North Vancouver

Running Strong: for starters

(for beginners, intermediate, and advanced runners)

We often hear how we as runners should strength train. The reason so many of us don’t is because WE ARE RUNNERS and we always want to be out running! Of course, this comes with its lists of problems, including overuse injury and muscle imbalances.

I took a program a few months back called Building a strong foundation: how to train the endurance athlete in the gym, created and instructed by Carmon Bott and Tara Keller. I learned more in that 2-day course than I did in my entire university degree. Perhaps that was an overstatement, but I came out of that course with a much better understanding about training endurance athletes. As an endurance athlete myself I was very intrigued by how all this information could benefit my clients and me.

There are a few things I have noticed with many of the endurance athletes (that goes for you clinic members, you are athletes too!) I train/coach and I will list them here:

Poor posture, in everyday life and while running and performing exercises in the gym.
Do not engage the right muscles, especially the glutes, which causes the hips to over-rotate during movement.
Inability to properly engage and fire the core.

This program is about facilitating movement patterns that will have the most functional relevance for the athlete, thus improving performance and decreasing potential for injury. Here are a few exercises to try out that will help you work on the 3 things listed above.

Supine TRA (transverse abdominals, lower core) with heel slide. Muscle Groups: core

Starting Position: lying on your back with both knees bent. Neck, shoulders, and lumbar spine in neutral posture and arms are rested on the floor.

Movement: Maintain a level pelvis by activating your transverse abdominals (TrA) and keeping the neutral curve in the lumbar spine. Slowly let one heel slide along the floor, extending your knee without tilting your pelvis. Drawn the knee straight back to the starting position, while controlling pelvic motion using your TrA. Keep the tempo slow and make sure you keep your leg as relaxed as possible throughout the movement.

Tips: Keep breathing steady and relaxed.

To increase difficulty: Lie supine on a ½ cut or fully round foam roller. Progress by keeping the heel raised a few inches above the floor.

T-spine raises for posture: Muscle groups: core, neck, rotator cuff, low and mid trapezius, thoracic extensors

Starting position: Lie on your stomach with a towel or mat support under forehead. Arms rest on the floor by the hips with palms facing up. Maintain a level pelvis by activating your transverse abdominals and gluteals (buttox).

Movement: Start by getting into ‘set posture’ which means setting your scapula. This is done by pretending to make an ‘x’ across your back with your shoulder blades. At the same time, raise your upper chest off the floor and turn your palms to face your legs. Reach your fingers towards your toes.

Tips: Keep the tempo slow and controlled and focus on maintaining alignment, core and gluteal engagement and relaxation of the upper trapezium. Keep shoulders away from the ears and avoid excessive recruitment from the latissimus dorsi by imagining there are eggs being cradled under your arms.

Progression: by changing arm position 1) abducted with fingers behind ears (2) arms straight overhead.

Stability Ball Walkouts: Muscles groups: neck, rotator cuff, upper back, serratus, core, glutes

Starting position: Lie prone (stomach) over a stability ball with the ball centered under your lower abdomen and pelvis. Hands are positioned directly below your shoulders with elbows straight and shoulder blades set (make the x). Legs are extended, with your body in straight alignment from head to toe. Activate your core and keep your hips squared, pelvis level and spine in neutral position.

Movement: Keep your shoulders away from your ears, start to walk forward on your hands, actively gripping the floor to avoid collapsing at the wrist and moving through palm-to-fingers as if to paw the floor. Keep your core and glutes engaged to maintain a direct line of motion with the stability ball. Your goal is to control rotational and lateral movement in the trunk and hips at all times. Return back to the starting position by moving your arms in reverse, stepping from finger-to-palm and actively driving the motion from below your ribcage. Avoid sliding the hands on the floor.

Tip: don’t drop your head or extend your neck if you get fatigues. The arms should be perpendicular with the floor in the starting and ending position. Stop the exercise if you feel the low back sagging, shoulder blades winging, or if your shoulders begin to shrug.

Progression: walking out with the stability ball to thigh, knee, shin, and foot level.

Testimonial: Dave Christian

“I've been doing basic body foundation strengthening workouts with Nicola for just three months and I'm amazed with the improvement I've seen in my basic core strength and overall muscle development and coordination. Following Nicola's innovative, bi-weekly updated workout programs, using my own body weight resistance, have helped me to become a much stronger and confident runner. During our weekly early morning sessions Nicola demonstrated how each exercise is to be correctly done. Her patience with assisting me to then replicate each exercise properly so as to gain the most from it has been one of her best qualities. The end result of just three months of training is to see the change in my muscle strength and overall coordination. It has been a great three months.”

Nicola Gildersleeve is an ultra-endurance athlete from North Vancouver with a Human Kinetics degree from U.B.C. She is a Certified Personal Trainer and holds a level 1 lactate testing certification through F.a.C.T Canada.

If you have any questions please email ngildersleeve11@hotmail.com or call 604-812-8027.

Clinic Members