Run long, run strong.
Introduction
Ever wondered how is it that people develop the ability to run for long durations with strong form?
During my lifespan of running and training people I have found there to be 3 fundamental areas for conditioning:
Cardiovascular system
Joint Stiffness
Running Pace
I will breakdown the rationale for each area and provide you with some effective training protocols - consider these as hacks for running efficiently.
1. Develop your Cardiovascular system with Breathwork
Have you ever had that feeling of uncontrollable breathing after an intense bout of exercise?
Well that's fatigue of the respiratory muscles, such as the intercostals and diaphragm. Once exhausted those muscles fail to expand and contract the lungs efficiently to continually feed the body of the much needed oxygen.
Fortunately this threshold of reaching maximum exertion can be increased. Just like every other muscle in the body, the respiratory muscles can also be conditioned for strength and endurance. However, the way in which these muscles are trained differ from the typical gym exercises. These exercise are simply Breathwork.
Breathwork is performed by breathing in set patterns which effectively activate and challenge your respiratory muscles - call it resistance training for your lungs. The keys benefits of this are:
Vasodilation - Widening of your blood vessels, which in turn increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure.
Controlled Breath - Ability to respirate effortlessly.
Heart Awareness - Deeper connection with your heart muscle, which can allow you to gauge your BPM.
I will share with you two effective breathing exercises for beginners that can be used to improve the function of the respiratory system.
2:2 Breath
Perform this by breathing in through your nose 2 times and out through your nose 2 time. Be sure to pulse your breath and maintain a fixed beat (one two, one two). Try to fill and empty your lungs on every second breath.
Apply this Breathwork whilst seated at work or in meditation. It can be even more effective when running and can be matched to your cadence, 2 breaths : 1 stride.
Recovery Breath
Perform this by making a full inhalation through the nose, hold for 4 heart beats, then exhale forcefully through the mouth and repeat the cycle instantly, transitioning into a full inhale.
Only do 4 cycles at a time. It is indeed for recovery so perform this between long bouts of '2:2 Breathwork'. Again, you can also practice this whilst running or during an intense cardio activity.
2. Bulletproof Joints
So let's imagine that you've upgraded your engine and now have the ability increase intensity without loosing control of the breath… How much can the knees endure?
There are three joints that provide the mobility for running - below I will state them along with there corresponding muscles:
Hips - Glutes and Hip Flexors
Knees - Quads and Hamstrings
Ankles - Calves and Tibialis
Generally, the most effective way to condition your joints is to stabilise them. Stability exercises target the ligaments and tendons thus adapting them to become more stiffer (in a good way), with the right dose of stimulation; another is to alleviate compression of the joint to facilitate blood flow for recovery. I will share you three key exercises with you:
Flamingo
Standing on one foot, raise the knee of the other leg by flexing the hips, contracting the hamstrings, and curling the toes upwards. Hold this position and count 5 breaths. Now bring the leg down in a pedal motion and kick your heel backward, with your knee lock, and completely engage the glutes. Hold for another 5 seconds before repeating the cycle another 5 times on each leg.
As you become more stable this should indeed be a reflection on the condition on your joints. For progression place a tennis ball underneath the heel; eventually seek less stable surfaces such as a balance board or bosu ball.
Knee Traction
This is essentially a form of stretching that decompresses your knee joint. An exercise for this is Kneeling Knee Extensions which opens up the joint casual to increase blood and realigns the ligaments.
To perform Kneeling Knee Extensions start in a kneeling position, seated on your heels. The exercise is to extend your knees and raise your body into a vertical position. Try to keep your knee extensors or quad engaged through the movement.
This exercise is most effective after a run.
Skipping + Breathwork
Skipping in a spot - when done properly - can increase the stiffness of your calf muscles to make you more bouncy during a run - This can be done without a rope.
When performing this exercise be sure to align the body as straight as possible, refrain from bending the knees to ensure that all the downward force is directed to the ankles. Now, when bouncing try to contact the ground with your forefoot and try to have minimal contact time. You can alternate from left to right.
Add in some Breathwork to get 2-for-1.
3. Pace Runs
This is where the two points (mentioned above) are combined into a practice.
If the goal is to run long distances at a reasonable or competitive time then focus on your pace. You can make so much gains average pace per kilometre with this exercise I am about to share.
First you must established your desired pace in kilometres you can divide the time by 10.
On a 100m track you can do intervals of running at 10% of your desired pace - this will effectively be a short jog for you. This presents the perfect opportunity to refine your running form and in time reduce the rest periods.
Example
I currently run 10k at sub 50 minutes which looks 5:00/km. My desired time is to run 10k in 40 minutes which looks like 4:00/km = 4 minutes per kilometre (that’s really fast for that distance)
Because I want to practice my 4:00/km pace on a 100m track (10% of 1k) I must work at 10% of that pace, which is 24-seconds per 100-meters
100% = 1k = 1000m / 4:00minutes
10% = 0.1k = 100m / 24seconds
So now I perform running intervals of 100m in 24s with a short rest period in between. I can condition my body to adapt to that pace and incrementally reduce the rest periods until I am running non-stop.
Sidenote: You can perform the Rescue Breaths during the rest period.
Perform this exercise once a week and be sure to focus on form whilst combining the Breathwork.
There you have it! Hopefully I have provided you with some insight into becoming a strong runner.
Peace & Love
Holistik Mustik
