Running is not
my first love in the world of fitness, but it's still an activity in which I
partake. In my experience with the running population, runners love
running… and that’s it. If you enjoy running, and it makes up the majority
of your program, there are a couple of ways to bring your performance to the
next level. Incorporating strength and/or plyometric training into your program
can help optimize your running economy and performance.
From a movement and injury
prevention standpoint, weight training adds more movement variability to your
life. Running is a very sagittal activity, where you're only moving forward and
don’t shift into other planes of motion regularly. I’ve talked about moving in
different planes and why that’s important in my post 3 Planes of HumanMovement, if you’re interested in reading more on that. Strength/plyometric
training offers more benefits in addition to movement in different planes.
First, strength training can aid
in increasing your relative strength. This makes your body weight a
comparably lower percentage of your maximum strength, and makes every
stride relatively less exerting. This adds up over long distances and periods
of time. If your body is relatively easier for your muscles to move, the
exertion of running becomes easier at a given pace. The adaptation to your
muscles with strength training creates changes in your neuromuscular system.
These changes train the muscles to contract in unison and synchronize their
contractions to create a greater force output with each stride. These effects
have been shown to have positive effects on rate of force development (RFD) and
running economy (RE) for distance runners.1 When discussing
strength training in this situation, however, they mean lifting 85+% of your
1RM for sets of 3-8 repetitions, with lower body exercise.
Additionally, plyometric training
can improve your ability to increase RFD when running. Through both strength
and plyometric training, you can train your ability to increase RFD with
every stride. Due to the short duration of time that your foot is in contact
with the ground when running, you want to be able to rapidly create force in a
short duration of time. This is where the effects of plyometric training come
into play. You can be really strong, but if you can’t generate force
rapidly in a short period of time, you won’t get carryover into your running
performance. Plyometric training enhances the ability to store and release
elastic energy through passive elastic structures and use the stretch
shortening cycle. Every time your foot contacts the ground when running, it
needs to accept the load of your body, store the energy or dissipate it, and
then release/generate force to propel you forward. The more effectively
you can store and use elastic energy, the better RE you will have.
This mechanism also takes the
energy burden off of your active muscular structures, reducing the contribution
from the anaerobic system.1 If a muscle is working at a high
rate, it will develop lactic acid. I’ve talked about some lactic acid myths in
the article 2 Myths, The Truth, and How to Deal With Muscle Soreness. Lactic
acid creates an environment in which your muscle will begin to shut itself
down. If you become better at using stored elastic energy and the stretch
shortening cycle more efficiently, you increases your RE, increase RFD, and
take some of the metabolic burden off of the active muscular tissues; this
prevents the accumulation of lactic acid buildup at a given workload. Less
lactic acid buildup when running equals better RE and performance.
I do have some recommendations
regarding these training methods. Before you start performing plyometric
exercises and strength training with 85+% of your 1RM, there are a couple
things to take into consideration. Training progressions are the most important
things to account for.
1) For strength training, throwing
around 85+% of a 1RM takes technique in itself. Technique changes, and can fall
apart, quickly between 85-90, 91-95, 97, and 99% of your max. This is
especially true for exercises like the squat and deadlift. Taking time to learn
how to perform these will be more beneficial for your health in the long run.
This is better than just going straight to 85+% of your max out the gates, if
you have never lifted before or if your training experience in the gym is
limited. Take the time to learn and develop these properly. It’s easy to get away
with crappy technique at <80% of your 1RM, but the game changes when you
venture into those higher percentages.
2) Plyometric training is shown to
be beneficial to improve RE and RFD1, but it is also
important to understand the forces acting on your body when performing them.
Plyometric jumps can generate forces 3-5 times your body weight on impact.2 Before
even performing plyometrics, it is important to have an adequate level of
strength to accept the forces generated during this type of training. From
there, after an adequate level of strength has been developed, plyometric
training is safer and will be more effective due to better coordination and
synchronization of muscle contractions. I generally like to see someone able to
perform a squat close to 2x their body weight before beginning plyometric
training.
Ryan Goodell, CSCS
For consultation/personal training/coaching inquiries email:
ryangoodell@weightsandstuff.com
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1. Lum D. Effects of Performing Endurance and Strength or
Plyometric Training Concurrently on Running Economy and Performance. Strength
& Conditioning Journal. 2016;38(3):26-35.
2.Wallace BJ, Kernozek TW, White
JM, et al. Quantification of vertical ground reaction forces of popular
bilateral plyometric exercises. Journal of Strength & Conditioning
Research (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins). 2010;24(1):207-212 206p.
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