Before I get to the list, it’s worth briefly recapping my past article, “The Secret to Speed, Strength, and Health”. In short, there are two primary reasons why it’s useful for runners to do non-running work in the gym. One, to improve systemic movement availability with the goal of reducing overuse injuries. Two, to improve lower body power production to increase stride length (and ultimately, run faster). It’s helpful to keep these reasons in mind as we go through this list.
Training like a Bodybuilder
It’s readily agreed-upon that runners seeking to perform well need to optimize their power:weight ratios, that is, they should be the strongest they can be at the lightest possible weight. There’s also an incorrect notion that every gym session needs to look like a scene from “Pumping Iron” with Arnold.
Unless you’re training for Jingle All The Way 2, of course
Training that emphasizes muscle group hypertrophy (especially in the upper body) runs counter to our motus operandi of “be powerful, yet light”. I can’t think of any conceivable way adding upper body mass would be helpful to the sport of running. In fact, even lower body hypertrophy is probably useful only to a slight degree before it would start to hinder, not help, an athlete. Yet, some folks don’t know how to structure a workout that DOESN’T include 3 sets of 20 bicep curls. They’re more confused than someone watching the end of Lost.
So the smoke monster was like…a metaphor?
What to do instead?
Even with lower body training, the goal of gym work is NOT to add an appreciable amount of muscle mass, so, as a general rule, we shouldn’t be chasing the “pump”. For the most part, we can stick to lower rep ranges that emphasize force development, particularly in the lower body, to achieve improvements in power production while minimizing the hypertrophic response. And we should utilize multi-joint, “athletic” exercises which are more likely to have transfer to our sport.
2. Training like a Powerlifter
Similar to the above rule, there’s a notion that all gym work needs to involve a barbell, and that that barbell should be deadlifting, squatted, and bench-pressed ad infinitum. There’s only one sport where performing barbell versions of these lifts are an absolute necessity, and that sport is powerlifting. My beef with runners training like powerlifters is two-fold;
One, most runners have some range of motion restrictions, where getting into the positions needed to safely execute these lifts may be difficult (or impossible). Things like weightlifting shoes and special mobility programs may be helpful here, but we’re getting further and further away from our goal of improving actual running. There are better versions of all of these movements that have a much lower “barrier to entry”, and are thus easier to load, progress, and benefit from.
Two, and I have to credit my guy Joel Smith for putting this concept into words, progressing barbell strength training for the sake of barbell strength training WILL, at some point, start to negatively impact running. The runner that can deadlift 405 may not be any better than the one that can deadlift 225. And, in fact, in the pursuit of that 405 deadlift, that runner may accumulate adaptations that are advantageous to powerlifting but DISadvantageous to running. Rigidity through the trunk, slow speed of movement, and producing force through the heels being some that most readily come to mind. Take it from someone who knows firsthand what progressing absolute strength does to athleticism.
Turns out failing to pick up a heavy barbell in no way shaves minutes off your 5k.
What do do instead?
Swap out barbell deadlift for trap bar deadlifts. Barbell back squats for goblet squats. Barbell bench pressing with push up variations. Use implements and loading strategies that are easier on your body and allow you to get the most benefit with the least amount of risk.
Realize that, even with something “friendly”, like a trap bar deadlift, optimizing for lifting the most possible weight is the wrong strategy. Absolute load is good, up to a point, but past some number, a lifter should focus on increasing SPEED of movement rather than load. That number may be as low as a bodyweight front squat and 1.5 bodyweight deadlift. The pure barbell strength can also be “converted” into a different type of lift or power activity that lies more along the “velocity” side of the force/velocity curve, thus conferring more transfer to our actual sport (but more on that later).
Achieve a respectable deadlift or squat, then do something with that strength. Don’t be the runner chasing a double bodyweight back squat “just cause”.
3. Bodyweight and Abs Only
Almost the opposite of our “all training is barbell deadlifts and bicep curls” crowd. These are our folks that, for fear that simply stepping foot into a gym will cause their biceps to balloon to cartoonish proportions and 5k times to climb, refuse to touch any loaded implement.
Physiologically accurate rendering of what happens to a runner when they get within 50 feet of a 35 lb kettlebell
These might also be the folks that have had previous injuries with strength training and feel that anything heavier than #5 dumbbells is inviting near-certain disaster. They subsist on a thin strength training gruel consisting of 8 different plank variations, wall push ups, and bodyweight lunges.
A failure to utilize ANY loaded implement in the gym whatsoever means we’re incredibly handicapped in our ability to positively impact an athlete’s power development. Some variations of loaded lower body movement are incredibly helpful for improving remedial force development, something distance runners are sorely lacking in.
What to do instead?
Lifting doesn’t get runners injured. Lifting with improper load or execution (or both) gets runners injured. Start light and progress. Choose exercise variations that are easy to get into for your body type. Something like a higher rep kettlebell deadlift may be a smarter exercise to train than a heavy barbell pulled from the floor.
Seek out a qualified coach for help designing a program suited to your needs and helping you fine tune your executions of those movements. If you’re in the Greater Boston Area, this could mean me. Drop me a line!
Load is merely a tool. Underutilizing it means you’re not going to express your full athletic potential. Over-utilizing it means we become overly-muscular and lifting-centric.
4. Not Progressing
This is for all my folks who ran competitively in school, had a decent lifting program, and think they “know it all” when it comes to activities in the weight room. They’ve back squatted and power cleaned at the same weight and in the same way since they were 15, so they “get it”, right? Wrong.
Except this person. This person has it all figured out.
What to do instead?
Gym work is not a box to be checked. It’s a continual pursuit of movement optimization as we overload certain elements of movement to provoke an adaptation and, ultimately, a stronger and more resilient athlete. There is always something to change for the better, always something to progress, always something new expose the system to. Most often, it’s whatever your program has been lacking.
If you’ve been hitting tons of bilateral barbell work, try unloaded single leg work.
If everything has been fast, try tempo lifting and deliberately emphasizing eccentric or isometric portions of the lift. If everything has been slow, try including some basic jumping and plyometric activities.
The goal of the gym isn’t to get better at the gym. It’s to use the gym as a tool for better running. And in the same way we wouldn’t ever reach a point with running where we think “this workout is fine, I’ll just repeat it every week in the same exact way till the end of time”, we shouldn’t ever get stagnant with our gym work.
5. Failing to “Connect” Gym Work to Running
Running is a specific skill with specific demands. It’s single leg and plyometric in nature.
A deadlift, by contrast, is performed on two legs, is NOT plyometric, and is extremely short duration. A deadlift is a fantastic exercise for improving generalized lower body power, but we need to make sure we “connect” that power to running. It’s even more difficult to make a case for using machines to isolate and fatigue individual muscle groups. If a deadlift is 4 steps removed from a runner’s stride, a seated leg extension may be 6.
What to do instead?
Try pairing heavy, slow exercises with fast, plyometric ones in similar positions. Two of my most utilized combinations are split squats to split jumps and deadlifts to vertical jumps.
In the BEST case scenario, an athlete might perform 3-6 striders at 90% effort immediately after gym work to “wire” those power increases to their running pattern. This is something Alan Webb discussed at length on Steve Magness and John Marcus’s excellent podcast.
In summation
For the most part, training for the explicit purpose of muscle gain doesn’t have a place in running, so avoid bodybuilding style body-part split days and rep ranges decided to chase “the pump”
Use implements other than barbells that make loading squats and deadlifts easier. For most clients, this means trap bars and kettlebells, respectively
Improve one rep max squat and deadlift performance to a certain level, and then stop chasing 1RM strength
Loading basic movements to some degree lets us overload the system and improve power production, don’t fear heavy stuff
The composition of gym work should change over the course of a season, year, career, and lifespan depending on what that athlete needs at that particular time
Work with a qualified coach who understands how to integrate gym work into a performance running paradigm for the best results