What are the best exercises for running?

Question

I've been running for several months now and enjoy it thoroughly. Unfortunately, I sometimes have shin pain when I go for longer distances. Everyone I talk to tells me that you shouldn't only run, that you have to build muscle with other exercises. I'm now considering getting a membership to a gym. Any ideas on effective exercises for runners?

Answer 1

The fundamental weight room exercise for distance runners is the "barbell front squat," well described at

  http://www.criticalbench.com/exercises/f...

It develops overall strength and especially reinforces good use of back muscles during running.

Here are two excellent supplemental resistance exercises for runners with shin, ankle and foot "issues":

*** stand, while wearing shoes, with your forefoot underneath a weight plate (maybe a 5kg/10lb plate to begin with) whose far end rests on the floor. Keeping your leg fairly straight, lift your toe and forefoot against the resistance of the plate repeatedly until fatigued. (If it takes more than 20 reps, use a heavier plate.) Do this 3 times with 30" rest between efforts.

*** lay a large threadbare towel flat on a wood, tile, concrete or vinyl floor (carpet isn't as good). Sit barefoot in a chair with the toes of one foot at a corner of the towel and your heel on the bare floor. Pull the towel underneath you by activating the muscles on the bottom of your foot. ("Claw" the towel toward you.) Do this with the long axis of your foot parallel to the long dimension of the towel (namely, pull the bulk of the towel back toward you). Then do it with the long axis of your foot perpendicular to the long dimension of the towel (namely, pull the towel sideways from your pinky toward your big toe).

(I really need to put up a video of this on my own website--it's too hard to verbalize!)

Good luck!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Take a look at the shoes you are using to run. They could be a major cause of your shin problems. Also take notice in the type of surface you are running on. The harder it is the more likely you will be to get shin splints. Keep stretching your shins though that is always beneficial. It is more helpful to stretch your shins that to strengthen them because if they begin to bulk up than you could have a lot of problems with them. A shin splint is caused by the muscle pulling away from the bone and the bigger the muscle gets the more it begins to pull. I don't even strengthen my calve muscles. That just naturally happens when I run.