EXERCISE 2: LEG PUSHAWAY (ADVANCED)
How many: 20 repetitions per set
How it helps: improves ability to activate the deep core muscles for better control of the hips and trunk; improves stability and ability to maintain effective running technique
How to do it:
Lie on the floor, with your knees and hips bent at 90 degrees so that your thighs are vertical and your feet are off the ground. Place your hands on your hips as shown. Contract your lower abdominal muscles, and push your lower back toward the floor (photo a).
While holding this lower abdominal contraction, make sure you can breathe and speak normally. Don’t hold your breath. Slowly lower one foot until the heel touches the floor (photo b). Return to the start position, and repeat with the opposite leg.
EXERCISE 3: STAFF
How many: 6 repetitions of 5 seconds each per set
How it helps: engages most core muscles; improves coordination between upper body and core muscles to keep shoulders and hips in optimal position to maintain running speed.
How to do it:
Start in the push-up position, with your hands shoulder-width apart.
Lower your body until your elbows are next to your rib cage.
Hold this position for 5 seconds, then push your body back up to the start position.
Rest briefly and repeat. Try to maintain a flat body position, and don’t allow your hips to sag.
EXERCISE 4: STANDING KNEE HOLD
How many: 12 repetitions per set
How it helps: strengthens knee- and ankle-stabilizing muscles and improves single-leg balance; helps reduce wasted motion in running form; increases stride length
How to do it:
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and arms by your sides.
Lift one foot off the floor, and pull your knee up toward your chest.
Hold this position for 5 seconds, then repeat with the other leg.
EXERCISE 5: BACK EXTENSION
How many: 12 repetitions per set
How it helps: strengthens lower back; increases ability to maintain good running posture when fatigued
How to do it:
Lie facedown on the floor, with your arms straight out in front of you. Your eyes should be looking at the floor. (This keeps your neck in alignment with your spine.)
Lift your chest and shoulders off the floor as shown, hold for 1 or 2 seconds, then return to the floor and repeat.
EXERCISE 6: SIDE HOVER
How many: 3 repetitions of 10 seconds per side
How it helps: strengthens stabilizing muscles on side, from gluteals through shoulders; helps reduce wasted side-to-side motion
How to do it:
Lie on the floor on your side.
Place the elbow on the floor directly under your shoulder, and place your top hand on your hip (photo a).
Hold your feet together, and align your body in a straight line (from front to back) from your heels to your shoulders.
Lift your hip off the floor and hold (photo b). Lower to the floor, rest briefly, and repeat on the other side.
Strength Training
Resistance training using weights, bands, or your own body weight can correct muscle imbalances and prevent injuries. We’ve already discussed core stability training, which is a type of resistance training with a specific purpose. Other types of resistance training will get your arms and shoulders, which don’t get much benefit from running, in shape and strengthen your leg muscles. Done correctly, weightlifting can reduce your risk of injury by strengthening the connective tissue, including tendons and ligaments. Weightlifting may even improve your running economy so that you use less oxygen at a given pace.
If done to excess, however, weightlifting will make you muscle-bound, tighten up your muscles, leave you injured, and give you extra bulk that you might not want to be carrying around come the 23-mile mark. Marathoners, after all, want to be the classic vertical hyphen, with no extra baggage – Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall probably don’t get asked for help too often on moving day. Resistance training does have a role, however, in a marathoner ’s overall training program.
Whether weight training can improve marathon performance is still open to debate; however, it can reduce your likelihood of injury and may improve running economy. The greatest gains for marathoners are obtained by including exercises that strengthen your propulsive and stabilizing muscles. The closer those exercises simulate how you would use those muscles during running, the greater the benefits for your running performance.
If you decide to lift weights, get advice from a coach or trainer who understands that you are weightlifting to improve your running, not to look good at the beach. If you decide to weight train your legs, schedule your weight sessions so that they’re not right before or after a hard running workout. If you run before or after work, lunchtime is an excellent opportunity to get in lifting sessions that won’t detract from your running.
An early study by biomechanists Peter Cavanagh, PhD, and Keith Williams, PhD, found that most runners naturally use the most economical stride length for a given speed (Cavanagh and Williams 1982). This led to the belief that runners shouldn’t alter their stride length. That advice is correct for the short term, but that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t attempt to improve your body to make it a more-effective running machine. Over months and years, you can increase your stride length by improving your strength and flexibility. The gains per stride will be small, but when multiplied over thousands of strides, the benefits can be substantial.
What If You Hate to Lift? Hill Training!
If lifting weights isn’t for you, then try another form of resistance training – hill training. During hill running, your body weight is the resistance. There is some evidence that running hills can produce improvements in running economy similar to those that occur through “normal” resistance training.
Running uphill requires that your legs propel your body weight upward against gravity. Moreover, they do so under conditions that more closely replicate racing conditions than does even the most well-designed weight machine. Anecdotal evidence for the benefits of hill running comes from the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners of today and goes back to coaching legend Arthur Lydiard and the great New Zealand runners of the 1960s and 1970s. The best runners in the world run hills day after day. Of course, genetic factors separate elite runners from recreational runners, but it certainly appears that hill training is an important element that, unlike your genes, you can influence.