Quick Strength for Runners: 8 Weeks to a Better Runner's Body
5/5
()
About this ebook
Jeff Horowitz
Jeff Horowitz is a certified running, cycling, and triathlon coach and a personal trainer who has run more than 200 marathons and ultramarathons across six continents. Formerly an attorney, he quit law to pursue his passion for endurance sports. He currently teaches running at the George Washington University and works with runners from ages 14 through 80. Horowitz is the author of Quick Strength for Runners, Smart Marathon Training: How to Run Your Best Without Running Yourself Ragged, My First 100 Marathons: 2,620 Miles with an Obsessive Runner, and Ageless Strength: Strong and Fit for a Lifetime.
Read more from Jeff Horowitz
Ageless Strength: Strong and Fit for a Lifetime Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Marathon Training: Run Your Best Without Running Yourself Ragged Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Like a Runner: Understanding Why We Run and How to Do It Better Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Quick Strength for Runners
Related ebooks
Running Injuries Handbook: Identification, Treatment and Prevention to Keep You Running Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRunning Rewired: Reinvent Your Run for Stability, Strength, and Speed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Runner's Guide to a Healthy Core: How to Strengthen the Engine That Powers Your Running Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeginner's Guide to Running: Training for Weight Loss, Better Health and Your First 5k Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Runner's Expert Guide to Stretching: Prevent Injury, Build Strength and Enhance Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Best Race: 50 Runners and the Finish Line They'll Never Forget Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Things To Know Before Running Your First Marathon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfect Medicine: How Running Makes Us Healthier and Happier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Run the Perfect Race: Better Racing Through Better Pacing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFixing Your Feet: Injury Prevention and Treatment for Athletes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line—and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Feed Zone Cookbook: Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Running Like a Girl: Notes on Learning to Run Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Conditioning of Distance Runners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of Al Howie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPain & Performance: The Revolutionary New Way to Use Training as Treatment for Pain and Injury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amazing Racers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRunning in the Midpack: How to be a Strong, Successful and Happy Runner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Run Your Fat Off: Running Smarter for a Leaner and Fitter You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRacing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance, 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 12-Minute Athlete: Get Fitter, Faster, and Stronger Using HIIT and Your Bodyweight Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Athlete's Gut: The Inside Science of Digestion, Nutrition, and Stomach Distress Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Run Your First Ultra-Marathon: From 10K to 50 Miles in Six-Months. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crawl of Fame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ultimate Runner's Diet: How to Fuel Your Body for Peak Running Performance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Sports & Recreation For You
Body by Science: A Research Based Program to Get the Results You Want in 12 Minutes a Week Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding: The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Take Your Eye Off the Ball 2.0: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Takes What It Takes: How to Think Neutrally and Gain Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hard Knocks: An enemies-to-lovers romance to make you smile Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zen in the Art of Archery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hard Parts: A Memoir of Courage and Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Arthur: The Dog who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvey Penick's Little Red Book: Lessons And Teachings From A Lifetime In Golf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga: The Philosophy and Practice of Yin Yoga Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ultimate Survival Medicine Guide: Emergency Preparedness for ANY Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fine and Pleasant Misery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Guide to Improvised Weaponry: How to Protect Yourself with WHATEVER You've Got Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy of Strength and Conditioning: A Trainer's Guide to Building Strength and Stamina Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Field Guide to Knots: How to Identify, Tie, and Untie Over 80 Essential Knots for Outdoor Pursuits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis--Lessons from a Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Advanced Bushcraft: An Expert Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, and Cooking in the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Quick Strength for Runners
3 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Quick Strength for Runners - Jeff Horowitz
INTRODUCTION
Opener-FM.tif
Once upon a time, about twenty years ago, to be precise, runners believed that they didn’t have to do anything but run.
AMBY BURFOOT
1968 Boston Marathon Champion and former editor of Runner’s World magazine
Let’s start with a bit of honesty: Not all runners love strength training. If you are like most runners, you would rather lace up your trainers and spend time out on a trail or road than work out in a gym. I understand that. You didn’t become a runner to spend more time indoors. There is a whole world of routes to explore when you are out on a run, and none of them pass through a weight room.
But you picked up this book anyway. More likely than not, you did so because you realize that doing nothing but running is not working out so well for you.
Maybe this realization came to you during a layoff from running caused by an injury. Estimates of the rate of injury for runners vary widely, but it may be as high as 80 percent for all runners in a given year and 80 percent for each individual runner over the course of his or her lifetime.
Each of these injuries comes at a physical, emotional, and financial cost. An injury may result in a layoff from running ranging from a week to several months and may require X-rays and MRIs, visits to various physicians, and physical therapy.
The anger, frustration, and sense of helplessness that often accompany these injuries are harder to measure. Injured runners may feel betrayed by their own bodies and isolated from their network of running friends. A long layoff may leave runners wondering if being injured and limited is their new permanent reality. These are hard times for such runners. Frustration often leads them to spend thousands of dollars on products and treatments that often promise quick cures but that rarely deliver results.
I remember one period when I was dealing with a debilitating foot problem. After spending six months visiting different specialists and undergoing various therapies, I realized that had a doctor recommended smearing peanut butter on my foot to speed healing, I would have done it. In fact, I would have smeared peanut butter over my entire body just to be doubly sure! I suspect that I am not the only runner who would have been willing to do that. Perhaps you have felt that way yourself.
Or maybe you picked up this book because you have read about how strength training can actually help prevent injuries and improve your running. Perhaps you are even doing some strength training already, but you suspect that you could do a better job if you knew a bit more about it.
Whatever led you to be interested in strength training, you have picked up this book, and that’s a good thing. Because all those articles and bits of advice were right: Strength training—the right kind of strength training—will make you a stronger, more injury-resistant runner.
Examining the Simple
Act of Running
Of all the world’s great sports, running is perhaps the simplest. No referee is needed to administer complicated rules and no scorer is needed to tabulate points. There are no formulas for figuring out who gets into the playoffs because there are no playoffs.
Running generally requires very little equipment, and no dedicated field or court is absolutely necessary. Almost anyone can run almost anywhere, and running is something most people learned to do when they were only two or three years old.
Even racing is breathtakingly simple. All the racers line up and at the signal run from here to there as fast as they can.
And yet the act of running is enormously complicated. It requires the balancing of the entire body as it rotates and hurtles through space, the flexion and extension of a long list of joints, and the timed contraction and release of muscles from head to toe.
Consider this: The liftoff phase of your running motion, when you raise up your leg, is itself a complicated choreography of movement. It requires the contraction of the hip flexor muscles along your lower trunk, as well as of the anterior tibialis muscle of your shin and the leg biceps muscles of your rear thigh. Together, these actions produce flexion of your hip and knee joints while positioning your foot in a toes-up position.
For all this to take place, the opposing muscle groups must relax and lengthen in an ordered sequence. The quadriceps muscles in your front thigh, the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles in your calf, and the gluteus maximus muscle in your backside must all engage in a controlled extension.
And that is not all. You are not doing all these movements from a solid, stable position: You are lunging upward and forward as you are getting airborne. As you do this, your central nervous system avoids crashes, falls, sprains, strains, and other calamities by engaging a multitude of other muscles, large and small, to help you maintain balance in space, in a process called proprioception.
Ready for more? While all these actions are taking place, your brain is ordering your arms to swing in opposition to the movement of your legs, which helps you maintain alignment along your central axis.¹ If you are running on uneven terrain, such as on an off-road trail, your brain is also ordering quick adjustments with each step to keep you vertical. Ligaments and tendons heave and pull while small muscles contract, hold, and then release. Elsewhere, your body is busy regulating heat, supplying oxygen and fuel, and removing waste products.
All this happens in the simple action of running a single step.
If we were required to consciously control all these actions, we would be hard-pressed to even get out of bed in the morning. And yet with the assistance of our central nervous systems and our networks of muscles, we do. Every day. We learn to run, and many of us start running for hours and then run in long-distance races. But few of us think about the choreography of running and what is required to make it work.
Why is this all so complicated? Because running is an inherently unbalanced activity. It comprises a series of controlled forward falls. And during the process of running, you are never balanced equally on your two legs. Instead, you are on one foot, then up in the air, and then on the other foot. To fully understand these movements and how strength training relates to running, we need to delve into the biomechanics of running.
Running is, of course, primarily about moving forward. As opposed to other sports, such as basketball or tennis, that involve moving in multiple directions, running basically occurs in a single plane of motion: what exercise physiologists call the sagittal plane,
which divides your body front to back, producing two mirrored images. When you are running, everything moves forward and backward on this plane: One of your arms and the opposite leg swing forward as the opposite two swing backward and vice versa.
Now the really challenging aspect of running occurs to you laterally as you run. When you land on one foot, you are in a very unstable position. And what happens at that moment can greatly affect your running and your odds of getting injured.
Try a quick demonstration. Stand on one foot. Now try holding that position for 10 seconds, but with your eyes closed.
How did you do? If you are like most people, you wobbled a bit, and after a few seconds, you found yourself touching down with your upraised foot to keep balanced.
This unsteadiness is caused by the fact that one of your two main supports—your legs—was taken off the ground. Closing your eyes adds to the difficulty by removing the visual cues that your body also uses to maintain balance; when those are gone, standing on one leg is not an easy task.
So what does this have to do with running? In a word, everything.
When you run, you alternate standing briefly on one foot, then the other. At the moment of touchdown, your body struggles to maintain balance because one of its two main supports—your legs—has been removed. Your body will naturally try to center itself on your planted leg. This in turn puts pressure on the muscles of that leg’s outer hip—the gluteus medius.² If the gluteus medius cannot hold firm against this pressure, then the hip will collapse outward.
Take a look at the photo below. It shows world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe in a tough moment at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Having suffered from a leg injury and stomach problems, she had dropped out of the marathon, held just five days before the pictured event, the 10K. Unfortunately for her, she fared no better in this race. Fatigue and continuing stomach problems were plaguing her, and she dropped out of this race as well.
PRadcliffe_AP040827022365.tifPaula Radcliffe showing signs of distress in the 10K at the 2004 Olympic Games
All this is vividly displayed not only on her face, contorted by effort and discomfort, but also in her form, which has broken down dramatically. Her gluteus medius is no longer able to hold her body’s weight as she lands. The photo captures a moment when her right hip has collapsed outward. This in turn causes her left hip to sag. With her hips angled down toward her left, her spine angles to her right. To keep her balance, she compensates by shifting her right shoulder down, which then causes her to tilt her head to the left.
The net result? Paula has contorted herself into an S shape.
Does her form matter? As the great but notoriously awkward-looking Czech Olympic runner Emil Zátopek once said, I shall learn to have a better style once they start judging races according to their beauty.
Emil cared less about his form than he did about finishing first, which he did often. So what is really so important about Paula’s form in this photo?
Plenty. When a runner’s hip collapses outward, that motion puts strain on