¶ 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 . Well , hey there , runners and wellness warriors , welcome back to another episode of Brian's RunPod , where we dive into all things running and beyond .
I'm your host , brian Patterson , and today we've got a powerhouse guest joining us the incredible Louise Valentine-Fander of Breaking Through Wellness . Now let me tell you a little bit about Louise . She's not just an expert . She's legitimately one of the world's leading exercise psychologists and integrated health and performance experts .
With over 21 years of experience under her belt , louise has transformed the lives of thousands of thousands , from kicking off her career in the NFL and professional sports to collaborating with doctors and publishing groundbreaking holistic human performance research with the US military . She's done it all .
Louise is also a best-selling author and has created award-winning women's health interventions . But her journey doesn't stop there . She's launched the Badass Breakthrough Academy to help women ditch the BS of symptoms . I'll quote , unquote their symptoms we're often told our normal and term breakdowns into breakthroughs will all a lot less stress .
Today , louise is here to share her expertise on strength training for runners and we'll dive into what is crucial for your running game how to get started and some top tip to get you injury free . So welcome Louise . Everyone gets that .
Thank you very much . That might have been the best opening with the cheering there I've ever had Great .
Thank you very much . As I do with every guest , I kind of start off kind of right at the beginning and find out as to what your experience of exercise was when growing up . Were you kind of a natural athlete , or is it something that you had to work at ?
I definitely had to work at it . I was very sick growing up , always getting different infections . I was told by my doctors I wasn't built to be a runner , I should just stop , because I kept getting injured . I switched over from volleyball to cross country and was dead last on my team any means . But fast forward .
Years later , after having two kids , studying human physiology , really learning how to work with my body and not against it , I was able to qualify for a recreationally competitive running team . I now work with runners throughout the world in optimizing their health and performance , so I have turned my own personal breakdowns into breakthroughs for sure .
Was there one defining moment for you that kind of changed it ?
You know , there was a time when I trained all summer for my cross country season on my own and I returned after having a really poor cross country season to my senior year and I was actually running well and my coach just remembered me as the slow girl so he never ran me varsity until we needed it in the final match .
And I learned very young that I just had to dig deep and be proud of my own accomplishments and running and not to rely on that exterior reinforcement and validation , because I just had to know , like I trained all summer , I'm running with these varsity girls , I should be racing with them and I wasn't .
And so I just believed in myself and continued to develop my love of running all throughout college , running my first marathon in honor of my grandma who passed of lymphoma . So , I was able to raise money and really fell in love with the toughness , the mental toughness that I got from running .
Right . So I think that was the shift in focus , was is I'm doing it for me as opposed to for other people , sort of thing ?
Right , absolutely .
So moving on , basically what happened after that ? So you like you said you had your kids and then you studied . So how did you sort of like progress from there ?
Yeah , I started in nutrition and dietetics . I took a pause when I was interested more in like holistic side of wellness and got a degree in sports massage therapy . So I started working in the NFL here in the States with pro athletes and rock stars and it was a fruitful career . But I still wanted to go back and study exercise science .
So as I continued to grow as an exercise physiologist and really look into different symptoms that I was having , like I was having frequent injuries I wanted to run faster and I was trying to determine how do I train without burning out . And as a woman who struggled with my hormonal health , there was a lot going on there too .
My weight was hard to manage my weight and I always tell everyone that a coach , I did it all wrong .
I trained all wrong , I dieted all wrong , I strength trained all wrong , and so I was fortunate enough to get a research fellowship with the U S military , studied running , injury prevention , human performance , and continued with my education , earning a master's , and really studied women's health and why , as a female runner , I was struggling so much from every aspect
, from running while pregnant to running postpartum , to running correctly , strength training enough to prevent the injuries . There's so much you know as a runner , to truly being a strong runner for life .
So do you think that because you made a lot of the mistakes that kind of made you a better coach in the future ?
Oh , absolutely Absolutely . Working with runners at all levels , both male and female , originally .
But the more I got older and started to realize that hormones shift for women around age 35 , which influences our weight management , our injury rates , how we feel day to day , I really wanted to work with women struggling with their hormones , their weight and wanting to run strong for life , so that was a big shift for me about four years ago in working
exclusively in designing my academy for women where they could learn how to work with their body and not against it right .
So on the I mean when you , just going back to when you're going into college , had you'd always thought , well , I'll . You know , I've always got in my mind that I want to do like a marathon or you kind of just . You know you took each distance . You know , stage by stage , it was kind of like an evolution thing .
So what's interesting is I never ran a half marathon before running a full marathon . So I just I was inspired to run in honor of my grandma who passed away from cancer . And then again it was this , this whole messaging my whole life . Like you weren't built to be a runner .
Like I told my dad that I was going to run a marathon and he laughed , and so I even told my boyfriend at the time . He's like I guess I'll run it with you , but this is hilarious . Like I don't know if you're really going to be able to do this . So I just channeled all of that self-doubt and said watch me .
And once I did it , I crossed that finish line . It was terrible feeling . It was so tough . You know that first marathon is really tough when you're really trying to get that aerobic base and really feel like a strong runner and like , wow , I did that . If I can do that , I literally think I can do anything in the world .
So was it one of the biggies , the big marathons , or was it kind of like a local marathon ? You know , was that a New York or it was a ?
larger one In the States it was . They used to have this rock and roll series here , so it was in Nashville Tennessee . So , it was a big like 20,000 runners .
Oh , wow , yeah , oh , that's good , well , okay . Well , let's shift on to get your expertise about strength training for runners , and I know it's something that I've covered before in my earlier podcast , but it's nice having an expert on the show to talk about this .
So , when , pete , when you talk to I mean women or men , or about strength training for runners , what are their main concerns ?
initially , Well learning how to not always feel stuck . You're always in a cycle of injury , having tight muscles all the time . I hear a lot of both male and female that I've worked with in the past . They always have a right hip that bothers them , or their hip flexors have always been tight .
It's frustrating to deal with repetitive strains that just kind of keep coming back no matter what you do . Repetitive strains that just kind of keep coming back no matter what you do . So the root cause of that being strength and stability and training correctly
¶ Strength Training Misconceptions for Runners
. We try to do a lot of different things , but there are some common misconceptions for sure .
Yeah , yeah . And so what would those be , those misconceptions ?
Yeah , I think one of the big ones is thinking that yoga and stretching is enough in order to be to address these aches and pains .
It truly is a lot of times strength training that in the dynamic warmups , that moving through different ranges of motion , that can be key to addressing those root causes to ensure that you truly do stop that injury in its tracks . So I always tell my runners , you know , a quick little five minute warmup is key to your success .
Every time before you go out , If you can open your chest , just stretch it and see like , okay , is my right side tighter than the left . You could just grab a tree you can turn , stretch that chest muscle . And the other thing is just opening your hips and determining do my hips feel tight ? Do I need to stop and stretch them ?
Because if your chest is tight and your hips are tight , you will run out of alignment . And therefore the more that you take , you're contributing to your own injury .
Because I always think that you know , sometimes people go just as guilty as anyone that they'll kind of quickly skip over or do a quick minute or 30 seconds bit of stretching . You know they just got home from work and they just want to get the run out of the way , sort of thing .
And if anything , it may be something you're maybe contributing to an injury later down the line .
Absolutely , and just ensuring that . You know , even if you think about if you're running a longer run , you start to get tired , so you fatigue and you start to roll your shoulders forward , and then what happens is you pull on your low back .
So that can be a source and a root cause of your low back pain is not only was your chest tight to start with , but then you fatigued along the course of the run and before you know it you're like , oh my gosh , my back it's so sore . And you come in the door and then you stretch it and if you think about that position , it's already stretched .
So what you would actually want to do is strengthen your low back rather than stretch it .
Okay , so for starters , let's say I'm new to running , I've started running and that's all I'm doing . So what would you recommend or what sort of prescription initially would you recommend that people do for strength training ?
Well , they definitely would want to try to strength train total body , every body part , at least twice per week and you could start with like two sets of 10 , just get the form down correctly , eventually making your way up to three sets of eight to 10 repetitions and making sure that that's a challenging weight for you .
We see a lot of body weight exercises and that doesn't actually effectively overload the muscle to build muscular strength and resilience .
So , getting your form down first and foremost if you need to be body weight , absolutely fine , but eventually adding weight so that you can truly break down the muscle appropriately and then rebuild it up so it becomes stronger and truly break down the muscle appropriately and then rebuild it up so it becomes stronger ?
Yeah , so do you . Is any type of strength training like machines , free weights or even doing you know ?
Yes , I would definitely start with a deadlift exercise , strengthening the back of the body , really some great back exercises , prioritizing the back of the body or the quadriceps , those thick thigh muscles . You'd actually want to focus on strengthening the back more , so . Some glute exercises there's one called the glute bridge .
Some clam exercises can strengthen your outer hips you could use a band for that and then a deadlift , and I often see a lot of beginner runners go right to like a single leg deadlift , and I would highly recommend getting a regular deadlift with you positioned in two feet flat on the floor first , before going into your single leg .
Right , and what about the hamstrings ? What would be some good exercises for that ? Or can you do , let's say , hamstring curls on the machine , again doing two sets of 10 , that kind of thing . Yes , you could do some hamstring curl machine .
If you are comfortable , I would recommend actually , after you , strengthen on that hamstring machine , that curl progressing to something like a Romanian deadlift that would get the back of your body and it would also have you positioned , standing , so that you're working on your balance too , because as runners we are , we need to really work on our balance .
I always say , if you're an advanced exerciser , when you're doing your bicep curls , you could stand on one leg , start to challenge that balance . So you're , you bicep curls , you could stand on one leg , start to challenge that balance . So you're , you have that single leg stability so you so .
So just to summarize basically twice a week is is quite good to sort of like supplement . You know you're running initially and you're just doing overall exercises , but to do the , you know , like you said , to do the deadlift to help .
Yes , yes , deadlift . You could work on some hip thrusts , your bridges Bridges would be a great one . And then you can even start to add in single leg bridges , body weight , to get that single leg stability . You'll notice the glutes tend to be very weak in runners and that can be a root cause of injury .
So definitely want to target those glute muscles with some bridges .
Yeah , I know , as I've got older , my hips tend to start screaming at me after a while . Is there anything that ? Is it because , especially if you have quite a sedentary job , you know , the hip flexors do tend to shorten , get tightened up ? And is it mainly ? You know , the key thing there would be just sort of like stretch it out .
Yes , so with that you'd want to do more like a foam rolling of your quads .
You can .
That would be more effective when you put pressure and then lengthen the muscle versus just standing on one leg and stretching the quads . The other thing , too , is to think of your day . So I say you know you don't want sitting to stop you from crushing your goals , so think of different times in your day .
Get up from periods of prolonged sitting or sitting for greater than 45 minutes to an hour , and you can even do like some pelvic tilts . Kick a couple leg back , activate the glute muscles . Become a better runner at work simply by getting up from your desk and moving a little bit more .
Yeah , yeah so what would be now to to sort of elevate it from just the basic strength exercises and I've kind of done . You know , if you do this for a few months or whatever , how would you kind of advance that ?
Yes . So I would look to start to advance to some single leg exercises as well as a little bit of power . So if you're able to do a kettlebell clean and press , you bring it from the floor , you pop it up to the shoulder and then press overhead and you do one side at a time .
So that would be a great exercise for a runner to develop single-sided strength as well as getting that total body .
So is that going from a squat up to taking it up ?
Yes , yeah , okay and then you might be able to advance to a single leg deadlift .
Yeah .
That would be a great single leg stability exercise , great Romanian deadlift and regular deadlift form first with two feet fat on the floor . Just because we do tend to have some hip instability postpartum , at any age , it could be years later . So we want to make sure we don't go right into a single leg deadlift . We start with that foundational strength first .
All right , okay , that's fantastic . So what we'll do is we'll probably do some links in the show notes to make sure that people can see , either on YouTube or something like that . As to some of these exercises , thinking , oh you know , am I going to bulk up too much ?
You know I'm doing this running because , you know , either I want to lose weight and you know I don't want to feel , isn't strength training going to bulk me up and make me heavier ? You know , what would you say to that ?
Well , if you're doing it two times per week and that rep range , absolutely not You're not going to see yourself bulk up . The bulking up would come with extreme excess calories , extreme levels of protein which , if you're eating your body weight in pounds per day grams of protein . That would be a great starting place .
For a lot of people , gentlemen , can get away with a little bit more . But strength training is just going to make you stronger and more resilient and if you are looking to lose weight , you're actually going to build muscle which will help boost your metabolism , help you burn fat while you run .
You'll be a stronger runner , so you'll burn more calories while running , and it really is your best path to longevity and running . To make strength training a part of your program .
Yeah , yeah , as I keep saying to people that the muscle is a living , breathing thing and it's basically getting it stronger , basically means that your calories you're expending more calories , as it were .
Absolutely . At rest , and so it's a great way to keep off your fat long-term as well .
So running is great for cardiovascular health to burn some calories , but then when you don't have the metabolism and the muscle to keep the fat off , that's where we can get in trouble , where we feel like we have to keep running further and we have to eat less , and before we know it , we're working out more , we're eating less and we're like wait , now I'm
gaining weight , I don't have a metabolism , and it can be , especially for women . That can be really , really challenging .
And does strength training change , because I know you do quite a bit of work with women runners ? Does the program change for women or is it ? You know you're looking ? You prescribe roughly the same thing .
I would prescribe roughly the same thing for women . The rep range , especially over age 35 , becomes really important because when we start to see our hormones decline , in particular estrogen , we would want to make sure that we're really lifting a little bit heavier than we have in the past .
Meaning that eight to 10 rep range , perhaps even six reps at a nice heavy weight will overload the muscle enough so that it changes . Because we have to remember , our muscles have a harder time building . And so we really need to have some excellent nutrition .
We need to eat enough protein quality protein and ensure that we have the right strength training program . But the one thing that I think is really encouraging is the injury rates in my program are industry leading in that this year alone we've only had one . Last year We've had zero and we had two years where we've had zero and had two years we've had zero .
And you know , women are coming to the program with old injuries or concerned and when they have the right tools and education and very simple programming and then the nutrition to match it , they really can be strong , resilient and injury-free for life . So I find that so promising that with the right education and tools we truly can be unstoppable as runners .
¶ Diverse Running and Strength Training
Oh right , and are these kind of like a range of you know ? There's not just marathon runners , it could you know people who are doing 10 Ks and 5 Ks , that kind of thing I have women who were .
They haven't ran in years . They really want to get back into it , Like maybe their goal is just to run a few miles with the grandkids . I have others who are in their early 30s . They're still loving the marathon . I have trained ultra runners . My husband is a dedicated 100 miler .
I've even had women in my program who've been ambitious enough to run 200 milers . It's quite impressive .
That's the diversity I mean not to go off topic a bit , but but why is ? Why is ultra running just suddenly ? Suddenly it's just taken off . I mean , even here in the uk , you know , people are , you know , doing , you know this . I mean it's it's kind of beyond me , but why is it suddenly taken off ?
you know , I think it's the culture . It's so relaxed , it's so down to earth . You , it's just you can hike up the difficult parts You're getting out in nature . It is really fun Just having seen different areas of the country , like I've gone to Colorado and seen mountains , I've run along seashores here in the States .
It's been very diverse , very encouraging , and you can let go of your pace because the terrain is always different . So you don't say like I must run a seven minute mile , it's like no , I can run a 15 minute mile because I'm power hiking but , it's just not to get hurt , to finish it and to feel good .
Yeah , yeah . It's not one of these things that have emerged from COVID that people feel that they have to , they have to do .
No , some people may have gotten into it because of the . You can just go into the woods and be by yourself . Yeah .
So on . Just going back to the strength training thing , when do you think that people should I mean , should they kind of like listen to their bodies , to feeling that they can progress , either lifting heavier weight or maybe doing more reps ? What advice would you give ?
Yes . So the key there would be if you are doing , let's say , three sets of 10 , if you get to your third set and you can do 10 to 12 easily , that is your indication . It's time to bump it up so we can play around with that . Let's say that the next weight .
Let's say you have a 15 pound weight and you have 20 pound weight and you're hesitant to go up to 20 because it's a big jump . It's five pounds . So what you could do instead is you could shorten the amount of rest in between your sets , so that would give you a little bit more challenge to the muscle .
The other thing I would encourage us to do is slow down while we're training . Recent research is showing that time under tension is actually an incredibly effective way to build our muscle .
Right .
So even if we're doing like a bicep curl , like down one , two , three , four , it's like you never realize how weak you are until you slow down .
Yeah , and so that's on kind of the eccentric . When you're , let's say , if you're doing a bicep curl , you're bringing it up , and then when you're letting it down , you're just taking it a lot longer , and that can be just as effective .
Yes , and eccentric to your point is one of .