Proper strength training will make you faster, less vulnerable to injury, and a more efficient runner. Portland, Oregon has tens of thousands of runners, and thousands of running injuries to go along with them. Portland is also home to some of the best Personal Trainers to help these runners reduce the chances of injury.
Being stronger allows your body to withstand a higher workload, thus allowing you to train more. Looked at through a different lens, a stronger body allows you to sustain the same amount of workload you’re accustomed to, but it simply won’t be as fatiguing. Since it’s not as fatiguing, you’ll recover from it that much faster.
Let’s discuss the first point of being able to sustain more workload. There are many ways to increase a workload as it relates to running. You can run further, faster, more often, with more elevation gain, as well as a host of many other factors. Most runners want to be able to do “more” and being stronger allows you to do “more” in whatever capacity you prefer. If for example you are training for a specific race, you now have the ability to put more workload in the category that you think will best improve your performance. Maybe it’s a hilly race and you should work on getting some vert. How about a flat and fast race and some speed work is needed? If you are simply running and training for the joy of running, you would probably also appreciate being able to go further and faster and would also reap the benefits of strength training for the injury reduction factor.
The second point (less fatigue and easier recovery) is really the first one (being able to sustain more workload), but repackaged. I think we can all agree that runners would prefer to feel better when they run and less fatigued as a result of it. In the first sentence of this article I said proper strength training would make you a more efficient runner. The lovely thing is that being a more efficient runner means you are a more efficient human being, thus your life outside of running will also be less fatiguing. Being healthy and in-shape is a good thing for your life as a whole and the benefits of strength training spills over into your whole life.
Proper strength training and running load management, also called programming, allows you to meet your goals and run injury free. Whoa!
The benefits just keep coming with strength training. Again, being stronger allows you to increase your running workload. Because your running workload is higher, you will then adapt to that increased load and be able to progress slowly and add more distance, speed, or vertical gain. The cycle continues and you get even stronger, and your running workload potentially increases yet again, and so on and so on.
Working with a professional Strength Coach is invaluable. Personal Trainers come in all different ability levels, especially in Portland, Oregon. A good Personal Trainer can give you strength programming that will actually result in all of the above-mentioned benefits without getting you injured in the process. A good coach can and should put a large emphasis on technique and form when it comes to strength training.
Yes, exercise selection is important in Personal Training, but if you are doing the exercises improperly even the right exercise won’t get you where you need to go. The safest positions for lifting are almost always the strongest. A good coach will also help you determine how best to use your new running abilities and fitness.
Strength training and running are a match made in heaven. They are symbiotic and every runner realizes at some point that running without strength training is limiting. Give it a shot and see what you think.
Author: Camden Allison-Hall
Camden is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA and works as a Strength Coach at Evolution Healthcare and Fitness. He works with a variety of clients, from individuals wanting to feel stronger and better in their body, to athletes looking to improve their performance and reduce the chance of injury. Camden will explain and discusses your training program with you to ensure you understand all of it. He believes the more the client/student understands about their own training, the more effective it will be. Camden
will also work with you to customize your programming so that it is directly in line with your goals. Working with Camden is more of a collaboration, than a trainer telling you what to do. Camden prefers to drill the basics as it relates to movement patterns (squat, hinge, push, pull), since once you’ve mastered these you can take your new found technique and apply it to just about any movement. Camden is well accustomed to programming for an entire team of athletes. This can be a full years worth of training, which encompasses all phases of an athletic season. It can be one portion of the season, or even just consulting on how to implement certain practices in to the teams training. Camden is also certified in natural foot health through the Natural Foot Health Institute. Camden worked as a medical assistant at Northwest Foot & Ankle, so has a vast knowledge of how to have strong, healthy and resilient feet. Your feet are your foundation.
