¶ Strength Training for Runners
So you're thinking about running but not sure how to take the first step . My name is Brian Patterson and I'm here to help . Welcome to Brian's Rompod . Welcome back to brian's run pod .
And in part two of my chat with louise valentine about strength training for runners , I asked her if she she prescribes rather different strength programs depending on the distance you're running . I'm sure you'll agree that she has had a .
She's given us a fountain of knowledge about strength training and I know you'll find that there's some really useful nuggets of information for everyone . So I really do hope you enjoy our chat . So do strength programs vary depending on the distance that you're doing ?
Well , it depends on the individual runner's goals . Now , if a woman or male is looking to support their body composition , we might actually have them lifting three to four days per week . Now that can get tricky when you want to run something like a marathon . I always say , you know , you kind of have to pick one or the other as your priority goal .
In that instance we might take away one of your runs . Maybe you run four to five days per week . For others , if they are just getting into running , we might run , or we might strength train two days per week and run three days per week .
Good . So I mean , what sort of strength training are you doing at the moment ? I mean , are you doing kind of quite about two to three times a week ?
For me . Currently I am doing about four to five days per week . I , with having struggled with my hormones in the past , I see the value in muscle building and seeing strong as I get older and preventing injuries , keeping my hormones healthy and , what's interesting , your listeners might like this tip is if you either male or female . Female are lower libido .
You can actually build testosterone by strength training .
Oh right .
If you're not motivated to strength training .
It's not just vitamin D , excellent . So I mean , do you roughly do kind of like the same sort of program each time or do you split ? Because I know people talk about splitting the type of strength training exercises for each session .
So I know I've heard kind of like that push pull , let's say you do the push exercises on one day , then kind of pull exercises on another day , and then maybe legs on another day , so as you get that rest in between . Is that something you might advise ?
I typically divide it into upper and lower body , and the reason why is when we're looking for running in particular and we're looking to become a stronger runner , we're going to have a day for speed work in there . We're going to have a tempo run at your goal pace .
So we really want to strategically put lower body away from those workouts that we really want to bring our best effort to . That way , we could throw in an upper body training day very easily around those workouts and we're not going to compromise your gains from your more tougher running workouts .
So I find upper and lower body to be wonderful , because you can have two days upper , two days lower and then you have four days per week that you're strength training , or you could do upper body , lower and then upper body in one week .
And then the following week you could hit lower body twice and have upper once , so you just keep rotating every other day .
So basically you just got to think about what kind of phase of your training you are doing and then try to kind of tailor the strength training around that because you don't want to be putting too much stress on the lower body . You know , if you're doing lots of speed work and intervals , that kind of thing .
Yes , and if you are a beginner runner , you might have two total body days in your program , and that's absolutely fine too . Just wanted to get some of those , those running specific exercises in there and really train the right muscle groups or emphasize those glutes , hips back of your body .
Are there any , because a lot of people talk about kind of compound exercises . You know that you can do , so I don't know . I remember last time I had a PT , they got me to do like a clean of jerk . So you're working , you know , a whole lot of muscles . You're not just isolating certain muscles . Are there any other ones that you could recommend ?
I mean , I know you talked about the deadlift earlier .
Your squats , your step-ups are great and you know , getting on that single leg holding two weights at your side , your clean and jerk , like you said , kettlebell swings are amazing . So you're holding either a weight or a kettlebell and then you're using your glutes to propel you forward .
Those are definitely great for boosting metabolism a little bit , but then also strength and power of your glutes .
Yeah . So I think , like we've summarized , it's really key for injury prevention , but also it's great for a performance boost to do your strength training and even if it kind of compromises maybe your distance during the week , you'll still be a better runner , would you ?
agree with that Absolutely and that's validated in research . We have seen multiple studies show that if runners are so used to running five days per week and that's all they do , if they take away one run run four days per week , add in a day of strength training they're a stronger , faster , more resilient and injury-free runner .
Yeah , because you know running is kind of it is a bit of like a ticking time bomb in terms of because we put a lot of stress through the body and therefore , you know , at some stage you know you may be lucky , you don't , you know break down , but at some stage you will get some kind of injury because of the amount of forces that go through the body .
But you know having down but at some stage you will get some kind of injury because of the amount of forces that go through the body , but you know having doing strength training will help prevent that .
Absolutely . Yes , we will be repetitive in our stride , but when we do a speed work day , when we switch it up with different terrain , we can challenge our different muscles too . So I always tell my runners if you can get on the trails a little bit , that is helpful . To switch up your stride , to challenge your ankle stability , that can also help as well .
Good ,
¶ Hormonal Health for Active Women
good .
Just talking about on the stride , because I know when I got I went for a running assessment and I was kind of accused of and people do tend to say , do this when they go to a coach for the first time about over striding , to kind of shorten the stride , because either you're a lot of people talk about the strides per minute this kind of 100 , net , quote ,
unquote 180 rule . Is this something you coach your runners about ?
I actually don't focus on stride too much . We are focused on just training correctly , fueling correctly I've found that that tends to be what matters most and really tuning into your body and ensuring that you're addressing your tight muscles , releasing them with some of that soft tissue work whether it's a self massage or you're doing the foam roller .
Yeah .
And it can become very time consuming to try and retrain our body to run a certain way .
Yeah , certain way .
Getting professional assessments , we tend to start to overthink it , whereas I find if you are strength training specific to running , your form does shift over time because you become stronger . Now , getting that assessment and those insights can be very helpful , can give you some knowledge .
As an example , I saw a physical therapist here and was given the tip I was leaning forward a little , or to lean forward a little bit more . I was able to upright , so that's very practical . Now I can take that and I can think through that as I start to run , but I and I'm just trying not to micromanage myself or overthinking running becomes stressful .
Simple things like just making sure my hands are relaxed , I'm not clenching my fists Nice and relaxed shoulders down . Things like that can . Little tips like that can go a long way .
Yeah , you can . It can be like paralysis by analysis sort of thing , and you know , like you said , you can overthink about it or get over anxious about it and therefore , and therefore you don't know whether you're running properly or is there a right way .
But as long as you're , like you said , if you're covering the bases in terms of your strength and enjoying the running , then there shouldn't be any worries or anything like that .
Yes , and then knowing how to address your different type muscles , like , as an example , I do have a strength and injury prevention course very specific to women runners over 30 . And because we struggle with hip imbalances after having kids , there's a little manipulation you can do to reset your hips .
So , rather than being in pain or feeling like that joint in your low back is out , actually show how you can do to reset your hips . So , rather than being in pain or feeling like that joint in your low back is out , actually show how you can . Just you know , with your partner just pop it kind of into place and rebalance your hips .
So something like that can be very helpful , because it doesn't matter how good your form is , if you're running with your hips out of place , you're going to end up injured . So try to really focus on those root causes first and foremost .
Right , right , I like to talk about this , your badass breakthrough academy . How did that come about ?
Well , honestly , my whole life just struggling as an athlete , as an active woman , with hormone challenges . When women's hormones start to change or decline around age 35 , they start to feel frustrated , feel fatigued , stuck with injuries , weight gain in the midsection .
So really empowering women with the knowledge of what needs to change in their running and their strength training . Some women need help getting started with strength training because they've been focused on running for so long . Others are very advanced and they want to dial in every little aspect of nutrition , from their long runs to what they eat in the morning .
So I just put it all together in a one-stop shop where women can get nutrition , integrative health and wellness and very simple , science-based strategies that they can be consistent with . Because , to your point earlier , it's very easy to feel overwhelmed to information overload .
You're just like I don't even know where to start or I feel like I'm doing everything but nothing good .
Yeah , all right , oh , that's good . So I mean you say that there's kind of a lot of information there which is kind of like you said . As I said earlier in the introduction , there's a lot of BS symptoms which are often told you know are normal , but you kind of turn them around sort of thing and say that's not right .
Absolutely , and like as soon as you get in your 40s , you should not be tired all the time . No-transcript was very frustrating when I didn't feel heard by my doctors Then the fact that I loved running . No one really knew how running was influencing my hormonal health .
So I see a lot of women dedicated to their running and fitness get stuck in that they're seeing these signs and symptoms of perimenopause earlier than they should and a lot of doctors are like , well , it's just time for hormone replacement therapy .
But if that was very early forties , she may very well be able to turn around her metabolism , her hormonal health , her gut health , her energy around her metabolism , her hormonal health , her gut health , her energy .
So we've designed the processes to help women through that , and I have seen women in their fifties turn their hormonal health around to not need medication . So is there a time and a place for medication when we need it ?
Yes , but , is it the first place to go to , or all of these supplements , when whole nourishing food and eating in a very simple , low stress way , but just supporting the body , can do so much ?
Right . So do you think that basically I mean going to , let's say , a fitness professional or an exercise professional is probably your first point of you know ? First stop , as it were , rather than going to a medical professional because they may not , they're not , you know , they're kind of the jack of all trades , master of none type of thing .
Yes , well , if you have serious health conditions , I'd definitely start .
Oh yeah , of course .
Yeah , but then looking , you know , towards an exercise , but then looking towards an exercise physiologist , a sports nutritionist . We tend to take care of all of that in our program , which is why so many women love it , Because we can talk about integrative women's health .
We can talk about nutrition , strength training , the running programming really mitigating all of these symptoms and ensuring that doesn't have to be our story . But for me I didn't have anybody who put all the pieces together for me .
And .
I struggled for most of my life with my weight , with my hormones , with my gut health , with my metabolism , with my body composition , and it was so frustrating . So I do believe that's much of the reason why , at a young age , I was named one of the world's leading experts , because no one was really looking at women in age 35 , 40 .
And beyond in these hormonal changes specifically runners and those who love health and fitness we often think , oh , they're fine because they eat well , they know how to exercise .
But there is a huge shift that happens in our hormones and if we keep doing everything that we did in our thirties and twenties and it's not going to work and that's incredibly frustrating , we get very stuck very fast .
And so it's also a mental thing as well , isn't it ?
Absolutely . The declining hormones do impact mental health , so you might notice higher anxiety , you might notice more depression or low mood feelings . It might be hard to concentrate and it's even harder for our body to stay hydrated . As a woman , and especially active women . So we want to make sure that we have trace minerals in our water .
We can put a little bit of lemon juice and sea salt in it to help our cells actually absorb our water rather than just drinking plain water .
So when I mean not wanting you to give a particular case study , but when I mean when the women come to you and obviously they're feeling , have they have some anxiety about you know , because of you know the hormones or where they are for a particular reason we're coming a little bit off topic , but anyway , it's all in all relevant .
But you know how do you see that change in them , in terms of them sort of like not improving , as it were ?
so yeah , it's a lot of very simple strategies that we bring together in a checklist to help you develop a lifestyle to work with these changing hormones . So , as an example , really looking at nutrient timing with food , ensuring that you're balancing your blood sugar . So even you want to have carbs .
You do not want to have a very low-carb diet , but you do want to eat the right carbohydrates at the right time . So potatoes are wonderful , Rice , your vegetables , your fruit those are all very important for your gut health , for your metabolism . So oftentimes we see a lot of suggestions like oh , you're getting older , you should not have any carbohydrates .
But , as an active woman , that actually feeds our gut microbiome and that's a lot of our gut brain access , which is our mental health as well . So our gut health largely influences our brain health and the way we feel and our mood . So that connection there we hear some experts talking about it , but not quite enough .
And sometimes we can go on a diet to manage our weight quite enough . And sometimes we can go on a diet to manage our weight and then , before we know it , we are gaining weight . We're working out harder , we're eating less yeah we're staying low carb , we feel miserable and we don't really do so .
That's because I know some people you know have gone on the sort of quite a low carb diet , even I mean , I know one particular guy has done it , although he has lost weight . But it's not something you'd recommend , I mean especially for women , because of this you know of a particular age , as it were .
Yes , and I would say that was something I did wrong in my career as a sports scientist . I looked into all the literature and I saw the benefit and the cutting edge science .
That said , training fat adapted , you know , taking all carbohydrates away in a training cycle and then putting them back in right before you race would be a strategy , and so I tried all of those different techniques and , unfortunately , I damaged my metabolism . I damaged all of those different techniques and , unfortunately , I damaged my metabolism .
I damaged my hormones further . I damaged my bone health . I was not eating enough . And it just blows women's minds when they start to eat enough of the right foods how good they feel and they're like I cannot believe I'm eating this much , but it's giving you energy . Food is your vitality .
It's building a beautiful body , a strong body , and when we start to shift that mindset , it's amazing how good you can feel .
And also on the bone density side , is , you know , we can take it around , bring it around to the strength training , because that helps , doesn't it ?
Absolutely , doesn't it um absolutely , especially , you know for , especially , for women , you know , that's a great supplement to improving bone density yes , and making sure that you're getting enough protein and fuel around your exercise training session .
We see trends toward fasted training and that is one of the most counterproductive things we could do as a female , especially as we get older . What's that again .
What was that again ?
Fasted training or not eating very much before .
Oh right , yes , yes .
Yeah , five , two Very damaging .
Yeah , yeah . So I suppose you , I mean with your clients , I suppose you take it on the sort of like an individual basis and they , you know , each person is quite , you know , unique , as it were , and you kind of tailor the program to them .
Absolutely . Some women are really interested in more of how do they lose weight as a runner . Others are trying to run a personal best . Others just want to feel good . They might be really stuck with menopause symptoms like hot flashes , the weight gain , and they're just like help me feel better and then I can get back to running . But , yes , I love one-on-one .
I actually work with every woman that I work with for six months in my program to provide them the education resources . There's actually a learning academy where you can learn what's changing in your body and what you can do about it in a very simple and sustainable way . We do have group calls .
We have a community because it is nice to come together with others and we are expanding some solutions at Breaking Through Wellness to supporting males as well , because I did start my career working with professional male athletes . So it is nice to come together in community and talk about general wellness and holistic well-being .
But you know , the male the husbands of the wives in my program often become stronger , faster , better runners . They might lose weight because they're following a lot of the same stronger , faster , better runners .
They might lose weight because they're following a lot of the same to different metrics .
So I get a lot of really good feedback that the husbands are improving their health too .
All right , I suppose there's maybe , sort of like you know , a couple competitiveness as well .
Yes , they strength train together . They love it so .
Well , I think we're nearly coming to the end of the podcast and I just want to say you've been a wonderful guest , but obviously you know hormones changing or feeling down like you're just getting slower .
I just encourage you to seek , you know , nutrition and fitness education specific to your body . Find that person who is going to customize programming to you . Sometimes that investment can be scary but , when you take the time and find that right coach or practitioner , it will change the rest of your life .
So I know having learned and gaining knowledge as I struggled was the best thing I ever did for myself . So seek that knowledge and you will be a badass for life .
Very good , because people do go to pigs and troughs . I mean sometimes . I mean at the moment I haven't done any running for a few weeks because I'm getting of an injury , sort of thing , but it's always good to have that support .
¶ Innovative Wellness Solutions for Runners
Yes , yes , and we are looking to bring on even some like cool stem cell type technology for both male and females who are feeling stuck with injury . So stay tuned to BreakingThroughWellnesscom because we will be sharing some cool free masterclasses and things like that .
Well , thank you very much for coming on , and are there any links , social media you would like to sort of like just to tell us about now ?
I would head over to my website , breakingthroughwellnesscom . We do have a free nutrition guide for women runners age 35 and beyond . I have the running injury prevention masterclass that has some videos and demonstrations and that's for women over 30 .
And then we will be having our stem cell solution for both male and females , so that'll be a nice masterclass on anti-aging , longevity and healing our body naturally . So I would head over to the website and you can find us on social media , at Breaking Through Illness , on Instagram and Facebook .
Yeah , and you have a podcast as well . I do Thank you for reminding me that's an important thing , all the free education is there .
It's called Maximizing Fitness , physique and Running Through Perimenopause . So we talk nutrition , we talk fat loss , we talk what's changing in our female body after 35 and how to be that strong , resilient runner for life .
Great . Thank you very much .
Thank you for having me .