I'm starting to train for a half marathon soon and I also have a heavy bodybuilding type lifting routine going (which I've started to get lazy with). I'm guessing the two don't go well together. Should I switch to circuit training? I have to do some kind of weights cause I feel so weak without it. Can you get any benefit from a full body workout twice a week, one exercise per body part?
Go with higher reps like 12-15 and doing it cicuit style helps with anaerobic endurance.
Weights for endurance sports should be focused during the off season and be more maintance while training.
By maintenance do you mean only twice a week or I do only non-working sets where I can still do more reps when I stop the set?
I'm just saying it is of less importance during the season. Your intesity will depend on how you react to the weight portion of your training. If you feel like you can't run a day after you lift you are probablly doing to much. I've been training for a race for about three months and basically stopped lifting to concentrate just on running.
More muscle is bad for running because 1) it uses oxygen 2) inhibits range of motion 3) more weight on joints.
Pretty much a completely false statement. Endurance sports are inherently catablolic so you constantly need to work on adding more muscle. Yes extra muscle would use more oxygen but not enough to really make a difference. Running has such a small range of motion that you would have to be huge to inhibit ROM. If a person lifts correctly they should help create flexiblity. And Finally the only time I've seen weight on joints be a problem is with fat/obese people. It would be hard to put on more than 10lbs of muscle if you are running a lot but pretty easy to drop 10lbs of fat which make it a wash.
The only thing I'm really concerned about muscle wise is keeping my biceps as I've developed some good ones from lifting. The race is in October. Think I'll circuit train twice a week but keep the bicep routine then stop lifting maybe a few weeks out.
So I'm thinking I'll do a full ab routine, two exercises for biceps and one exercise for everything else, three sets of 12 to 15.
So here's how it breaks down:
Biceps: Preacher curl, concentration
Shoulders: Presses
Tris: Tricep extensions
Back: Tbar row
Chest: Bench
Quads: Hack squats and extensions
Hams: Seated ham curls
Calves: Calf raises
How does that look?
That's a horrible routine/I think I'm being Trolled
This does feel like a troll but anyway.
I work with a girl whos runs marathons. I have her doing 3x3 bench cleans front squat and chins.
She was lacking strength, now when she does her endurance lifting sessions she has a ton more endurance so she does more reps which will help her run farther.
I dont know how more strength could ever be wrong.
No troll!! lol I just don't know what I'm doing. What does your offseason program look like? I've got a running expert sending me his book. He focuses more on legs, every leg movement isolating one at a time - single leg extensions, that weighted walking motion...
My bad, the emphasis on biceps and abs threw me off.
Okay, got my book. Here's the workout. Let me know how this is:
Single leg squat
Stability ball push up
Split squat
Horizontal cable row on stability ball
Overhead squat
single arm dumbell snatch
single leg cable row
Curl press
Do this three times a week. How does it sound to you guys?
Endurance athletes should do high intensity lifting for the whole body and lower body plyometrics. Both of these have been shown do decrease run times independent of increases in VO2 max. Just do one two short full-body routines per week.
Brian
Well one thing if you decide to keep lifting the same routine...just stop it 2 weeks before the race and you will probably lose some weight, wich won't hurt your running any, and will loosen you up a bit as well as let your body be completely rested for the specific event.