There are so many 5K and 10K charity runs around St. Louis.  Participating in such events can be a great addition to your current program while helping out a great cause.  A strength and conditioning program can be very beneficial to the novice or advanced runner. Your program should consist of low weight, high repetition movements and involve the following components.

1) Proper Warmup/Cooldown

2) Flexibility Training

3) Proper Nutrition and Hydration

4) Balance Training- coordination/stability, opposing muscular balance, upper/lower/core balance

5) Running-specific movements the both mimic running and strengthen the working muscles

Implementing such a program can lead to:

- Increased strength, power, endurance and efficiency as a runner

- Decreased injury

i. Increased flexibility

ii. Balanced strength in the appropriate muscle groups

iii. Increased stability

- Less muscular imbalances

Today we are focusing on the resistance training aspect of becoming a better runner.

Exercise Demonstrations- notice I’m only mentioning 1 upper body, 1 core, and 1 lower body exercise. Each of these has an opposing muscle group that needs equal attention.

- Plank- alternate reach (excellent total core exercise)

- Pushup- unlimited variations (make sure to include back exercises)

- Lunge on BOSU ball- focuses on stability/coordination while working the essential muscle groups specific to running (while a lunge does work both quadriceps and hamstring, it is primarily quadricep. An additional hamstring exercise is recommended.)

These are some very general recommendations for being a stronger, more efficient runner. As we know, everyone is built differently and therefore responds differently to training. To make sure that you have a plan that is customized to your abilities, I suggest setting up an appointment with a qualified personal trainer.

Tags: efficiency, Jogging, Running, stability

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Jogging, Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.