Most online training programs and running books mention cross-training for runners for a reason. Despite the love runners have for running long distances, it is beneficial to incorporate different types of training to become a resilient runner and lessen the risk of injury.
You don’t need to register for a triathlon in order to experience the advantages. Make sure that your running workouts remain your main focus, but be open to trying a different exercise on days when you feel tired or when you want to change your routine a bit.
Cross-training is an effective method for athletes to develop strength without overexerting themselves. It is essential to recognize that there is a limit to the amount of running that can be done, both practically and recommended. However, varying your workouts enables you to continuously experience the positive effects of endorphins while avoiding excessive strain on particular muscle groups.
Cross-Training
Cross-training encompasses a variety of alternative workouts and exercises that can be advantageous for your main sport. For runners, cross-training options consist of activities such as biking, yoga, strength training, climbing, and even playing soccer. Conversely, if you are a cyclist, walking, hiking (and possibly running) could serve as cross-training routines to complement your primary sport.
Cross-training is a method that involves utilizing your body and muscles in diverse ways. When engaged in running, you perform repetitive movements numerous times, utilizing your legs, core, and even arms in identical patterns. Cross-training enables you to introduce variety to your workout routine.
When biking, it shifts the focus onto your glutes, calves, quads, and hips, thus not only strengthening overlooked muscles during running but also providing a novel and demanding workout for essential muscles.
The Benefits Of Cross Training For Runners
Cross training helps to develop a comprehensive set of running skills, ensuring strength, endurance, and the absence of any vulnerabilities that may lead to injuries or imbalances.
According to Steve Stonehouse, a certified Run Coach and Director of Education for STRIDE, the majority of running-related injuries result from overuse. To prevent or reduce the recurrence of these injuries, cross-training is particularly beneficial.
- runners returning after an injury,
- runners running high volume,
- and new runners.
According to Marathon Handbook coach Thomas Watson, it’s a fact that any experienced and accomplished runner who hasn’t experienced downtime due to injuries in the last one or two years will undoubtedly inform you that they adhere to a beneficial cross-training regimen.
Stonehouse explains that if you are a novice runner who hasn’t yet built up strength and flexibility, participating in endurance cross-training can yield significant advantages.
To avoid putting excessive strain on your ankles, knees, and lower back from the repeated impact of running, cross-training can be utilized to enhance endurance. This way, your most susceptible joints, muscles, and connective tissues won’t be subjected to excessive stress.
1. Injury prevention
Repeating the same movement in running, typically in one direction, numerous times leads to imbalances in our kinetic chains as different muscles tighten or weaken. Consequently, this can result in the occurrence of runner’s knee.
By engaging in cross-training, runners can effectively improve their injury prevention by enhancing the strength of their muscles, ligaments, and tendons, which helps address any existing imbalances.
2. Improves running economy and endurance
By following a systematic approach, it is possible to rephrase the text while keeping the same meaning: If we progress in a logical manner, once we engage in strength training and focus on the legs, it is possible to achieve significant improvements in both your running economy (which essentially measures how efficiently you utilize energy as a runner) and endurance. Increased leg strength, in conjunction with maintaining proper running technique, enhances your efficiency as a runner.
In addition, stronger legs have been proven to have a slower rate of fatigue during endurance events, ensuring that they also aid in lasting longer. Engaging in full-body strength training is also beneficial as it assists in maintaining proper running form during lengthier events such as marathons and ultramarathons.
3. Allows you to target specific deficiencies
Cross-training provides runners with the opportunity to focus on specific aspects of their physical fitness without the need to increase the distance they cover during their training regime. As an illustration, if a runner aims to enhance their cardiovascular fitness, they could engage in activities such as an Elliptical session or swimming.
If a runner desires to enhance their running economy, they can go to the gym.
4. Prevents burn-out and over-training
Many runners engage in a consistent routine of running long distances every day. Nevertheless, repeatedly doing the same activity can only target specific muscles used in running, potentially resulting in injuries from excessive use, overtraining, and mental fatigue.
Cross training can provide a necessary mental state change that promotes recovery, in addition to giving you a break from running. This can include activities such as yoga or playing a round of golf with friends.
5. Makes you multi-purpose
If you cannot even do a few pull-ups, what is the point of being able to run 100k? Individuals with consistently successful and healthy running journeys understand the importance of being well-rounded. Possessing some athletic abilities, such as playing football, having familiarity with the gym, or being able to engage in activities with your children or go mountain biking with friends, is a valuable skill in life.
6. Can accelerate recovery
When you engage in light cross-training activities like cycling or using the elliptical, it can enhance blood circulation to your muscles, which in turn speeds up the recovery period between runs. These activities can be considered as active rest days.
Cross-Training Running Tips
1. Choose The Right Cross-Training Workout Routine For Your Purpose
To ensure a successful cross-training session, it is crucial to determine the specific goals for the day, such as targeting endurance, strength, recovery, or other objectives. If a recovery day is scheduled, it would not be wise to engage in a spin workout on a bike.
If you are using cross-training for a speed workout, ensure that you reach the same level of intensity as you would during a run. To cross-train effectively, seek to achieve the identical result you would have obtained from running.
2. Don’t Replace Running With Cross Training—Enhance It
It is completely normal to experience varying levels of aches and pains on different days. This is where cross-training exercises come in handy, as they enable you to replicate your intended running workout while reducing the strain on your joints and muscles.
By hopping on a bike or a rower, or even jumping in a pool, you can perform the same workout you would do on the road without experiencing all the impact, thereby obtaining an excellent cardio workout. Interval workouts, for instance, can be effortlessly adapted from running to various alternative training methods.
It is important to remember that these supplementary cross-training workouts alone will not be sufficient for you to achieve your goals by race day. Running should still remain your primary focus, while these workouts can serve as a helpful addition on days when you are not physically or mentally at your optimal state.
3. Add Strength Training To Your Week
To elevate your running, incorporate whole-body strength training into your cross-training routine on a weekly basis, either once or twice. By focusing on training your glutes and shoulders, you will be targeting two essential muscles that are heavily utilized while running. Engaging your glutes will assist you in conquering hills and warding off exhaustion during your run. Additionally, strengthening your shoulders will enhance your arm swing and maintain an upright posture as time progresses.
It is always beneficial to spend time focusing on core strength. Additionally, a strong core aids in maintaining proper posture and minimizing the likelihood of experiencing lower back pain by providing support to your body during the impact of running.
By incorporating a few bodyweight-based strength workouts into your weekly routine, you can maintain sufficient energy for your runs and keep your strength levels up to tackle long distances.
4. Add High-Intensity Work In Small Doses
In order to maintain balance in your run training, it is important to alternate between challenging and easy days. For example, if you engage in a tempo workout on a given day, it is advisable to avoid high-intensity interval training (HIIT) the next day. Combining both types of workouts consecutively would essentially result in back-to-back track sessions, thus impeding our long-term progress and potentially causing running injuries.
As race day approaches and the intensity of running workouts increases, it becomes crucial to prioritize strength training and recovery. It is advisable to take a break from HIIT workouts until after the race.
5. Use Your Off-Season For New Cross-Training Activities
Following a major race, you have numerous training opportunities! The period known as the “off-season” permits us to train in a well-rounded manner, not solely as a runner. Consequently, this is the perfect time to concentrate on those HIIT workouts you neglected in the buildup to the race.
In the off-season, the most effective forms of cross-training for runners are activities that imitate running. Engaging in sports such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and even basic hiking are highly proficient in simulating this.
If you’re looking for a pre-planned workout, bootcamp or circuit-style fitness classes are excellent choices. Alternatively, you can design your own workout by incorporating exercises that elevate your heart rate. In case you need inspiration, make sure to explore our app’s singles workouts, which serve as beneficial cross-training for runners.
6. Keep Your Training Fresh With New Options
During the off-season, it is common to develop a routine, consistently attending the same classes or engaging in similar workouts. To break this pattern, one can easily discover fresh workout or running spots. By using a trail-finding app, one can explore different routes instead of sticking to the usual path on the road. In the case of using the living room as a gym, consider switching to the nearby park for a change.
During this time, try to discover different workouts to refresh your mind. Running can be an excellent method to disconnect and achieve a state similar to meditation. Enhance your mental abilities by engaging in a cross-training activity that requires you to strategize your next move or adapt to new ways of moving to maintain sharpness.
How Many Days A Week Should A Runner Cross Train
According to Stonehouse, the advantages of cross training for runners are consistently present. In situations where running is not possible, engaging in indoor cross-training can assist in preserving or even enhancing strength and endurance.
The Best Cross Training Exercises For Runners
– Remember that every activity has advantages and disadvantages that can either enhance or impede your running performance, so there isn’t a universally applicable cross-training exercise for runners. However, runners should select an exercise that:
- compliments their running – and preferably includes some strengthening work,
- they enjoy,
- is preferably low impact.
Cross Training Activities To Consider Avoiding
Engaging in certain activities can pose a potential harm to runners due to their involvement of rapid lateral motions that heighten the vulnerability of runners to injuries.
According to Buckingham, runners should consider carefully before engaging in exercises that involve rapid movements and frequent changes in direction, such as tennis, basketball, soccer, or downhill skiing. Incorporating these activities into a runner’s routine too soon could lead to injury, as runners are accustomed to moving predominantly in a linear direction.
According to Buckingham, runners are advised to engage in lateral movements in a controlled setting for the purpose of fortifying muscles that are often overlooked.
He says that in order to avoid injury, it is important to perform those movements at a slow and controlled speed with minimal twisting. As runners, our main focus is on improving our running abilities. It would be foolish to harm yourself while engaging in a recreational activity and end up unable to run.
