Stretching & Strength

All of our bodies have imbalances – this is normal. Most of the time you never notice what is commonly a very slight asymmetry in the body or your posture. Starting a new sport, any new sport, will often bring the asymmetry to your attention. Stretching and strengthening is an opportunity to isolate and modify our natural imbalances that could bring about a long term strain or injury. Many of us run of one side of the road for miles and miles and never notice an imbalance that might result from the slope of the road crown or shoulder.

I have a different story that is a more extreme example. As a raft guide I saw in the back right corner of the boat and spent days paddling six guests down the river. One side of my lower back is much stronger as a result and that was very clear to me when I started running further. My buddy has a lesser example, his chiropractor told him he needed to take his wallet out of his back pocket, because the 4” of credit cards and dinner receipts and whatever else was in there was giving him an asymmetry. Sometimes we know what causes these slight changes and sometimes we do not. They can be subtle or extreme but I’ll bet we all have one, and I’ll bet again that a few of us will have our running bring it to our attention. You’ll hear me say it often that you need to listen carefully to your body and this type of issue need not alarm you if you are a careful monitor. My back had a talk with me slowly and in a “tap, tap” you on the shoulder kind of way. That is when I went to strength training and gently corrected the problem. Before you go out to take the chainsaw safety course they sharpen the chainsaw for you, they know you’ll have a much better experience with a sharp saw.

Stretching and strength training are a quick way to get under your own hood and make sure everything is shored up and aligned a bit before starting this big journey. And when I go on a long drive for summer vacation I do not take the whole car apart to make sure it works! I just check a bit, kick the tires and noodle with the simple stuff and that is what we are doing here too.

Here are a number of the key stretches that you will want to perform after a run, while muscles are still warm. Your text has a number of stretches and you can experiment with a number of them and others to get better results. We will practice one of these after every group run so that you can see them in action. Why did I choose these stretches? They are a good gentle start and work both flexion and extension related to key areas of your running movements. I realize that all of us are busy but I need you to make time to stretch. If it came down to you needing to shorten your run by 8 minutes in order to find time to stretch – then do that. But often you can read, watch TV or see you kid play while you use ten minutes to mitigate injury in your training day and longer looser muscles recover more quickly. You’ll feel better and recover faster with just these and can always expand your routine as you progress. Where there is not a page number listed (supine groin, glute/piriformis stretch) I’ll give you a handout for these and you can keep it in your textbook.

stretch after every workout find it
calf stretch standing, leg straight 1 rep 60 seconds each leg pg 185
calf stretch standing, front knee bent 1 rep 60 seconds each leg pg 186
Hamstring standing, one leg up 1 rep 60 seconds each leg pg 183
Quadricep standing 1 rep 60 seconds each leg pg 184
Lower back standing 1 rep 60 seconds pg 188
Hamstring seated 1 rep 60 seconds each leg pg 190
Calf and foot stretch seated 1 rep 60 seconds each leg pg 194
Groin stretch, supine 1 rep 60 seconds
Glute, piriformis stretch, supine wall 1 rep 60 seconds each leg

try to visualize a good race and what went well mid-run while you stretch

Additionally, I will recommend a few key drills to strengthen your key muscles used in running. Again, I realize that you are busy and some will say that they cannot find the time, while others will say they do not want to be a body builder. We will not add any mass to your frame with these drills, only muscle definition. The most important thing is that we support your running by giving you structural support and exercising tissue that does not see activity any other way. This type of weight lifting is quick and intended to be injury prevention for what we ask your body to do. By including a non-impact form of exercise in your conditioning we also stimulate a recovery response for your body and continue to build your metabolic rate without increased mileage or wear on your legs.

So that I do not make any assumptions; a set is a group of repetitions with weights and a repetition (rep) is a single lift of the weight. You will be doing just a single set and we’ll start with a small number of reps and slowly build to a number of 15 or less. The key to making this work is that you will use a weight that is heavy enough that the last few reps will be difficult to complete. But the weight should not be so heavy that you cannot correctly perform the exercise, because form is most important. Use the pictures in your book and a mirror at the fitness center to help you learn clean form for each exercise. You will notice that most of these do not require a weight room either so you can do them at home and save time for other things (like stretching). If you do not see a page number listed here then I’ll be giving you a handout for the exercise. Several of these drills such as plank and superman are isometric exercises and so you’ll hold them until failure, record your time and then add 5 seconds to that time each week as a goal. I would tell you that for best results strength training would be done 3 times weekly, however those three day a week folks only saw 5-10% improvement over those who strength train 2 days a week. Since you are already busy with running and stretching, I feel two days is sufficient and achieve our goal of a balanced body that is buffered from injury.


Core strength workout 2 times weekly, 3 is OK
exercise sets reps hold for find it
Standing wall slide one pg 138
Single leg squat one
walking lunge one
calf raises one pg 134
toe raises one pg 139
push up one pg 122
Dumbbell row one pg 123
regular crunches one pg 128
oblique crunches one pg 129
plank one sec. pg 130
superman one sec. pg 130

Remember: use enough weight that last few reps are challenging but you maintain form
every strength session makes your run miles more fluidly and easily
lean muscle mass deflects impact from joint structures which are less regenerative
an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure