Nowhere is the adage “Use it or lose it” more relevant than with muscles. Running tends to employ one set of muscles over and over while neglecting others. Runners must also combat the loss of muscle mass that is a natural part of the aging process. It is imperative that we do strength exercises as we age to diminish the loss of muscle tissue.
For your overall fitness and good health, you should exercise the major muscle groups in the back, chest, shoulders, arms, torso, and legs. For the enhancement of your running, we have provided strength training exercises that can be performed in a relatively short period of time and will contribute to better running and injury prevention.
Runners attending our retreats are surprised by how difficult it is for them to perform some of our strength exercises. That’s because they have neglected to do functional strength training—exercises specific to the movements of their sport. It is as important to train the neuromuscular component of the movement as it is the individual muscles. Exercises that isolate muscles and don’t mimic the movement of the activity result in less functional improvement. For example, squats will have a greater transfer effect on improving an individual’s ability to run than knee extensions. As Scott Murr often points out to runners, running is done one leg at a time. For that reason, one-legged squats will have an even greater transfer effect on your running than two-legged squats. We have selected exercises that are specific to running movements.
I like feeling stronger not only for sports but also for everyday activities. Two or three times per week for about 20 to 30 minutes, I do a circuit of exercises that works the large muscle groups. Typically these strength training sessions are not on key run days. Training partner and coauthor Scott Murr likes to do his strength training on the same days he runs. I recommend establishing a strength training routine that fits your weekly schedule. Consistency is the key.
• Strengthening the core muscles is important for maintaining good running form.
• Strengthening muscles that stabilize the hips and knees is very important for injury prevention.
• Muscular imbalances are often associated with running-specific injuries.
• Strengthening a weak muscle can eliminate imbalances between opposing muscle groups.
• Many runners avoid or neglect strength training.
Q. Why should a runner strength train?
A. When you become fatigued, your form deteriorates (poor running economy). The deterioration comes not only from tired legs, but also from tired arms, a tired back, and tired abdominal muscles. Having a strong torso helps hold your form together in the later stages of a workout or a race. Strength training improves running economy (one of the key determinants of running performance), permitting faster running over the same distance with less consumption of oxygen. Improved running economy means you can run for a longer time before exhaustion sets in.
Q. What are the potential liabilities associated with weight training? What should a runner avoid in his or her weight training program?
A. Liabilities include injury due to poor form and additional bulk (muscle and weight gain) following an unnecessarily extensive weight training program.
Our advice is to train the muscle groups that will be of greatest benefit in running. If you follow a body builder’s weight training routine, you will probably find minimal if any improvement in your running performance. In fact, it is possible that a standard weight training routine would result in diminished running performances.
Q. What exercises should be included in strength training for runners?
A. There is no single method of strength training that has been shown to be unequivocally superior for runners. Many of our recommended exercises are core exercise and multi-joint exercises (those which use many body parts). Core exercises and multi-joint exercises tend to be more specific to normal body movement. With the FIRST strength training exercises, you won’t isolate a single muscle group, the typical approach of many weight training routines.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 8 to 10 exercises that work the major muscle groups. While we endorse the ACSM position statement, we have selected 11 key strength training exercises that will enhance running performance. These strength training recommendations are designed so that a runner can do them in a timely manner with minimal equipment.
Q. Do I really need to do lower-body strength exercises?
A. Many runners think, “I don’t need to work my legs because I use them all the time running.” During running, your legs are being worked, but primarily they are being trained solely for endurance, not strength. Strength training will help improve your leg strength, so that you can generate more force with each stride. Strength training will also help balance the muscular fitness of all of the major muscles of the lower body.
Q. In what order should I do my exercises?
A. Typically, you should train the larger and stronger muscle groups first and then the smaller muscle groups. Why? Your smaller muscles act as supporting muscles when you train the larger muscle groups. If you fatigue the smaller muscle groups first, they won’t help much as you stress the larger muscle groups. This puts you at an increased risk for injury. We have listed our strength training exercises in the order we think they should be performed.
Q. How should I breathe when doing strength training exercises?
A. Avoid the temptation to hold your breath when strength training. Even veteran athletes fail to breathe when exerting effort and are often unaware of it. You should breathe continuously and should exhale on the exertion or lifting movement and inhale on the return or lowering movement.
Q. Should I strength train year-round?
A. Varying your routine periodically is important to stimulate adaptation. FIRST believes that year-round strength training is fine as long as you reduce your strength training program the final 2 weeks before a key race.
For each of the following key strength training exercises, we recommend doing 10 to 15 repetitions.
WORKS GLUTES AND QUADRICEPS
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Keeping your feet flat on the floor, your back straight, and your abdominals tight, squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
Keep your weight on your heels rather than your toes. Do not allow your knees to move beyond the point of your toes. Your knees should point in the same direction as your feet throughout the exercise.
Your hands can be placed on your hips or you can hold your arms out in front to help maintain balance.
Return to starting position.
WORKS GLUTES, QUADRICEPS, HIP EXTERNAL ROTATORS, HIP ABDUCTORS (ADVANCED)
Stand upright with feet shoulder-width apart.
Bend your right knee lifting your calf up until your shin is parallel to the floor.
Keeping your left foot flat on the floor, your back straight and your head upright, squat down as far as you can while maintaining balance.
Straighten your left leg and return to the starting position.
Keep your abdominals tight throughout the entire exercise.
Do not allow knee or hip to collapse toward the midline of your body.
Repeat with the left leg, then continue with the right leg.
WORKS HAMSTRINGS, QUADRICEPS, GLUTES
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Step forward with your right leg and lower your body until your right thigh is parallel to the floor and your left knee is almost touching the floor.
The hip, knee, and ankle of your right leg should form a 90-degree angle in the down or forward position. Avoid stepping so far forward that your front knee extends beyond your toes.
The forward knee should point in the same direction as the forward foot throughout the exercise.
Be sure to keep your body upright and your abdominals tight during the lunge.
Return to the starting position by driving your weight back up with your right leg.
Repeat with your left leg.
You have now done 1 rep.
WORKS GLUTES, QUADRICEPS, HAMSTRINGS
Find a box that is 8 to 18 inches high.
Place your right foot entirely up on top of the box with your arms in a running position.
With your weight focused on your right heel, rather than your forefoot, use your right leg to lift yourself to an upright position on the box. Your right knee should point in the same direction as your right foot throughout the exercise.
This exercise is most effective when you lift from the upper leg and avoid pushing up with the foot on the ground.
As you step up, raise your left thigh up to waist height.
Your arms should switch position as you raise yourself up.
Using your right leg to lower yourself back to the ground, step down with your left leg and return to the starting position. Place your right foot on the floor.
Keep your torso upright during this exercise. Repeat with your left leg up on the box.
WORKS HIP EXTERNAL ROTATORS, HIP ABDUCTORS
Place a mini-band around your knees or lower legs to make the exercise more challenging.
Stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart.
Keeping your abdominals tight, bend at the hips and lower your torso so you are standing in a half-squat stance.
Maintaining your wide stance, step forward with your left leg, then with your right leg.
Repeat the exercise stepping backward.
As you move forward and backward, keep a wide stance.
You can place your hands on your waist or out in front of you.
Make sure that you do not allow your knees to turn in (or collapse inwards) during this exercise.
Keep knees bent through the entire exercise.
WORKS TRICEPS, SHOULDERS, BACK
Start by standing upright and hold a dumbbell in your right hand, keeping your right elbow close to your side.
Stand on your left leg and bend at the waist to approximately a 90-degree angle. Stabilize your upper body with your left hand on a stability ball.
Bend your left knee slightly to reduce pressure on your back. Then lift your right leg to create a “T” with your body.
Pull the dumbbell up toward your shoulder; your elbow will come up just beyond your back. Initiate the row with your shoulder rather than with your arm.
Keep your shoulders and back parallel to floor; avoid rotating at the hips as you lift the weight up.
Slowly extend (straighten) your arm and lower the dumbbell toward the floor.
Be sure to keep your back straight throughout this exercise.
Do the exercise with your right arm, then switch to your left arm and repeat.
WORKS BICEPS, SHOULDERS
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart behind a stability ball and with your abdominals tight as you hold a pair of dumbbells by your side.
Turn your hands so that your palms face each other.
Prop your right foot up on the stability ball.
Curl the dumbbells toward your shoulders performing the bicep curl with both arms at the same time.
Continue the motion and lift and press the dumbbells overhead, extending your arms straight up toward the ceiling.
Slowly lower your elbows to your sides, then lower the dumbbells to the starting position.
After half of your reps are completed, put the other leg on the stability ball.
WORKS CORE, HAMSTRINGS, SHOULDERS
Begin on your hands and knees on all fours. Your hands should be directly below your shoulders; hold your head in line with your back.
Tighten your abdominal muscles.
Simultaneously, raise your right leg straight out behind you and lift your left arm out in front of you (each is outstretched horizontally).
Hold this raised position for 3 seconds before slowly returning to starting position.
Repeat with your left leg and right arm.
You have completed 1 rep.
WORKS CORE, HAMSTRINGS, SHOULDERS
Begin in a push-up position (on toes) with arms/elbows at full extension (the “up” position of a push-up).
Tighten your abdominal muscles.
Simultaneously lift your left arm and right leg from the floor to a horizontal position.
Maintain full extension for 3 seconds before slowly returning to starting position.
Repeat with your left leg and right arm.
Make sure your avoid bending at the hips: try to keep your back straight the entire exercise.
Alternate arms and legs.
WORKS GLUTES, CORE
Lie on the floor on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor and arms at your sides.
Straighten your right leg and hold it so that your knees are at the same height.
Keeping your left foot flat on the ground, raise your hips up off the ground to create a straight line from your knees to shoulders. Keep your right leg extended straight out.
Keep abdominals engaged to support the lower back.
Hold for 3 seconds.
Slowly lower yourself and return to the starting position.
Repeat with the other leg.
WORKS ABDUCTORS
Lie on your side with your knees and ankles together, your hips bent at a 45-degree angle and your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Your heels should be in line with your butt.
Raise your top knee toward the ceiling as high as you can (top knee moves away from the bottom knee) and then return to the starting position.
Keep your feet together and avoid rotating your pelvis or back; do not allow your hips to roll back (make sure that your top hip stays facing the ceiling); keep your spine straight.
Hold for one breath, then slowly lower your knee to the starting position.
Place a mini-band around your knees to make the exercise more challenging.
Repeat on both sides.
Most adults lose about half a percent of their muscle mass each year after the age of 25. This loss accelerates after the age of 60. Muscle mass is associated with metabolism. Muscle burns calories at a higher rate than fat. Strength training builds muscle and improves metabolism—a key to maintaining your desired weight.
Studies have shown that as few as 6 weeks of proper strength training can significantly reduce or completely relieve kneecap pain or “runner’s knee.” Strength training also reduces the recurrence of many other common injuries, including hip and lower back pain (prehab for injury prevention). By strengthening muscle, as well as bone and connective tissue (ligaments attach bone to bone; tendons attach muscle to bone), strength training not only helps to prevent injury but also helps to reduce the severity of injury when it does occur. Running injuries are a runner’s worst nightmare!
In addition to injury prevention, strength training improves performance. Studies show that with as little as 10 weeks of strength training, 10K times decrease by an average of 2 to 3 percent. Research has also shown that running economy will be improved as a result of strength training.
Hi,
Just want to let you know that I bought Run Less, Run Faster and followed the program for yesterday’s NYC Marathon (my fifth in NYC, sixth overall). I was intent on qualifying for Boston this year—turned 40 in March and my PR was 3:56:22, more than 5 minutes over the 3:50:59 that I needed to qualify. I am THRILLED to report that I got to the start line injury-free (first time I can remember doing that) and easily qualified with a time of 3:48:34, knocking almost 8 minutes off of my PR. I attribute my success to your great, great plan. So I’ll be using it again for my next big race on Patriots’ Day …
Thank you!
Stacey Skole
New York, New York
FOLLOW-UP MESSAGE:
Hi Bill and Scott,
Just an update—I ran my first Boston Marathon yesterday, after having used your FIRST program to qualify in NYC in November 2009. I used FIRST again to train for Boston—and had another PR, despite the fact that I had to re-tie my shoe at mile 24! Finished in 3:47:52, beating my NYC time by over 40 seconds, and paced myself on my own (I ran with a pace team in NYC), so I’m really, really thrilled. I told a new friend about your phenomenal program as well—so I’m sure you’ll have a new convert soon.
Thanks again for everything!