Whether you're a new runner or a longtime runner who wants to improve her results, focusing on strength training can be exciting and challenging. If you can talk to an experienced runner or coach about your plan, you'll be able to design a muscle-building strategy that fits your personal goals and fitness activities and approach.
Stability Muscles
According to elite distance running coach Terence Mahon, increasing your stability will help you run faster because a stronger, more stable core will allow you to move more efficiently and maintain good form through to the end of your races. Stability muscles are in your core -- your abs and your back muscles, as well as your obliques on your sides -- as well as your glutes. To strengthen these muscles, do crunches, sit-ups, push-ups and stability ball exercises incorporated into traditional ab-strengthening activities.
Upper Body Exercises
The elite distance runners on Mahon's Team USA do strength training six days a week and include strength training exercises in their routine. The runners do pull-ups and use the overhead press and bench press, also using free weights for rowing exercises and for biceps and triceps toners.
Lower Body Exercises
While some runners feel that building leg muscle strength is redundant given that most of the other training you do as a runner involves strengthening your legs, others feel that specific strength-training exercises are still beneficial. The Team USA runners do step-ups, squats, single leg squats, snatches and leg-press exercises. Other lower-body muscle building exercises involve doing hill repeats or running stairs.
Basics
Strength training as a runner can complement the work you're doing on the road or the track. Especially for long-distance runners, a bit more strength can mean you'll be able to run faster, since your running speed is determined by your stride length -- a function of strength, power and flexibility -- as well as stride frequency. According to fitness expert Gary Lavin, a writer for Coolrunning.com, the most cutting-edge strength training methods today focus on single leg training, on training in the upright position, on foot-plant balance and stability, and on focusing on "initiating and controlling running from the core of the body downward."
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