Strength & Mobility Benefits for Runners

Why do Runners need to work on strength and mobility?

Running is among the most injurious sports in the world according to all relevant recent studies. Talk to a runner and you will likely find that they are either carrying an injury, overcoming an injury or still suffering from an old injury that hasn’t healed up entirely. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Sensible strength and mobility programming can mitigate against a whole host of common running injuries including;

Why bother with Strength & Mobility training?

According to a study in 2009 by Hawley, explosive strength and plyometrics training has been shown to:
-enhance elastic and reactive properties
-increase rate of force development
-increase power production
-increase musculo-tendon stiffness

All of which is incredibly beneficial for Runners. Aagaard & Andersen (2010) also concluded that heavy strength training produced:

1. Improved neuromuscular communication (rate of force development and maximal voluntary contraction),
2. Increases in tendon stiffness,
3. Increases in the percentage of Type IIA muscle fibers.

According to Aagaard & Andersen (2010), 

“…strength training can lead to enhanced long-term (>30 min) and short-term (<15 min) endurance capacity both in well-trained individuals and highly trained top-level endurance athletes, especially with the use of high-volume, heavy-resistance strength training protocols.” 

Injury Prevention

While strength and mobility work won’t guarantee that you’ll never sustain injuries, it has been proven to dramatically reduce the risk, as empirical studies have shown as well as from my own experience from training runners.

I’ve had runners of various experience and abilities come to me with hip, knee and angle niggles. Within 1-3 months their niggles disappeared and their times got faster to match.

As running is such a repetitive exercise it greatly increases the possibility of direct overuse injuries as well as indirect injuries caused by muscular imbalances, tightness and reduced range of motion. Strength & mobility work strengthens weaker, underused muscles and restores the athlete’s full range of motion enabling their body to work in a more balanced and synergistic way.

Mobility

As Robert Griffiths pointed out in an article on Mens Running UK website, “High mileage, faulty gait patterns, sit-down jobs and poorly designed training programmes can all lead to a loss of mobility – with the result being tight hamstrings and hip flexors.” 

Mobility work is often a neglected element in many runners schedules but is necessary to prevent injuries through achieving a fuller range of motion, strengthening weak positions and even aiding recovery. Mobility training improves the range of motion of our muscles and joints and it can even help improve our posture – something which can indirectly lead to injuries and further imbalances, runner or not. Mobility training can mitigate aches and pains as well as improve our total body awareness and proprioception.

“In order to stay injury free, you need a balanced body with resilient strength.”

Muscle Efficiency

Strength, mobility & endurance training combines methods of training into the same program. Adding strength exercises and plyometric-type exercises to a running specific program is advantageous for runners to improve strength and running efficiency.

Posterior Chain Strength

Posterior chain work is essential for runners, primarily to strengthen the glutes, hamstrings and erector spinae muscles.

Core Stability

Core work is well known to benefit runners although crunches and sit ups offer few transferable benefits to running. Instead, stabilising exercises are generally the best way to go.

Single Leg Strength

No matter what type of running you prefer, single leg work is important to improve single leg hip strength, balance and stability as you spend the vast bulk of your time on one leg while running.

Why do Runners Avoid Strength Training?

Many Runners fear adding too much bulk or unnecessary muscle mass and so they tend to avoid weights. These are logical concerns, particularly for males who tend to build mass easier due to higher levels of testosterone.

For every extra pound a runner is carrying, it means more energy is used with every stride. Over a 10km race and beyond this can have a significant impact on their performance due to the oxygen and energy requirements. What’s more important is body fat percentage. For optimal performance, this should be low, but healthy. Typically men should aim for between 5-11% bodyfat while ladies should aim for between 10-15%. However, it should be pointed out that it is very difficult to achieve these levels of body fat if your muscle mass is too low. As muscle mass percentage increases, body fat percentage inherently goes down.

Mitochondrial Dilution is another reason many runners fear resistance / weight training. However, with a sensibly designed training programme this should not be a legitimate reason to rule out resistance training.  As muscle fibres increase in size with a hypertrophy resistance training programme, the cells inside do not increase at the same rate, like the mitochondria. This means that there are fewer mitochondria per unit area which can become a problem as less energy is then produced to power the larger muscles which results in the muscle becoming fatigued much faster. – this is what’s known as mitochondrial dilution. 

However, it is possible to execute a resistance training programme and avoid putting on weight or extra muscle mass while still obtaining all the benefits from it. It’s a matter of choosing the correct training method. Training frequency, the number of sets, reps, weight used, time under tension, exercise selection, tempo, and rest time are all variables which change depending on your goal. A powerlifter and a bodybuilder have different goals so they train in a different way. A 100m sprinter and a half marathon runner have different goals so they train in a different way but weight training will benefit both.

So what should you do?

If you’re a runner and you’re avoiding resistance training entirely then you’re running on borrowed time. This isn’t a threat, but there is quite literally an injury awaiting you around the corner. If you enjoy running and want to keep running, you need to be performing a smart strength training programme to make you as “bulletproof” as possible.

If you’d like help in putting together a strength training programme, I’d love to chat with you. Complete the form below and I’ll get back to you in the next day or 2.