Forums >General Running>Do Runners need to be Strong?
How important do you feel it is to supplement running with strength training?
Does anyone know of any good strength training programs for runners?
So far, I have found only one called: Stronger Runner
How important do you feel it is to supplement running with strength training? Does anyone know of any good strength training programs for runners? So far, I have found only one called: Stronger Runner
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I recommend the following two books.
Running Anatomy by Puleo, Joseph and Milroy, Patrick
Core Performance Endurance by Verstegen, Mark, Peter Williams and Jessi Stensland
Don't forget about this classic:
Thanks EastRiverRunner.
I had never heard of any of those.
I am going to check them out.
Just google coach Jay Johnson and you'll find a lot of free strength videos for runners. He also has a couple of DVDs for sale. But the free videos will get you started.
I strenght train, but not to improve my running. Running is great (as is hiking and cycling which I also do) for your legs, but there still are things that don't get worked as much as they need to, so I get all those with weights.
There are three bacic elements of weight lifting and I do all three. High Reps (relatively low weight) for endurance; High weight, low Reps for strenght; Explosive power, lifting a quickly as possible.
Here's a good example of all on this video (jump to the 4:30 time-period for an example of developing explosive power) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWvIu7s-vIM
Awesome. Looks like a good place to start.
Funky Kicks 2019
I think core work is very important for runners. It's easy to develop weak abs if all you do is run. I think a strong upper body helps to visually even out a strong lower body. I do free weights and core work four days a week. I think it has helped my running.
Leah, mother of dogs
You don't want to be running around looking a total wimp, do you?
Right on! That's what I am thinking or feeling like a wimp.
Running Chick
i don't know if i will take a hit with this or not. so, this is just my opinion - but i have run since i was a child........ and i think you don't HAVE to strength train. meaning - you can just run only. obviously, it would help you overall if you augmented your running with other forms of activities. and i do. but the bottom line - in my experience- is that to run, the only thing that needs to be strong is your mind. love.
Proboscis Colossus
I credit my strength training with keeping me relatively injury-free for awhile now *knocks on wood*. And, I feel like (so, grain of salt) it's helped me be a little faster/more efficient.
Also: fitted running shirts
"God guides us on our journey, but careful with those feet." - David Lee Roth, of all people
Latent Runner
Okay, y'all are killing me. When it comes to exercise, I run; period. That said, three days per week my "morning job" is to take care of eleven horses, and that means pitching a half-ton of horse poop per week, lifting and slinging numerous grain bags and bails of hay, and last but certainly not least, moving my charges around between the barn and the pastures (moving one at a time is easy, but when you move three at once, someone always seems to want to bite or kick someone else, and usually I'm in the middle; is "horse pushing" considered cross training?).
Fat old man PRs:
that's your non-running exercises, and perhaps some of the best you can do. It's functional!
when I was in HS an living on the farm, I would get lots of accidental strength training from the normal work a farmer does nearly every day. I find it interesting that i see some sites have an exercise called the "farmer's walk" This is nothing more than carrying heavy weights by your side as you walk around for a while. I use to do that every day...
Now as a professional duff sitter, I miss all that daily exercise.
Feeling the growl again
I grew up doing heavy farm labor. I followed that up by doing significant weight training until I was about 24. I NEVER got injured.
Fast forward a decade and change, and I've had repeated issues around my hips for the past several years. I have no proof, but I blame a combination of a desk job, no significant weight training, and much less "farm-like" labor (although I own property and still do some). I can honestly FEEL the difference when I do labor, my support muscles are just not as strong as they once were.
My personal opinion is that a runner does not need to weight lift. But I do think that significant cross training, core work, and such are good for the runner. I feel typical weight room lifts...which largely isolate and focus on large muscle groups...are less impactful as they don't help with the support muscles as much.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills