Strength training continues to be a pending subject for many of us popular runners. However, working on strength is essential to reduce stress and joint impact, improve endurance and prevent injuries. We could then say that a visit to the gym is a must for the popular runner: how, when and why.
Once again, we turn to the expert advice of our Sports Director, Iker Muñoz, who defends strength work as a vital aspect to improve running economy and the runner's performance. A workout that should be programmed into the training, it is an active part of the program, it is not something we do to complement the race. What kind of benefits does gym training bring to runners, when is it advisable for the runner to make an appointment with the gym? Take note!
Is a visit to the gym a must for the popular runner: how, when and why?
It is important to understand that strength work should evolve from working with your own body weight, through maximum strength work, to plyometrics, a type of training that seeks to improve the power of muscles, especially the muscles of the lower body, through various exercises with jumps.
This work should evolve and adapt to the demands and needs of the runner in question, and should be considered a fundamental part of our training routine. The frequency will depend on the number of days we train weekly, alternating strength and running.
Why is it important for the popular runner to alternate running workouts with sessions in the gym?
Strength training is important, and even more so as the years go by, for several reasons.
- On the one hand, strength work will generate sufficient muscle tension to extend or maintain stride length at a given speed.
- In turn, maximal strength work and other manifestations of this capacity will improve running economy and therefore performance.
Another of the important aspects of why strength work in runners will be an injury preventive effect. This does not mean that if I do strength exercises I vaya not get injured, but rather that injuries derived from an over-strengthening of certain structures may be less frequent.
What kind of benefits does gym training bring to runners?
In addition to those mentioned above, working out in the gym will allow you to break your training routine.
At what point is it advisable for a runner to make an appointment with the gym?
In principle, the strength program should be present in all programs and for the entire duration of the program. As for the weekly frequency of strength work, it will depend on the number of days we train. One day a week for people who train 3 days a week or two days for athletes who dedicate more than 4 days/week to training may be a correct ratio.
What should runners who go to the gym to reinforce their training do? How to effectively schedule strength training in the gym?
It is important to understand that strength work should evolve from bodyweight work, through maximal strength work, to plyometrics. Therefore, we should not understand this type of work as something foreign to our running training program.
One of the things that the popular runner must understand when going to the gym is that it is necessary to mobilize weight. Moreover, if strength training is carried out through multi-joint exercises with libre weights, so much the better.
We must get away from the mental image, which we sometimes have, of a runner sitting on all the lower body machines. It is necessary to work with load and free weights, which requires a correct execution technique for these exercises.
It is necessary to keep in mind that strength work should be programmed into the training, it is part of the program, it is not something we do to complement the race.
A correct progression of this from unloaded exercises, progressively increasing the weight mobilized, increasing the speed of execution or focus more on a particular type of contraction that interests us at a particular time of the season, have to be aspects marked in advance.
Common mistakes that runners should avoid in the gym.
"More than a mistake as such, what I would like to convey is that runners should stop abusing the machines and work much more with libre weights and more complex exercises such as the loaded, loaded in two times (clean & jerk), dead weight and a long etcetera, "says Iker Muñoz, the Director of Runnea and Runnea Academy.
It is true that a good technique is necessary to execute these exercises correctly. However, the transfer to running will be much more real than machine exercises, although these may also be necessary, especially in the initial stages of the program.
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