Can’t Go Wrong Gettin’ Strong

If you're targeting Bloomsday as your official kick-off to the 2025 racing calendar you have ~4 months until race day. Are you ready?  No matter what additional training and racing 2025 holds, now is the time to identify and address the performance demands necessary for your success. 
 
Take running for example - this repetitive, mid-range plyometric activity involves bounding from one leg to the next in a balanced manner while simultaneously attenuating impact forces.  Recognizing these unique demands equips you with the opportunity to improve your capacity, mitigate injury risk factors, and, most importantly, successfully complete your goal event. 

Considering these factors, strength and resistive exercise may be the best pound-for-pound adjunct to your training.  Recent research has identified that when considering both general (e.g. I want to build strength) and specific performance goals (e.g. I want to build lower-leg strength to run faster), increased muscular strength is strongly associated with improved performance and reduced injury risk. 

Ready to improve your strength? You have 3 options to improve muscle capacity: 1) pick up or move heavy objects (i.e. strength), 2) pick up or move moderately heavy objects quickly (i.e. power), or 3) pick up or move moderately heavy objects until you're fatigued (i.e. hypertrophy). Notice all 3 options require more than body weight. While body weight training may provide a point of entry, the stimulus is quickly limited. 

Incorporating resistive exercises into training can be done safely and easily. Begin by performing 2-3 sets per exercise, using weight(s) that allows you to complete 10-15 repetitions prior to fatigue. Avoid going to failure initially and incorporate rest, usually ~1-3 minutes, as needed to foster quality over quantity. Finally, choose 3-5 progressions that specifically compliment the performance demands of your activity and goal event (e.g. farmer’s carry marching offers a similar demand to running).  Reminder: while these guidelines are widely applicable, they do not serve as medical advice or substitute for individualized coaching.

At day’s end, Mark Bell said it best – “Strength is never a weakness and weakness is never a strength.” Here’s to productive, and strong, training and racing throughout 2025!