How does lifting on your hard days help you "recover better"?

It’s hard for me to see how lifting helps you recover from anything.

it takes more time to recover from even lower intensity lifting compared to what it takes to recover from running workouts. So if you did the workout in the morning and then lifting in the evening, you'd recover more quickly than when you did the lifting one day after the workout.

I like stacking them on quality days (Monday for me) to make sure I fully recover by my Friday long run. I find that I’m not fully recovered from a hard Monday lifting session until Thursday. That gives me one extra easy aerobic day before hitting my long run. If I lift on my recovery day (Tuesday) then I would need to take an extra recovery day on Wednesday, which is when I do my midweek medium long run. Then I’d be pushing my medium long run to Thursday, back to back with my Friday long run, which is stupid. It just works with my schedule better.

Different people have different schedules though so as long as you’re recovering I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

There is a release of testosterone and growth hormone when you lift.

Here is the interesting part. You can get that same release of hormones if you lifted with your arms post workout. That is the truth and would aid in recovery.

That being said, there are many that have trained well despite never lifting.

otter wrote:

You can get that same release of hormones if you lifted with your arms post workout. That is the truth and would aid in recovery.

What do you mean here, bro?

DudeBroMan wrote:

otter wrote:

You can get that same release of hormones if you lifted with your arms post workout. That is the truth and would aid in recovery.

What do you mean here, bro?

He means don’t train your legs, just do upper body weights to generate the same testosterone, HGH release.

When I run hard, I super blast my fking legs , with weighted MFing lunges , fking kettle swings, and MFing box jumps . Then on easy days, I literally feel my my fking legs muscle grow and recover.

Evidence?

Can you provide any scientific studies justifying your claim?

I know the benefits of lifting are for a hormonal surge but I am having trouble with the idea by lifting arms alone that there will be an equivalent hormonal spike.

Lifting make muscles stronger. When run, you no get as sore as before when you had weak muscles.

It seems pretty simple to me... hard days should be hard, and easy days should be easy. Doing a hard lifting session on an easy running day interrupts your body's recovery from the hard running workout the day or two before.

sanchobaile wrote:

It seems pretty simple to me... hard days should be hard, and easy days should be easy. Doing a hard lifting session on an easy running day interrupts your body's recovery from the hard running workout the day or two before.

What about a moderate day like a Tempo? Does it matter when you lift? My legs actually feel good after a Tempo as compared to a harder Max.

You're doing the same amount of work through the week. BUT, your legs will be fresh again in time for your speed workouts.

I think the great sprint coach, Boo Schexnayder, put it quite nicely in his exposition on training distance runners (

http://www.sacspeed.com/pdf/distance.pdf

) in which he explains the why of two things:

1. doing heavy static lifts (which he actually recommends doing on the day of a pure speed workout e.g. not a taxing running workout aerobically but just a neuromuscular effort)

2. doing more body building lifts on the day of a "hard" workout (200s, 400s, anything at a really high level of exertion involving anaerobic and aerobic fatigue)

I think they both together answer your question with number 2. specifically answering your question.

1. Heavy lifting

"Static lifts, provided full ranges of motion are employed (such as deep

squatting) strengthen the body in the correct proportions… they develop the correct ratios of core

strength to peripheral strength. This fixes many running mechanic problems. They also involve huge

amounts of muscle tissue, so the positive blood chemistry changes that result from them are huge.

Finally, more than anything else you do, they stimulate calcium metabolism, strengthening bones and

battling bone degeneration. "

2.Body building circuits post workout

"Why for Distance Athletes? These circuits, when done following the protocol described, create

endocrine profiles that permit increases in strength, speed, and endurance. They also accelerate recovery

from the tough work you are doing elsewhere in the program. They stimulate the replenishment of

glycogen more effectively than anything else you can do on or off the track (provided nutritional support

is present). For these reasons they are a great follow-up to the tougher threshold, interval, or repetition

workouts you do, assisting recovery and improving work on the subsequent day. "

sanchobaile wrote:

It seems pretty simple to me... hard days should be hard, and easy days should be easy. Doing a hard lifting session on an easy running day interrupts your body's recovery from the hard running workout the day or two before.

How about for a high schooler that races on both Wednesday and Saturday. Where do you fit in lifting? It’s not feasible to get in the weight room after traveling to races.

don’t train legs wrote:

DudeBroMan wrote:

What do you mean here, bro?

He means don’t train your legs, just do upper body weights to generate the same testosterone, HGH release.

To be clear about what I meant. I never said to not lift with your legs. I was trying to give perspective on working the endocrine system for a global benefit in that you do not have to target specific muscles to trigger it.

Boo Schexnayder, by the way is a good resource for what to do.

He also advocates for Olympic lifts on those high neural days that you would do static lifting. He does not like to see his athletes doing static squats. He says if you do, do them every 10-14 days and go heavy with very few reps. That being said we, as distance runners don't have many high neural days.

The bodybuilding does not bring about hypertrophy according to Boo because during development the body will "choose" not to get larger as long as you are in a full running program. This can be an issue if you are doing a lot of weights on a long layoff period.

i'm experimenting with 10x8 heavy squat plus 8x6 heavy deadlifts after my hard workouts (R, I pace), feeling 10xbetter

otter wrote:

There is a release of testosterone and growth hormone when you lift.

This is often claimed, but there's very little good quality evidence that it's true.

liftingandrunningdomix wrote:

I understand the concept of lifting weights on your hard days in order to "just recover" on your easy days, but in theory, how does it make sense?

Aren't you still subjecting your body to the same amount of work throughout the week and that it "shouldn't" make a difference when you lift weights? And by this I mean, if you pound your body even harder on your hard running days by lifting weights, it needs to recover even more so the recovery time is still the same than if you did it on a recovery day?

Maybe I'm missing something here. I have been doing workouts on easy days but I'm going to start doing them on hard days just to experiment but I'd like to understand what happens to the body too if someone knows the underlying concepts