Improve Your Running with Strength Training

In this episode of the Loving Every Stride podcast, host Paul Laslett welcomes back Marie Droniou-Bordry to the show to discuss how to improve your running through Strength Training.

Strength training is crucial for a variety of reasons, including: aiding your recovery time; providing more stability; and reducing the risk of  injury.  

Paul and Marie take us through a few simple exercises and the reasoning behind why you should incorporate it into your regime.

So tune in and get inspired!

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Paul Laslett can be found here:
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Marie Droniou-Bordry can be found here:
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Download your running pace calculator here:
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Transcript

Paul Laslett  0:02  
Welcome to loving every stride the podcast that will help make your running easier brought to you by ex national athlete and UK record holder all of laslett powered by the bright side pte community. For more information and access to your very own running faster formula which will make your running easier. Click on the link in the show notes, enjoy the show

Paul Laslett  0:25  
and see you on the bright side. And Lolo, and welcome to another episode of loving every stride, I am excited that you are here again today to listen to me or rabbit on bow running. And I'm glad that you are listening because otherwise, it would just be me talking to myself, which I do often. Anyway. Now, today's episode is all about drink training, and what's the best ways for you as a runner to do strength training, I want you to understand why it's important, I want you to understand the fact that it doesn't have to be complicated. You don't have to access a gym, you don't need loads of equipment, you don't need fancy routines. If you can understand the basic fundamentals behind what type of stuff you should be doing, then why then it's gonna make life a lot easier. And also you don't need to do hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of strength and conditioning work. Just doing the right things in the right way for 20 to 30 minutes a couple of times a week is AP sir Lou gold for you. So in terms of why strength training, or what we've seen, over the last million years of helping runners improve their running form, I look great forever. A million I know is most of the time they start they feel heavy on their feet, there's always the same reoccurring niggle or injuries, and it affects your running form, it affects how quickly your muscles can recover. And just means that you, you pick up more injuries, which is blue, which is sad, we don't want you picking up more injuries. So that's what we see is that kind of those kind of three things bad form, niggles and injuries through muscle imbalances, or through tightness somewhere, or through repetitive strain injuries, and consequently your form changes, you start feeling heavy on your feet. Now, a lot of the time, people aren't sure what type of stuff to do. Now, I was the saying many, many years ago, I didn't know what kind of strength training that to do, I want to go and train like a weightlifter. But that is far, far, far from the truth. So most runners, in fact, I would say everyone didn't get into running so that you could do strength training, if that makes sense. Strength training, and doing the right type of strength training will enable you to run more consistently. Okay, so it is a I don't say it's a means to an end. Because that makes it sound like it's it's dull, it's not dull, it can be a lot of fun, done in the right way. And you can still it's another way of tracking your progress as well, in seeing how much stronger your body's getting, how much more stable your body is getting as well. So when the body is stronger, which is the ultimate aim, each stride you take is more efficient. And if each stride is more efficient, that will mean that you'll be using less energy and running will feel easier. So you think, right? Use our pace calculator that helps running feel easier, obviously get our coaching that will make running it a lot easier and a lot more fun for you as well. But we all about making your running sale easier, and doing the right type of strength and conditioning work. We'll do exactly that for you. What should you be doing? And why should you be doing these things, we've covered a little bit of the why. Because you want to make running feet easier for you, you want to get stronger, you want to make sure you're as efficient as possible, and we'll help you run faster. But obviously if you're Stringer, it's like adding an extra bit of horsepower to your engine. If your muscles are stronger, and they can give you more more power, then that hammer when you hit the floor will propel you forward so you've got more strength to move you forward. Now, that strength that you can gain is fantastic. And that will help increase your stride length which is also fantastic. But that strength is all When in good, but if you are not stable, the more stable you are on one leg at a time, the more power you're going to be able to generate to move forwards. So it just makes sense, the, you need to do single leg stability work. So that is some one of the most basic things you can do that is super, super simple. Just start off just by standing on one leg. And if you lift your other leg up, and so your your your knees it right angles to your hip, and your ankle is at right angles to your knee and hold that position. Make sure your standing leg is nice and straight. In the show notes. If you comment, let us know how long you can hold each side for most of the time, people find there's an imbalance between one side and the other. That is one of the most basic and simple things you can do. You got to think how can I get more stable on each leg? Right? I need to train each leg individually to work my balance and work on my stability. So let's keep it as simple and straightforward as possible. So have a basher that how long can you stand on one leg for I would be very, very interested to know. Because unless you've got some crazy, crazy, brilliant style that I have never seen before, you will always be on one leg or the other leg when you run. Right? You can Yeah, yeah, not one one lead or the other leg. So surely it makes a lot of sense to do single leg work. Now, what a single leg work. So it would be standing on one leg. And you could do like you could do step ups with it too, you're working one side of your body with the other side rested, you could do single leg standing, and then just trying to touch your toes and then coming up nicely into anything that's going to work your balance and stability, I'd have a look at your running action, have a look at what happens when you run. So when you run, you've got one knee that comes up in front of you, and another leg that extends back behind you. So in my tiny, teeny little brain, it makes sense to make sure that the exercises that you're doing are as specific to that running action as possible by doing a squat or something that that is great for just basic strength. But you never take your body through that range of movement when you run. So the more specific you can be to the actions of running, the better it will be for you. And that's something that Maria and I and the rest of my team, we do a lot of strength and conditioning work specific for runners, we do some one to one country with that, and we do some group coaching with it as well. And it is it's just a case of making sure that works clients are doing is specific to the the exercise of of running, so that your muscles are getting strong in the range of movement you want them to go through. I hope that makes a little bit of sense. It just requires a tiny, teeny little bit of thought. Now, obviously, when you're running, and you're on those single legs, it's not just about the takeoff, it's about the landing. So when you land, how stable are you, when you land when you hit the floor? When I say hit the floor, I mean, gracefully lay down with the flu when you run, how stable are you when you land. So it makes sense then to do a bit of dynamic work as well. So we have as part of our coaching program, we have a running efficiency course as well, that covers a load of technique, work and drills, those drills and that stability work is the most specific specific, I'm glad I said that word correctly, it's thing that you can do for your running because they break your running form down. And then they slowly build it back up again, teaching good habits and teaching your body to be stable and strong through the ranges of movement that your body is going to go through when you are running. So you can do some very, very, very, start off once you've done and your body's stable enough to be able to progress on then doing some little chopping drums, just doing like five or six hops woods, but not seeing how far you can walk forwards. It's a very startup very, very small and easy. A little hot forwards, pause get stable, a little block forwards again, we can then make that more dynamic and take that out into a skipping Drew. I love the skipping drills. I feel like a kid again. What I'm doing my skipping curls, you know, a walking high knee drill, there's so much stuff that you could do around it. But to start off with, keep it really, really simple, because what you don't want to do is try and jump forward and do like loaded jumping exercises or stuff that is going to destroy your muscles and leave your legs feeling heavy in the forehead, because then you won't go and enjoy your running as much because your legs are too fatigued to debt from doing the strength training, which is why the strength training needs to be so specific for and bearing in mind that your your running. So make sure that what you're doing is simple, easy to follow, specific to the running action, shorter sessions, you don't need to do more than about 20 to 30 minutes, and add in there plenty of mobility work as well. So that will help keep your hips open, keep your glue set activated, help lengthen your hamstrings, which all these things will help increase your range of movement in the air when you run. Now, if you increase that range of movement, when you run, and you're spending more time in the air, but you're not stable enough, when you land, there's going to be a problem, because your body's not strong or stable enough to be able to deal with that extra extra bit of momentum, which is why we always start with stabilizing the body. stable, stable stable. So while running on one leg need to stabilize your body and control the landing. So you need to make sure that your core is strong, you need to make sure your glutes, abs and lower back are all strong to help stabilize what you're doing. That's where doing those, like I said, those single sided work, there's the ability work, all that stuff is so so important. Because that will help you control your landing in generate more force. As you drive your body forwards when you run. Obviously, the strong you are when you do what we would say would be a recovery run. And if he does, then what your recovery pace should be. Then, in the stream notes, there's a link where you can go and get our pace calculator, we just input your 5k time and it will tell you how fast everything else should be. So go grab that. And that will tell you how fast you should be running that. Obviously, if your body is stronger, and you're running more efficiently, your recovery pace will feel easier. Okay? Again, if you are stronger and more efficient, and you're not losing energy through the floor, then guess what, when you run a bit quicker, it feels easier and easier is good, right? We want to make running feel as easy as possible and enjoy it as much as possible. So what are the things can you do you think when you're when you're running, your legs are moving most of the time, unless you like me in the last 20 meters of an 800 meter race and my legs are barely moving at all. Speed your legs moving but you're trying to keep your torso still. Do you think what exercises can I do that keep my toolson still and my legs moving. So you might have already done like a static play. That's great. That's good static trunk control. But can you lift one leg up and down while you're holding that, that plank position, that's something to move on to it's making it specific to that running action. It definitely conflicts off of the floor when you're doing a plank, you deserve a medal, you deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. So think about that and how your body is working. And I can guarantee if you do that 20 minutes two or three times a week after a run after an easy run, you will start to feel taller, you will start to feel more stable, you will start to feel like you've got more bounce to your stride. And everything will start to feel a bit more effortless. So before you start adding any weights to your routines, get comfortable with body weight First, your body weight exercises need to feel really really comfortable before you start adding any weight since he you need a good four to six weeks of conditioning work to get comfortable with that before you start making the exercise harder by adding weight if you start doing too much too soon. Again, there are risks you know you could get injured and we don't want that if you are unsure and you're not you're thinking oh yeah, I want to do some strength work and I like the sound of this stability that you talk with Putin but I'm not sure I maybe I want someone to watch me do it or Make sure that means being instructed in the right way. And ask a professional, talk to someone who knows what they're talking about, talk to someone who knows what they're doing. So then you are confident that you know you are doing exactly the right things for your body in exactly the right way. Because if you're not confident, and you're not sure, you might try a few things, but because you haven't got that confidence, you're not going to continue doing because you think, well, that's a waste of time. I'm not sure I'm doing it, right. Get it done. Right. Okay, you know, weeks and months down the road, eventually lifting heavier weights can help with performance, because it's going to improve your body's ability to load muscle. And that is effectively what you do when you run, you're loaning your muscle tissue. And obviously, if you're strong, and you're able to do this, then that will reduce the risk of injury, I'm going to bring marina in a sec, and she can tell us a story about a few clients that she's been working with. And we've been working with, that have been injured a lot in the past. But since they started doing what we've talked about, I have seen some huge increases. So she's going to come on and chat about that in a sec. But I just want to just kind of go over when is the best time to do these exercises, and when's the best time to not do them sounds like it might be the same thing. But is is different. So the best days to do strength are on days that you're not not running. But if you are pushed for time, then doing it after a recovery run is a good time to do it. Avoid doing strength training before a hard run, because you're asking your body to do quite so if you do an interval session, say on a Friday, try not to do a strength session on a Thursday, because your legs will feel tired, the muscle tissues will be repairing and in effect, you're then breaking them down again, a bit when you try and push your body. So maybe replace that with a bit of mobility work, don't add a new challenge of exercises before a race, okay, you want to keep doing things in a consistent way. And if you've got an injury, or you're having to take a bit of time out from running, then doing the strength training would be really a brilliant time to do strength training, and work on your form and efficiency because you're not burning as much. So you can really start laying some good foundations down. I want to handle you probably sick and tired of hearing my voice now. So I'm going to hand over to Marie, who is the true brains behind this podcast. And she's going to talk about some clients that she's worked with, that have been doing some strength training and the impact it's had on them and why? Why Maria enjoys seeing clients do their strength training. So Marie, over to you,

Marie Droniou-Bordry  17:51  
Paul, thank you very much for strength training is guess what going to make you stronger. And I just want to say something about strength training. So strength training is not cross training, we hear a lot about cross training, when we, when we train strength training and cross training out are two different things you can run you can cross train, but strength training is something something different. And also you run and then I get stronger, but you're not going to get enough specific strengths from running on the go. I work with a lot of clients with their running strengths. And obviously, feedback we get is that they feel better when they're run the enjoy, they're running more, they feel stronger when they go up a hill, they've if you know if they get their legs and glutes sugar that feel so much better. But something that has come through a few times is those people who used to have ankle sprains a lot, you know, you run and then there's something on the floor, something you wouldn't even notice. And all of a sudden they twist the ankles. And these people from doing strength training and from getting their legs stronger, their core stronger, especially their core, and being more stable, have completely stops having ankle sprains, twisting their ankles and having to stop for a few weeks and then coming back and feeling weak weak around their ankles. So I would say this is a prime example of how important strength training is. And I know and I've been there as a runner, you just want to run because that's why you enjoy but adding a couple of 20 to 30 minutes session to your training every week will not impact your time a lot but will make such a huge difference to your running. And there are very simple things you can do like concert you don't have to complicate it a lot. And those single leg exercise when you stand on one leg is a very efficient exercise and you know why you don't have to To do a specific session for that, when you brush your teeth, just stand on one leg, when you queue at the shop to stand on one leg. And if some somebody says something to you just tell them you're training, it doesn't matter if you are the at work where the photocopier to stand on one leg, when you making a coffee, this is a simple exercise, very efficient, that will make a difference. So you've got no excuse. You have to strain strain or running.

Paul Laslett  20:23  
And you know what, I love that like in a queue, as a runner, don't do just ever just start stretching randomly if you're in a queue, yes. Yeah. And kind of before you realize what you've done, you've got your bump back into the person behind you and your snipping the person's bottom in front of you. But you've got a great hamstring stretch going on?

Marie Droniou-Bordry  20:45  
Absolutely, absolutely. There's always a slot always an opportunity to do something that's going to be good for your running.

Paul Laslett  20:52  
Exactly. And running his life. So any opportunity, or anything that's going to help it out is is a good? Good thing, right? Yes, it is. So I hadn't even thought Maria about like the ankle sprains and stuff like that I hadn't put I hadn't put that together. Like said you're much smarter than I am. So that's probably why you were able to piece it together. But you know, strengthening up the body strengthening that single sided work does stop the ankle sprain stops you rolling over on your on up again, you think if you can avoid these things, surely you would, right? Like if you can keep yourself consistently running, because that's what you love doing, then surely, that's what you need, it's better to spend 20 to 30 minutes a couple of times a week doing these things, then spend two or three weeks out every six to eight weeks, because you've hurt yourself. So kind of changing the mindset around it a little bit, as as well. Thanks, Marie that was in that was, you know, I've learned so.

Marie Droniou-Bordry  21:49  
And it's going to open new opportunities, because if you're stronger, you're going to be able to do more challenging Ryan. So think about it that you're Road Runner, but you know, you've got the opportunity to do some trail running. And to do some trail running, you have to be strong, because it's a bit more risky to do it. But it's also very enjoyable. But if you've if you do proper strength training, then you will be able to do that without putting ovo running onto your your ankle.

Paul Laslett  22:16  
And then also going up hills is going to be and down hills. As we see a lot of a lot of our clients who start off struggling running up hills, before they started working with us. They they get kind of halfway up the hill and have to stop and walk. But by doing the strength training and getting the paces, right, they get to the top of the hill. And that's a huge achievement for us. Fantastic, isn't it? You know, we love that. Yeah. So guys, I really, really hope that this has given you a bit of insight into why it's important and the simple, simple things that you can do. Let's look out for people in queues that are that are stretching and standing on one leg, give them a knowing not give them a knowing nor do we know what you're doing. You probably got a run later on today. getting yourself ready for it. Thanks again for tuning in guys. I really, really look forward to the next one and seeing you all very, very soon. Thank you for listening to loving every stripe. If like us you absolutely love running. We'd love to have you in our community and help make your running faster. You can join our Facebook group and get your very own running faster formula by visiting the link in the show notes and there will be happy days ahead. Please also remember to subscribe and review so we can spread our love for running. Thank you for listening and we will see you on the bright side.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai