“Today I do not do legs because the day after tomorrow I am going to go running”, “Why am I going to do legs if every weekend I am going to run?”. These are some of the phrases that are most heard in gyms among running regulars. But are those claims true? Should I train my lower body muscles if I already have running sessions?
Discover the importance of leg work in the weight room, as well as an exercise guide that will help you work your legs correctly if you practice running .
Why should we train our legs if we run?
1. Improve strength and prevent injuries
It is a serious mistake to think that you have to run to get in shape, since, from a health point of view, we should understand the race as the opposite, that is, we must already be in shape to be able to run if we do not want to suffer some kind of injury.
People who decide to practice running, usually completely put aside the work of the muscles of the legs, since they mistakenly think that they already receive enough stimulation in the running sessions. This is a serious mistake since in endurance sports, in order to improve our condition or simply remain in an optimal level of health without suffering from pathologies, it is necessary to carry out work with weights to specifically strengthen the muscles involved in the race, in addition to compensate for the muscles that receive the least stimulus in this sport.
Running is a practice in which it produces the same movement pattern for a continuous time and in the same plane, creating decompensations that result in tendinopathies in the knees, in the Achilles tendon or in the plantar fascia. Therefore, a well-designed strength workout helps to spread the tension of the race throughout the muscles.
2. Increases muscle mass
As you age, there is a loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) and strength (dinapenia). This loss of muscle mass leaves the joints compromised, exposing them to a greater volume of impact, thus generating a greater risk of injury.
Work in the weight room slows down this process and allows the muscles to be strengthened, so that the joints receive better “cushioning”. A higher level of muscles is developed with better joint health, so if you do not want to withdraw from the road you should start training the lower body.
3. Improves body composition
Many users come to the weight rooms after a long period of running and pose the following problem: “I want to tone up since I have been running and I have lost a lot of weight and now I feel flabby.”
This occurs because endurance sports require energy for long periods of time. By not having a proper diet or correct training, the body tends not to preserve muscle mass, which is why the body composition of this type of user becomes truly worrying.
To reverse this process it is necessary to carry out a correct training that allows to eliminate fat but conserves the muscles. In this way, our body composition will improve and we can feel comfortable with our body.
4. Improves endurance and performance
Strength is nothing more than the ability to overcome resistance in the shortest time possible, so an improvement in the muscles of the legs will translate into an improvement in performance and our running efficiency.
Studies show that concurrent training – that is, combined strength and endurance training – produces short- and long-term improvements .
6 exercises to improve endurance in running
We can classify the exercises according to the laterality in the execution of each of the exercises.
1. Bilateral exercises
Taking into account the exercises that are carried out involving both parts of our body.
1.1 Squats
It is the main strength exercise for the lower body, and the most used in almost all training routines. It’s great for working your glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and the entire core area. To run it:
- Place a barbell on your trapezius and back shoulder, with your legs stretched out and spread a little more than shoulder width apart.
- The core must remain in tension to protect our spine.
- Try to squat starting the movement with the glutes and making the descent with the spine as straight as possible.
- Get roughly to a height where your knees are at about a 90 degree angle.
- Squeeze your quads and push up to return to the starting position.
1.2 Dead weight
It is considered together with the squat the most complete exercise to work your whole body in any training. With this exercise you will work all the muscles of the body, it will also help you gain muscle strength to complete your running workouts. For it:
- Squat down, holding a barbell at shoulder width, with your arms straight.
- With the core contracted, begin to pull the bar up with the force of the lower body.
- Squeeze your glute and stand fully upright.
- Return to the starting position, controlling the movement at all times.
1.3 Rowing
This is an exercise that stimulates the growth of the entire back, so it will help you to strengthen the muscles of the stabilizer muscles by improving running technique. To run it:
- With a torso tilt parallel to the ground, grab a barbell at roughly shoulder height, with your arms straight.
- With a jerking motion, raise the bar to your chest.
- Control the descent and return to the start phase.
2. Unilateral exercises
2.1 Bulgarian squat
This is an exercise that, in addition to toning and strengthening the leg, helps us improve knee control and stability. It also usually works to correct knee lateralization problems. To run it:
- Hold a dumbbell on each side.
- Place one leg on a bench or step and the other forward so that the knee is at about 90º with respect to the ground.
- Do a flexion and extension.
2.2 Strides
This is another demanding exercise for the muscles of the lower body of our body that will help to compensate the femoral muscles and avoid injuries in the most common area of runners. For it:
- Standing with your legs hip-width apart, step forward with one leg.
- The other will be supported behind and bent, with the knee facing the ground.
- Bend your lead leg and return to the starting position.
- Change your leg and perform the same movement.
2.3 Single leg deadlift
This is an alternative to the conventional deadlift, but this time with a kettlebell and working independently on each leg. Although it seems like a balance exercise, with this movement we will work an innumerable amount of muscles in the body, although the main congestion is noticed in the back of the leg.
- Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in one of your hands.
- Raise the same leg on the side that is holding the dumbbell back.
- Semi-flex your supporting leg as you lean your torso forward.
- Hold the isometric position and return to the starting position controlling the movement.
We must perform the movement in a controlled manner, avoiding it being a rocking movement.
conclusion
If you are one of the people who practice running but have forgotten the work of leg muscle building because you think that running sessions is enough, from here we advise you to start strengthening them with the exercises that we have proposed.
In this way you can take advantage of the benefits that strength work brings both in improving performance and, most importantly, preventing hateful injuries.
Reference
- Gerber, Shawn. Want To Race Endurance? Better Hit The Gym. For Breakingmuscle. ⌈Revised January 2017⌋.
