How Strength Training Can Be Worthwhile

A Perspective From Kenya

September 26, 2006

New thinking in strength training

A new phenomenon in strength training for endurance athletes is the use of explosive exercises. Muscles adapt to strength training in different ways according to the number of reps/sets, amount of weight and movement velocity. If you want to bulk, do heavy weights with 8 to 12 reps, doing extensions slowly (e.g., three seconds) and contractions faster, (1 to 2 seconds), thus having a larger volume of training. This is NOT what you want for enhancing distance running.

To challenge your neuromuscular capacity, do exercises as explosively as possible, with 4 to 6 reps over 3 to 5 sets, beginning with no more than 60 percent of 1 RM or 16-20 RM (the amount of weight you can repeat a maximum of 16 to 20 times) and advancing to 80-85 percent of 1 RM or 6 to 9 RM. The two factors determining your power output in explosive and/or heavy exercises are neuromuscular characteristics (how much of the muscle you activate) and mass of muscle (size of muscle fibers). Training with short muscle activation time does not stimulate muscle hypertrophy (bulking up), but the limiting factor is rather the rate of recruitment of the working muscle, meaning the rate of activation of the motor units. An increase here has been shown to have a big impact on running economy, enabling you to run more efficiently.

Studies conducted with elite cross country runners showed improvements in running economy after general and specific explosive strength training with only 40 percent of 25+ RM weight for nine weeks, suggesting that though heavier weights up to 80-85 percent might give bigger improvements, relatively lightweights can be used in explosive exercises with only 4 to 6 repetitions.

Many distance runners find this type of training attractive, since you can work with very short intervals of effort in contrast to their majority of long, easy training. You have to adapt a completely different, more aggressive, attitude than when doing your usual easy- to medium-effort running.

Another strong determining factor for running economy is elasticity in the connecting tissues around the muscles. When looking at world-class runners, for example, Saif Saaeed Shaheen here in Iten, you notice that his running resembles stiff elastic strings, extended and then flexed only with the accumulated elastic energy. Since strength training, especially explosive plyometrics, affects the connective tissues and this ability, it should be suggested that improvements are likely in elasticity.

I recommend a gym program of squats, weighted walking lunges, weighted step-ups, leg curls, leg extensions, "standing gluteus"/hip extensions and calf raises. Always use an introduction period to practice the right exercise techniques, and never do heavy weight training within the first year of weight training.

From training indoor weighted squats, you can improve outdoor squat jumps, which should, in turn, enhance performance in short sprints up a steep hill: the most specific strength training for runners. To get a connection, therefore, between the more general gym strength training and running, transfer the strength from general to specific by doing short, max-effort hill sprints with walk-down recoveries once a week, including three sets of 15 explosive jumps uphill and plyometric exercises (series of jumps, for example over some kind of hurdle, with fast active ground contact in between). For a certain strength exercise to be specific, you need to work as much as possible with the same direction and velocity as in running—as recommended by Dr. Yessis. Before speed work, do 50-100 meters of 3 to 5 drills, jumping strides, high knees, heels to buttocks, again so that your strength can be transferred from the gym out to the reality of running.

Core Training

From my observations, I believe training the core with many reps (15+), using back raises, sit-ups, and crunches (sometimes using the big ball) benefits your running. The well-organized Ethiopian and Moroccan running schools are built on a lot of core strength and gym training, and they have succeeded in creating runners like El Guerrouj and Gebrselaisse who can run very smoothly even in competition. Train the abdominals, front and side, and lower back as much as possible—ideally 3 to 5 times a week, at least twice a week, alternating between different exercises. This will enable you to have a good upright alignment and posture when running.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion: Strength training doesn’t improve VO2 max, which is one of the key determining factors in distance running. As a completely recreational runner, both the risk of injuries and level of VO2 max are quite low, suggesting that strength training is not the most obvious means to improve performance. Even then, however, on the mental level, diversity in a training schedule can stimulate some runners. To meet the demands of a runner on a higher level, such as improving running economy, increasing training capacity without injury, and enhanced ability to finish fast in races, strength training will help by improving running economy through bettered neuromuscular capacity and elasticity.

So, the next time you’re in the gym and see that big, lime-green exercise ball staring at you from the corner of the room, run and grab it before someone else does. Then do 20 to 40 minutes of good core exercises, followed by another 20 to 40 of squats, weighted step-ups and weighted walking lunges. Then go out for a run, confidently knowing that you’re one step closer in copying El Guerrouj, Haile Gebrselaisse and Lornah Kiplagat.

Mads Matthiesen is a competetive runner with a passion for science and a special interest in East African running culture. He is currently living at Lornah Kiplagat's High Altitude Training Center in Iten where he works as fitness instructor in their new gym and coaches the talented girls in the camp.