How to balance running and strength workouts
If you know Laura, you’ll know that running is her form of meditation. For her, the way she feels after a run – aka ‘runners high’ – is something she’ll never stop craving.
The mental and physical benefits of running are endless. That endorphin rush we all know and love is known to increase feelings of wellness, happiness and wellbeing and help to decrease pain signals within the body.
But if you love running just as much as Laura, you need to make sure you’re incorporating strength and resistance sessions into your routine. Strength training is a fantastic way to support your high intensity days.
So our co-founder, CEO and Treadmill queen has teamed up with KIC’s Head Trainer, Danny Kennedy to give us the 411 when it comes to balancing running and strength workouts.
Laura: As many of you would know, running plays such a big role in my weekly routine. Not only does it make me feel incredibly empowered, but it also helps me to clear my mind. In my eyes, there’s nothing better than that post run high.
But my great friend and Head Trainer at KIC, Danny Kennedy, is constantly reminding me about the importance of mixing up my routine with strength training!
Danny: Strength sessions not only do wonders for our mindset in helping us feel strong, empowered and motivated, but they are also essential in supporting muscle development for when we’re ready to go for a run or do a HIIT workout.
Strength training is really effective and essential when it comes to adding lean muscle tissue and improving or maintaining our posture. They are less stressful on our cardiovascular systems, but when you’re training with resistance it strengthens the muscles, bones and joints that you need to feel (and perform) at your best and decrease risk of injury.
If HIIT sessions or running isn’t supported by supplementary-based workouts in between, you increase your chance of injury and will see diminishing returns on your performance across the span of the week.
Laura: So, with all of that in mind, I’ve recently started our KICFIT 8 Week Program. It’s been especially developed by Danny, and I’ve chosen 3 workouts a week to support my running days. The workouts are combination of strength and HIIT, so my week is looking a little like this:
Monday: KICFIT 20 mins strength workout
Tuesday: 6-8km run (depending on how I’m feeling, sometimes will up the distance or pace!)
Wednesday: KICFIT 20 mins HIIT workout
Thursday: Rest / walk
Friday: 4km run + KICFIT 20 mins strength workout (again, I’ll only stack the run + strength session depending where my energy levels are at!)
Saturday: Long run with Dalton
Sunday: Rest / walk
I do love getting a sweat on – I love running and HIIT style workouts, but that’s just a personal preference, and I make sure a high intensity workout serves me in the best way possible by supporting it with strength sessions and rest days.
New to KIC? We have a 7 day free trial you can sign up via https://keepitcleaner.com/our-price/
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