Run Strong not Mindless

Running has a bit of a stigma around it in the strength world. A bunch of under powered people beating themselves up with running. The evidence is out there. If you look at runners as a whole there is a lot of dysfunction and injury.  We have trained the serial marathon runners with stress fractures in their feet that still won’t take a day off to heal, and the runner that can’t stop because it is their only form of therapy to deal with the stress of life, unfortunately their knee pain is so intense they can only limp around. But does that make running bad for you? Of course not. That is like saying that lifting weights is stupid because powerlifters are out of shape, immobile monsters that lose their breath when they tie their shoes. There are extremes on both ends, but the ability to meet in the middle is where most of us should be.

Running is functional.  It is part of being human, and if we need to run we should be able to do so. If someone is chasing me I should be able to do my best to get away to safety. If I am late for the bus, I should be able to get out of the house and run my tail off to get there in time. The longer you keep and train the ability to run, the longer you can keep it…if done correctly. As I see our aging population I would be willing to bet many of them would give anything to have the ability to run again, but they have missed their window. The sad thing is, many that still have the capacity, fail to take advantage of their ability to do so. Unfortunately, when people tie up shoes and hit the road without a proper fitness baseline it can open the door to injury and burnout which leads to frustration and throwing the shoes up all together. When you run, 6 x your body weight is forced onto the joints of your lower extremities. If the body is not strong enough to handle these forces injury will most likely occur. This is usually also brought on with the fact that nearly everyone that starts out running, takes off too fast, even if they think it isn’t “fast”, it is too fast for them.

When we decided to take on running at Tucson Strength we wanted to do so the right way. It drives me crazy watching boot camps and gyms just running people into the ground (pun intended) with random acts  exercise and bursts of running intertwined with burpees and pushups. Never mind the fact that many of these people have been sitting at a desk for 20 years. No wonder it turns out to be disastrous.

We believe running should be taught, not something that you should  be thrown into. It is a skill. Each running session should have a purpose and intention.  Running should be built up over time to allow a foundation to be built. For some it may mean staring with a  walk/run scenario that is then built up to running 100% of the time. Practicing proper mobility and drills to prep the body to run correctly.  In a perfect world, strength training should be a part of the program, as we have seen the best results with both.  If strength training isn’t an option, then working off a thoughtful program that will progress you appropriately is a must. The ability to build a base over a period of time is a huge key to success and not doing so is a dangerous game to play.

We have all seen the runner out there flopping around with head phones in looking like they are in pure survival mode. You can  actually feel their pain. It looks horrible and miserable, because it is. When it comes to running, if there is PAIN there is NO GAIN. Our Motto is RUN STRONG! This has nothing to do with toughing it out. It has everything to do with having the right mindset for training, and running with  intention each training session to become better. We believe each training session will build you up as a runner so that you can do it for long periods of time INJURY FREE, rather than being a defeated and an exhausted mess every time you hit the road.  We want our runners to work within their limits, with awesome posture and having something left in the tank each training session. Driving yourself into the ground and being beat up is a great way to stay weak and injured. If you have never run with success in the past and want to learn the appropriate way to TRAIN WITH PURPOSE and RUN STRONG then let us teach you how.

If you’re looking to start running or want to improve your running, feel free to contact us for a free consultation at 520.445.6800.