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Leg training and running

MidWestEwo

MidWestEwo

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I run about 12 miles per week and work out upper body Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Running is done Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. When should I be doing strength training in those days? Should I do leg training after I run, or on the off days?. I do a pretty intense upper body workout in the gym Tuesdays, Thurs, and Sat and I could add in leg training but I do not know if that gives my legs time to properly rebuild. I want to safely add more training to my regimen but I do not want to injure myself before OCS. What do you all think?
 
I would check out crossfit.com and sealfit.com and maybe try to follow those workouts a couple days a week in addition to running. These workouts generally have a good mix of upper and lower body training. I've been doing crossfit about 5 days a week for 4 months and already notice a huge difference in my strength and endurance. Just my .02
 
Your legs don't need a variety of exercises, especially if you're just starting out. I also lift three times a week and I've been taking an upper body exercise or two out twice per week and adding squats, leg press, calf extensions, and weighted lunges if I'm feeling tough. It adds maybe 20 minutes to the workout. If you really go apeshit on the leg lifting, you won't want to run. Trust me on that.

Start light or you will hate your life.
 
bmaru said:
But should I do the leg lifting on MWF before/after a run, or should I do them on the lifting days?
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It's hard for us to know what your leg strength goals are, but as you're pre-ocs, can we assume it's to add distance/pace to your run?
Under few circumstances should you start an intense leg lifting program on days before a run that same day. The reason I say this is straightforward.
Weightlifting tears muscles and builds lactic acid as part of their growth. If you ask these damaged muscles to support you on interval/distance at a pace, you increase your likely hood of pulls and tears. Additionally, a destabilized muscle could mean that you land wrong and damage joints and tendons.
A far better idea would be to incorporate leg lifts into your weight lifting days and remember that a little goes a very long way. What I mean there is high repetitions and low weight will surprise you with their effect. For myself, 30 calf raises with weight, 20/25 quad/hamstring lifts, etc are valid goals, with the weight adjusted accordingly. You'll also find that using free weights in things like kneel walks and box climbs becomes very very challenging very very quickly. Depending on how sore you feel, you might even do well to skip the first run the day after a legweight session.
NB, During a first week of incorporating legs into your training, you shouldn't increase your distance runs, pace, or interval training intensity.
Hope this helps.
 
What is your fitness goal/purpose for leg lifts?

If it's to become a better/faster runner, you can do some lunges or squats with light weights on your run days right after the runs. The key, as has been pointed out, is not to overdo it. You need your legs to be functional two days from now. The point is just to give them that extra burn and workout to make them stronger for next time.

Bodybuilders who work out legs heavily usually don't run 12 miles/week. In fact, that much cardio would be detrimental to their building a large, muscular body. Also, as has been pointed out, if you truly lift heavy on the legs, you won't be able to run 12 miles a week anymore.

Remember: there are no weights at OCS. Adding a heavy leg weight training regimen at this time probably won't help you there.
 
Something that I did was add sprints to my workout. Its been sometime since I seriously ran sprints (high school track) and I forgot just how different the muscles are worked. With distance running my lower legs are worked heavily. Sprints are mostly in the thighs and quads. I haven't touched the weights/leg lifts for the same concerns you have.
 
Find your nearest Crossfit gym and workout there until you leave. You WILL get faster, stronger and become a better athlete with little to no risk of injury.
 
Come on easily with the sprints. I'd recommend starting with easy 100-200m accelerations for a few sessions, or maybe even starting with longer, slower 400's. Going down to the track and going balls out on a set of sprints is a very good way to injure yourself if you haven't done them in a while.
 
bmaru said:
I run about 12 miles per week and work out upper body Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Running is done Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. When should I be doing strength training in those days? Should I do leg training after I run, or on the off days?. I do a pretty intense upper body workout in the gym Tuesdays, Thurs, and Sat and I could add in leg training but I do not know if that gives my legs time to properly rebuild. I want to safely add more training to my regimen but I do not want to injure myself before OCS. What do you all think?
Click to expand...


Since you are only running 12 miles a week, then it won't matter a lot when you do your lower body strength training. Since lifting and running utilize a different set of muscle fibers (and fuel system) it won't matter a lot.

However, I suggest you use a Tuesday and Thursday routine for your legs. Gives them a bit longer to recover from the run and will help your lifiting to be a bit more efficient.

C420 offers some good gouge. To that I think you would be wise to consider the types of lifting you do. In other words don't neglect explosive lifts...you need that for accelerating...and don't neglect lifts designed to build muscle endurance....you can use that to keep the legs working longer. Assuming you lift correctly, to include proper set/rep/intensity patterns and assuming you have the proper rest intervals, the muscle tears mentioned earlier should not be a problem.
 
Spekkio said:
What is your fitness goal/purpose for leg lifts?

If it's to become a better/faster runner, you can do some lunges or squats with light weights on your run days right after the runs. The key, as has been pointed out, is not to overdo it. You need your legs to be functional two days from now. The point is just to give them that extra burn and workout to make them stronger for next time.

Bodybuilders who work out legs heavily usually don't run 12 miles/week. In fact, that much cardio would be detrimental to their building a large, muscular body. Also, as has been pointed out, if you truly lift heavy on the legs, you won't be able to run 12 miles a week anymore.

Remember: there are no weights at OCS. Adding a heavy leg weight training regimen at this time probably won't help you there.
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First, thank you all for your input it has helped a lot. The purpose for the training is to build overall strength. I want my legs, core, and upper body to be well above the fitness level required for OCS so that I will significantly lower the chances of injury, and possible extension of my time at OCS. I have found that doing some leg training has almost completely cured my leg pain associated with running long distances, and has cut down my 1.5 mile run time significantly. My PRT is now at an Excellent/Medium, so I do not necessarily NEED to improve on that score; It will just be nice to do so. The main purpose is to get trained well enough that I can withstand the punishment at OCS with no possibility of injury.
 
After lifting on a leg day, I am CRAWLING on my run. I get winded going MUCH slower due to the extreme muscle fatigue. Salution? Push yourself at a slower pace, and accept the fact that you're still getting a good cardio workout, or just run before you lift.
 
For what it's worth I lift in the morning and run at night. For me, doing cardio before lifting will kill my lifting but lifting before cardio won't kill my cardio. I've found that lifting heavy lower body won't help my 3 mile run time but heavy upper will definately help with max pullups/pushups/whatever.
 
If you're looking to prep for thrash PT, I'd suggest keeping it simple on the lifts. Short and sweet. Basic strength is beneficial, but there is virtually no need to go into the gym and squat 405lbs.

You know how they say "train like you fight"? That applies here. Air squats, lunge walk, wall squats, monkeyfuckers/bootstrappers (these SLAY me), and star jumps. Also practice holding yourself in the squatting position for a minute or two.
 
This has worked for me:

Monday: Legs/Chest with a quick 10 min bike/eliptical to start (Gets the blood flowing, makes the legs lifting more efficient, less sore after)

Tuesday: 30-40 minutes on the eliptical, pullups, dips and pushups.

Wednesday: 2000m erg followed by back & shoulders

Thursday: run, pullups and dips

Friday: 2000m erg or a run. Arms

Saturday: Beer curls

Sunday: Ultimate frisbee

I almost always do an ab workout as well. I try to do at least 3-4 max pushups everyday.

For the weight lifting, I get a good mix of dumbells, barbells and nautilus. I also mix up going low rep/heavy weight and high reps/lower weight.

I also take a week/week and a half break every so often to recover. Those times I'll just play ultimate, easy runs during the week and 2 or three sets of pushups when I wake up. It helps alot. I always see an increase in over all strength and endurance after the rest period.
 
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