SHOULD RUNNERS STRENGTH TRAIN?

While on my early morning bike ride early this morning, I passed numerous runners out on the roads. It reminded of how I enjoyed taking an early morning long run and then ending up down at the beach or a nice park to watch the sunrise. I would have continued to include running as part of my fitness routine along with cycling and strength training, but, unfortunately, I had to stop running secondary to knee problems. I, of course, replaced the running routine with cycling, inline skating, the elliptical cross-trainer, for continued cardio improvement, but still miss the exhilaration of running.

In order for your body to withstand the rigors of long distance running, a strong upper body is needed along with strong legs. The muscles of the neck have the combined job of stabilizing the weight of the head on the neck and holding the shoulder girdle (the shoulder blades and the collarbone) in position.  Strong shoulders are required to hold and support the weight of the arms and hold the head of the humerus in place on the shoulder blades, and still allow the proper rhythmic arm swing over a long duration of time. The core muscles, which I have discussed in previous blogs, function to hold the pelvic girdle in proper alignment to prevent increased risk of injury to the lumbar spine.

Everyone of these muscle groups is being brought into play to combat the excessive forces created by the downward pull of gravity, arm weight, and force of impact each time your feet strike the running surface. It is this for this reason that a runner who is looking to run injury free over the duration of his lifetime, include an efficient upper body strengthening program into his wellness program.