Strength training or resistance training isn’t just for bodybuilders. Strength training is built around a simple concept: the more muscle you have, the more energy you have available to use.
Often runners focus on improving cardiovascular fitness and endurance. Strength training for runners offers several benefits. By incorporating bodyweight exercises into a workout, not only do stamina and technique improve, risk of injury is reduced.
Top 6 Benefits of Resistance Training
Resistance training is a foundational activity that everyone should incorporate into their lives for optimal energy and general wellbeing. Authentic Health is going to highlight the top six benefits of strength training for runners:
- Maintains Muscle Mass
- Builds Core Strength
- Increases Endurance
- Improves Bone Density
- Controls Body Fat
- Decreases Risk of Injury
Remember, there are a multitude of benefits to resistance training, including improved balance, flexibility, joint pain, mental clarity, and self-esteem. It can also decrease anxiety, blood pressure, and insulin resistance.
1. Maintains Lean Muscle
Strength training makes your muscles do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to running.
Stronger leg muscles deliver more power to a runner’s stride, which translates to faster speeds and a better ability to maintain your pace over the long term. This is a clear energy saver, which is vital over distances.
Stronger upper body muscles allow you to hold yourself up for long periods of time without tiring or losing form, enhancing performance over time and distance.
Suggested Compound Strength Exercises For Runners: Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, Seated Row’s, Push-ups
Builds Core Strength
A common cause of running injuries is a weak core. This forces other areas of the body to take the strain, compensating for weakness, and potentially leading to pain and injury.
Core strength exercises for runners will help correct imbalances in the body, improving posture, balance, breathing, and reducing lower back pain.
Suggested Core Strengthening Exercises For Runners: Plank, Glute Bridge, Farmer Carries, Cable Chop’s
3. Increases Endurance
Muscular endurance is the number of times a muscle can contract to sustain a movement of weight. So, if you’re running uphill or over a distance, you’ll be able to push harder and faster because you’ve strengthened your muscles to sustain energy, even with the added stress of movement.
Suggested Exercises For Runners To Improve Muscular Endurance : Psoas Marches, Calf Raises, Hamstring Bridges
4. Improves Bone Density
Bones need weight-bearing exercise, like strength training, to stay healthy and strong (and prevent osteoporosis.) Activities such as strength training place stress on the bones which, in turn, stimulates bone-forming cells resulting in bone growth and improved density.
5.Controls Body Fat
Resistance training speeds up your metabolism and a high functioning metabolism turns us into fat-burning machines. It also helps preserve muscle mass, so you lose fat and not lean muscle as you drop weight. As an added bonus, the increased metabolic rate lasts for up to 38 hours after you finish training, allowing continued calorie burn.
6.Decreases Risk of Injury
Finally, strength training can help reduce injuries by making the muscles stronger and more resilient. It improves balance, flexibility, and range of motion. Building lean muscle can also help the body absorb the impact from running, lowering the risk of stress fractures and joint injuries in the legs.
Stronger muscles make you less resistant to fatigue, enabling you to hold good running form longer, even as you tire out, which makes you less susceptible to injuries like shin splints and plantar fasciitis.
Authentic Health Are Strength Workout Experts
Some of the best exercises for runners involve strength training workouts that target the hips, glutes, quads, and core. These are the areas of the body that keep you balanced and stable when you run. They also provide power to your stride, improve running economy, and help you maintain good form during long sessions.
Whether you’re a dedicated runner or just starting out, at Authentic Health Studio, Essendon, we have built our reputation on offering the most dynamic and effective strength training workouts to support your sport of choice. Let us design a program to elevate and support your current track routine.
PS: Whenever you’re ready… we have results-driven, no-nonsense programs to improve your health and fitness:
1. Join Us For Semi-Private Personal Training – Semi-private personal training is a signature service running both morning and night. What makes it our most popular service? It’s personalised, cost-effective, and gets great results. Contact us now with ‘Semi-Private Offer’ in the subject line to learn more.
2. Join Us For 1:1 Personal Training – We realise some people want to do the work on their own, we also know many of you have goals that are personal to just you and that you might want a program written specifically for you. Contact us now with ‘Personal Training Offer’ in the subject line to learn more.
