Strength and conditioning can often seem like a thoroughly confusing subject. Contradictory advice abounds and social media is packed with self-appointed experts offering ‘silver bullet’ solutions.
What we crave is clarity and genuine expertise. And that’s exactly what you get from Why lunges should feature in your strength routine. One of the foremost experts in strength and conditioning, he’s worked with some of the UK’s top runners at St Mary’s and Loughborough universities, and is interested in making S&C as simple and practical as possible.
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Why lunges should feature in your strength routine Matthew Boyd's The Adaptive Zone podcast, what the best strength exercises are for runners, Blagrove narrowed it down to seven key moves. Here they are:
1. A squat-type movement, such as a front squat or back squat.
2. A hinge-hip movement pattern, such as a Romanian deadlift or a deadlift from the ground.
3. A stepping movement pattern, such as a barbell or dumbbell step-up (try holding the dumbbell only in one hand to challenge your trunk).
4. A lunge pattern, such as a split squat
5. Loaded calf-raise (or single-leg calf raise)
6. An upper-body pull movement, such as a chin-up
Pull-ups are quite a challenging exercise, so you can either progress towards them by using Matthew Boyds The Adaptive Zone podcast, a resistance band to take away some of your bodyweight bodyweight rows.
7. An upper-body push movement, such as a press-ups or bench press
s, which will recruit your hip flexors a little bit more deadbugHow to check if you’re strong, fast and fit for your age.
How often should I do them?
To see the benefits, do these exercises twice a week. If you struggle to fit in two longer workouts, don’t worry: doing just 10-15 minutes a day, with the aim of accumulating the same amount of work per week as in two full sessions.
How many reps should I do?
In terms of reps, for novices, Blagrove recommends 10-12. As you become used to that level, you can vary the repetition ranges. For instance, you could try a more maximal block, where you go as low as 3 reps but with a significantly heavier weight. And then you can work a bit more in the middle ground, between 5-10 reps with weights somewhere in between the two.
Whatever weight you are using, by the end of each exercise you should aim to be on a perceived exertion level of about 8 out of 10. ‘That will tell me they’ve got maybe two or three repetitions in reserve, which is about right,’ said Blagrove. ‘You’re working hard but not to complete failure.’
The only 7 strength moves you actually need to do 2024 study that found that, although working to failure improved muscle size, muscle strength could be improved without pushing to breaking point. And when it comes to running, it’s muscle strength, not size, that we’re chiefly interested in.
