Strength Training For Runners

In running the rear leg muscles are much stronger than the front muscles as they just go along for the ride. To remedy this we must do some strengthening exercises to prevent injury. Preventative medicine is always ten times better than trying to recover from an injury. The after affects can really put a damper on your overall training. In this article you'll find some exercises to counter the weaker front muscles with the back muscles.

Knee problems can occur when the quadriceps are not strong enough. I like this exercise because you can do it at anytime anywhere. While setting in a chair you can lift one leg at a time with knee locked and leg straight. Do this for about ten lifts then repeat with the other leg. This exercise should be done three or four times a week building up to fifty reps. You can always have some ankle weights of five pounds to really build some explosive quads with definition you can see!

There's also another problem with running in neighborhoods on streets and sidewalks. You don't want your left leg muscles to get stronger or out of balance with your other side by constantly running the same pattern each day. Meaning the streets have a mild slope to them for rain water to run off. All you have to do is to mix as many runs going in the left pattern as you can to the right.

It's not so bad on the streets as it is at the school track. If you doing any kind of competitive running you most likely go to the track once a week. Your probably running many intervals to the left around the track. What you do is run your warm-up laps in the opposite direction. It's also a good idea to develop your front muscles by jogging backwards a lap or two.

At least once or twice a week find you some hills to do your hill workouts. You will not be able to do many repetitions of hills in the beginning. However, in time increase your repetitions each week and your see improvement in no time. You can really see the improvement during your next race.

For some reason many runners don't take the hill training seriously. During a race when you come to a hill you'll be passing runners one by one. You'll be saying under your breath...he didn't do hills. You'll be proud of yourself that your strength training for runners is paying off. Hills develop the major propulsion muscles for when you go to the track for speedy intervals.

If you've ever had shin splints you probably never forgotten it. They develop by increasing your mileage too soon or running down hills to fast. They can also develop by running too much on city streets. Though modern running shoes for your particular foot type has helped a lot. This is a simple small exercise but will do wonders to strengthen the shins. While setting in a chair pick-up a small plastic bucket with sand or rocks in it with increasing amounts of weight each week. These small changes will help you out with application...in these notes on strength training for runners.

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