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Last Updated: December 18th, 2024 at 11:08 pm
If you’ve been following my How to Run series, you’ve gotten to the point where you’re starting to accumulate miles
You’re becoming more familiar with running and you’re making your way through the learning curve
Maybe by now you’ve even found some distances you actually like running
All is going well and I’m cheering you on!
Especially to those who have signed up for the Ricky Byrdsong 5K or 10K on Sunday June 16th (Father’s Day) in Evanston
I’m also here to warn you about the boogie man of endurance sports: injuries
If something starts hurting and you don’t address it, it can absolutely sideline your running
To the point where you think, “I’m not going to run today because I don’t want to be in pain later”
That’s a really rough place to be mentally and it can kill your momentum
In this series we’ve already addressed how to run in a way to minimize injury risk
Now we’ll talk about cross training
AKA: strength training
AKA: weightlifting
Whatever name you wanna give it
It will involve picking up weights and doing repetitions of things
Weightlifting is how muscles actually get stronger
I cover all this and go through some basic exercises you can do at a gym or at home in part 4 of my How To Run series which you can check out here
One thing I neglected to mention in the video, is how many sets and repetitions to do of the exercises
A very basic and general rep scheme for all exercises is:
3 sets of 10 repetitions
If it’s a 1 sided movement, do 10 repetitions on each side for each set
That’s a really great place to start as it’s simple and effective
Don’t over complicate it
Just start doing reps
And if I can highlight a single exercise…
The #1 most basic exercise all runners should do is a single leg calf raise
Doing 3 sets of 10 on each leg at least 3-4 times per week will put you ahead of all the runners who are literally doing nothing
Happy running
Dr. Michael