Running Technique Tips

In the first two articles in this series about the strength training techniques for running employed by Nike coaches Jerry Schumacher and Pascal Dobert I speculated that variety and a framework of strength training for running exercises with differing objectives was a core part of the reason for the top level running produced by athletes such as Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Shalane Flanagan. Strength training is a great way to improve or train for proper running form.

In this post I drill down to give you a taste of what some of these exercises and strength training sessions might look like. Don’t be limited by what I’ve discussed here, keep an eye open for interesting exercises you can add into your training. Just be careful to assess each for their potential usefulness and relationship to running.

Read parts one and two of this series:
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 1
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 2

Doing exercises that get you ready for looking good on the beach are not necessarily going to improve your running performance. I cover a method for assessing the merits of individual strength training exercises for running in my book Running Technique.

Once you’ve got a framework in place, tweaking the variety of what you do isn’t difficult. You just keep changing the elements that belong in each part of the overall structure you have created. For example, the one I discussed in Part II of this series.

Blending five strength work-outs with the demands of running

While I’m all about the importance of strength training to help your running performance and develop good running form you don’t want to let your strength training compromise your running training. As an elite full time athlete, you have a little more time on your hands to squeeze out every last opportunity for improvement in your training day. So the scheduling of additional strength work is unlikely to be a massive deal, especially if it’s done at a manageable intensity and volume.

For the rest of the running world you don’t necessarily need to smash out five big gym sessions per week, but what you can do is attach a couple of smaller lower intensity work-outs to your running sessions. This is a great way to train, especially if you’re in a group situation or squad. This gives you some exposure to regular strength work without having to take too much time away from your running.

Running coordination and posture

These exercises can be the mainstay of any strength training program for running and in my opinion are the most important. They can be used as muscle activations to get the big running muscles firing as part of a dynamic warm-up before you run. They can also be done after sessions or separately at home or the gym.

This training is exactly what I teach as being critical for runners wanting to improve their running technique. For that reason, anything you do here needs to be closely related to running. You want to practice exercises that have similar postures and muscle activation patterns to that used in proper running form.

Body weight exercises such as squats and especially exercises completed on a single leg such as single leg back extensions and single leg squats are a great way to activate and practice using the right muscles during running. However, you need to be able to justify the inclusion of each exercise by how closely it resembles running movement and posture. Here’s me making a case for bridging and focusing on the muscles this exercise trains and some technical elements to keep it closely aligned to running. This video is taken from this strength training program.

Video demonstration bridging for runners

Strength session: barbell and machine based strength

This session is about adding serious strength and perhaps a little much needed muscle tone to any depleted parts of your body. If you’re like most runners a bit more focus on your haunches (buttocks and hamstrings) wouldn’t go astray. I won’t got into much detail here as there’s plenty of good information around about this more traditional strength work. This type of training is best undertaken away from your competition block and sharpening work. Here are a few favorite exercises that you might consider:

• Squats
• Leg press
• Good Mornings
• Dead lifts

Remember that correct lifting technique when working with barbells is all important, don’t go heavy until you’ve mastered the form. Do not round your back when working with barbells as you could risk muscle and disk damage. Speak to your gym instructor for more information.

Circuit training: focus on muscle endurance, executing skills under cardio pressure

Circuit training has probably had its heyday, but it’s definitely still a valuable tool in your strength training kit. It keeps things fresh, adds new stimulus and also presents the opportunity to practice executing a physical skill when cardio fatigued. There’s an element of mental conditioning and toughening here that complements the physical exercises. A circuit training session done with some light jogging to warm up and warm down is definitely worth considering.

• 10 minute warm up.
• 30 – 60 second efforts at each station.
• 10 – 30 seconds recovery between stations or as needed to recover sufficiently to perform the next exercise with good technique.
• 10 minute cool down.

If you’re doing this by yourself allow enough time to recover your breath and enable your heart rate to lower a little before commencing the next exercise. If you’re a coach working with a small group of athletes you need an exercise station per athlete. Or alternatively, have a rest station for recovery which means you have 5 stations and six athletes, for example. A sample circuit session could include:

• Skipping with rope
• Step-ups
• Push-ups
• Swiss ball squats against the wall or body weight squats
• Dips
• Medicine ball abdominal crossovers
  
• Hang off bar – knee raises

Plyometric and explosive drills

There’s not a man more expert in plyometrics than Dr Philo Saunders. He’s a leading coach of elite runners, works at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) and has extensively researched and written about plyometric exercises and their benefits for runners – especially around their proven ability to improve running economy. And he practices what he preaches, I was fortunate enough last summer to film Philo putting together a tendon bursting plyo session. Here we can see Philo executing an example of these springy, explosive exercises. Beware don’t try this at home unless you’re highly trained, Philo is a senior elite athlete who has been training this way for many years.

On a more approachable scale for regular runners, exercises such as skipping, with or without a rope, or even hopping in place are plyometric type exercises. Adding bouncy and explosive elements into some gym exercises e.g. leg press with light weights can be a gentler introduction to plyometric training that still delivers good benefits. Be warned, it’s not for beginners, you can get sore or injured if you’re not used to doing the exercises. Like everything in running start with low intensity and small volumes to see how your body reacts before progressing.

• Skipping free form or with a rope in place
• Small forward and back double leg jumps i.e. jump over a lane marker on the track
  
• Single leg hopping in place
• Explosive jumping in place

Lateral stability work

These exercises focus on stabilization muscles that work to control rotation, internal and external, and keep the running energy generated by the hamstrings and glutes headed in the right direction. Without this ability to stabilize much of the force you generate with dissipate laterally rather than propel you forwards. James Dunne is a specialist running technique coach based in the UK. James emphasizes a range of exercises to strengthen these muscles that keep your running moving in the right direction. He demonstrates some useful exercises to consider adding into your strength training for running mix in this video.

Conclusion

In this series of articles I’ve explained a strength training for running framework that when implemented creatively and with consistent inconsistency could bring a much needed boost to your running performance.

While some of the elements I’ve shown here are advanced, the framework can be implemented at a beginner or elite level. All you need to do is adjust the difficulty, intensity and volume of exercises. Strength training for running is not just the province of the elite, as I’ve written previously I believe the relative benefits of adding strength training into your running program are greater for recreational and club runners than for more advanced athletes. When executed well, strength training really is running technique training.

So while the athletes trained by Jerry Schumacher and Pascal Dobert are fortunate to be exposed to such an advanced mix of training, there is no reason why every runner can’t borrow something from their successful approach.

Read parts one and two of this series:
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 1
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 2

Written by Brian Martin

In the first of this three part series I suggested that an integral part of Nike coaches Jerry Schumacher and Pascal Dobert’s approach to strength training for running hinged on the variety of exercises being performed by their athletes on any given day.

Some interesting research I have read suggests that the more complex the physical activity, the greater the level of potential for improvements to be gained through neurological adaptations.

Running is about as complicated as it gets, therefore there’s ample opportunity to improve micro-components of your running biomechanics. With this in mind, running specific strength training is probably about as effective as it gets as a means to improve running technique and practice proper running form.

What are neurological adaptations and why are they important for runners?

Neurological adaptations are when the body gets stronger by learning how to perform movements more efficiently and effectively. Anyone who has undertaken some form of gym training will know that you can improve quite quickly in the early phases of taking on new exercises. For example: the gym instructor shows you how to use the bench press machine for the first time. Over the course of the first six weeks you improve the amount you are able to lift each time you go to the gym.

You feel strong, surely your chest is now bursting out of your shirt, ready for the next time you experience some Incredible Hulk like rage.

Sorry, but you’re not Arnold Schwarzenegger yet. While you are stronger and you have added some muscle to your scrawny runner’s frame, a large part of the strength gains you have made are due to these neurological factors.

You got better at doing the exercise. Your posture was better, you engaged some supporting muscle groups more effectively and your brain delivered the message to the right muscles faster with improved coordination.

It’s all about these neurological adaptations – your body gets smarter and thereby stronger by learning new and challenging exercises. In mastering a demanding activity such as running this pays big dividends because of the total improvement potential from making multiple small gains in very small components of a large and complex movement pattern. It’s really a case of the pennies taking care of the pounds.

Imagine turning up to training and having new exercises thrown at you day-in day-out, your body is going to be always on a steep and continuous learning curve that maximizes this potential for rapid neurological strength adaptations. Every time you get a new running related exercise you are improving your posture, stability, muscle activation patterns etc in slightly different ways. This all adds up to better running coordination and strength development over time – provided that the exercises are at least in some way identifiable with or related to running.

Variety prevents plateaus in performance

So if you’re going to have strength related training scheduled five days per week, like they do in Oregon, you can bet your last dollar that it’s going to be different each day. Repeating the same exercises day-in day-out is not only a recipe for boredom for gym hating runners, but it also a slower way to progress. You’ll quickly plateau and limit your ability to obtain these rapid neural adaptations.

Running Technique Tips strength training framework

In the absence of a spy in the Schumacher camp, I’m going to lay claim to a theory on what they might be doing as my own. Let us call it a hypothetical Oregon Track Club strength training framework for building the variety that we’ve already discussed. There are five elements in it. Strength sessions could be built around having a singular focus in each session or blending elements of each into each and every session. If I had to have a bet, this is something like what I reckon they do in Portland, Oregon.

Overview of the elements

Running coordination and posture: exercises that have very similar postures and muscle activation patterns to that used in proper running technique.

Circuit training with an endurance focus: a demanding mix of exercises done under pressure during the session. Must practice good exercise technique for as long as possible.

Strength and power: more traditional barbell and machine work to build main strength and power.

Plyometric and explosive exercises: movements that demand the rapid loading and unloading of the muscles and tendons. Traditional exercises can be modified to include these elements.

Core work and dynamic stability enhancement: exercises focused on building stability through the trunk and also development of strength in muscles needed to prevent the dissipation of forces laterally in running.

I’ll dig into some examples of each style of strength training in the final part of this series. For now getting some perspective around the principles behind using the framework is going to take up the rest of this post.

Some more slow motion video from the 2011 Melbourne IAAF Track Classic

Features: Kaila McKnight, Jemma Simpson (OTC), Georgie Clarke and Bridey Delaney

Underlying principles for constructing a program and sessions

Using this type of framework is useful because it’ll always give you a reference point to begin designing a program or individual strength training sessions. Remember you need to keep the individual athlete in mind when designing a program: age, training background, past injuries and relative progression should all be taken into account.

1. gradual progression and management of intensity

Five sessions of strength work and the demands of elite running training means that in any given session it’s unlikely the athletes would work to exhaustion, especially when in a harder block of running training or approaching competition. Although Jerry did mention a few times runners had turned up to running sessions slightly worse for wear. The inevitable consequence of pushing the envelope at the elite level.

In my eyes strength training is very much like running – it should be generally approached with gradual progression in volume, difficulty of the exercises, increase in intensity and volume over the years. Accumulating strength gains and better coordination at the same time as practicing running and getting cardio fit keeps all areas of your running fitness in good balance.

2. program the day’s work around running

If you know you’re going to be running 6 × 1000m at your 5k race pace in the evening, then heading to the gym over lunch and maxing out on heavy lifting is not going to be conducive to good running. Keep the demands of your running schedule in mind when deciding what type what strength work you do around key workouts.

3. don’t do the same exercise or even similar exercises on consecutive days

Now that you have five styles of strength training to choose from, there’s no excuse for doing the same old boring routine every time you go to the gym. Not only are you limiting your potential for improvement there is also the risk of developing overuse injuries or muscle imbalances from hyper focusing on a single type of exercise.

4. keep the focus of the exercises on running

Don’t fall into the trap of creating variety for its own sake. You can be extremely creative in developing new strength based exercises and still make sure they are in some way related to running. By this I mean the postures, muscle activation patterns and ranges of motion should resemble those used in running. Exceptions can be made with certain exercises that help develop stability through lateral movements. However, in my opinion these should not be over-done in the overall program.

5. alter the focus depending on your training and racing build-up

Without being too prescriptive it makes sense to change the focus of your strength work to complement your yearly plan (yes you should have one). For example: it could be beneficial to focus on heavier lifting an development of absolute strength in your base building phase. You’ll be running easier aerobic miles and not needing to tap into your strength reserves too much in running, so sneaking in a bit more hard work in the gym will be possible.

What’s next?

In the final part of this series I’ll provide examples of each of the five elements I have described in this article.

Written by Brian Martin

Read parts one and three of this series:
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 1
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 3

Other articles of interest you may enjoy:

The strength training regime of Jerry Schumacher’s Oregon based runners could be part of the reason for their continued high levels of performance and success. It’s been something I’ve been mulling over since meeting Schumacher at a coaching seminar in Melbourne earlier in the year. You know when you get the feeling someone knows or is doing something really well and you can’t quite put your finger on what it is?

Well I’ve had that feeling since early 2011 when Melbourne athletics fans were treated to a visit from Oregon based Nike Coach Jerry Schumacher and some of his squad’s leading athletes Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp amongst others.

Regular readers of this blog will have read me quote Schumacher’s interesting aside, when I bailed him up after the seminar and learned his group do as many as five strength training sessions per week. This seemed like a lot, but the more I thought about it the more likely it was that I could come up with five good reasons do to some form of strength and coordination related training each week.

While Chris Solinsky’s 26.59 10,000m American Record run was recently eclipsed by a resurgent Galen Rupp (who was that masked man?) you can’t argue with the fact that Schumacher is turning out well conditioned and very successful athletes capable of running fast and performing well in the cut and thrust of international racing. While Schumacher has a reputation for an emphasis on running fundamentals in his training scheme, it’s the strength training for running role of one of his coaches Pascal Dobert that intrigues me the most.

Solinsky, Lagat, Tegenkamp, St Lawrence & Bumbalough: Melbourne 2011

Is Jerry Schumacher the conservative running only coach I’ve read about?

For a guy with a reputation as a runner’s running coach Jerry Schumacher is putting significant emphasis on strength training as part of the training mix of his athletes. Sydney Olympic Steeplechaser Pascal Dobert personally supervises and constructs those five strength sessions per week (depending on the yearly competition and training cycle). You have to think that running only Jerry is placing a great deal of trust in Dobert, but also that he knows that running well isn’t just about running. In fact, Jerry Schumacher and Pascal Dobert may well be managing the best mix of strength training for runners in the world today. I happened across this video of Dobert talking to a group of young American elites at a Nike camp earlier this year that gives some insight into his role and approach.

In my view, the runner’s running coach Schumacher may well be putting one over his competitors by downplaying some aspects of his overall approach. My suspicions have been further heightened by some correspondence that indicates his Oregon group is especially secretive about their methods.

So what gives in Portland, Oregon?

Strength work for athletes at the highest level (from my perspective) is about making tiny technical improvements as well as building resilience against injury by strengthening bones, tendons and muscles but most importantly to build the capacity to execute the skill of running under extreme pressure and fatigue.

Certain elements of strength training that I’ll touch on in this three part series of articles are great practice to compliment the development of technical and speed endurance. It’s not dissimilar to the ideas of Peter Coe who produced, with the advice of George Gandy, a strength program that may have contributed to the success of one of the greatest speed endurance athletes in living memory Sebastian Coe.

But I have a suspicion that the standard has been raised since those days and that Schumacher and Dobert are at the forefront of pushing some new and exciting ideas into the sport of running. I’ll dig into the methods they may possibly be using and their benefits as we go. There’s no doubt those green singlet wearing runners move well and look strong. I took this footage in Melbourne, where despite being early in preparations for the 2011 World Championships, a low 13 minute 5k was produced. Solinsky was below his best, but with strength was able to monster his way around the last lap even though he was gone.

Strong not skinny

One of the things I really like about the Oregon Track Club is I’ve yet to see any waif like athletes (male of female) wearing their distinctive green colors. Too often runners are sucked into believing that running lighter is better. One of my mantras is strong not skinny, you cannot get the best out of your body when it’s starved of energy. Injury, poor performance and depression are about the only rewards for following that approach.

Jemma Simpson

Despite all the mounting anecdotal evidence that suggests the best runners are stronger and well fed, it is surprising how many stories I hear about coaches and athletes who still head blindly down this dark path. If I read about another runner who says you cannot eat the odd chocolate bar when running 100kms per week or more I’ll probably have a conniption.

I’m running about 50-60 kms per week at the moment and eat plenty of good stuff, but I also hit the chips, have the odd beer and destroy a decent slab of chocolate every so often. I’m not saying my diet is perfect, but I maintain a relatively streamlined physique without recourse to extreme eating patterns. And I used to be fat, so it’s not genetics, it’s the running and the modest amount of strength work I do each week that keeps things in order.

Eat good wholesome foods and plenty of it, smash the odd bar of chocolate, and enjoy a bagel or even a burger or some fish and chips now and again. One of the side benefits of running is surely to be able to eat what you like (within reason). And guess what? If you train for strength you’ll need to eat more, especially some protein – it won’t make you bulky, muscle bound or heavy, you’ll just get proportionally stronger. All the miles you run prevent big heavy muscles developing. When you’re running and hitting the gym frequently your body with crave food, you’ll feel hollow, your body is telling you it needs more fuel, so dig in and enjoy your eating.

Would you pick a fight with an Oregon Track Club athlete?

I’m not sure I’d want to pick a bar fight with Chris Solinsky, at six foot one he’s a big dude and strong with it, for that matter I’d probably think twice about an arm wrestle with Shalane Flanagan. Redhead Matt Tegenkamp would also have a long reach, perfect for searching through a crowd and landing a few blows.

All are strong, fast, successful endurance athletes. Top class runners these days are not the silhouettes of years past; the level of performance is so high now that just running miles is not going to cut it. You need to be strong, have excellent running technique and speed endurance in every event up to the Marathon.

This isn’t just an issue for the elite, as I’ve written about previously embarking upon an intelligently designed, simple strength training program is going to be relatively more beneficial for recreational and club runners than it is for top class runners. So think about strength training as being just as important as running in your program.

In the larger scheme of running sorting out your strength work is of more relative importance than high mileage, especially if you’re working on technical improvements or are new to running. Not only that, people will give you less crap when you’re out on your run. A sinewy, muscled runner is not going to get messed with at the traffic lights.

Is it the Oregon five sessions or something else?

It’s not so much that they are doing five strength sessions per week, numerous groups around the world do that or something approaching it. So the volume is the least remarkable aspect in my view. I believe the crux or the true secret of what they’re up to over there in Oregon is the variety.

Jerry Schumacher said to me that the runners never know what they are going to get from Pascal Dobert on any given day. I’ve read this confirmed by Sharlane Flanagan in this interview by Duncan Larkin. So if variety is the secret spice of the running strength training recipe, how does that get off being some performance enhancing training mechanism?

Stay tuned for the answers in the next edition of this three-part series.

Written by Brian Martin

Read parts two and three of this series:
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 2
Jerry Schumacher’s strength training secrets: part 3

Other articles of interest you may enjoy: