Triceps Strengthening for Runner

To begin the triceps strengthening exercise, lie on the floor with your back flat, your knees bent and your feet on the ground. Grip a small dumbbell with both hands. Rest your arms on your torso so that the weight is lying near your waist. While keeping your arms straight, slowly pull the weight behind you until it touches the floor behind your head, as shown in the figure. Slowly return to the starting position. Do this exercise 12 times.

Chest Strengthening for Runner

Lie down with your back flat, your knees bent, and your feet on the floor to get in position for the chest strengthening exercise. Keep one arm against your side. In the other, hold a small dumbbell while extending the arm perpendicular to your torso, as shown in the following figure. Slowly raise the weight until it’s over your chest, and then slowly lower it to the starting position. Repeat this exercise 12 times for each arm.

Shoulder Press for Runner

To begin the shoulder press, stand straight with a small dumbbell in one hand. The arm with the weight should be bent so that the palm of your hand is facing away from you and the weight is roughly at shoulder height, as shown in the following figure. Straighten your arm and slowly push the weight toward the ceiling. Slowly return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise 12 times for each arm.

Bicep Curls for Runner

To strengthen your biceps, stand straight with a small dumbbell in the palm of one hand. The hand with the weight should rest against your thigh with your palm facing away from you. Using your elbow as a lever, slowly raise the dumbbell to shoulder height, as shown in the figure. Return to the start position just as slowly. Try not to hoist the weight by jerking your shoulder or upper arm. Do 12 repetitions of this exercise for each arm.

Back Strengthening for Runner

To begin the back strengtheningexercise, lie down with your stomach and thighs against the floor, as illustrated in the figure. Prop yourself up on one elbow with your upper arm at a 90-degree angle to the floor, keeping the opposing leg straight and flat. Raise the other arm and the opposing leg to shoulder level at the same time. Hold for a few seconds, then relax and repeat the exercise with the other arm and leg. Do this exercise 10 times with each set of opposing arms and legs.

Crunches for runner

As shown in the following figure, lie on the floor with your back and head flat against the floor to begin the crunches. Bend your knees so that your heels rest on the floor. Cross your arms across your stomach. While keeping your back straight and your butt on the floor, slowly raise your upper body until your shoulders are level with your knees. Try not to curl your upper body toward your knees; instead, imagine that it’s being pulled by a string toward the ceiling. Slowly lower your upper body until your back is flat on the floor. Repeat this exercise 25 times.

Essential Strengthening Exercises for Runners

As with the stretching routine I laid out in the preceding chapter, the purpose of this section is to show you the minimum of what I think you should do in strength training, not present a one-size-fits-all strength training program. You might have noticed that everything I’ve said so far about strengthening exercises refers to upper body work. That’s what I’m going to focus on here. I’m not saying that runners can’t benefit from doing resistance training for their legs, just that I don’t think that doing so is as necessary for all runners as the upper body work.

I’ll show you a few leg exercises that you might have reason to do, but for now, I’m going to stick to my keep-it-simple mantra. All runners should do some form of strengthening exercises for these areas:
➤ Abdominal muscles
➤ Back
➤ Biceps
➤ Shoulders
➤ Chest
➤ Triceps
These key upper body parts contribute to running more smoothly. When these areas are stronger, you’ll be better able to maintain good running form when you get tired. In some of the exercises that follow, I use small dumbbells. For years, I’ve used 12-pounders. Again, this is the kind of weight that Arnold Schwarzenegger probably picks his teeth with. That’s fine. I’m just working at maintaining a decent level of upper body strength that will help in my running. Those 12-pound dumbbells are what work for me. Find a weight that you can use comfortably throughout the exercises.
Regardless of whatever weight you use, follow these guidelines in your strength training program:

• Use a weight that you can comfortably lift 12 times.
• After you do all the exercises, relax for a few minutes, and then repeat the set.
• Do this workout two or three times a week.
• Don’t lift weights on consecutive days.
• Schedule your strength training sessions for your easier running days or for days when you don’t run.
• If you have the time, do these workouts after you do your stretching routine.
• Do these exercises in the same comfortable clothes that you do your stretching in.
• Do the floor exercises on the same firm, comfortable surface that you stretch on.
• Keep these guidelines in mind as you review the basic exercises on the following posts.

The Slender Running People

Unfortunately, a lot of runners don’t believe a word of this advice. They like to point out that if a strong upper body were necessary to run well, then certainly you’d develop one through running. They also like to scare people away from trying to get stronger by warning that lifting weights will make you “muscle-bound” and add tons of unwanted bulk. After all, they’ll ask, wasn’t losing weight one of the main reasons you started running?

Sounds kind of like the reasoning that the anti-stretchers tried to use in the previous chapter. Obviously, you can run without ever even so much as looking at a weight or contemplating a sit-up, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to run as well as you can, or that it will feel as good. Running can do some contradictory things to your body; for example, it can tighten the very muscles that are most needed for running. That’s why you need to stretch. In the same way, running doesn’t affect many of the muscles that, when stronger, will help make running easier. That’s why you need to strengthen.

As for worrying about piling on pounds of unwanted bulk, don’t. Just as most people who run are never going to have to worry about being as thin as I am because of not being genetically predisposed that way, most people are never going to look like a bodybuilder. The top bodybuilders are as suited to their chosen sport as I am to mine; most people can’t look that way, no matter how much they lift.

More important, the strengthening program I’m going to outline here would make most of them laugh. That’s fine. They work to build maximum bulk. What should concern you is doing a minimum to make your running better. What’s necessary for that isn’t much and certainly doesn’t involve any of the kinds of mega weights that bodybuilders throw around.
If you’re still opposed to the idea of strengthening exercises because you’re running to lose weight, consider the results of a study that was conducted in the Netherlands a few years ago. In the study, people were divided into a solid group and a slender group. Both groups then lifted twice a week for 12 weeks. As expected, the members of the solid group (the football players of the world) had stacked on significant amounts of fat-free mass during the study. That is, they gained weight in the form of muscle. The slender group, however, was as wiry as ever after the 12 weeks, with no real increase in fat-free mass. The researchers concluded that those with slender body types, which includes most runners, lack the genetic predisposition to bulk up.
If that’s the case, then why bother with weights? Because the slender group’s failure to gain fat-free mass doesn’t mean that they didn’t benefit from their lifting program. At the end of the 12 weeks, they had increased their strength by 13 percent, and they had 10 percent less body fat than at the beginning of the study. They were stronger and leaner, yet not bulkier, after just 12 weeks of lifting. Next excuse?