Run Stronger, Last Longer: Why Strength Training is Your Marathon Secret Weapon
If you’re training for a marathon, your first instinct is likely to put on your new runners and hit the pavement. While building up the kilometres is crucial, many runners overlook the one thing that can actually make this process easier: strength training.
As physiotherapists, we often see runners only after an injury pops up. The reality is that skipping the gym is often a shortcut to the clinic. Here is why strength work is so crucial to all runners.
Bulletproof Your Body (Injury Prevention)
Running is a high-impact sport, with each stride sending forces equal to 2.5 times your body weight through your joints. Without adequate muscle strength, your tendons and ligaments take excess load which is heightened when you fatigue and loose form. This leads to common issues like runners’ knee, Achilles tendinopathy, stress fractures, lower back pain, lateral hip pain and more.
Having a guided strength program that co-exists with your running plan can significantly reduce the strain on your body and the injury risk to your tendons joints and muscles. Your body gets “cardiovascular endurance” fit much faster than it can build strength and this often leads a runner to believe that they can run further and harder than their body is, in fact, ready for – and this puts the musculoskeletal system under significant stress. In other words, it takes longer for the body to get soft-tissue adaptations than the ‘fitness’ improvements of the heart and the lungs (VO2 Max). Strengthening raises the load capacity of your muscles, tendons, and joints so your physical body structure has a better chance of keeping up with your growing fitness levels and you CAN progress your running volumes.
What physios do keep you running
Your physio has the clinical expertise to identify any weaknesses or muscle imbalances in your body that could cause pain or injury at the level at which you are running. We can then create an individualized exercise program tailored to your structural weaknesses and your training ambitions. Implementing that program under expert guidance will teach and guide you how to safely build up the distance without causing pain or injury.
We don’t want to stop you running – we want you to achieve your goals and we will work hard on getting you there!
Ready to start? If you have a "niggle" that won't go away or are about to start marathon training for a race and don’t want to derail it with an injury along the way, call in and we’ll work with you on your secret weapon – physical strength and resilience to match your cardio fitness and get you across the finish line.
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