how many times do you do strength training a week?

I do strength almost daily in prep for outdoor, but something different everyday. 2-3 days a week I will focus on abs and leg stability, other days will be a small amount of arms, with working on muscle, such as squats, lunges, and calf raises.

Full gym twice a week with some core, stability, balance and band exercises to warm-up but then get into heavy lifting like squats, lunges, RDLs, step-ups. I also do pull-ups because it’s convenient at the gym.

The other five days of the week I do a variation of Jay Johnson’s SAM routine. Push-ups and body weight dips on these days too.

One of the five days I’ll also lift upper body, usually after my long run.

Now that you mentioned it.... Not enough

Every day. I do weight carries, weighted arm swings, overhead lifts, range of movement actions. Some people call it roofing, flooring, painting, remodeling, and siding.

questionlets2 wrote:

How often do you do strength training workouts, and what do they comprise of?

Never!!! Strength work is for pussies.

Saturday Long Run? wrote:

Full gym twice a week with some core, stability, balance and band exercises to warm-up but then get into heavy lifting like squats, lunges, RDLs, step-ups. I also do pull-ups because it’s convenient at the gym.

The other five days of the week I do a variation of Jay Johnson’s SAM routine. Push-ups and body weight dips on these days too.

One of the five days I’ll also lift upper body, usually after my long run.

I'm not the expert at all on this but they teach in the strength and conditioning class for track to stay away from large muscle group static weight lifting in season like squats, weighted lunges, bench. If you do them maybe once every couple of weeks for maintenance reasons hitting them hard with low reps.

Those exercises supposedly mess with proprioceptive functions within the muscle fiber which can screw up your timing and range of motion when you run. The recovery from this they say could be 6 weeks.

I push myself up outta my Lazyboy multiple times a day to pee and get more beer and chips.

What? Stay away from squats and bench press? I've never heard that before. Saturday long run's routine sounds excellent.

three times a week.

Two times a week I do core, arms, and legs at the gym (what most would call full body, after workout #2 on Thursday and long run on Sat/Sun.)

After workout #1 on Tuesday, which tends to be faster stuff, I do a light plyo workout.

Three times a week additionally I do hips/glutes/stability/etc. because I get injured if I don't.

Saturday Long Run? wrote:

Full gym twice a week with some core, stability, balance and band exercises to warm-up but then get into heavy lifting like squats, lunges, RDLs, step-ups. I also do pull-ups because it’s convenient at the gym.

The other five days of the week I do a variation of Jay Johnson’s SAM routine. Push-ups and body weight dips on these days too.

One of the five days I’ll also lift upper body, usually after my long run.

I do a four day cycle: workout, off, recovery, easy w/strides and repeat...

When would you schedule in strength stuff in this cycle? By strength stuff I mean core/hip and glute stuff - clams, side raises, side planks w/raise, band lunge, band step down, hydrant, glute bridge - all one set each side to failure.

Scheduling Issues-

Are you familiar with Jay Johnson’s SAM routine? I do that or a variation of it daily. On my heavier lifting days a variation of it becomes part of my warm-up routine. I think it can be done daily because it’s not too long and as long as it doesn’t make you sore you should be fine. If you’re lifting relatively heavy then I would only do that on workout days. Body weight and band exercises can be done daily IMO.

3 x per week during base, 2 x per week once i am doing more serious running workouts.

My routine is mostly ‘pre-hab’ style body weight exercises (single-leg squats, single leg deadlifts... ) augmented with dumbbells as I progress. I also do a few things from the Running Rewired book as well as a few random things to address recent injuries (e.g. I’m doing Nordic hamstring drops right now).

Not really a strength workout, but my warmup, warm down routine is also based on a few routines filtered through Jay Johnson ( the lunge matrix, the hip girdle(?) routine...). I also do a short lunch sesh at my office’s gym 5 x per week, but it is mostly a glorified warm-up (elliptical, a few yoga ball exercises, some balance exercises and light arms).

coach wrote:

otter wrote:

I'm not the expert at all on this but they teach in the strength and conditioning class for track to stay away from large muscle group static weight lifting in season like squats, weighted lunges, bench. If you do them maybe once every couple of weeks for maintenance reasons hitting them hard with low reps.

Those exercises supposedly mess with proprioceptive functions within the muscle fiber which can screw up your timing and range of motion when you run. The recovery from this they say could be 6 weeks.

What? Stay away from squats and bench press? I've never heard that before. Saturday long run's routine sounds excellent.

That’s what they are teaching in Strength and conditioning 310. They say you can hit it in season now and then. Low reps, heavy. Maybe twice a mesocyclone otherwise stay away from it unless you are out of season.

Again, I’m not the expert. I just took the course to make sure my trainers are in target with my athletes. I’m taking the advice. You can do what you want with it.

They preach Olympic lifts for High intensity days. General strength, regional lifts, etc. for most other days.

Otter, so no 1 legged variations- no split squats nor 1 legged RDLs?

They were good with regional lifts and had less of an issue with single leg stuff. Overall I found Boo Schexnayder to be very knowledgeable on lifting and he was fairly adamant about laying off the static work on a regular basis.

I took the course because this is not my area of expertise and I had a lot of conflicting information coming from different trainers.

otter wrote:

They were good with regional lifts and had less of an issue with single leg stuff. Overall I found Boo Schexnayder to be very knowledgeable on lifting and he was fairly adamant about laying off the static work on a regular basis.

I took the course because this is not my area of expertise and I had a lot of conflicting information coming from different trainers.

That's because everyone in the field thinks they are an expert and there is relatively little certification or education needed to call oneself a "trainer".

Ideally you want a "strength and conditioning coach" who is trained to evaluate the strength needs of your sport and program accordingly. Ideally this is someone with a CSCS from the NSCA, but again most of them are not concerned with distance runners.

Time and time and time and time.....again....it has been shown through peer reviewed research that explosive and/or high intensity (HEAVY...85% 1RM or greater) resistance training improves distance running performance via improvements in running economy. Farah, Rupp, NOP has also used this type of training. Is it used exclusively? Nah of course not. Like any form of training it is periodized and molded around your distance running.....

Off season: major lifts. I say front squats, trap bar DL, progress to a max set of 2-5reps. 2x week. Dips n pull-ups upper body. Nothing crazy with upper body.

Pre-season: same as above. Incorporate plyos or explosive lifts (high pulls, push jerk, box jumps, jump squats, just pick one)

In season: 1x week, 1 heavy lift, 1 explosive movement. All maintenance)

Or something like that.

Alan

Thanks for the info Otter. I havent heard Boo in about 10 years. The conflicting advice is from non track experts which is why USTFCCA developed its own strength certification. If you're coaching college or high level athletes he's the one to listen to.

There are lots more