Runners are disciplined when it comes to running but most runners suck at doing the little things that will keep you healthy.
Go listen to the Letsrun interview of Sean Brosnan, Nico Young's coach. Seriously, it is worth your time:
https://podcast.letsrun.com/episode/61d0ac01744c4875/sean-brosnan-coach-of-nico-young-tokyo-cancelled-webb-vs-centro-vs-symmonds-
Coach Brosnan has built a powerhouse program from nothing in just four years. The secret to his runners' success is not high mileage. The top boys are only running about 60 miles per week. No, his secret is keeping his runners healthy. They stretch before every workout and they do some kind of strength work. He specifically mentions that they work on their glutes. Not sure if they do barbell strength training or mainly bodyweight stuff.
Now go watch Katelyn Touchy's strength training video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTDeCFvG-bc
And Mo Farah's weight training routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91TZh72MnZI
Konstanze Klosterhalfen: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-VtDJZn_7m/
Jordan Hasay: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1xZD6llRg8/
Nick Symmonds: https://youtu.be/yJPeYggMLSE?t=220
What do these runners have in common? They all are doing squats or deadlifts, thus strengthening muscles that tend to be extremely weak in runners. This keeps them healthy so that they can train consistently. A lot of them also do upper body strength work, which is great, but I believe the key to good running health is the posterior chain.
Here are exercises that I think all runners should be doing twice a week to build their posterior chains:
Deadlifts
Squats (important to go below parallel to engage your glutes and hamstrings)
Lunges
Barbell hip thrusts (for glutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmFkJxPzeM
Side planks (for glute meds)
Side leg lifts (for glute meds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgh6sGwtTwk
The other one I would add is an exercise to strengthen the muscles around your ankles. Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgnMoSHF0qE
In the podcast interview, Coach Brosnan specifically mentioned ankle strength and mobility.
Strengthening your ankles will reduce the risk of ankle sprains. Especially important for cross country runners, due to the uneven terrain. If you reduce the probability of an ankle sprain ruining your season from 20% to 10%, it's worth it!
If you do this routine twice a week with proper form, you will have much better overall balance and you will be less likely to get injured. It will be tough at first and may adversely affect your running for a few weeks, but over time your body will adapt and you will actually be able to handle more mileage than would otherwise be the case. You may find that your uphill running and top-end speed improve due to increased muscular strength.
You can do the workout on your easy running days or you can do them on your hard days. I don't care, as long as you do them. You can do 4 sets of 12 of each exercise or 3 sets of 5 or anything in between. I don't care as long as it's challenging and your form is good on every repetition. If the form is bad, you will increase your risk of injury. So be careful.
It can take a while to get the form right. For deadlifts you can use a trap bar if a barbell feels too awkward. It might take 6 months or even a year to master the squat and deadlift. Put the time in. It's so worth it. Start with light weights and build your way up.
If you don't have time for the whole routine, just do deadlifts and squats. Those are the Big 2 exercises that will do the most for your posterior chain.
Now, just do it!
Why you keep getting hurt: Your posterior chain is weak.
Training Advice/Discussion
General
Report Thread
You are reporting this thread to the moderators for review and possible removal from the forum.
-
-
good schtuff
-
good post, thank you!
-
colorunner123 wrote:
For deadlifts you can use a trap bar if a barbell feels too awkward.
You can also just use dumbbells, especially since not many people have trap bars at home (my gym didn't even have one). -
For the last 8 weeks or so I’ve been working on hips/glutes/hammys/core 2-3x a week at 80mpw. Not a big time commitment. Definitely hurts your running for a few weeks while your muscles adjust. Now I’m feeling stronger and more “stable” during my runs than ever before. My overall posture has improved as well
-
The most common reasons runners actually get injured is running too fast on easy runs, too much intensity, not enough sleep, being too lean year round and improper nutrition. All this stuff you're showing is all flash.
-
Also, just a general question : would I be missing out on anything if I did free weight deadlifts& goblet squats instead of barbell deadlifts&back squats? Don't have access to a gym for the moment but I do have free weights.
-
Hasay doesn't seem to be a good example for staying healthy.
-
Every single high school program in the country does some kind of “core” or strength program. I watch the high school team in my area go through an extensive stretching, strength program with all kinds of fancy bands and toys. They probably spend an hour after their running on this stuff and they still suck.
You mentioned what Newbury Park does, then talk about deadlifts and squats, which it doesn’t sound like they do after listening to the podcast. They are a powerhouse because they have really good kids, not because they activate their glutes and strengthen their ankles and other high school teams don’t.
Are there some running groups that don’t lift? -
msb21 wrote:
Also, just a general question : would I be missing out on anything if I did free weight deadlifts& goblet squats instead of barbell deadlifts&back squats? Don't have access to a gym for the moment but I do have free weights.
For deadlifts, you can use dumbbells if you don't have access to a barbell. Perfectly fine.
Goblet squats are fantastic, especially for beginners. Highly recommended. -
Spooky wrote:
Hasay doesn't seem to be a good example for staying healthy.
True. The routine I am recommending won't prevent all injuries, but will lower the risk. -
Cool bro
-
superfly snuka wrote:
Every single high school program in the country does some kind of “core” or strength program. I watch the high school team in my area go through an extensive stretching, strength program with all kinds of fancy bands and toys. They probably spend an hour after their running on this stuff and they still suck.
You mentioned what Newbury Park does, then talk about deadlifts and squats, which it doesn’t sound like they do after listening to the podcast. They are a powerhouse because they have really good kids, not because they activate their glutes and strengthen their ankles and other high school teams don’t.
Are there some running groups that don’t lift?
These are all good points.
You are right: it sounds like Newbury Park does not do barbell strength training. I personally recommend barbell squats and deadlifts because I believe these are more effective than bodyweight exercises. But there are many roads to Rome.
I do think Newbury Park has talented kids, but I also think the coaching is outstanding. You can't build the #1 program in the nation based solely on luck.
I do not know what is prevailing practice nowadays at high schools. I had assumed, based on my own experience and the runners I know, that most runners don't do lower body strength work. When I was in high school and college the conventional wisdom was to avoid it. But that was a long time ago and things may have changed. -
Well, that explains why Hasay is never injured
-
bootyjudy wrote:
For the last 8 weeks or so I’ve been working on hips/glutes/hammys/core 2-3x a week at 80mpw. Not a big time commitment. Definitely hurts your running for a few weeks while your muscles adjust. Now I’m feeling stronger and more “stable” during my runs than ever before. My overall posture has improved as well
Awesome. Glad it has helped. I agree it's not a huge time commitment. Just two workouts a week (30-60 minutes per workout) is all that is needed. -
bubbadeeboos wrote:
Well, that explains why Hasay is never injured
You are missing the point. Nobody ever argued that these exercises prevent 100 percent of injuries. -
nothing to do due to this virus wrote:
The most common reasons runners actually get injured is running too fast on easy runs, too much intensity, not enough sleep, being too lean year round and improper nutrition. All this stuff you're showing is all flash.
Gotta agree with that. I love lifting weights, but the emphasis just seems to be out of control. Most runners don't even run 8 hours a week, and 8 hours running would be better than 4 hours running and 4 hours strength.
Here a quote from legendary Craig Mottram:
" A month ago I did a stint of lifting weights, things like squats and lunges but I found that the quality of my running sessions was affected so we decided to stop the weights. Now I just concentrate on core stability and body weight exercises and let the terrain at places like Falls Creek and Ferny Creek give me the strength in my legs. "
Hills is the most specific strength training someone can do. Push the pace on hills if you want, or do tempos/reps over hills and your legs will be incredibly strong. Then it's just about training the core and getting as strong aerobically as possible (within limitations of talent). -
colorunner123 wrote:
superfly snuka wrote:
Every single high school program in the country does some kind of “core” or strength program. I watch the high school team in my area go through an extensive stretching, strength program with all kinds of fancy bands and toys. They probably spend an hour after their running on this stuff and they still suck.
You mentioned what Newbury Park does, then talk about deadlifts and squats, which it doesn’t sound like they do after listening to the podcast. They are a powerhouse because they have really good kids, not because they activate their glutes and strengthen their ankles and other high school teams don’t.
Are there some running groups that don’t lift?
These are all good points.
You are right: it sounds like Newbury Park does not do barbell strength training. I personally recommend barbell squats and deadlifts because I believe these are more effective than bodyweight exercises. But there are many roads to Rome.
I do think Newbury Park has talented kids, but I also think the coaching is outstanding. You can't build the #1 program in the nation based solely on luck.
I do not know what is prevailing practice nowadays at high schools. I had assumed, based on my own experience and the runners I know, that most runners don't do lower body strength work. When I was in high school and college the conventional wisdom was to avoid it. But that was a long time ago and things may have changed.
Not solely on luck. 75% on talent (check out their backgrounds) and 25% on coaching. The main point being, ankle and glute exercises are not a differentiator between them and the rest of the high schools. They all do that stuff. -
colorunner123 wrote:
Coach Brosnan has built a powerhouse program from nothing in just four years. The secret to his runners' success is not high mileage. The top boys are only running about 60 miles per week. No, his secret is keeping his runners healthy. They stretch before every workout and they do some kind of strength work. He specifically mentions that they work on their glutes. Not sure if they do barbell strength training or mainly bodyweight stuff.
In a previous interview about Nico Young, I think the coach said he missed much a cross season and an entire track season because he was hurt. Nico's younger brother (not sure which one) was hurt in the later part of this past season, not allowing him to run state. Jace Aschbrenner was hurt in the first half of their 2018 season and their number 2/3 from 2018 was injured at NXN. They have injuries just like everyone else. Also, Jordan Hassay is a terrible example of staying healthy. -
I believe the stretching is underrated. It gets bashed a lot these days. Most of the studies look at stretching in relation to injury prevention and their is little correlation. In terms of performance, I’m not so sure. I get the idea that you would want your muscles to be tight or wound in a similar concept to a spring. However, look at gymnasts. Gymnasts are incredibly flexible and all that stretching/flexibility doesn’t seem to hurt their explosiveness at all.
