. The Windsor Running team will develop programming that will specifically guide the type of core work and intensity as part of the overall package.
So in summary, and if you were looking to skip down to the bottom of this blog, working in adequate strength training in your running routine would look like this:
This is where many runners tend to get lost. The secret is balance. There is little benefit in running 9 hard miles and then heading to the weight room for 90 minutes of heavy back squats. And any short term benefit you may get, is lost when you can’t do anything the following day because you’re still recovering from that workout.
- On days when you are doing your high volume strength training, you should be minimizing your running volume.
- On days when you are focusing on shorter, intervals or speed training, you can target high volume strength training.
- On long run days, you should avoid strength training – not only because of the high daily training volume, but also because of the amount of time you’d spend training that day. Training for over 2 hours a day is a habit that is difficult to sustain on a regular basis.
Generally speaking, your high volume strength days would be when you are doing a “shorter” run. If you are limited in the amount of time you have to train, as most of us are, break up your day so that you strength train in the morning and run in the afternoon/evening. For many people, arranging two separate times during the day for a workout isn’t ideal (the extra shower, the warm up, sweating up two sets of clothes, other #firstworldproblems), but it is a great way to ensure execution of the entire program. If the objective is to pack your daily workout into one session, than strength training before a run (or the cardio component of your workout) is a solid approach, as an athlete is less likely to bypass the strength routine and more willing to give it the necessary intensity if it’s done before the workout. After tough interval training, it can be difficult to get motivated to lift heavy, and your technique and intensity may suffer as a result.
How much should you strength train?
There are many nuances to the precise programming volume/intensity (an individual’s specific fitness level, time until their next race, etc.), so providing every scenario would be pretty tough in a short blog like this. A good takeaway would be: 2-3 days/week is sufficient for beginner level individuals to see strength gains and 3-5 days/week for intermediate and well-trained athletes. Strength training fewer than 3 days/week would consist of compound lifts that cover a variety of muscle groups and provide the most bang for your buck, while 3+ days/week plans would be much shorter routines, and have more specific lifts that isolate and target adaptations in certain muscle groups.
What About Core Work?
No matter the amount of running and strength training being done in the course of a workout, ALWAYS MAKE TIME FOR YOUR CORE. This is the most important element in your ability to become a better runner, and as we’ve stated in previous blogs, a weak core opens the door to a host of injury issues and running inefficiencies. It doesn’t have to be high intensity core work every day, but specific, targeted core work on a daily basis is key. A good way to look at it is if you are on a day where you aren’t strength training, a few sets of simple exercises either before or after a run will do the trick. On rest days, simply “activating” the core muscles in an athletic fashion would be sufficient. The Windsor Running team will develop programming that will specifically guide the type of core work and intensity as part of the overall package.
So in summary, and if you were looking to skip down to the bottom of this blog, working in adequate strength training in your running routine would look like this:
- 2-3 days/week for beginner athletes, 3-5 for intermediate/advanced competitors.
- High volume strength training on lower volume run days.
- If you have the time and can plan it out, strength train in the morning, and run later in the day.
- If doing everything in one workout, strength training before you run, while not the golden rule, is a good approach to ensure follow through.
- At a minimum, implement core exercises into your running routine DAILY!!