The common perception is that strength training involves dumbbells, bench presses, and squats. Runners have been told that if they hit the gym and use this equipment, they will decrease their risk of injury. However, this advice has generally fallen on deaf ears; I know very few runners that do traditional weight lifting.
Additionally, many runners who do go to the gym allow their competitive side to get the best of them and lift more weight than they should, which can lead to injury. The good news is that there is a now much better way for runners to gain the specific kind of muscle strength that will prevent injuries and improve performance – this method is called Functional Strength Training.
Functional Strength Training is a new and innovative idea that focuses on viewing the human body’s muscles as one unit and strengthening them cohesively. This makes sense because the human body uses many different muscles together when running – quads, hamstrings, hips, etc. To better target running muscles, many of the exercises are done from a standing position and emphasizes rotational and diagonal motions – opposite shoulder to opposite hip.
The goal of functional training is to develop the core and stability muscles much better than traditional “heavy lifting” techniques. Not only does it make runners stronger, but it makes them so much more efficient.
I found the following video on YouTube, which demonstrates some functional strength training exercises. Please do not attempt these exercises without consulting an informed physical therapist or physician. Functional training works much better when the exercises are tailored to a runner’s specific body and individual muscle weaknesses.
