What is The Robust Runner Project?
This is the strength training program you've been looking for. What makes this program different than all of the others that are out there? To put it simply, it's designed for runners. Over the years I have seen the effects that traditional strength and conditioning programs have had detritus effects on endurance athletes. For instance, I have seen collegiate runners doing the same strength work as the football team. Doing traditional lifts such as squats, deadlifts, and even benchpress. Lifting maximal loads, meaning, finding their 5 rep, 3 rep or even 1 rep maxes. The issue I have with this is, nothing about running requires a feat of strength. Their bodies are often unprepared for the load and they end up spending half of their season injured.
What about Olympic weight lifting? The overarching argument is, it builds power. I was a CrossFit athlete for 10 years. It took me the full duration of that 10 years to become mildly proficient at Olympic weight lifting. It's a skill that needs to be developed over a long period of time. I am of the opinion that runners should focus on the skill of running. So how can we develop power without having to expend their time and energy learning a new skill? How do we develop power that translates to running? Not power that translates to olympic weightlifting? How do we simultaneously rehab from the previous week of training while preparing them for the week ahead? How do we build strength without inhibiting performance due to excessive muscle soreness? These are some of the questions that I obsess over.
These are the questions that helped me develop this program during the last 4 years. I learned and integrated new concepts and modalities. I threw out what didn't work. And kept what did. I'm constantly refining these programs based on feedback from the elite athletes that I have worked with. And if this program works for them, it will work for everyone.
This program helped athletes like Rory Linkletter get to the Olympics for the marathon and helped Biya Simbassa become the 4th fastest marathoner in American history. It's also helped the normal, everyday runners and hobby joggers (such as myself) run more efficiently and injury free.
How does the program work?
This program has a strong base in the Functional Range Conditioning training system and is deeply rooted in the SAID principle. Specific adaptation to imposed demand. Research shows that it takes the body a minimum of 4 - 6 weeks to adapt to a stimulus. Each training block is 6 weeks long providing plenty of opportunity for the body to adapt appropriately. Each block builds on the last with the sole purpose of preparing you for race day.
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You will be provided with 2 workouts a week. Each workout will take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes depending on how much time you spend on each movement. The movements will be the same each week with the exception of adding load when you are ready. As previously mentioned, the redundancy in movements leads to adequate adaptation.
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Each movement in this program has a specific and intended purpose. As it pertains to the hip, we'll be building strength from the inside out. We start with the hip capsule, then the rotational musculature surrounding the hip capsule, then the linear tissues that cover the rotational muscles. We have a heavy focus on the hip flexors and the hamstrings. Because, more often than not, runners have hip flexors and hamstrings that are weak and tight, not strong and tight. The compound movements that we do are intended to address core stability, hip stability, and foot strength. We have a heavy emphasis on the lats, because the lats help facilitate rotation on the back of the body. We focus on core rotation. As it pertains to running, the core rotates more than it stabilizes. We'll finish up the workouts with calf and tib anterior to make the lower leg more resilient.
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Each program is focused on the entire core. Not just the abs. That's a common misconception within the world of running. That your abs are your core. That couldn't be further from the truth. You have your intrinsic core which consists of your diaphragm, your pelvic floor, your transverse abdominis, and your spinal erectors. You have your anterior rotators consisting of your internal and external obliques. Your posterior rotators that consist of your glutes, your low back, and your opposite lats. And finally, you have your lateral subsystem that include your gluteus medius and adductors on one side, and your low back on the opposite side. This system stabilizes your pelvis and prevents what I call the pelvic dump where the pelvis falls to one side or the other when you're running.
This is a comprehensive strength program intended on covering all of the bases that are required for you to perform at your best.
Is this program right for you?
I've been a manual therapist for the last decade and Applied Kinesiology is my primary area of expertise. This modality is used to identify the path of failure that leads to muscle compensations. That being said, your brain doesn't think in individual muscles, it thinks in movement patterns. And our brain has a map of our body based on how we use it. As an example, the glutes are the primary muscle group used in hip extension. A typical compensation pattern that I see is, when the glutes fail, the high hamstring or the musculature of the low back tend to take over for hip extension. These compensations can lead to chronic low back and/or high hamstring pain.
This program is designed to create a more efficient path to failure. Because, under maximum effort, muscles will fail. For instance, if you're running a 5k and your glute calls it a day, it will off load the effort to your external rotators in your hip. These muscles are better suited for hip extension than the hamstrings or the muscles in your low back. If the aforementioned hamstrings become the primary path of failure for those pesky glutes, a high hamstring injury will become inevitable. In fact, that's one of the main maladies I see coming into my manual therapy practice.
Having worked on everyone from hobby joggers to olympic athletes in my manual therapy practice, everyone tends to have the same paths of failure. The brain will figure out the most efficient way to use the body based on the information it has acquired from the movement of the body. This strength program will give your brain the knowledge it needs to fail more efficiently if it needs to.
All of that being said, the more awareness your brain has of the body, the more movement solutions you have. The more movement solutions that you have, the less likely you are to be injured. Can we prevent injuries? No. Can we mitigate injury? Absolutely. We accomplish this task by making the body more robust and creating a more efficient path for muscle failure.
On top of all of that, this program is blurs the lines between rehab and performance. When done properly, you'll be rehabbing from your previous week of training while simultaneously preparing for the week ahead. Muscle soreness will be present as your body adapts, but it won't inhibit your performance.
Pre-season Isometrics:
"There are no bad movements, only unprepared bodies."
This pre season block will be 3 weeks long. The purpose of this training block is to prepare your body for the for the next 6 weeks utilizing isometric loading to create tissue adaptation without the muscle soreness typically associated with strength training.
It is incredibly important to prep the body for strength training. Especially if you have taken some time off at the end of your season. I've seen this time and time again with collegiate runners. Their season ends. They use that well earned time off to let their bodies recover. The season begins and they're thrown right back into the weight room with 0 prep and that's when injuries begin to pile up.
As for the rest of us, those normal people who love to run and stay fit, we tend to take that time off as the colder and more inclement weather creeps in. As we all know, inclement weather is usually accompanied by holidays that don't do us any favors. Once spring rolls around, we have to get that beach body back. So we get back to it with very little prep time. And that's when my manual therapy practice tends to kick up. This training block will help you get back in the game with a prepared body.
Block 1: Connective Tissue
The primary focus of this training block is building connective tissue strength in the primary problem areas that most runners deal with. The hip flexors and the hamstrings. Typically, if you feel as though you're constantly stretching or foam rolling these areas with little to no results, it's because these areas are usually weak and tight not strong and tight. Generally, you need to strengthen in order to lengthen. Not only that, but if you followed along with the lengthy explanation above as it pertains to muscle failure, the high hamstring is usually the victim of being paired with the glute in a group project with the hamstring doing all the work and the glute sitting at home playing video games. The pain and discomfort in that attachment point of the high hamstring can quickly evolve into a chronic injury. Targeting the connective tissue makes those attachment points more robust and able to handle the load.
The primary lifts, lunges and deadlifts, will focus on a section of your core called the lateral subsystem. This system consists of your gluteus medius and your adductors on one side, and a muscle in your low back called the quadrates lumborum on the opposite side of the body. These muscles stabilize the pelvis in the frontal plane and keep the pelvis from dumping to the right or to the left. Strengthening this system can eliminate a common cause of low back pain runners typically bring into my manual therapy practice.