Running isn’t just about miles. To be a strong runner, you must regularly hit the gym, just like you regularly log miles. The best strength exercises for runners will target the muscles and joints you use while running. Strength training in general strengthens muscles and joints which will help you run injury free. It will also help you run faster, more efficiently, with more power.
However, doing endless repetitions of bench press and bicep curls won’t really help runners. While runners do need to train upper body as well as lower body, today I am going to focus mainly on a group of lower body and core exercises that I have discovered to be very beneficial to me as a runner, and even more specifically as a mom runner. One-sided exercises, or unilateral exercises, challenge more than just muscles, they target balance and coordination as well.
When we run, we are constantly shifting our weight from one side of our body to the other, with our full bodyweight on one leg at a time. To specifically train for this, I like to perform exercises that load one leg at a time. My favorite part of this is that doing one-sided exercises automatically forces you to stay balanced, and not favor your stronger side, or stronger muscle groups. I have found that while regularly incorporating these unilateral exercises into my twice-a-week strength training sessions, I run stronger and more injury free.
Lastly, before we get started with these best exercises for runners, I have also found that as a mom, I tend to carry my babies on the left side. Ok, I always carry my babies on the left side, holding with my left arm and sticking my left hip out for support. After endless hours of this, well, I’m unbalanced. Doing these exercises can also start to correct this as well.
Both of these videos show exercises that I do regularly. My favorites are the one leg lunge, which I do one once a week, and the one leg glute bridge and plank sequence, which I do twice a week. The others I just throw in randomly as I feel the need. The bridges and planks are part of my warmup routine which I do before every strength workout. You can see the whole warmup, geared for runners here.
Most of these exercises I do with added weight. Personally, I prefer to do less repetitions with more weight. I feel like running is a very, very, very repetitive exercise, so I like to work my muscles a little harder for a shorter time when I weight train to prevent overuse. But if you are doing these exercises at home, and don’t have a set of dumbbells, bodyweight and a chair or bench will do just fine! You can also start out with bodyweight and progress to adding weight as your muscles become accustomed to the one-sided movements.
Form is very important for these. Any time you are using just one side, make sure your hips are not sagging or turning. Pretend like there are two headlights on each side of your hips that must always shine straight ahead of you. If your hips are shifting to the side, you are doing the exercise wrong. Feel free to use a hand on a wall or other surface to balance at first, but you will get the most benefit from using your balance muscles the stronger you get.
I hope these help! They have definitely helped me run stronger and more injury free!
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