Per Yale Medicine, it is estimated that 50% of runners get hurt each year, and most of these injuries are attributed to overuse. I myself have dealt with partial Achilles tears, IT band syndrome, shin splints, and frontal knee pain throughout my running history.
As a runner, we feed on the endorphins it produces, and we don’t feel ourselves without our weekly mileage. In cross country we are pushed to run daily, sometimes twice a day, both in and out of the season. We are told that the more we run, the better we will perform.
But over the past 5 years in the clinic, I’ve seen this isn’t always the case. There is no “one size fits all” for running programming, and often my runners only seem to worsen with increased frequency and mileage.
So, what should we do about this stark statistic? Should we simply say, “running is bad for you” and encourage people not to run? No, obviously not. I believe running is in fact great for the body, for cardiovascular health, cartilage heath (despite what old school orthopedic doctors might say), and mental health.
Most often I see that the problem my runners have isn’t that they run. It’s that they ONLY run. They treat running as their warmup, cool down, cardio, and strength workouts. I often hear, “I don’t need to strengthen my legs, I already run.”
I believe strength cross-training is essential for runners to help prevent injury and improve their performance. Not only does maintaining muscular strength help promote proper gait mechanics but makes tendons and muscles more resilient to the loads running places on the body.
On average, every time your foot strikes the ground, you are impacting with 3-5x your body weight in force. Think about that. Take a 150 lb. runner. Each step that would mean they are landing with 450-750 lbs. of force! A force that we aren’t experiencing just once or twice, but thousands of times over the course of a few miles.
So, if we are asking our body to tolerate this much force over and over again, why wouldn’t we want the strength to be able to handle this force? My runner thinks nothing about putting on 5 miles a day training, yet would balk at the idea of me asking them to squat 450 lbs. Now I am not saying to go out and squat 450 lbs. every day, but I believe you should be able to comfortably handle your body weight.
Some benchmarks I use in the clinic include being able to complete 10 single leg squats with proper form, 10 single leg calf raises, and hold a plank for 1 minute. When using weights, I promote the ability to squat 1-1.5x your bodyweight on the bar and deadlift 2x your bodyweight.
We hold a weekly injury prevention clinic for runners of all ages and abilities (12+ yrs. old). If you’re interested in learning more about how strength training can help you prevent injury and improve performance as a runner, come check us out.
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