A Baby is Born & Why Strength Training Needs Your Attention

Wednesday, September 06, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning,

I apologize for my absence as of late. Between some traveling and a wonderful blessing, I have been away from my computer. In any event, grab your coffee and pull up a chair.

This past Sunday morning Kathy and I, were blessed with our third grandchild! Many of you know our daughter Jennifer Miller as she has been active in the running community and a big part of NFLR. Well, Jennifer brought us our first little granddaughter and this now brings our grandchildren total to 3. Eloise Blake Miller, came into the world at 5:26 Sunday and I do believe she will be a runner some day! Kathy and I are blessed with 3 wonderful children and now 3 grandchildren. Our son Nick is some ways off from having children, but between him and Jennifer, I look forward to a few more gifts from God! Jennifer, Aaron and Ellie, are all doing great and Jennifer is counting the days till she can be back running! I am grateful to God for such a blessing!

Monday night before our NFLR training group hit the pavement, we went over strength training from two perspectives. The first being the importance in general good health and body composition and the second being, the importance of strength to runners.

I have chatted multiple times about the importance of strengthening muscles and stressing bones as we age and I will continue to beat that drum till my arms are able. The aging process often seems cruel, as our bodies lose the ability to function as they once did. While running and strength training may not turn back the hands of time, doing both these activities will benefit long term function. Running, or some type of cardiovascular exercise will improve both heart health, and strengthen muscles and certain bones. Including a couple days a week of functional strength training, will address those muscles and bones that a chosen cardio routine does not address. A balanced training program will give us the best chance of long term heart health and overall functioning.

Runners tend to focus primarily on running and while that is an awesome, if we want to be stronger runners, we need to be stronger. Running is a repetitive activity, and the constant stress on our knees, hips and back. It only makes sense that if we want to run stronger, or give ourselves the best chance to stay healthy, we need to improve our strength. Running itself will not strengthen all the muscles that we stress, so taking 20 minutes a couple times a week to do some “specific adaption to imposed demand” (SAID), is important to strong running. This essentially means, we need to strengthen specific parts of our body, such as are hips and our core, to improve our running and stay healthy.

Monday night, I went over a simple workout that can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes or stretched out to 40 minutes if desired. The workout is focused on runners, but can be used for general core strengthening. Click here to check it out: https://nofinishlinerunning.com/resources/strength-training---hips--core. If you are looking for a more specific strength training routine, we have Kathy Davis a certified ACE trainer, that can help develop the right plan for you. Just contact us to get started!

Time to move along. Thanks for having coffee with me this morning. God Bless and have a great day!

Michael