Get Pumped
When the worlds of strength and endurance collide
Quick, what’s your 5k PB? OK, now how much can you bench press? The first one, if you’ve run a 5k, is easy. The second question, for many runners, ah, not so much. And until recently, I counted myself in that group. Even though I had done a lot of strength training over the years, I never tried to answer the classic meathead question of how much I could bench press, or to discover how many times I could bench my body weight.
But on a recent business trip to Columbus, Ohio, to work at the Arnold Sports Festival – a huge exhibition founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1989 that now attracts 175,000 people – I met a few guys who had competed in an event that brought together the worlds of bodybuilding and distance running. The Arnold Pump and Run 5k is the largest of many “pump and runs” across the U.S. in which competitors bench press their body weight (or some percentage of it, depending on age and gender) as many times as possible up to a maximum of 30 reps, and then race a 5k. Your total time is the 5k finish time minus 30 seconds for every rep of the bench press completed.
Curious to see whether brawn triumphed over speed and endurance, I looked up the results for this year’s Arnold race and was amazed to discover the men’s winning time of 1:15. Zach Holbert had defended his title by running a 16:15 5k after benching the maximum 30 reps of his body weight. Women’s winner Tina Husted benched 60 per cent of her weight 30 times and ran an 18:30 to finish in 3:30.
To see where I might stack up, I put on a running singlet that I thought most closely resembled a Gold’s Gym spaghettistrap bodybuilding top and hit the gym. Grunting, puffing and shaking, I managed to complete exactly one rep of my 145-pound body weight before deciding that a second one would likely put me in Failblog territory without a spotter. Humbled.
When I mentioned the Pump and Run to my track coach Paul Osland, a 48-year-old former Olympic 800m runner and top masters competitor, he told me without hesitation that in his racing prime, he used to be able to bench 50 to 60 reps of his body weight, and always worked a lot of strength training into his plan. Upper body strength work is very important for a runner, Osland told me, especially at the shorter distances. “At the end of an 800m – or even a 5k – when my legs are dying, having a strong upper body enables me to keep my arms pumping,” he says. “And my legs have to follow what my arms do.”
Arnold Pump and Run race director Matt McGowan says some runners can’t complete a single rep of the pump, but the top men’s and women’s racers almost always finish the full 30. McGowan told me a f lat-out “No” when I asked if he ever expected to see a negative finish time, but Osland said he’s pretty sure he could have pulled it off, based on a 14:50 5k he ran at the age of 38.
As for me, I clearly have some iron to pump if I want to compete next year – about 29 reps’ worth.