“Working with endurance athletes is one of my passions.  And, as a former competitive distance runner, training runners is of special interest to me.  All runners who come to me have one goal:  ‘To get faster.’  (I have never met an athlete who wanted to get slower!)  This article will focus on several training pearls aimed at improving the performance of distance runners.

I tell all of my athletes that the best way to get fast is to ‘not get injured‘ & that the best time to prevent injury is ‘when you are healthy‘.  There are many components of staying healthy (diet, sleep, cross training, recovery) that we will not focus on in this article.  We will instead discuss several tangible injury prevention exercises that we use at Rock and Armor.

1. Foot Health – We start with foot health which includes arch-rolling on a lacrosse ball & great toe-flossing.  These exercises help to keep the arches of our feet mobile & extensible.
2. Dynamic Warm-Up – Next we do dynamic warm-ups consisting of running-like exercises (A-skip, B-skip, high knees, butt kickers & carioca [also known as grapevines]).  These are always performed in socks to improve foot strike patterns while strengthening the dynamic stabilizers in our feet.
3. Dynamic Stretch – Dynamic stretching is aimed at injury prevention, rather than improving mobility.
4. Proper Movement Mechanics – Next we focus on exercises that improve foot strike & proper run mechanics such as 6″ hurdle runs…again performed in socks.
5. Stabilizer Activation – If you think about running, it really is a series of single-leg stances with heavy posterior chain musculature (all the muscles on the backside of the body) engaging to propel the athlete forward.  The dynamic stabilizers around the hip & ankle (gluteus medius, iliopsoas & ankle dorsiflexors) often become weak & fatigued which can lead to a myriad of kinetic chain disorders.  Bands are a great way to activate these stabilizers in order to minimize the risk of annoying overuse injuries like IT Band Tendonitis, shin splints, etc.

Once we’ve done #1-5 we are then ready to work out!  And when I say ‘work out’ I mean (for the purposes of this article) strength training!

Many runners shy away from the weight room as they are afraid of adding bulk or are not sure which exercises are best.  This is a common mistake…and unfortunately detrimental to a runner’s performance.  By following these 6 principles, you can really get a leg up (pun totally intended!) on the competition!

1. Have a heavy day & a lighter day.  Many distance athletes, afraid of lifting heavy, will focus on sets of 12-20 repetitions.  While this is good for building muscular endurance, the goal of strength training is to get our prime movers stronger & more efficient.  I like heavy sets & low reps for the posterior chain muscles – glutes, hamstrings & gastrocs (calves) – 1 day per week.
2. Prioritize posterior chain muscles.  As mentioned above, running is a series of single-leg movements powered by our glutes, hamstrings & calves.  These muscles need to be very strong & highly conditioned.  Therefore, they should be given priority in the weight room over quads & upper body exercises.
3. Be smart with upper body exercises.  When running we use our deltoids, middle trapezius, and rhomboids for arm swing & propulsion.  But rarely are our biceps, pectorals, or upper traps utilized.  Athletes who do lots of bench presses & biceps curls (presumably to look good in the mirror!) potentially hamper their performance by increasing the size of muscles not critical to the running motion & consequently decreasing joint mobility.  As a caveat, females are able to get away with more upper body strengthening than males simply because they don’t bulk up quite as easily.
4. Unilateral/Bipedal movements rather than parallel stance exercises.  My athletes do not do static squats, hang cleans, or snatches.  While these are all nice exercises, we want to focus on movements that will quickly translate to our sport.  In our facility, you’ll see many of our distance athletes doing heavy lunge walks, pushing/pulling a heavy sled, doing heavy posterior chain drives on the Power Runner & sprinting uphill wearing a weight vest.  We do utilize some heavy hex bar deadlifts as they are a great way to activate the gluteus maximus, but most of our movement patterns are bipedal in nature.
5. Lighter days should focus on explosive body weight exercises & cardiovascular endurance-taxing exercises that do not require as much pounding on the legs.  I love doing short circuits on the ski ergometer, concept row ergometer, assault bike & curved treadmill as a way to burn the lungs without pounding the legs.  This ‘burner’ finisher exercise is usually done following an explosive plyometric exercise like split squat jumps, box jumps, bounding & harness weighted runs.
6. ‘If a particular exercise is becoming boring – that’s good!  It means you’re doing a lot of it.’  I often tell this to my athletes.  We are going to do glute, hamstring, and calf exercises until you are blue in the face…and then we are going to do some more!  I do try to vary the exact exercises, but they are all similar to each other in some way, shape or form.  My athletes know there will be a hamstring exercise every single session and, at a certain point, their bodies become very adapted to it.  That’s when the gains really start!

If you want performance advantages over other runners, strength training should be a vital component of your distance running program.  It is important to find a Strength & Conditioning Coach who understands distance athletes & the demands placed on their bodies.  After a couple months of training, it is fun to watch the efficiency of these athletes improve as well as the a-ha moments as they start to run down competitors that they were previously not able to beat!”

Tim Williams is the owner of Rock and Armor Physical Therapy.  He is a Sports Certified Doctor of Physical Therapy & a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist who works with Treasure Valley endurance athletes to improve their fitness & stay injury free.

If you’d like to chat with Tim about your training program and/or an injury, feel free to email him or call 208.917.2660.