Weight Lifting for Distance Runners

Middle distance to 5K - very important. Long distance less so. It helps you maintain an erect carriage when fatigue sets in but you don't want to bulk up too much. It makes you a better animal! I worked out with the swim team in HS for the entire year with nautilus and it *really* helped me. Used free weights in college - not super heavy though. I wouldn't mess with your legs though. Situps and pushups are also good. Good luck and don't over do it!

"I wouldn't mess with your legs though. Situps and pushups are also good. Good luck and don't over do it![/quote]

Wouldn't mess with your legs? Um... I disagree. True mid-distance running wouldn't be complete without some quickness that is developed from weight training (and repeat 400s). Besides, lifting does wonders for balancing issues like tendonitis in the knee, etc. In my opinion, you need the extra boat you get from tight, strong muscles. I'm not saying do as much as sprinters, but some is good. Don't tell me you can run a 1:49 800m without some speed... [quote]huron wrote:

Any more details? What kind of strength programs do you guys do?

I would like to know of a good program too. Something simple but effective.

I once posed this question to Cory Everson, a bodybuilder who visited our gym in CO several years ago. I have to give her some credit--she seemed to know her stuff, and said as long as you can 15 or more reps of an exercise in a set, you won't bulk up. If you max out at 8, 10 or 12, you will indeed bulk up. Seems to make some sense. Lift to balance out muscle imbalances and make yourself stronger to run.

less weight high reps!

"I wouldn't mess with your legs though. Situps and pushups are also good. Good luck and don't over do it![/quote]

I used to believe that as well. However, I started doing some hamstring curls and leg presses. I've noticed that my knees don't hurt anymore after longer runs, and I have fewer problems with my hip flexors.

I follow the rule that someone else posted about 15 reps. I have a tendency to bulk up, so I keep the number of sets down to 2-3 * 15.

I work out at our fitness facility at lunch, so I have to use what equipment is available. If you don't have a lot of equipment, you can get pretty far just doing pushups, situps, and pullups.

Just to (maybe) add more weight to OneKeg - 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps was what I was always given for middle/distance runners. We preferred free weights, but that took spotters. No leg weights, though. We lifted after a hard workout, but it was left to the runner's discretion. For the 800m, I think weights helped me quite a bit. I was one of 2 or 3 distance runners who lifted on my team; the ones who lifted improved, the ones who didn't, didn't.

The most important thing is to make sure the weight lifting is specific to the running movement, something squats and knee extensions aren't. These kinds of things can be good for general strengthening, which might indirectly help your running, but unless they mimic the specific movements, resistance training will be far less useful.

Try this it out; its pretty good despite being on Runners World.

http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300,3-95-98-287,00.html

I used to believe that as well. However, I started doing some hamstring curls and leg presses. I've noticed that my knees don't hurt anymore after longer runs, and I have fewer problems with my hip flexors.[quote]

agree with Doug M...seems like one of the biggest benefits of lifting is that it can help keep you injury free. Had the same experience with knees and hip flexors.

First of all, for distance runners who probably aren't doing much in the way of fast 100m-400m intervals as 800m or 1500m might, I could see possibly that some leg weights might help. I came to the distances from being a sprinter, so I didn't really have that issue.

But for that sort of training, I think yoga would be more beneficial. And it might be more beneficial than weights - I haven't done it enough to really know.

Also, if I could afford the time, effort, and mental fortitude, I'd prefer swimming to lifting for building upper body. It keeps more flexibility and I still got stronger. It's just hard to do the run then find a pool, change again, and dive in to water.

Ha ha ha. Runners lifting weights. So funny. Be careful not to put any weights on the bar. It already weighs 45 pounds.

Last week I posed this very question to a friend of mine who is a power lifter. I stated the commonly accepted principle of low weights and high reps. He replied to my question as follows:

?It's important to remember to take anything I might say with a grain of salt - remember I'm no doctor and I have no formal qualification in the field of strength training or training generally for endurance athletes.

Having said that, let's see if we can proceed to address the question at hand. Resistance training/strength training/weight training are terms that people use interchangeably and however you say it, I'm all for it (provided that it's done properly and with a view to the demands of your particular sport).

I think the last point is important - to be productive (to improve performance in a specific sport), weight training must be targeted to address the requirements of the specific sport. So forget about training for general fitness - your running already does that for you.

Considering that you engage in long distance running, productive weight training for you would have to achieve the following:

-Not take long to do (you spend too much time running already and probably would benefit from maximizing your down time or active rest time).

- Help you run better (be this faster/or more efficiently i.e. get more force/work output for the same or lesser cardiovascular effort)

-Avoid creating a drain on your recovery ability that would take you days to recover from

-Avoid building muscle bulk that would be too calorically expensive (require you to eat more to keep it around) and that would be heavier and thus slow you down - a heavier, bulkier muscle takes longer to move.

-Would have to strengthen muscles/ligaments/tendons significantly while not adding bulk.

The answer to all of these questions probably lies in "power lifting" type training. Power lifters are brutally strong and train exclusively for strength and not for size. This type of training, as a consequence, will maximize functional strength without adding bulk. The exercises are based around low reps and lows sets with heavy weights (while preserving good form and a steady rep speed). An example would be the 5x5 leg press I told you about - 5 reps per set (with one - two minute rests between sets) and then go home. You will gain functional strength, little muscle bulk, have minimal muscle soreness and not spend a lot of time in the gym.

Remember that a human body is a unit (not just a collection of body parts) and the unit is one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Thus the whole body should be trained in the manner described above. Since your goal is only to gain functional strength, I would keep exercises for the upper body simple - body weight dips (which train the whole upper body by working the triceps/shoulders/and lower and medial aspects of the chest) and chin-ups which train the muscles of the upper back and biceps. Again, a productive routine would probably be a 5x5 (5 reps per set with 5 sets).

Remember that when I say heavy weight I mean relatively heavy - don't go piling on more weight than you can handle - start with a weight that allows you to do a 5x5 comfortably and then add weight each time you train. You'll be surprised at how fast your strength increases.

Incorporate more protein into your diet, as protein is responsible for muscular repair - good sources are eggs/tuna/lean meat (red and white, although white probably has less fat), peanut butter and cheese (which has too high a fat content but tastes good...lets admit it).

Websites to consider - check out power lifting sites by entering the word power lifting on a search engine like google. These sites will speak mostly about the big 3 Olympic lifts (squat/bench press/deadlift) but the discussions on functional strength development will give you a sense of where they (and I) are coming from.

For tips on the same sort of stuff (and stretching) try Pavel Tsatsouline (a Russian with a masters in sports and former strength coach to Spetnaz - soviet secret service. Try also the articles on the pro-Pavel website

www.dragondoor.com

Hope this is of interest...

Monty

Pick up the current Running Times has a two part article on just this subject

I had read some literature regarding a womens (British?) XC world championship team who swore that the reason that absoutley nobody delt with injury was do to lower-body strength training. Does anyone know about this team or similar situations that support a "lack of injury" claim.

Monty makes a few good points and his objective, qualified position merits applause.

His position reminds me of a similar approach my coach in college took. He started by asking, "How much do you think the top five Kenyans at the World X-C's can bench press, on average?" He then pointed out that though they may be small chested, they have strong torso muscles, shoulders, backs and even arms. His point was that to get from point a to point b faster than others, one needed an optiminal ratio of low mass and maximum strength for that mass. More mass may mean more strength, but the extra mass threw the ratio off from optimal.

Above all, he thought the cardiovascular development of an athlete was of upmost priority. That came through mileage and elevated heart rate efforts.

Next, he thought the key to speed was keeping good form, which he saw as maintaining posture and arm carriage. Thus, he said lots of situps, at varying angles, was important for strong posture. Second, he said minimal arm and back strengthening was important, so he recommended minimal push-ups and pull-ups. Nothing more needed to be done.

Moreover, he thought the time one would spend in a weight room doing anything beyond the above situps, pushups and pullups was better spent logging more mileage or doing strides, depending on the point in the competitive cycle.

Over the years - it has been many years since I left him - I have seen the "wisdom of his ways." I used to lift quite a lot, but no longer do. Instead, I log more mileage and do a fair amount of situps, pushups and pullups.

I think my lifting was a mistake and perhaps an indirect attempt to become a better runner by not running as much, a la Galloway's article in Joggers' World about running a sub 2:40 marathon on 40 miles a week and overemphasizing Seb Coe's well documented circuit training (which most articles failed to include mention that Seb was simultaneously running 90 miles a week or thereabout).

In short, we must not forget that the key to running fast for distance runners is simply running a lot.

Long distance runners, 10K and up, should do circuit training. You should hit all the major muscle groups, from largest to smallest, alternating agonist/antagonist (e.g. bench press/bent row). Do one to three sets of 30 seconds of each exercise with not more than 30 seconds of rest between them. Don't worry about how much weight. Aim for about 30 - 60 minutes total. This will keep the heart rate high, which will be almost like another easy run, without the impact. It will also work accessory muscles that running doesn't which will help to keep proper form. Try to lift twice a week. It is too hard to do hard running and lift three times a week. If you don't max out on each exercise but just throw some weight around, you will be less likely to skip when tired.

Middle distance should do the same exercises, but they should do two to three sets of 8-12 reps with at least a minute between sets. Start by doing the max that you can do three sets of eight with a minute rest. When you can do three sets of twelve, add more weight and go back to 8 reps. Lift 2-3 times per week when not racing and 1-2 when racing.

Let me give this a try. Back in college this is the routine I did 3 times a week in the off season and two times a week in season. Always done after a recovery run and mostly on machines. Everything was 2 sets x 15-20 reps, so the weight was light. I would take 15 seconds rest between each set and about 30 secs to a minute between each exercise, making the last 5 or 6 of the second set a real bitch. The order was done differently everytime, except that the antagonist muscle action was always next (eg: bench press/row or overhead press/pull-up, etc)

Bench Press (dumbbells)

Seated Row (machine)

Overhead Press (dumbbells)

Lat Pulldown (machine) or Pull-ups

Bicep Curls (dumbbells)

Tricep Extension (machine)

Body Weight Squats

Body Weight Lunges

200 reps worth of abs

You'll be out of there in about 20 minutes. The body weight leg stuff, plus drills should be sufficient for the legs.