The Truth Behind Strength Training for Marathons Pt. 2

A few days ago, I asked in a rhetorical manner how bench press, curls, tricep press downs, and leg press can help a marathon runner. Many still believe these exercises can magically improve their performance if done 2x/week, but like I wrote in prior publications, it can actually inhibit performance.

Let's paint a mental picture of an elite marathon runner. Okay, do you envision what I do? I see a waif individual, with the appearance of thin, yet lean, muscle pasted to their legs. These ectomorphic stick figures appear sickly, almost anorexic, but at the sound of a gun, they're ready to run 26.2 miles at a remarkable pace.

The runners that I speak of typically don't have bulky muscle, as their competencies revolve around being light weight and flexible. Now I'm not dismissing weight training for runners, but all I'm saying is the focus is in the wrong areas. So what are the right areas?

Well firstly, let's work on core strength, and no I don't mean just ab exercises. If you haven't done so already, read my latest article on Jon Doyle's baseballtraining secrets.com.

http://www.baseballtrainingsecrets.com/articles/baseball-core-training.php

By core training, I'm thinking about exercises like planks, Turkish get-ups, reverse hyperextensions, and overhead medicine ball throws.

Squats are ok, as long as they're done at high intensities, meaning decrease your rest time between sets. Marathons require endurance muscles, thus you have to train them as such. Longer rests between sets are more characteristic of power lifters and body builders.

Anyway, keep an eye out for part 3. If you have any exercises that you like, feel free to put them in the comments section and we can discuss it further.

As for now, I'm off to the gym.

Best,

Norman T. Eng, DC, CSCS