Running Specific Training

There are several other compelling reasons to use running-specific drills:

1. Injury Prevention:
Focus on running-specific general strengthening drills early in your season to help correct muscular imbalances, improve balance, increase lower back stability and general range of motion, all of which make your running more smooth, strong and efficient, helping you avoid common running injuries. Most modern coaches agree that building a stronger body through running-specific activities lowers your risk of injury.
 

2. Superior Warm-up and Flexibility:
When compared with static stretching, which involves reaching forward to a point of tension and then holding, dynamic drills are a superior warming and loosening tool to prepare you for training and racing. Specific dynamic running drills mimic running form, using momentum and strength to propel the muscle into an exaggerated range of motion that also produces event-specific warming and stretching. Dynamic running drills also increase blood flow to the muscles and they fire up the nervous system, while static stretching may actually reduce performance by decreasing leg power, according to a study reported in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in September.

3. Improved Running Form:
Many runners have running form defects, such as forward lean, poor leg extension, outward turning of the feet, heel striking or overstriding. Done properly, running drills isolate and correct inefficient movements of your running stride, thus teaching your nervous system to signal correct mechanics.

4. Increased Power:
Power is derived from the ability to perform a movement with strength and speed. There are two ways to increase your speed - increasing leg turnover or increasing stride length (not to be confused with hyper-extended footplants that create overstriding and braking). Running-specific circuits, including general strengthening, fast running, and explosive running drills, increase your natural stride length by peaking propulsive leg thrust. Stride rate may be improved by stimulating your neuromuscular system to coordinate movement with less energy and oxygen burned. Quick and powerful foot strikes make you fast and efficient by minimizing your ground contact time.