Three Reasons Runners Should Avoid Strength Training ?
Are you a runner who could use an excuse to skip out on your strength training? Here we have the perfect blog post for you by avid runner, Doctor of Naprapathy and kBox user Johnny Sellvén.
You are likely you prefer running to lifting weights if you are a runner. Let’s face it if you were really that into lifting you would probably be in the gym already instead of on the trails or the track. You excel at what you practice, hence runners should run, not lift, right? Throw in a little hill running and you should be all set. Wrong! In recent years there has been some buzz regarding the benefits of strength training for endurance athletes.
That being said, I thought I would balance the scale and mention my top three reasons why runners should NOT add strength training to their routine.
1. You prefer rehabilitation over actually running
There is sufficient evidence that you can substantially lower your risk of suffering a running-related injury. Simply by adding 1-3 sessions of strength training to your schedule.
Don’t worry, this will not give you loads of excess weight and big muscles, just ask any bodybuilder how “easy” it is to add actual muscle mass, what kind of training, eating and time it takes.
2. You just love to lose sprint duels at the end of a race
When it comes to battling out a sprint at the end of a race, whether it´s for a gold medal or beating your running partner, there has to be a winner and a loser. You just might be the one who likes to lose!
Recent studies suggest, that adding strength will not make a big difference early on in a 10k race, but when it comes to pushing the home stretch, you will see a big difference.
3. You believe improvements should come from VO2max, not silly things like running economy
Running economy is complex, and one might suggest that it is a measurement on how economic your running is. If you feel that you prefer to use more energy each step, making running harder than it needs to be, skipping weights is a great idea.
All of these are great reasons to not add strength training to your usual routine and I for one would personally like to thank you as perhaps your future competitor. That if is you actually show up to the race, you might already be too busy doing rehab.
What is your reasoning? Can you simply just not have enough time in the day to squeeze in more training than you already do? Well, if you’re reading this text it´s quite obvious what I´m about to recommend. Like you, I´m an amateur runner, struggling to balance a life with a family, running (both in the actual sense and running my own business), tending to the house, car and so on. Ever since I got the Exxentric kBox4 in my home, a revolution took place in doing my training.
Regardless of what kind of shit life brings my way, I can always head down to the basement after the kids are asleep, and rip off a brutal strength training session in a matter of minutes!
/Johnny Sellvén
Doctor of Naprapathy at Naprapat Nollnitton
