running performance is largely determined by the strength of the muscles that make up the posterior chain. muscles like the glutes, the hamstrings, and the erector muscles in the lower back, as well as the calves all contribute to pulling you body forward over the ground. these muscles tend to have a ton of endurance in runners, and can therefore be difficult to train to the point of soreness in the gym.
my quest this week has been to isolate each muscle on the back side of my body from my ankles to my back, and just work one of them a day to almost complete failure by doing 200 reps in the shortest time possible. -calf raises on tuesday, leg curls on wednesday, back extensions on thursday... 200 of each. resting as little as possible. with perfect form. and as fast as possible.
its impossible to keep track of big numbers while my body is getting trashed, so i used weights to signify reps. i use five 2.5lb weights to signify 20 reps each and line them up, as i finish reps i slide them over one at a time, then slid them back once i finish 100 reps to make 200 total. this system is great because besides not requiring complicated math, i only worry about each set of 20 at a time. -anything to avoid my brain telling me that 200 is too many!
after months of my calves never getting sore, theyre still dead, and its been a few days already. its hilarious to try to get out of bed or stand up when your entire back side feels like someone went at it with a bat for 10 minutes straight.
gota love it though
try it out, see how you like it, and leave me a comment!
I used to do calf raises every other day or so, but stopped when I started to transition to barefoot to avoid "double soreness" since barefoot also requires calves more than running in massive asics. Bad idea?
ReplyDeleteI've also had the issue of trying to train areas with bodyweight exercise which already have crazy muscular endurance from running. So doing lots of reps as quickly as possible is the best way to go for that?
the high rep system has been perfect for me as far as making me sore, but there are times where you might want to go higher than 200, usually with multi-joint exercises, like body weight squats for me, ill do 500 sometimes, and ill touch my butt on a 12 inch box to make sure every rep is good, but even then, i feel adding weight would be better that doing more reps. the key is the intensity: it has to be high enough to stimulate the muscle, but not too high or youll have to rest too much, plus you might not be stimulating the right muscle fibers. you want enough resistance so that your first set should be in the 20-30 range, anything more than that and you wont work the muscle to failure enough times with 200 reps. remember thats the whole point, you can do sprints to improve lactate threshold, do resistance training to strengthen your muscles. you need to get to the point where your form begins to deteriorate, then rest for a moment or two, then begin. keep the form and tempo consistant as long as possible.
ReplyDeleteas far as creating enough resistance, you can always find creative ways to do it. -jugs of water or big rocks for example :). or do unilateral versions of whatever exercise you need to do, and rest one side while the other is working. you might not stimulate the target muscles as well as continuous work to failure, but balance and core muscles will get worked harder since they wont get a break. for example, if you were planning to do bridge thrusters for your hamstraings, glutes, and back, 20-30 wouldnt fatigue you that much, so you could do one side at a time, and do the same number on both sides. not only will this build balance, you back is gona do twice as many reps then!
rock it out and feel free to gripe to me when you sore!