I’ve always had a passion for running and strength training. I saw a need in the Fort Collins, Colorado running community. I was aware of all of the evidence that strength training has profound benefits to runners.
Benefits including…
- Improved running economy/efficiency
- Reduced or delayed fatigue
- Improved anaerobic capacity
- Improved maximal speed
- [Speculated] reduced risk for injury (listen to the podcast for details)
I wondered why more runners weren’t strength training… and the ones that were, just weren’t lifting heavy enough, with the right exercises, or as frequently as they should.
I come from a background of various forms of recreational and competitive weightlifting, and so incorporating strength training exercises for my running has always been pretty natural for me… but most runners just don’t know what to do or where to start. Most aren’t even aware of the benefits and still think lifting will make them slow and bulky, or that just running more would be better time spent.
We wanted to put a few podcast episodes together to give runners the tools, knowledge, and confidence to be able to start strength training so they can maximize their running.
In this episode of the Making Strides Podcast, we sit down to begin a discussion revolving around strength training for runners. This will be part of a multi-episode series in an attempt to keep them in smaller bite-sized pieces. This way you can begin taking action after each episode for better, stronger running. In this episode, we discuss:
– what is and isn’t “strength training”
– variables to manipulate for continued progress
– how strong you need to be
– the benefits of strength training for runners.
You’ll want to listen to the full episode as we finish with a banger by answering the question: Does strength training actually reduce injury risk?!
3:30 Terms used to refer to strength training
7:00 What are do we stress with strength training?
9:20 How do we define strength training?
15:40 Why do some things not qualify as strength training?
17:15 What variables can we manipulate?
20:40 How strong do you need to be?
25:00 Trifecta of muscles to prioritize
27:45 Benefits of strength training
28:45 Will you get bulky from strength training?
31:00 Does strength training reduce injury risk?
