What are plyometrics and how do I use them?

Here are some good drills for runners.

Plyometrics are a good thing for building strength and running form. They come in the form of box drills and running drills.

Some drills that help runners are:
running in place, standing bring knee to chest, walking bring knee to chest with arm pump to balance, running in place or very slowly with high knees, running very slowly with a butt-kicking motion, hot-foot drills where you minimize your plant time, skipping for height, skipping for distance, and bounding.

I list these in order of stress - make sure you are warmed up and well stretched before doing any, and do not move past the first few exercises until they start

Here is an alternate list of low-medium-high intensity plyometric drills:
Low intensity - In place squat jump
Medium intensity - in place pike jump, double leg tuck jump, double leg hops, alternate leg bounding
High intensity - single leg hops, speed hops
Shock intensity - in depth jump, box jump

Remember that the point is to work your muscles, not to cover ground. Keep the feet moving quickly.

TO LIFT OR NOT TO LIFT; THAT IS THE QUESTION

Should runners lift weights? That's the debate in this article.

If you visit the Kenyan National Training Camp, you will see the best athletes in the world running high mileage at high altitude. What you won't see is Moses Kiptanui or Delilah Asiago lifting weights. In fact, the Kenyans are so secretive in their iron-pumping that no one has ever seen them lift. Travel to Ethiopia, and you will see an equally impressive absense of muscle-building.

Here in America, however, weight-lifting or "resistance training" is part of the culture of sport. Go to the local health club, and half the place is devoted to chrome-plated "resistance machines". Football players lift weights. Hockey players lift weights. All-around jocks lift weights. To be real athletes, the logic goes, runners should lift weights too.

The question is, will weight-lifting improve your running performances? The following are the arguments for, and against, weight-lifting for distance runners.

Why you should lift

Weightlifting can correct muscle imbalances and prevent injuries. Resistance training will get your upper body in shape, which don't get much benefit from running, and will improve your core stability. Weightlifting can even improve your running economy, so you use less oxygen at a given pace.

Why you shouldn't lift

Weightlifting will make you muscle-bound, will add extra bulk that you will have to cart around, will tighten up your muscles, and leave you injured. You want to be the classic vertical hyphen, with no extra baggage. Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter aren't the guys you call when you need help moving. Look on the victory stand at any of the major races, there's not a bulging bicep in the bunch.

Does weight training improve endurance performance?

A 1988 study by Dr. R.C. Hickson and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago investigated whether adding strength training to an endurance training program would improve endurance performance. The investigators had 8 well-trained cyclists and runners add weight-training to their exercise programs. The subjects performed 3-5 sets of 4 leg exercises, 3 times per week for 10 weeks. Leg strength increased by 27% for parallel squats, 37% for knee extension, and 25% for knee flexion, over the 10 weeks. The weightlifting, however, did not result in any change in the subjects' maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max).

Short-term endurance was measured by having the subjects cycle and run as hard as possible for 4-8 minutes. When re-tested after weight-training, the subjects had increased their time to exhaustion by 11% during cycling and 13% during running. Similarly, the length of time that the subjects were able to cycle at 80% of VO2 max increased from 71 minutes before weight-training to 85 minutes after weight-training.

The effect of the weight-training on the subjects' running performances, however, were less clear-cut. Two of the 8 subjects were injured from the heavy-resistance training, and were unable to complete the post-weight-training 10 K run. Of the other 6 subjects, their 10 K times improved from an average of 42:27 before the weight-training to 41:43 after weight-training. While this improvement was not statistically significant, it does suggest that the weight-lifting had some positive impact on running performance.

A 1995 study, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found similar results concerning VO2 max. Dr. John McCarthy and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Biodynamics Laboratory, found no increase in peak VO2 with the addition of strength training to an endurance training program. In this study, sedentary adult males were divided into 3 groups. One group strength trained, a second group endurance trained, and a third "combined" group both strength and endurance trained. Peak VO2 on the cycle ergometer, increased by 18% in the endurance-trained group and by 16% in the combined group. Neither this study nor the University of Illinois study, therefore, found an increase in max VO2 or peak VO2 with the addition of strength training to an endurance-training program.

A 1994 study from the Department of Kinesiology at the University of New Hampshire, however, strongly supports weight-lifting for distance runners. Exercise physiologist Ron Johnston found improvements in running economy after a 10-week weight-training program. In this study, 12 trained female distance runners were split into groups for 10 weeks of training. The experimental (Run & Lift) group continued to run, and added a strength training regimen consisting of 14 exercises working the upper body, abdominals, and legs, 3 times per week. The control (Run) group just ran.

The Run & Lift group improved their upper body strength by 24% and leg strength by 34%. VO2 max and lactate threshold VO2 did not change in either group, which is consistent with the results of the studies already mentioned. The most interesting finding in the UNH study was that running economy improved significantly in the Run & Lift group, but did not change in the Run group. Running economy improved by over 2% at the 3 running speeds used in the study. Johnston explains, "Strength-training improves running economy either due to a reduction in wasted motion, or because stronger legs allow runners to rely more heavily on their more economical slow-twitch muscle fibers." Johnston is no idle observer of the sport, having won the 1994 Maine 50-miler.

Running economy determines how fast you can run at a given level of oxygen consumption. Since the amount of oxygen consumption that you can maintain during a race is determined by your lactate threshold, your running economy really dictates how fast you can race. An improvement of 2% in running economy translates to a 2% increase in race speed, which represents an improvement of 48 seconds for a 40 minute 10K runner!

Sounds great. Run and lift, run faster, and look good at the beach. But what if you'd rather listen to 24 hours of Ross Perot commercials than be forced to lift weights?

What if you hate to lift?

Try hill running. A 1985 study by Svedenhag and Sjodin suggests that similar improvements in running economy can be gained by running hills. In this study, 16 elite male runners improved their running economy by 1-4% per year through a combination of long-distance running, intervals, and hills. Other studies that included just long-distance running and intervals found no improvement in running economy, which indicates that the hills were what led to the improvements found in Svedenhag and Sjodin's study.

Running uphill requires that your legs propel your bodyweight up against gravity. Moreover, they do so under conditions that more closely replicate racing conditions than does even the most well-designed weight-machine. Anecdotal evidence for the benefits of hill running comes from the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners of today, and goes all the way back to the great New Zealand runners of the 1960's and 70's. The best runners in the world run hills day after day. Of course, there may be genetic factors that separate elite runners from recreational runners, but it certainly appears that hill training is an important element that, unlike your genes, you can change.

Another advantage of hill running over lifting weights is that you are simultaneously building up your cardiovascular system. Hill running, therefore, can be viewed as another form of resistance training. In this case, your bodyweight is the resistance. To improve your leg strength, you can perform resistance exercises by moving lead and steel in the weight-room, or you can perform resistance exercises by moving your entire body uphill against the force of gravity.

The evidence indicates that improving the strength of your legs through resistance training will improve your running economy. You can resistance train by lifting weights or running hills. If you decide to lift weights, get advice from a coach or trainer who understands that you are weight-lifting to improve your running, not to look like Arnold. If you decide to weight-train your legs, schedule your weight sessions so they are not right before or after a hard running workout. Regardless of whether you choose to hit the hills or hit the weights, your running economy and racing performances should improve.

Will Lifting Weights Help My Running?

Here's an interesting article on running and weight lifting. Is it beneficial or not? What do you think?

This is a very popular question. Read running magazines and you will think the answer is obvious. Well, do a little more research and the answer becomes much more fuzzy.

The first research I suggest doing for any questions of training is to look at what the elite runners do. These are the people who have gotten the most out of their training. They have figured out what is worth their time and energy and what isn't. So, what do the elite runners do? Well, very few elite runners who focus on events of 5k and up go anywhere near weight rooms. That doesn't mean they don't do strength training, though. The most popular form of strength training for elites is running hills. Repeats, circuits, easy and long runs over hills, fartleks, you name it. The bottom line is that they spend a lot of time running up and down. That's not all they do, though. Core strengthening is something that almost all of them do. Abdominal training is done by many elites. Circuit training is also popular with some, as well as body weight exercises, like pushups, pullups, step-ups, one-leg squats or lunges, one-leg hops or toe raises. Some, although they are a distinct minority, especially as their goal distance becomes longer, also lift weights.

Another form of research that I like to look through would be scientific studies. So, what do they say? Well, not a whole lot for lifting weights for distance runners. Studies have shown that lifting weights is most likely beneficial for racing distances that take less than 10 minutes to complete. What about the longer distances? Well, things change sharply. In fact, I have seen only one study that showed lifting weights is beneficial for "well trained" athletes and I found that study to be questionable. That study also said it is beneficial for the 5k but findings were inconclusive once the race distance was over 20 minutes. I have yet to see one study that found weight training to be beneficial for anything longer than that. What about athletes who are not "well trained"? Well, studies have shown that adding weight lifting on top of their current training routine does help improve performance, which makes sense. You are increasing training load. Regardless of what that training is, increasing training load will increase fitness. But there's a catch. Using that increased training load to do more running instead of lifting weights leads to much more significant performance improvements. In the end, almost all studies have found that lifting weights has no statistically significant positive effect on racing performance in events of longer than 10 minutes and some suggest that there may be a negative effect on performance. What about other forms of strength training? Well, studies have shown that running hills is one of the most beneficial forms of training that a runner can do. Circuit training, core training, and body weight exercises haven't been studied enough to offer any quality assessments.

Of course, there is one variable that I have purposely left out so far. Many people believe lifting weights is good for injury prevention. While this sounds great, for the typical biomechanically sound runner, there is simply no evidence supporting these claims. In fact, in an unscientific study of one, my injury rates have been higher when lifting weights (under the supervision of trainers and strength and conditioning coaches) than when not lifting weights. On the other hand, if you have a biomechanical inefficiency, lifting weights may make sense to correct any imbalances.

In the end, there is not a whole lot of evidence supporting the use of weight training for performance benefit. This doesn't mean it's not worth a shot. Experiment, we are all studies of one. However, as I always say, why assume you are in the minority when chances are you are in the majority? If weight training isn't working for you, move on and find something that would make better use of your limited training time and energy. If you have to decide between a few extra miles on the roads or hitting the weight room, by all means, run a few extra miles. That is where you are going to get the best performance benefit.

Backward Running May Ease Hamstring Pain

Backward running can lessen hamstring problems

By Elizabeth Quinn, About.com

Updated: October 08, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

If you are prone to hamstring injuries or aching knees, you might want to consider backward running or walking as a part of your training program. Backward walking or running doesn't put much strain on the knees, but it stretches and strengthens the hamstrings and quadriceps, resulting in improved balance between the two muscle groups. It also strengthens abdominal and back muscles. It is also used in rehabilitation programs for recover from back, hip, groin, hamstring, ankle and Achilles' injuries.

Getting Started with Backward Running - The Basics:

• Start slowly. As with any new activity you will be using different muscles which must be conditioned gradually. Begin by walking backward and as you get more comfortable, begin to jog.
• Choose the terrain carefully. You want smooth terrain or even a treadmill with handrails for support. Find a quiet or low traffic area. Since you can't see where you are going, make sure you won't run into anyone or anything.
• You can also try backward running or walking on a treadmill. Start very slowly and gradually increase your speed.
• Do not perform backward running on a busy walking / bike path, for example. Not only will you be a danger to everyone else, but you will get a lot of mighty odd stares and comments.
• Alternate sides when looking back over your shoulder to prevent neck cramps.
• Work out with a forward-walking / running partner, if possible.
• Limit your backward training sessions to two per week.
• Start with about 60 seconds of backward running followed by 60 seconds of forward walking and repeat about 5-10 times.

_Source:
Backward Running: Benefits, Barry T. Bates, Ph.D., Biomechanics department at the University of Oregon

Hamstring Injury - Pulled Hamstring Muscle

How to treat hamstring injuries, pulls, and strains

By Elizabeth Quinn, About.com

Updated: September 27, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Hamstring injuries are common among athletes who play sports that require powerful accelerations, decelerations or lots of running. The hamstring muscles run down the back of the leg from the pelvis to the bones of the lower leg. The three specific muscles that make up the hamstrings are the biceps femoris, semitendinosus and semimembranosus. Together these powerful knee flexors are known as the hamstring muscle group. An injury to any of these muscles can range from minor strains, a pulled muscle or even a total rupture of the muscle.

Symptoms of a Hamstring Injury

A hamstring injury typically causes by a sudden, sharp pain in the back of the thigh that may stop you mid-stride. After such an injury, the knee may not extend more than 30 to 40 degrees short of straight without intense pain. Like most sprains and strains hamstring injuries are usually caused by excessive stretching (tearing) of muscle fibers or other soft tissues beyond their limits.

Severity of a Hamstring Injury

Hamstring strains are classified as 1st (mild), 2nd (moderate), or 3rd (severe) degree strains depending on the extend of the muscle injury.

Mild (Grade I) Hamstring Injury

• Muscle stiffness, soreness and tightness in the back of the thigh.
• Little noticeable swelling.
• A normal walking gait and range of motion with some discomfort.
• Flexing the knee to bring the heel up

Moderate (Grade II) Hamstring Injury

• Gait will be affected-limp may be present .
• Muscle pain, sharp twinges and tightness in the back of the thigh.
• Noticeable swelling or bruising.
• Painful to the touch.
• A limited range of motion and pain when flexing the knee.

Severe (Grade III) Hamstring Injury

• Pain during rest which becomes severe with movement
• Difficulty walking without assistance.
• Noticeable swelling and bruising.

Common Causes of Hamstring Injuries

Hamstring pulls or strains often occur during an eccentric contraction of the hamstring muscle group as an athlete is running. Just before the foot hits the ground, the hamstrings will contract to slow the forward motion of the lower leg (tibia and foot). Less commonly, a hamstring injury is the result of a direct blow to the muscle from another play or being hit with a ball. Some of the factors which may contribute to a hamstring injury includes:

• Doing too much, too soon or pushing beyond your limits.
• Poor flexibility.
• Poor muscle strength.
• Muscle imbalance between the quadriceps and hamstring muscle groups.
• Muscle fatigue that leads to over exertion.
• Leg Length Differences. A shorter leg may have tighter hamstrings which are more likely to pull.
• Improper or no warm-up.
• History of hamstring injury.

Treating Hamstring Injuries

Treatment for hamstring injuries depends upon the severity of the injury. Due to the pain and limited ability to use the muscle, a third degree strain usually results in a visit to a physician for evaluation and treatment. Less severe hamstring strains may be treated at home. These general treatment steps are commonly recommended for mild or moderate hamstring injuries.

• After an injury it's important to rest the injured muscle, sometimes for up to two or three weeks before you can return to sports after your injury.
• R.I.C.E - Rest, apply Ice and Compression. Elevate the leg if possible.
• An anti-inflammatory can be helpful to reduce pain and inflammation.
• A stretching program can be started as soon as the pain and swelling subsides.
• A strengthening program should be used to rebuild the strength of the injured muscle in order to prevent re-injury. Make sure you increase this gradually.
• A thigh wrap can be applied to provide support as the muscle heals.

Preventing Hamstring Injuries

• Warm up thoroughly. This is probably the most important muscle to warm-up and stretch before a workout.
• Stretching after the workout may be helpful.
• Try adding a couple sessions per week of retro-running or backward running which has been should decrease knee pain and hamstring injuries.
• Follow the "Ten Percent Rule" and limit training increases in volume or distance to no more than ten percent per week.
• Other ways to prevent injury are to avoid doing too much, too soon, avoid drastic increases in intensity or duration, and take it easy if you are fatigued.