Question on Strength Training For the 1500m!!!!

Use the letsrun search: Runningart2004. I've written a lot on the subject.

General strength: 1-3 days a week, 8-12 reps (ie: MAX wt you can lift with PROPER FORM for 8-12 reps), 1-3 sets, total body circuit (ie: do all exercises then go back for a 2nd or 3rd circuit)

Squat

Bench Press

RDL

Dumbbell Row

Lunge

Shoulder Press

Calf Raise

Lat Pulldown

Specific strength: 1-3 days a week, Week 1: 15 reps, Week 2: 10 reps, Week 3: 8 reps, Week 4: 6 reps, repeat. 1-3 sets, total body circuit as below

Single Leg DB Squat

Explosive Pushups or traveling Pushup over a med ball or box

Single Leg Curl on S.Ball

Single Arm Cable Row with opposite hip extension

Dumbell Step Up W/Shoulder Press

Eccentric Single Leg Calf Raise

Lunge with Lat pulldown.

Also add in plyo exercises: Box Jump, Jump Over Box, Split Jump onto Box, Split Jump forward (traveling across the floor), Split Jump backward (traveling across the floor)

Pick 3 plyos. Perform plyos first.

Focus more on strength training during off-season, less so when in hard training/racing (ie: just do enough to maintain).

Alan

Now, I thought the general consensus was not MAX weight training but high reps low weight. What gives?

Try reading that again... He said maximum weight where one can perform 8-12 reps and maintain good form.

Oh wow, there is definitely NO general consensus.

I for one fall in the high weight/low rep belief for improvement, but there are many others who believe the opposite.

You don't increase strength with high reps/low weight. That would be muscular endurance. You increase strength with high weight/low reps.

The "consensus" is usually from other "runners" not from published studies and actual research:

FACTS:

1. Increased strength through weight training will increase running economy and improve performance.

2. Increased power through a combination of strength training and plyo's will increase running economy and improve performance.

3. In order to get the most out of your plyos you need the general strength behind it.

4. Strength training will lead to lower body fat and a lower injury rate.

5. You will not gain muscle mass. I repeat, you will not gain muscle mass. You are a runner. A runner turns over a crap ton of protein because of their endurance activity. No protein left for major increases in muscle mass. Your gains in strength will be mostly through neuromuscular adaptations. IE: Able to recruit more muscle mass during your activity. Recruit more muscle mass during running = faster speed.

Go to Pubmed and research. Don't blindly take the "consensus" from runners who have not studied the facts or 90-year old "experts" who have not kept up to date themselves.

3 sets of 12-20 reps is not "strength training". That is muscular endurance. It does have some benefit for us runners, BUT the majority of your strength training should be:

1. High weight, low reps, low number of sets. 1-3 sets of 12 working down to 4-6.

2. Dynamic and Explosive: Plyos, power exercises, exercises combining upper and lower body movements.

So the "consensus" you have always heard is outdated by about 10-30 years.

Alan

If you fully understand why distance runners should perform regular strength training (1-3 sets of 8-12 reps or lower) then you can skip this...

A 2008 study found that strength training improved 3k performance in "recreationally fit" women. (J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Mar;22(2):396-403.) An Endurance Only (EO) group was compared to a Combined Strength and Endurance (CSE) group. Both performed endurance training for 10 weeks. The CSE group performed strength training. While there were not significant differences in changes in Vo2max or Running Economy. The CSE had significantly improved strength (Squat, Hamstring Curl, Bench) and signifcantly better improvement in 3k time (CSE: 107.6 +/- 91.4 seconds vs EO: 77.3 +/- 93 seconds).

So, ask yourself why this occurs? Neuromuscular adaptations occur in strength training that allow you to recruit more muscle fibers. This occurs because one of the adaptations of high intensity strength training, that you do not get with endurance training, is an increased in avaialable fiber recruitment. IE: increased strength relative to muscle size (ie: increases strength w/o increase in muscle size.)

Alan

Wejo, is it that hard to add an edit function?...

Wanted to post these but ran out of time:

J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Jul;22(4):1176-83

Running-specific, periodized strength training attenuates loss of stride length during intense endurance running.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Jun;40(6):1087-92

Maximal strength training improves running economy in distance runners.

J Strength Cond Res. 2006 Nov;20(4):947-54

Short-term plyometric training improves running economy in highly trained middle and long distance runners.

Studies of this type have been around for at least a decade.

Alan