This post was written by James Estey, certified athletic trainer, Parkview Sports Medicine.
Running is an extremely accessible sport. Realistically, you don't even need a pair of shoes to go outside and jog around. However, if you want to progress, perform well and stay injury-free, you can’t just run and call it good. You need a well-rounded fitness regimen, including strength training.
Why runners should lift
Lifting weights is a crucial aspect of the sport of distance running. Why should you lift? A few reasons:
- First, a strong musculoskeletal system allows you to sustain more load on your body, meaning you can run longer, faster and avoid injury while you do.
- Second, it will make you more efficient, meaning you lose less energy for the same amount of effort.
For competitive athletes, strength training will also improve your power output – that initial hard get out at the start of a race and the finishing kick at the finish line.
Putting it into practice
So, now that you know why you should strength train, how should you go about it? A common misconception endurance athletes have about weight training relates to total weight lifted and reps performed.
Have you ever heard the term “low weight, high reps”? Throw that out the window. As endurance athletes, we already train for endurance in our muscles pretty much every time we exercise. Why would we need to train 3x20 calf raises, for example, when we go on a run and essentially get thousands of little calf raises?
We are looking for strength and power gains here, not muscular endurance. So, we want to lift heavy weights for fewer reps. To build strength, aim to lift heavy for about 6-8 reps, getting close to failure on your last set. For power goals, the rep range is even lower, 1-4, and the weight should be heavy, but you should be able to lift it quickly.
This information will hopefully help you continue to structure your training plan in a way that helps you meet your goals and get strong!
Learn more about the services available through Parkview Sports Medicine by visiting us here.
