Strength training involves any type of exercise that will cause muscle contractions against external resistance.
When doing weight lifting workouts, you are attempting to increase your strength when you condition the muscles in your body to overcome heavier resistances.
You can create resistance with a resistance band, barbell, kettlebell, or dumbbell.
It is also possible to use your body weight. These exercises include lunges, press-ups, squats, push-ups, and more.
Run Faster
Resistance training places stress on the body which makes it adapt which enhances its abilities to withstand heavier loads.
With consistent training, over time, these types of stress-induced adaptations often have a significant impact when it comes to your running endurance, efficiency, and speed.
For example, as the muscles in your legs get stronger, you generate more force with each stride, allowing you to travel a further distance with each strike of your foot.
At the same time, stronger arms and shoulders are also important to increase your form efficiency and speed.
Fix Muscle Imbalances
Running is a one-directional action, which means it will work some of your muscles a lot more when compared to others, which can lead to muscle imbalances.
This can place extreme pressure on your tendons and ligaments, decreasing stride efficiency, increasing your risks of injury, and limiting your running economy.
Studies indicate that in many cases, most nagging issues that runners experience, such as runner’s knees, shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, and more, usually occur from one or more muscle imbalances.
With this in mind, within 6 weeks of the correct weight training you can dramatically reduce, or alleviate knee pain completely, according to research.
Build Stronger Bones
Over and above assisting with preventing injuries, building muscle, losing fat, and improving running performance, strength training can also improve your bone density.
Strength training places pressure on the bones helping to enhance bone density, which reduces the risks linked to bone-related problems.
This is even more important for runners, since stress fractures, one of the common types of overuse injuries, is a worst nightmare for any runner.
Be More Efficient
Running involves more than just relying on your legs to propel yourself forward. You are also using your core, arms, shoulders, chest, and back to improve and balance efficiency.
When your legs become exhausted, you start using your upper body more due to a kinetic chain. Everything works together in a single interlocked system.
Better Form
Your “running form” can either break you or make you a “runner”. This is why it is crucial to hold the correct form through every run, and if you can’t you won’t reach your fullest potential.
Improving strength in your upper body can help you to maintain consistent form and ensure that your posture becomes more efficient, especially once fatigue starts setting in.
Luckily, when you improve your upper-body strength you can easily start upgrading your technique which helps you to maintain consistent form.
When your shoulders are square and loose, your posture is straight, your head is held high, and your arms are functioning correctly, you will lower your chances of sustaining an injury.
It Does Require A Bit Of Time
It is not necessary to train hard like a CrossFitter or bodybuilder to gain the advantages that come from strength training.
You will probably only need 30 to 45-minute sessions, every two days (3 times a week) to obtain the many benefits you can achieve from strength training.
Your body is complex, and the muscles form an essential part of what drives it. According to some experts, the main muscle groups (5 of them) are used while you run. These include the gluteals, hip flexors, hamstrings, calf muscles, and your quads.
The body also makes use of secondary muscles that keep the body going forward. These include the upper-body muscles and your core. These generally provide stability through your gait cycle while improving running economy and speed.