LIFT SMARTER
How to balance the fine line between strength gains and excessive pain
Pull Yourweight
Why resistance training is crucial if you want to become a stronger and faster runner
YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW that lower-body strength training can make you faster, but also that a hard session in the gym can trash your legs for tomorrow’s run. If you’ve ever rationalised skipping it to prep for the next day’smileage, you may have a point. According to a recent review of 132 studies, it takes a full day or two more to recover from resistance training than it does a high-intensity run.
That doesn’t mean you should bail on strength work – just manage it better. Research shows that properly scheduling resistance training can lop seconds – even minutes – off your PB.
To get it right, you need to understand how your body reacts to moving heavy stuff. Picture pushing an empty trolley 50ft. Pretty easy. That’s running, and your body is the trolley – it moves its own weight rather effortlessly. Now slide the trolley under a fridge and push it just five feet – a lot more difficult. That’s mechanical loading; it’s why 10 heavy squats hurt more than 1,000 foot strikes.
The reason strength training makes you faster is that it lowers the amount of energy required to hit a certain pace, explains Kenji Doma, a sports and exercise scientist at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, and author of the review. Your brain alters its neural recruitment pattern, calling up the most fatigue-resistant muscle fibres, so you use less energy.
The key to balancing both activities is timing. You don’t want to run at 80 per cent of your maximum effort right after heavy lifting, because there’s a lot more mechanical load being applied to your neuromuscular system, so your muscles fatigue more than they would in a typical running session, says Doma.
Simply put, you won’t be ready to perform at the same level if you run the next day. Proof: in a study, runners experiencing delayedonset muscle soreness (DOMS) after resistance training did a 3km time trial. The researchers found that, on average, the runners ran nine per cent slower and were at greater risk of injury because muscle fatigue was causing poor running form.
According to Doma, the ideal strength schedule is to start the week with low weight and intensity to avoid shocking the body. Then prioritise. Runners should only strength-train twice a week, to ensure full recovery before a tough run, he says. Lastly, realise that it’s OK to run on sore legs. If they feel tired, Doma recommends moving at 70 per cent or less of your maximum effort (seven out of 10 in your rate of perceived exertion).
Want to put everything into a real-life training week? Your wish is Doma’s command (see below).
KIMBERLY ROMANELLO felt like she didn’t have any fuel left in the tank. Scene: Boston, US, April 17, 2017, mile 22 of her first-evermarathon. Her head hurt, her feet ached, sweat pooled down her back. Gazing into the sign-wielding crowd, her breathing laboured, she paused for amoment.
‘I had aminute there when I was doubting everything and why I had signed up in the first place,’ reflects the 30-year-old. ‘And that’swhenmy runningmantras came into play.’
A subset of self-talk, a mantra is a single word or short statement repeated frequently to aid concentration or help accomplish an objective. Romanello’s go-tos are common for runners: a simple ‘You got this’ or ‘Run with your heart.’ Shutting down her inner uncertainty wasn’t easy, but shifting her focus to these positive statements ultimately helped her finish her first marathon in just under five and a half hours.
‘Thoughts affect feelings, and feelings affect performance,’ explains Jimafremow, a sports psychology expert and author of The Champion’smind. ‘Change your thinking, and you’ll change your performance.’
If that sounds almost too easy, know that there’s plenty of research to back it up. According to a study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, motivational self-talk can reduce perception of effort and increase endurance, whichmay lead to a leg-up on the competition. In the study, recreational cyclists who learned to usemotivational self-talk statements could cycle 18 per cent longer than they’d been able to before implementing this strategy. They also had a lower rate of perceived exertion than those who didn’t engage in this kind of positive self-talk. Put into running terms: a fewhappy thoughts could help you push your usual 30-minute run to 35minutes with ease.
So, yes, mantras can actually make a big difference. But not just any old sayingwill get the job done. The language you use in that short and sweet pep talkmakes amajor impact. ‘Yourmind can be your weapon or your weakness,’ says Lennywiersma, a professor of sports psychology who’s worked with all kinds of athletes, ranging fromufc fighters to ultra marathoners. ‘It’s a weapon when we’re utilising it to draw on banked energy, allowing us to dig a little deeper and enjoy an experience more. It’s a weakness if we aren’t aware that what we are saying can negatively change our perception of difficulty or distract us.’
For example, instead of focusing on what’s going wrong mid-stride, home in on positive statements. Swap out something like ‘I hate hills’ for ‘You can crush hills.’ When mile nine of a halfmarathon feels impossible, ditch the ‘I’mrubbish at this distance’ thoughts for an affirming ‘You’re crushing this distance’mantra. As Afremow points out, ‘You’re the one who’s capable of changing the script to your running story.’