Thread: legs

Can make the ride alot smoother

Kinda depends on what type of running you want to improve. Sprinting and Distance for instance. Added strength will be very helpful in sprinting and hillwork. Endurance imo just takes putting in the time.

Originally Posted by tom_sparco

hi, does anyone know if working legs hard (eg heavy squats, leg ext, stiff dead lift etc) will make you faster/enduring at running??

not my area of expertise, but if you focus on 'explosive training' then yes it should help with speed, but I would not think endurance, more running will increase running endurance. I know that the majority of the training football players engage in is explosive lifts which improves their performance on the field.

maybe someone else will have a better answer on this.

strengthening your legs will help, yes. But, if you have poor running technique, you can have all the strength in the world at it wont get you to where you want to be (except for a few genetic freaks). Technique is everything in running.

technique is a lot in almost any sporting activity, no matter how simple it may seem to the lay man.

strengthening your legs will help a little in regards to speed, but not as much as proper technique and more specific training like sprints or various other drills that are out there.

with regards to endurance, you can work at endurance while in the weight room via high rep/low rest stuff, ie circuits, super sets, high rep squatting, high density training etc. if that is all you want out of your resistance training then go for it, otherwise use your days at the gym for building functional strength, flexibility, power etc and use your other days for conditioning/technique work and what not.

i would usually get tired of running when i got about 75% around the field at my school wich is huge but since i started back trainig legs i have gotten faster and i dont get tired as quick

running is more to do with the fibre type your born with i thought, if we all got hardcore coaching on running technique i cant imagine we would improve our 100m times by much realy...

Resistance training has been shown to benefit even marathon runners. I would think that it has something to do with allowing for more storage space of glycogen and increasing lactate threshold, but I'm not really sure. I'm just speculating.