[dropcap]T[/dropcap]o run faster you need not only to run and develop your legs on the regular basis but also you must train the whole body. A runner needs not only strong legs, but he or she needs balanced neuromuscular efficiency, good bones and tendons and harmonious metabolic rate. Strength training builds the muscles, gives further stamina and protects you from injuries as less likely that you’ll twist your ankle if it enhances with some extra exercises. That`s why running goes hand-in-hand with strength training if you have serious purposes in the life and want to be successful.
To get the desired results runners must remember about 7 golden rules of strength training.
Keep Your Priorities in Order
The training programs for runners differ from the programs of common gym rats. Runners should concentrate their attention on targeting the main muscles that will keep them balanced. During every strength workout, you must train your shoulders, lower, middle and upper back, glutes, biceps, triceps, quads and hamstrings.
Run Fast – Move the Weights Also Fast
Don’t sleep in the gym. You attend it to get the results! So go for it quickly and effectively. In the gym, speed influences the fast-twitch muscle fibers that runners so often ignore and helps to build sturdy and powerful muscles. Besides a good speed is the key to a good workout.
Start Your Training with Warm-Up – Finish Your Training with Cardio Machine and Stretching
Before the workout, every sportsman must warm up the muscles, prepare them for the strength training. In any case, don’t start the training without the warm-up it can lead to injuries.
Finish the training on the cardio machine to cool down and then stretching helps you to bring your heart rate down.
Sit-Ups, Doing Push-Ups, and Press Weight Under The Head
The best exercises for runners are the exercises with their own body weight. Such exercises usually tend to develop the main and the most important groups of muscles and if you increase your training time and weights you`ll get a great result in two or three weeks.
Have No More than Four Strength Workouts per Week
Strength training is very important for runners, but the important thing is not to overdo! Weightlifting training has a systemic effect that influences the whole body not only the muscles. Thus, if you overdo with the intense workouts it can negatively affect your nervous, immune and hormonal systems.
Make 30 Minutes of Relaxation After Training
And yet runners don`t forget of such important thing before your every workout as foot massage which takes you out of the tightness that comes up with the day-to-day training and relaxes you after the exhaustive exercises.
Even if you have the right crossFit shoes, your legs while running are always under the pressure. Foot massage can help to decrease blood pressure, decrease cortisol level (the hormone of stress), enhance the immune system, reduce pain and improve concentration.
Go to a professional who would identify the pressure points and give them the necessary attention to relax your muscles.
Weight Lifting Constantly but Stop Strength Training During Racing Season
Constancy is the key to success! Attend the gym regularly! Work out hard in the gym! But there is only one reason why you can miss your workouts – the beginning of the racing season. In this case, it’s more important to focus yourself on the victory and not on your strength training.
Strength training for runners is as important as running workout. If you`re a runner it doesn’t mean that you must have only strong legs! If you really have the aim and this aim is to be the champion pay attention to these 7 rules!
Helen Rogers is an editor of The Cross Fit Shoes. She helps people get stronger. She shares running and sports questions, beauty tips. All her stories are result-oriented and make her readers become healthy, wealthy and wise.
