How Can Lifting Weights Make Distance Running Easier?

You signed up to run your first half-marathon race or your seventeenth ultra-marathon. You have a training programme complete with distances, easy runs, tempo and hill sessions.

There are a lot of hard miles to get through before race day. Let’s face it, distance running is not for the faint-hearted. Any endurance sport takes discipline, fitness and mental strength. 

What sometimes gets forgotten is the sheer amount of physical strength needed to keep pushing or get that last kick of speed to the finish line. 

Running sessions alone might get you through the race, but might not be enough to achieve your potential. Experts recommend regular strength and conditioning sessions to complement the mileage.  

Strength and conditioning for runners usually includes a mix of exercises to improve mobility, balance and strength. 

What Are The Benefits Of Strength Training For Runners?

Experts extoll the virtues of strength training for distance running. Long hours of endurance running, sometimes over difficult terrain or hills can take its toll on the body. 

Strength work can help improve many aspects of distance running, but there are four main advantages:

• Injury prevention – Lifting free weights is shown to improve balance and strengthen accessory muscles, as well as beef up quads and hamstrings. These muscles do the work of supporting and stabilising the primary mover muscles and major joints. When we’re fatigued, our technique and balance often wobble or fail completely, causing preventable injuries. 
• Increase in speed – By building more muscle and improving tissue connectivity and coordination, you can get more power and therefore more acceleration. It will allow for better stride efficiency, i.e. more distance covered with each stride. 
• Increase in VO2 Max – Scientific research shows that regular strength training improves VO2 Max. In short, it means that your muscles become more efficient and don’t have to work so hard to achieve the same results. 
• Improved posture – Strengthening muscles, particularly engaging core muscles, improves running posture by reducing shoulder hunching. It allows your chest to open up, allowing breathing to be easier and more efficient.
• Improved technique – Better muscle conditioning can also help with footfall positioning and correct frontal or sagittal plane movement issues. 
• You’ve decided to include some strength training in your programme. Where do you fit it in with such a busy life? The answer might be a home gym. 

Why Should You Invest In A Home Gym As A Runner?

Investing in some weight training equipment to use at home is an easy way to include strength and conditioning into your programme. 

With one upfront cost, it doesn’t require an expensive gym membership or travelling to get to a local gym facility. Much of the equipment needed can be stored easily or you could create a mini-gym in your spare room or garage. 

It can conveniently fit around your work, home life and runs, so there are no excuses for avoiding picking up that barbell. 

Essential Equipment For A Runner’s Home Gym

There are many different options when it comes to gym equipment. If you’re building your home gym from scratch, here are some starter ideas.

Dumbells

Useful for both upper and lower body exercises, they should be in different weights because your legs can lift considerably more than your arms. An ideal solution would be a set of adjustable dumbbells to accommodate all needs. 

Dumbbells are great for goblet squats, rows and bench pressing. 

A Bench

Not just useful for chest pressing, you can use it to support a single arm row and tricep dips. For the lower limbs, you can use it for seated squats or – the one we all love to hate – Bulgarian split squats. Use it for weighted step-ups or 

A Floor Mat

The floor is often where the hard work is done for stabilising the core. Plank, Russian twists with a weight plate, crunches and side planks – all made more comfortable with an exercise mat.

It can also be used for recovery stretches, rolling out those aches and pains,  and maybe a little yoga.

Kettlebells

Great for plyometric drills like kettlebell swings, snatches, jerks and jumping exercises to develop explosive power.

Treat yourself to a couple of sizes and use them to strengthen glutes with single-leg deadlifts or arms with a Turkish get-up. Try using a pair of kettlebells for a farmer's carry or a set of lunges. 

Barbells

If you are more serious about your home gym and have the space, you might want to invest in an Olympic barbell with plates and collars. Add in a rack for safety and to maintain consistency in your exercises. 

Barbells are great for the big lifts: deadlifts for hamstrings and glutes, and squats for quad development. Select lighter plates for upper body exercises, such as a shoulder press or bent-over row. 

Whatever distance you’re training for, be sure to reach your full potential and avoid injuries by including weight-lifting workouts this running season.