about lifting and running?

Question

does any one elses high school coaches make them lift a lot for track? Cuz our workout is usually like running 20 -30 minutes then he makes us go lift for like 1 and a half to 2 hours and it apparently hasnt helped our team cuz we never win. But i dont see any point in having to lift so much cuz it cant really affect your running that much. I think we should jsut run more and do weights less. Im just wondering how much you guys do at practice for running and lifting.

Answer 1

I'm running on a college track team now, and I do distace, and we lift at least twice a week. I also lifted in highschool but we didn't really have to for practice, I did it because I knew it would help. If you are spending that much time in the weight room you may be working too hard (which is a bad thing actually) or just being really inefficient with your time. Getting stronger not only makes you faster, but it helps you avoid injury. Runner's world always stresses the benefits of weight training too.
You should not lift the same muscle group two days in a row, they need time to recover and get stronger, and you should not lift the day before a meet or else you won't run that great.
I recommend just hitting your major muscle groups by doing things like bench press, squat, shoulder press, lat pulldown, calf raises, core (abs, obliques, lower back), and biceps curls if you want. That will hit all your major muscle groups and should help you be a better runner.
For the length of your runs I think 20-30 minutes is appropriate for an average girl distance runner. Our best girl here does hour runs, but she has worked up to that, our other distance girls usually do 30-45 minutes.

Answer 2

We usually do variables in the begining, and then we go run 6-12 200 meter sprints. Then the long distance people run 20 minutes and then do gym sprints, and sprinters go inside and run 20 gym sprints and work on blocks or run on the treadmill for a while longer. Then we lift weights for about an hour, and we do abs too. I guess it's just the coach and team because for the past few years we have been state runner up, and state champions.

Answer 3

C'mon Emily, just look at the TV next time there's a college track meet. Fact is, any distance a mile or less depends MORE on upper body than on running ability.

The longer the distance, the less depends on upper body. Why don't you ask your coach to give the team a talk on the subject and let him/her answer your questions.

Too bad your team hasn't been taught that if you ain't running with the big dawgs like you should, you need to concentrate on doing better personally, developing your own skills and abilities. Doing the gym stuff is part of that.

Good Luck

Answer 4

Actually lifting is proabley one of the worst things for you. If your lifting a large amount with you legs it's even worse. Why because your twich muscle will go out of wack. Those muscles are important in speed and in explosion (starting off the blocks). And if your a long distance runner then there is nooo point in being in the weight room, you should be in there only working your core muscles those are the most important muscles when you are running. Also some dumbell work is helpful too, but obsessiveness on your legs will really hurt you. I'd talk to your coach before continuing to practice.

Answer 5

I didn't use weights in track hardly. You can build muscle with repetition splits instead. You can get the best workout running up an incline or if you want to make your arms stronger run with batons on both your hands...you'd be surprised how much wind resistance helps.

Answer 6

For sprinters and shot putters, lifting is necessary. Not so much for endurace athlete because they rely more on stamina than strenth. But sprinters especially need to lift in order to increase explosion. In order to do this, you need to do brief weight training workouts (45min to an hour, tops) concentrated on explosive lifts (squats, deadlifts, powercleans, etc.). Any weight training over an hour has been proven to drastically reduce hormone levels in the bloodstream making additional excercise more harmful than good.

Answer 7

We do lots of weights, cleans, squats, deadlifts etc but we do that in the early phase of our periodization table around Oct - Jan.
We do tempo/fartlek workouts for about an hour then go in and do weights for 1 hr every other day(Mon/Wed.Fri)
Tues/Thurs are rest days. Then we change it up around Dec and do sprinting & technique on Mon/Wed/Fri and weights on Tues/Thurs. March now means we are done weights and only doing sprinting and technique(event specific) workouts till season starts in May

Answer 8

That sounds like a lot of lifting for runners.

Answer 9

yes, but i am shot and disc so im sure that explains that, our runners dont lift at all though

Answer 10

yup