Gym sessions

[Tessie66]

I'm in training for the Manchester marathon and just wondering if anyone has a programme about gym training for runners/ Marathon runners. I'm going to the gym once a week a basically training everything but don't have a clue what I should be doing 🙃 be very grateful for any help

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10]

I’m aiming for a marathon in October. My strength involves lots of squats, deadlifts and lunges (lots of variations too!), core and stability work based around what my physio made me do when I was injured. I do a couple of Pilates classes a week and some yoga for flexibility. If you’re already doing strength work, that’s half the battle!

There’s a nice podcast here about getting starting with strength training…

shows.acast.com/the-runners...

And the article that basically goes along with it here..,

runnersworld.com/uk/trainin...

You could ask around at the gym for a local PT (ideally one who works with runners)- might be able to put together a personalised programme for you. I’ve really benefited from that sort of input in the past.

I also really like the Strength Running podcast (and website). I feel like quite a lot of the content is aimed at more serious runners than me but I like to imagine I’ll be there in the future! The site has some nice free resources as well as stuff you pay for.

strengthrunning.com

Finally, it might also be worth asking over on Fun Beyond 10k where there will be more people training for marathons than here. Good luck!

[Tessie66 Graduate10 in reply to MissUnderstanding]

Thank you,you're a 🌟 and a massive help

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

I go to the gym once a week and also do strength and conditioning at home where I focus on hip and glute strength ( glute bridges, clams, calf raises, planks and some light dumbell work). At the gym I do a little cardio (enjoying the cross-trainer/elliptical and treadmill at the moment) and work through a rotation of resistance machines for arms and legs!

Over the years, I have also learnt the exercises that don’t suit me personally - I would love to do squats and lunges but I really don’t get on with them!

Good luck!🙂

[CBDB Graduate10]

Feel free to head over to our S&F forum, which is dedicated to our needs as runners. Most of the plans can be done at home, so they are not dedicated to gym workouts, but they might be interesting. James Dunne is a well know Sports Therapist, focusing on running:

1) We recently did the James Dunne 7-day challenge called Bullet-proof runners, and links to all days are here: healthunlocked.com/strength...

2) He also has a 30-day program, much more intensive, focussing on improving running: healthunlocked.com/strength...

3) None of them are dumbbell training, but we did have a series with resistance bands: healthunlocked.com/strength...

Hope this helps!

[drl212 Graduate10]

Terrific question! Thank you for asking and thanks for the great info, MU…