Weight Training for Distance Running & Cycling builds Strength
Resistance & CrossTraining decreases injury risk
By
David Holt
of
David Holt
The Leg Press...Weight Training, part of a cross training system for running and others who use resistance training, as part of a strength training plan.
The leg press has many uses. A low foot position allows you to work the calves. Straight legs for the gastroc, bent legs for the soleus. The higher foot position is more conventional, and allows you to work most of the bulky leg muscles. Use slow movement so you work the muscles when the weights are returning to the starting point--you don. t just train while pushing your legs out straight. Keep knee flexion to 90 degrees or less, to avoid pressuring that joint.
Do many reps with light weights (50-60 percent of your max for the exercise) for strength endurance. Do fewer reps with 80 percent max weight for pure (but potentially bulky) strength.Bulk will slow you down. Distance running and other endurance sports require a repetition of a modest movement. Look at how a decathlete runs the 1500 meters, and you'll see the disadvantages of bulk--lets ignore the fatigue from the prior 9 events. Too much muscle is not good for our sport.
Work the major muscle groups...legs, hips, back, arms and shoulder to avoid late race fatigue--and to allow you to run faster during the first 98 percent of the distance race.You cannot make muscle cells.What you are born with is what you get. But you can make each individual muscle spindle cell stronger, able to fire or contract more often, by doing two to three sets of 10-20 reps with modest weights. You're not growing new muscle, you're making the muscles stronger with this strength training.
You cannot turn fat into muscle.
That would be cheating physiology. Once a fat cell, always a fat cell. Your fat cells decrease in size if your energy expended exceeds the calaries you take in. See the Diet page for tips...make small changes in eating habits if fat is your problem. The weight training will burn calories--don't concern yourself whether they are fat or glycogen calories. When the weight book is balanced at the end of the year, if you burned lots of energy, didn't consume too many calories, you should have less total body fat. With your increased muscle mass (but not cells) you WILL have a lower body fat percentage.
If you are also doing sufficient time at your chosen sport, running or biking or whatever, your endurance for your sport will be improved with strength training.
Remember to match each weight training session with a stretching session for that particular muscle group.
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