Are you a runner, cyclist or swimmer (or any similar sport) and wish to increase your mile pace, or just need a bit of a boost in performance?  If so, then strength training could well be the answer.

The right strength training workout will help you become more efficient, meaning you will be more economic in the way you run, swim, cycle etc, thereby increasing performance and reducing stress, helping to prevent injury.

Furthermore, the more strength you have the more stable you will be, so when you land each time (exerting the force of 3 x your bodyweight through the ground) your ankles, knees and hips will be stronger and take the impact much better.

Leading on from this, due to the landing forces exerted, the lighter you are the lighter the impact, therefore by performing the correct strength training program you will lose body fat.  This will also mean you are not carrying as much weight around with you, leading to gains in performance again.

Given that nearly half of all runners are injured in any given year, injury prevention is clearly a goal you want to be achieving alongside improving performance.

Strength training also provides protective health benefits, such as better insulin sensitivity and higher antioxidant status.

If you are already strength training and not seeing results it may be that your protocol is not quite right.

Top Ten Reasons To Strength Train:

1. Get Faster

Strength training will make you faster (whether you are an 800m runner or a longer distance runner of anything from a mile up).  Strength training will improve your leg strength and improve your body’s efficiency to use energy and oxygen.

Simply, if you can decrease the amount of oxygen needed to run at a certain speed, you’ll be able to sustain a faster pace for a longer time and likely be able to run faster overall.

Researchers suggest that increased co-ordination, neural drive and strength gains all play a role in making endurance athletes faster.  This is without any gains in muscles size or bodyweight.

A maximal (heavy) strength program for the lower body will produce the best results.

2. Have a Better Final Kick

A heavy lower body strength training program will make you faster because you’ll be able to generate more force when you kick off the ground.  Mo Farah kicks the heel of his trailing leg towards his bottom as the foot leave the ground increasing the number of strides per minute, which maximises the force driving him forwards.

3. Decrease Body Fat

Strength training will help you lose fat (more than running itself will).  The bulk of the energy you burn in the body comes from your resting metabolic rate, which is a function of the proportion of lean muscle to body fat.  Muscle increases metabolic rate and body fat slows the rate.

A lower body fat percentage means you will be lighter and faster and you will produce less strain on your joints.

4. Better Body Composition without putting on muscle size

Strength training is safe for athletes who don’t want to gain muscle mass.  The endurance exercise you do creates a catabolic environment that degrades muscle and bone and shifts the proportion of muscle fibres to type 1.  Strength training will counter the muscle degrading process and result in strength gains but the anabolic (growth) environment will be blunted.  Researchers Aagaard and Andersen wrote that ‘concurrent training can diminish the muscle hypertrophy that normally occurs with strength training, but increases in performance and strength are still observed’.  Strength training increases fibre type proportion, neuromuscular function and fuel utilisation for better performance.

5. Prevent Injury

Strength training can help you get rid of nagging injuries or chronic pain and help prevent future injuries.  It can help correct postural imbalances that increase the injury risk and lead to improper motor patterns.

Muscle imbalance can cause lots of problems when running and will ultimately decrease performance and will eventually lead to an injury.

6. Strengthen Your Core With Traditional Lifts

Strength training with traditional lifts such as squats, deadlifts and lunges will increase your core strength.  Research shows that multi-joint movements are best to train the core musculature and improve the transfer of power from the arms to the legs.

7. Increase Antioxidant Levels and Decrease Oxidative Stress

Endurance training has been shown to produce a high level of oxidative stress that can lead to chronic inflammation.  A moderate to heavy strength training program has been shown to increase antioxidant status and counter oxidative stress.

8. Better Insulin Health

Insulin health refers to how sensitive your cell receptors are to the hormone insulin, which is secreted by the pancreas in response to glucose in the blood stream.  Insulin health is a component of performance because it is involved with helping your body process energy along with speeding recovery from intense endurance training in the replenishment of glycogen stores.

During strength training the body produces a hormone called irisin, which will help improve insulin health.

9. Best Results With Heavy Lifts and Varied Tempo

Perform a strength training program that includes heavy lower body lifts for best results.  Runners often make the mistake of performing resistance training programs that are geared toward increasing muscular endurance instead of muscular strength.  This will not make you faster.

Naturally, if you are new to strength training, you will need to build a base level of strength and a muscular endurance program may be more appropriate, however, you would want to look to improve upon this.  It is important to develop basic strength and mobility in the hips and ankles so that you can perform the heavier lifts with perfect technique.

Once you have achieved this basic level of strength, you want to be performing multi-joint, ground based lifts using weights at 80% of your maximum.  Exercises such as squats, deadlifts, step ups, lunges, overhead squats are great and performing sets and reps of 5 x 5 or 4 x 6.  Tempo training is a great way to provide new and different stimulus to the muscles.  If you hit a plateau, try varying the tempo of your lift.

10. Greater Air Time

Strength training will improve your Ground Reaction Force, meaning you will increase your ‘air time’.  This is the amount of time spent in contact with the ground.  If you can reduce this time, the foot absorbs less force from striking the ground, the lower leg is stiffer and less energy is lost.

Endurance Athletes – Don’t be afraid to strength train and don’t be afraid to lift heavy