Glute Exercises For Runners: Kettle Bell Deadlift
While it’s important to say that an incorrectly executed Deadlift can have devastating consequences for lumbar spine health, a properly coached and executed deadlift is one of the most effective and powerful Glute exercises for triathletes and runners to use to develop Glute strength and muscle balance around the hips. When executed well, the Deadlift is one of the best exercises around in terms of bang for your buck!
The Deadlift exercise it self has a real negative stigma surrounding it in many parts of the health and fitness industry, often due to the tendency for athletes to simply load up an Olympic bar and try to lift as much as they can, irrespective of form. These are the same athletes who will probably end up with herniated lumbar discs…
Glute Inhibition or Glute Weakness?
Many of us who have previously suffered from running and triathlon related injuries, will quite possibly have been told by our sports injury therapist that we have “Weak Glutes” or that your “Your Glutes Aren’t Firing Properly“.
Research indicates a significant correlation between diminished Glute function and athletic injury. For example:
Tamsin Lewis: Glutes and Core Workout
Today we decided to video some of Tamsin’s Core and Glutes Session. During the session we were focussing on improving her pelvic posture in order to improve Glute function, reduce stress on her lower back while running and swimming, helping to restore muscular balance. Thus reducing injury risks for next season.
Matt Molloy – Lateral Hip Strength Drill
Today we decided to film Matt Molloy, top Irish Age Grouper, during his Running Technique and Running Strength session coached by James Dunne.
The short clip below is one great example of the multiplanar strength exercises which Kinetic Revolution use with such success to develop lateral and rotational strength around the hips of triathletes and runners. We focus regularly on these planes of motion, even though the athletes normally engage in linear movements. Improving strength, mobility, power and stability in multiple planes builds a much stronger runner.
TRX Training For Triathlon and Running
As triathletes and runners we often live pretty hectic lives, trying to fit training in when and wherever we can around the other demands on our time. As such it’s great to be able to complete a good functional strength and core session no matter where you are.
I coach a number of triathletes and runners who, due to work commitments, have to travel extensively and find it hard to get to the gym consistently to follow their running or triathlon specific strength program. I often suggest that they invest in the popular TRX Training System, allowing them to complete their strength and functional core workouts wherever they’re staying.
Professional Ironman Triathlete Chris Lieto and his coach Matt Dixon of PurplePatch Fitness put together the short video below to demonstrate some of the TRX exercises Chris uses to develop his core strength for triathlon.
Medicine Ball Exercises for Runners
Improving as a runner requires a commitment to a certain level of regular training. To take full benefit from your training, it’s important not to solely focus on running, but also address the associated strength, balance, coordination and flexibility factors that allow you to become a better all-round athlete. Medicine ball exercises for runners are an excellent method of working on all of the above factors at once.
Due to the unrestricted, multiplanar motion of the medicine ball, it allows your body to move in a natural and functional way, closely reproducing many of the same montions as running. The trunk motions of flexion, extension and rotation, which the body needs to control when running can be trained well with medicine ball exercises for runners, as can strength and power in the hips. Your Abdominals, Glutes, Hip Flexors and Hamstrings, to name just a few muscle groups, will all get a good workout with a suitable medicine ball program.
Jay from the Running Times added this great video to YouTube, showing some medicine ball exercises for runners that you can easily incorporate into your weekly routine.
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Ankle Mobility Exercises
Most of us have probably felt the occasional tightness in our ankles the following day after a long or hard run or bike session. Usually stretching helps, but often it feels like the ankle and foot need to be mobilised dynamically.
The simple exercise shown in the video below uses the start position of a classic calf stretch and then adds in the momentum of the swinging leg to drive the standing foot and ankle into passive load-baring pronation and supination, helping to mobilise the sub-talar joint, midfoot and surrounding soft tissues.
10 Great Exercises To Build Running Strength
As we approach the tail end of this year’s triathlon season, it’s worth beginning to plan the steps you’re going to take over the winter to become a better, stronger athlete for next year.
An under addressed element of many training routines is regular and functional strengthening work. In previous posts we’ve discussed the important role of multiplanar strengthening exercises in maximising performance and injury prevention.
The video below shows 10 great exercises you can use to develop this strength.
Hamstring Exercises For Runners
A number of our athletes have asked us to release a video showing some useful hamstring exercises for runners which will strengthen your running technique and make you stronger as a runner. We actually filmed this video a while ago, here it is:
Try adding some of these hamstring exercises to your regular strengthening routine to become a stronger and more injury resistant runner.
Using The Dreaded Foam Roller
An infamous and highly popular piece of kit which helps to keep runners and triathletes supple and injury free is the dreaded foam roller.
This is a simple piece of kit which enables self myofascial release (a form of self massage) which, although often somewhat uncomfortable (like a deep sports massage), is usually highly effective.
Use of a foam roller has built a reputation as being a great method of managing and preventing ITB problems in particular amongst runners and triathletes.
In our experience, if you ask most runners and triathletes what the foam roller is for, you’ll normally get two fairly standard answers:
- To release the ITB and therefore avoid lateral knee pain.
- To inflict pain… in a positive kind of way!
However, this is an extremely versatile piece of kit, which is frequently under-used compared to its full potential.
Proper Running Form and ITB Friction Syndrome
The Overlooked Link Between Running Technique and ITBFS
Download our free eBook on ITB Friction Syndrome and Proper Running Form. Find out how the two are linked. While a flawed running form can lead to the painful knee injury, working on your running form can actually be the key to successfully rehabilitating the knee and enabling a successful return to running.
All too often, runners who suffer from Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrome are told to rest, stretch and strengthen before returning to running. This works on occasion, but far too frequently these runners suffer a repeat of the same injury as soon as they increase their running volume, frequency or intensity.
Hip Flexor Stretch With A Difference
One of the common ailments suffered particularly by triathletes (because of the time spent on the bike) in particular, as well as athletes from a wide range of other sports, is tight and over-active hip flexors. This can mechanically restrict movement into extension of the hip and put extra stress on the lower back in response.
A less widely appreciated effect of having tight and over active hip flexors is that on a neural level, this overactivity can cause reciprocal inhibition of the gluteal muscles. When the glutes stop activating during functional movement, the risk of injury is significantly greater, as they have such an important stabilizing role in the overall movements of the body.
Calf Conditioning Drill for Midfoot and Forefoot Running
Many of the triathletes and runners we work with come to us specifically with an interest in learning how to run with a midfoot/forefoot strike, as promoted with barefoot type running styles. We work together making steady progression to help them safely and comfortably make the transition from their old heel-striking technique.
The key to success in transitioning between these very different styles is to take the whole process slowly and progressively – effectively starting from scratch again with your running.
Click Here for a Six Week Program to improve your Forefoot or Midfoot Running Technique
When transitioning to midfoot/forefoot running in particular, it’s important to allow time for the muscles of the lower legs to condition to the new type of loading. Failure to do so (too much volume too soon), normally leads to very sore calves!
Below is a video showing one of the great drills we use in moderation to condition the muscles of the lower leg whilst also promoting good running posture, foot position and core control.
3D Calf and Soleus Stretches
Having recently blogged about Multiplanar Strengthening Exercises, I also want to look at stretching in multiple planes of motion.
One muscle group which is regularly reported as being tight in athletes of all sorts are the muscles of the lower leg:
- Gastrocnemius (calf muscle)
- Soleus (deeper and lower than the main calf muscle)
- Tibialis Posterior (deeper and lower and more medial than the main calf muscle)
- Peroneals (as a sub group)
- Toe Flexors (another sub group particularly FHL)
As I discussed in the Multiplanar Strengthening Exercises post: although the overall movement of the body is often straight line, the contributing movements joint by joint are almost always a mixture of movements in all three planes of motion. Therefore muscles controlling these joints and producing movement need to be stretched and kept mobile in all three planes.
Get Maximum Benefit From Your Rehab Exercises
As a follow on from my previous post about Multiplanar Strengthening Exercises, I also want to mention the importance of keeping an eye on the quality of execution of the exercises.
It’s not uncommon for me to meet a frustrated athlete with, for example, anterior knee pain who has been given rehab exercises by their physiotherapist and has been diligently performing them, with no improvement in symptoms. Usually it’s not because the exercises prescribed are wrong, more-so the fact that the exercises are, through no fault of the athlete, being performed incorrectly.
The problem is that unless you’re an elite performer with full time support, nobody is there to watch over you and give feedback on form and quality as you perform the exercises.
Multiplanar Strength Exercises For Triathletes And Runners
We explore the need for triathletes and runners to incorporate multidirectional strength exercises into their regular program, and show you some great exercises to enjoy the benefits of this type of training.
Triathletes and runners spend most of their time engaged in what are primarily “straight line” activities, particularly running and cycling. Certainly most of the load bearing work that most triathletes and runners complete is uni-directional.
Not only are these movement patterns uni-directional (running in a relatively straight line and cycling), they are also very repetitive, repeating the same movement pattern again and again both in training and in competition with very little variety to our movements.
Those of us who do any strengthening work at all on a regular basis to supplement our running, swimming and cycling (definitely the minority!), often fall into the trap of also only doing straight line exercises such as squats, lunges, step-ups and single leg squats.
“So what? Those straight line movements mirror the demands of our sport…”
“Well yes and no…!”
Running Calf Injuries
One of the more common running injuries is a calf strain or a tear resulting in calf pain. The biggest of the calf muscles, “Gastrocenemius” to use its correct name, is the largest and most superficial of the muscles in the lower leg and is loaded repetitively and heavily during running sports.
With every stride we take when running, the calf gets loaded, firstly to absorb the shock of our body weight landing, then to help propel us forward into the next stride. Now take into account that for every mile we run we take about 1500 of these strides. Looking at it like this makes it easier to see that if there is a weakness in the calf complex, or a fault elsewhere in the kinetic chain or running technique which leads to more stress going on the area, calf pain through injury is almost inevitable.
Prepare Your Legs For Midfoot or Barefoot Running
One of the most common reactions in people trying to change their running style to a barefoot or minimalist running style with a forefoot or midfoot strike is to complain of tightness and soreness in the calf region and achilles. This is related to trying to do too much running with this new technique too soon, having not allowed muscular adaptation to the demands of the new technique. This adaptation takes time. It is particularly the calf/achilles complex which undergoes a significantly greater and different type of loading compared to its loading during a heel-striking running style.
The most effective method of prevention when it comes to this tightness is to make sure that you start with only small amounts of running with a midfoot strike, and increase the running volume progressively.
