So my stepson Dean Barton is a PT and a good one at that. Yet for years I have resisted strength training, mainly because it hurts! Not just at the time but for days afterwards and I thought it would harm my running. The truth is that it HAS to be part of my training from now on.
I'm getting older, things are not as strong as they used to be and i'm getting more niggles in areas where I didn't used to. Also I suffer badly with poor posture and issues from working at a desk and travelling a lot in my car, 30,000 miles a year!
This wreaks havok with my upper body and my Psoas muscles in particular. It shortens my hamstrings and generally messes my body up. Lucho also has been prescribing strength training in my new program so I am gonna have to suck it and see. I did start 3 weeks ago and gently eased myself back into it in order to lessen the pain and things seem to be going well so far.
I have Ben Greenfield's book on weight training for Triathletes and am going to start incorporating some of the exercises from that. I have also just finished Mo Farah's book Twin Ambitions and its well documented that since he started training wit Alberto Salazar that his running improved massively and this was mostly due to strength training.
So what am I doing.....
Lot's of stretching first to loosen up those tight muscles and easing into some squats. Then a series of lower and upper back exercises to strengthen those areas and loosen them up. These include raises and full body pull ups with some shoulder high rings where I lower my body down slowly whilst maintaining posture and explosively raising myself back up.
The squats are tough. I have to use a weight below my heels to assist while I get in better shape to do this exercise and Dean has a bench behind me so that I know when to stop the lowering phase and explode up on the squat.
All in all things seem to be not too bad right now so I will continue to do this in the off season and am starting Lucho's running plan today, before my weights session of course! Luckily it's only an easy 4 mile MAF run with some strides at the end.
I know the strength work will help and will report back later with the exercises I find have worked best for me.
I'm getting older, things are not as strong as they used to be and i'm getting more niggles in areas where I didn't used to. Also I suffer badly with poor posture and issues from working at a desk and travelling a lot in my car, 30,000 miles a year!
This wreaks havok with my upper body and my Psoas muscles in particular. It shortens my hamstrings and generally messes my body up. Lucho also has been prescribing strength training in my new program so I am gonna have to suck it and see. I did start 3 weeks ago and gently eased myself back into it in order to lessen the pain and things seem to be going well so far.
I have Ben Greenfield's book on weight training for Triathletes and am going to start incorporating some of the exercises from that. I have also just finished Mo Farah's book Twin Ambitions and its well documented that since he started training wit Alberto Salazar that his running improved massively and this was mostly due to strength training.
So what am I doing.....
Lot's of stretching first to loosen up those tight muscles and easing into some squats. Then a series of lower and upper back exercises to strengthen those areas and loosen them up. These include raises and full body pull ups with some shoulder high rings where I lower my body down slowly whilst maintaining posture and explosively raising myself back up.
The squats are tough. I have to use a weight below my heels to assist while I get in better shape to do this exercise and Dean has a bench behind me so that I know when to stop the lowering phase and explode up on the squat.
All in all things seem to be not too bad right now so I will continue to do this in the off season and am starting Lucho's running plan today, before my weights session of course! Luckily it's only an easy 4 mile MAF run with some strides at the end.
I know the strength work will help and will report back later with the exercises I find have worked best for me.
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