"Easy strength" does not take a long time (less than 15 minutes) and it does not exhaust you, and it works.
"Easy strength" does not take a long time (less than 15 minutes) and it does not exhaust you, and it works.
You should group lifting neurally with your running workouts. Hi speed work days which are not many with distance running can be Olympic lifts, static lifts. Other regular training days can be body building format (It's the protocol, don't get caught up with the name), general strength training, regional lifts.
Be careful with squats especially during the competition phase of training. They mess with you proprioception. Hardly something you want to fool with especially for all of you guys who are now deep in your XC season right now. Once every couple of weeks and heavy when you do, but this is only after experience with this lift in other phases.
The general exercises are great. You can literally do push ups after a speed workout and in doing soi you will get a global release of growth hormone and testosterone. So you will heal your legs faster by working out your arms.
The easy strength isn't lifting heavy. In running terms it is like doing 5 easy runs/week versus 2/workouts. It is a poor analogy but you get the point. For beginners it has the advantage of having you do a lot of lifts which helps build efficiency with the movements. And it helps to build a habit if you do something every day. But it isn't really the recommend way of building strength. And yes it would take forever. 10 mins warm up, 15 to 20 mins workout and 10 min cool down 5x week is a lot of time.
The thing with lifting, plyos,and the rest is that a little goes a long way. You want to do the 20% of the work that gets you 80% of the benefit and leave the last 20% for the people who specialize in lifting. I am some what joking about putting the plates on the bar being enough upper body work, but it is pretty darn close. Dead lifting, squating, weighted carries, and lunging will be working your core quite a bit. Throw in a few pull ups and push ups and you will be fine.
I am somewhat familiar with the concept of french contrast training. Is this better than doing plyos separately in a lift or maybe french contrast some days and separate plyos another? What would be some examples of french contrast training? Heavy front or back squat super set with box jumps would be the obvious one? Lunges+Single leg box jump or single leg hurdle hops? I assume you would not do french contrast with the deadlift? And not with oly lifts since they are already explosive and high speed?
I don't follow Don Dan Jan John or any other "famous trainer enter program here". Your best strength coaches you'll never see write a book or sell a program. They are all on pro sports teams or top level collegiate teams making 6 figures plus. That being said, the fit biz is highly unregulated and the strength biz is only marginally so.
So.....
Start with the basics. What is your needs analysis? Why do I want to strength train? You want to strength train just to get better strength or to get better at running? So fit your strength training within those left and right limits.
Do strong and powerful legs, the musculature from your hips to your toes, improve running performance by improving running economy? Yes. Do strong and powerful legs decrease injury risk? Yes. If we can agree on those two points then we can move forward
Increase strength through progressive overload using rep ranges that are best suited at strength development. Think of it as a continuum. 3 x 10 @ 75% will still improve strength, but it will not be the most effective long term, BUT you also can't just do sets of 3 @ 90% year round either. So use a basic linear progression adjusted for your needs:
Trap Bar Deadlft
Cross Arm Front Squat
Why? They are noob proof. Easy to learn. Self regulating.
Week 1-4: 3 x 10 @ 75% w/1min rest
Week 5-12: 3 x 5 @ 80% w/2min rest
Week 12-16: ramp up to a max set of 3-5 reps at 85-90% w/3min rest before the last set.
Upper Body: pullups, Dips, inverted rows, plyo pushups. Choose 1 push, 1 pull. 3 x AMRAP
Plyos: Start with week 5
Week 5-12: squat jump 3 x 5, single leg hop 3 x 5, 2-3min rest
Week 13-16: box jump 3 x 5, single leg box jump 3 x 5, 2-3min rest
Alan
In a nutshell - runners should do some work for glutes (all three groups), core (planks) and hamstrings (eccentric). These three areas cover about 90% of what you need. Start with light resistance and higher reps. Once you are comfortable with a certain exercise reduce reps and increase weight. With some research you can prob. find about a 100 different exercises that are running specific. For my running group I have created specific sets of exercises that we rotate through.
I...actually don't understand. What do you mean by "easy strength?" Like, are you just lifting light weights between sessions? What are you trying to accomplish if it isn't to build strength, and why would you be lifting weights if it's isn't to build strength in the first place? Obviously beginners shouldn't be lifting heavy until they "build efficiency with the movements," but then again you learn the movements so you can utilize them to properly train.
Also, concerning your "20% of the work that gets you 80% of the benefit" comment is just wrong. You're advocating for submaximal lifting, which isn't going getting the proper stimulus to get stronger. If you are coaching runners and having them just go through the motions, you are doing them a massive disservice. It'd be like telling your runners "Hey, I know you can run 5 minute pace for these mile reps and that' workout will make you fasters, but I'm going to have go on a 5 mile run at 7 pace instead as it's only 20% intense but it will get you 80% of the benefit." You are neglecting to do optimal training for really no good reason.
Lastly, equating easy lifting sessions to easy running is a false equivalency. It's conflating the physiological adaptations and the stresses that occurs from the two, when they are pretty different (depending on the workout). Easy running between workouts is necessary to maintain the cardiovascular adaptations, but you don't need to do that in lifting - it's actually detrimental to strength gains. It's also might not be the best use of your time, considering you should already be competent at doing the lifts. But you really want to go and just squat the bar for the hell of it, you be you and go for it.
Actually some of the best including Joe Kenn and Cal Dietz have written books. They also lecture at certification symposiums. I like to reference the experts so readers understand that I'm not another anonymous poster making things up. I also want readers to learn and become educated.
Easy strength is based on Pavel's "grease the groove" concept of repetition. The exact opposite of lifting til failure you're hitting every lift comfortably. The 5 lifts you do easily is the session- every day.
You could perform French contrast training with deadlifts as the first exercise with standing long jumps, olympic lifting.
I suspect for most of us, plyos are done better alone and French contrast should be done by advanced athletes certain times of the year. But the question could plyos be done while also lifting was asked.
Use google. It is an easy term. and it takes about 2mins to read an article about it.
If. you read my post instead of making up stuff, you will see I never advocated submaximal lifting. I have no clue how you came to that conclusion. I recommend doing 20% of the work and not 100%. I am not a weight lifter or a body builder. There is no reason for me do be doing some split routine that has me in the gym 4-5x/week for an hour+/day. I go in do an 30 mins of squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull ups, and some core and get out. I am working out an 1 hour per week instead of 4 or 5 instead of what a strength dude does. I.e. 20% of the work. And yes it means I am only deadlifting ~2x my BW instead of like 2.5 or 3x if I focused solely on strength and. did the rest of the work.
And since you might be functionally illiterate, note how I point out the weakness of the analogy at the start. It was simply to get across the point of how you can lift every day compared to other routines.
For my easy strength routine I did- goblet squats ( 2 sets of 5), 1 LRDLs ( 2 sets of 5), inverted rows (2 ×5), shoulder press (2×5) , kettle bell swings (5x15).
It took 15 minutes. The weights varied based on how I was feeling but it was always "easy".
LOL I've been wasting my time. There is no way in hell you are doing "squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull ups, and some core" in 30 minutes and doing them with any meaningful weight, let alone 2x bw deadlifts " easy lifting" lol. The set up time would be limiting, let alone you getting all that in. You are an obvious troll, so congrats on catching me! NICE WORK
Anyway, to reiterate my previous points to the OP - deadlifts and squats are a must - full body lifts that work everything and will get you STRONG and help develop raw speed. Heavy 3x5s are great, and unless you are eating like crazy, you won't put on mass and get big. Try to lift 2x a week, but 1 time is fine if thats all you can do. Also, read RunningArt's post - dude knows his stuff!!
There's a lot of misinformation in these posts. I bet everyone here is incorrect when it comes to strength training and running. If you study biomechanics, you'd understand that running doesn't require one to be strong. Just strong enough. Oh, and squats, deadlifts, lunges, planks, etc. are worthless for running. They may even be counterproductive.
Doing almost any sensible lifting program is a huge improvement on doing nothing. People get too hung up on the minutiae of one program over another.
For someone new to lifting pick a beginner program that focuses on the big compound lifts: squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, rows (or power cleans), chin-ups.
Start with really conservative weights and build up gradually. Learn proper form (there are loads of youtube videos and such). Once you get to the point where you plateau then start worrying about the details.
MisinformationObserver wrote:
There's a lot of misinformation in these posts. I bet everyone here is incorrect when it comes to strength training and running. If you study biomechanics, you'd understand that running doesn't require one to be strong. Just strong enough. Oh, and squats, deadlifts, lunges, planks, etc. are worthless for running. They may even be counterproductive.
Because running does not involve legs?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26694507/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27135468/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29249083/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18978605/Jay Dicharry’s Running Rewired. Best book for strength for runners. If you lift heavy (which you should) once or twice per week is all you’ll be able to do. It’ll take 48-72 hours to recover as another poster mentioned. People who say they can recover faster aren’t lifting heavy enough. Early season you should be able to do twice per week heavy sessions, middle/late, once per week is plenty. Body weight and prop stuff (Swiss ball, resistance bands, sling, etc...) can be done any time.
Also, basic strength, push/pull/squat/loaded carry/hinge/press, if you do those you’re good. Jay covers all that in a running specific program.
adsfdasfasfsafadfa wrote:
Read the post title. We are talking about runners lifting not all around lifting....
BRUH. I'm reading all these replies and I can't believe it. Some of you guys are either morons or overthinking this WAY TOO MUCH, hope the latter. Runner's weight lifting program should be the fcking same as a program of any other fcking athlete in the world. You guys lift weights to get stronger and avoid muscle imbalances, in other words to prevent injuries, and you do it by progressively overloading, in other words going HARDER THAN LAST TIME. 99% of distance runners, including me, are not fcking strong enough, so cut the crap and do simple COMPOUND movements, focus on form over reps, and just fcking do it in order to develop strength all around your body, especially if you're a beginner. What's fckin hard to grasp here? You're not an advanced bodybuilder to get into fcking details, you're a fcking distance runner who needs to get stronger. Remember people, running is a whole body workout!!! So again, cut the crap people, do compound exercises which hit multiple muscles together, train all muscle groups two times a week and that's fcking it. As simple as that.
And for every study ther is prolly another study that disproves it. Just focus on training.
dofla wrote:
And for every study ther is prolly another study that disproves it. Just focus on training.
No, the evidence is pretty overwhelming that strength training has massive benefits for distance running. And as Dolfta said above, lifting programs for athletes pretty much share concepts with slight variations depending on the sport. You're trying to building resiliency/strength/power, and the process to do so is universal across all disciplines.
Seriously, running is essentially the ONLY sport where there's pushback against strength training. It's severely misguided and a missed avenue to help with your training.