Day 72 - Resistance Training for Runners

Research has shown that even endurance distance runners can improve their race times with a well-designed resistance training program in as little as 8 weeks.

Traditional wisdom would lead you to believe that distance or endurance runners need to be thin or streamlined, and therefore should avoid resistance training. This is simply not true!

First of all, we know that resistance training does not necessarily lead to an increase in body mass.

Secondly, a well-designed resistance training program (including plyometrics) can improve the strength and natural elasticity of the muscles and ligaments, improving what is known as "running economy".

Ideally, distance runners would benefit from 2 different training styles or repetition ranges. Resistance that targets a 6-12 rep range has been shown to be most beneficial in stimulating muscle hypertrophy (muscle cell growth) so you may want to bypass that rep range if you wish to keep your body slim.

Having said that, endurance runners, or any endurance athlete for that matter, would greatly benefit from a 12+ rep range. When training with higher repetition ranges, you are not only training your slow-twitch or "aerobic" muscle fibers, but you can actually cause your fast-twitch or "anaerobic" muscle fibers to transition to be more aerobic.

This can be beneficial to endurance athletes because your muscles become more suited to use oxygen as a preferential energy source. In other words, your muscles will increase their overall endurance!

Secondly, and the rep range that many endurance runners (or endurance athletes) may skip over, is the 5 and under rep range. For most endurance athletes, upper body training is not nearly as important as training for the legs, so when I speak of 5 and under rep training, I am mostly referring to heavy squats, lunges, deadlifts, etc.

Strength or power training (5 and under repetitions), combined with plyometric exercise can improve the strength, power, and overall natural elasticity of the muscles and ligaments in the lower body. When the muscles and ligaments retain more of their natural elasticity, your body will expend less energy traveling over comparable distances.

Also known as "running economy", by quickly collecting and releasing stored kinetic energy, your muscles expend less energy because they allow the elasticity to do most of the work for them.

Although a bit of a bad analogy, think of things this way: If you were to jump up and down in place, your legs would tire out fairly quickly. However, if you were to be jumping on a trampoline, you would not only be able to jump higher, but you would be able to jump up and down for a longer duration. This is because you are allowing the springs of the trampoline to do much of the work for you!

Distance runners, or endurance athletes in general can benefit just as much from resistance training as anyone else, just begin your strength and conditioning program as anyone else would - by focusing on your goals in mind!

Quote of the day:

"It is better to travel well than to arrive."
~ Buddha

Day 6 - Muscular Endurance and Athletic Performance

Below is a question I was asked recently regarding muscular endurance:

Question (paraphrasing):
"I was wondering what you thought of muscle endurance in which the value of very high rep (20-30) sets. Probably too much of an over-simplification on my part, but it seems like very high rep sets are more conducive to performance?"

Muscle endurance can be a great asset for certain athletes such as those that compete in endurance events where your primary energy source is aerobic in nature (eg. marathon runners). Do not confuse this with
other sports that may seem to be "aerobic" such as hockey, basketball, or even soccer. These sports and others similar to these actually consist of many different bouts of fast, powerful actions (anaerobic power). For that reason, to increase performance in MOST sports, power andspeed training should be the cornerstone of training.

Having said all of that, every athlete should include some sort of endurance training at some point in their
training periodization. Now when this falls into your actual training regimen, depends on what type of sport or event you will be competing in. Let me give you a few examples.

Every muscle in your body has a specific ratio of type 1 (aerobic), to type 2 (anaerobic) muscle fibers that is determined by genetics. This ratio will not change, however, you can train type 2 fibers to become MORE
aerobic in nature. The trade off for that is that they lose a bit of strength/power.

If you are an athlete that wants to train your muscles to be more powerful/strong, you can first train your muscle fibers to be more aerobic which makes them more efficient. When I say more efficient, I mean they are better at oxygen transport, utilization, waste removal, etc. this can benefit you when you then start to hit the heavy weights because your muscles will recover quicker so you can train more efficiently.

On the flip side of that coin, MMA fighters for example would want to first train their muscles to be strong and powerful but then have endurance properties because of the number of punches/kicks they could potentially throw in a fight.

I have actually experienced an example of this with myself recently. I am coming off of my mass phase, where I increased my muscular size and strength, so I have no problems picking up my son. However, my muscles aren't very 'endurance' trained, so my arms start burning after holding him for a pretty short amount of time.

By focusing on power and strength training, an individual's performance increase would be noticeable in the speed/quickness department. If an athlete would want to increase their performance so that they could race after a puck in hockey, for example, their training should focus on speed and power which would allow them to blow by the opposing player.

On the flip side of the coin, if their endurance lacks, then after a couple of 'sprints', their legs would be toast and they wouldn't be able to skate as fast towards the end of the game. That is where training structure and proper periodization come into play. Ideally, you want to have an even balance between performance (powerful, strong, explosive actions), combined with endurance (ability to perform for longer periods of time) to have the best of both worlds, and then vary each asset depending on your sport.

A defensive line in football, for example, would want to be VERY strong/powerful, but they dont need as much endurance because the plays are so short and they have long rest periods at times between plays.

Quote of the day:

"He who conquers others is strong. He who conquers himself is mighty."
~Lao Tzu

Resistance Training 7 Step Approach - Step 5: Training Load and Repetitions

Load is the most critical part of a resistance training program. I will detail ways in which fitness professionals define and use loads in a well-rounded resistance training program.

Terminology Used to Quantify and Qualify Mechanical Work

Mechanical Work - force and displacement (distance) an object or weight is moved. A quantifiable way in which you can measure mechanical work is like in Olympic weight lifting when you multiply a weight lifted by the number of times lifted.

Load Volume (or Volume Load) - Basically a measurement of weight (units) multiplied by distance (distance units) and repetitions. To note however, that certain repetition quantities alter the quality of the work being done. For example, 1 set of 15 repetitions is not the same as 3 sets of 5 repetitions.

Relationship Between Load and Repetitions

Repetitions is and should be inversely related to the load lifted, especially when calculating correct loads for specific repetition amounts. For example, the higher the load, the lower number of reps an individual should be able to lift.

Calculating 1-repetition maximum (1RM) and 10-repetition maximum for individuals is a highly effective tool to structure a proper resistance training program. Depending on an individual's goals, their resistance exercises should remain within a specific rep range to meet such goals, which will be discussed later.

Keep in mind that an individual's 1RM (or calculated 1RM) on a weight machine may be significantly higher than doing a similar action with free weights as more synergistic muscles must be involved, potentially lowering the overall strength capacity of the user.

Below is a chart that can be used to determine 1RM based on percentages of weights lifted. There are many exceptions to this chart however based upon what muscles are being worked as well as the individual's comfort and skill level.

%1RM - # Repetitions Allowed
100 - 1
95 - 2
93 - 3
90 - 4
87 - 5
85 - 6
83 - 7
80 - 8
77 - 9
75 - 10
70 - 11
67 - 12
65 - 15

Calculating 1RM

There are few different ways you can calculate a 1RM for a specific exercise for an individual. For starters, a test can be conducted in which an individual can progress through a few "warm-up" sets and then, using a hypothetical 1RM, attempt to lift their heaviest weight possible for 1 repetition. Another way to calculate is by using the above chart to have an individual complete an exercise with a desired weight for as many repetitions as they can (preferably below 10 reps or so) to then calculate a theoretical 1RM.

When attempting an accurate 1RM test, where the individual is attempting to lift their heaviest weight for 1 repetition, a few things should be considered. First of all, only those individuals who are considered intermediate or experienced weightlifters who have a lot of experience at the specific exercise should attempt a 1RM test. Also, only power or core exercises that involve large muscle groups and multiple joints can withstand the large forces placed upon the body.

Assigning Load and Repetitions Based on the Training Goal

Once a strength and conditioning specialist has made a well-judged assessment based on an individuals needs (Step 1: Needs Analysis), as well as tested for actual and theoretical 1RM's, a training program can then be designed based upon the trainee's goals and therefore load and repetition quantities.

Generally, there are 4 main categories of resistance training goal sets.

1. "Strength" training is when an individual stays in a 1-6 rep range or so (85-100% 1RM). Strength training has minimal muscular growth, but very large potential for very strong muscles. Strength training should primarily be kept to "Core" exercises (large muscle groups, multi-joint).

2. "Hypertrophy" training is the training mode that creates the most muscular growth with added strength as well. Here, an individual should aim for a 6-12 rep range (85-70% 1RM).

3. "Endurance" training is to teach your muscles to be as fatigue-resistant as possible. Not a whole lot of strength gains are found here, nor much muscular growth, but muscular endurance training certainly has its place in training many individuals and athletes alike. Here you would want to push your repetitions higher than 12 (67% 1RM).

4. "Power" training is similar to strength training but slightly different. Due to the fact that the muscles are trying to displace (move) a weight as fast as possible, the muscles can not generate as much overall force, therefore slightly lowering the power weight goals to stay within a specific rep range. Here, you would be aiming for approximately 80% 1RM in order to stay in a 2-5 rep range.

Variation of the Training Load

Although an experienced weightlifter or athlete may mentally feel prepared to lift "heavy" 3 times a week (M,W,F), the heavy strains placed on the body can quickly lead to overtraining. Instead, a 3 day-a-week training schedule involving power and other core exercises should be split into a "heavy", "medium", and "light" day where the light day involves lifting 80% of the loads lifted on the heavy day, while maintaining the same repetition counts as the heavy day.
-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. PTS