Three Great Reasons Runners Should Lift Weights! | Health & Fitness

Running requires more than a heart for pounding your feet on the pavement or enduring miles and miles on the treadmill. It requires some cross training! Running used accessory muscles, not just your legs! It takes endurance of other muscle groups, to help power through a long run!

I recently started running, and was looking for ways to improve my running distance and times! I was looking for ways to cross train as often as possible! Read more about my current running challenge- HERE!

Reasoning

Research shows that not training your arms holds back your running capabilities.

I mean, have you ever ever tried to run without your arms? You can totally do it, but it’s not easy and it looks quite comical!

Your arms are a driving force when it comes to running when your legs get tired. You can’t continue to pump your legs without pumping your arms.. even if you don’t have arms, your still going to be moving your shoulders or upper body as if you had arms.

Building a strong upper body body will help you maintain good form as you get in miles. A strong upper body builds up your stability, gives you great posture and will increase your endurance and lung capacity!

An increased lung capacity from your stronger upper strength reduces oxygen requirement, meaning you’ll run faster while using the same amount of energy!

Increasing your strength will create more bone density and prevent injury, where as poor mechanics and not strengthening your muscles can cause injury!

the Solution: LIFT HEAVY!

Lift heavy: prevent injury, improve your speed, better endurance.

The goal is to stress the muscle to the point that you cause the tissue to breakdown. The muscle heals and comes back stronger and leaner. This doesn’t usually happen with endurance training or light lifting.

TIPS

1. Focus on Form. If your form is off, you will not benefit from lifting and you could cause injury.
2. Fatigue the Muscle. Choose a weight that allows for muscle fatigue; meaning, you can’t do another rep with that weight.
3. Go Heavy! If you complete ten reps with ease, up your weight five to ten pounds!
4. Start Small! Take ten to twenty minutes after your run to weight train. If you hate lifting, use your body weight- push ups, TRX rows, etc.
5. Go in With a Plan. Start your weight training session with a plan; go in knowing what you will do. If you are feeling lost, join my FitClub to learn some tips!