Weight Training...

Do you do it? If so, what is your program. If not, why not??

Personally, I weight train 3 days a week. Mondays are my recovery run days, so I only focus on upper body (chest, biceps, triceps, shoulders, and core). Tuesdays, I focus on the lower body (calf raises, lunges, kettle squats, adductors, and abbductors). And then Thursday I focus on both the upper and lower body. All of my lifting is low weight, high repetition. As I get closer to my marathon, the weight gets lighter and I normally only lift 1-2 days a week. The last week of my taper, I totally stop lifting, but still focus on core work.

I don't because I hate it. I mean, I absolutely despise it. That being said, I have a plan to incorporate it into training this fall, but I will have to force myself to do it. Right now, I feel I have my hands full with current training. Pretty pitiful I know, but I've never found a weight program that I enjoy. Strength comes painfully slow for me too, so it is sort of unrewarding....

This is the first year that I've gotten into a weight training program, CrossFit. It's a scaled weight training program, where I'm only lifting what I can handle. I'm doing upper body weights of around 65-75 pounds and next to me in the class is someone that's doing 150 pounds. I'm doing what I can. It's a great core producing program, too.

Now, come the Fall when I'm doing longer runs, I'll probably cut back from 3x/week. But I enjoy going to class at 5 a.m. and most times, I will have run 3-6 miles before going to class with no problems, unless there's some exercise requiring a lot of quad repetitions. Any marathoner on this board can be successful at CrossFit, because we have stamina the people who don't run just don't have. Honest.

Yes - I've done Crossfit and other classes, but my best success has been to work with a personal trainer. I know, that makes me spoiled, but for me - the monetary commitment has been well worth it. I find that I get injured when I'm not training i.e. travelling here and making the transition of the last month from the normal year to summer. I also have had women come up to me and tell me that they envy my arms - that's all the press I need. (And the fact that at 49.5 yrs - I can still proudly wear sleeveless tops.)

I too workout with a trainer, twice a week. I don't lift heavy weights and I do a lot of "functional" fitness (core work, balance, kettle balls, etc). Like Michele, I like to wear sleeveless tops (and tight-fitting dresses, though Michele didn't say that). I'm surprised how many guys here don't lift weights. Hey, fellas -- we like it when you do!

Yes we weight train, I do it 3 to 4 times a week and Lisa 2 to 3. As for the program it is always changing. I'm good at mixing it up for Lisa and I so it is always fresh. We do everything from Squats to deadlifts to P90x to core stuff we do it all.

pushup and pullup, do they count?

Jerry wrote:pushup and pullup, do they count?

Sure for a normal person that doesn't weigh 80 pounds like you do Jerry!

Just getting into Pilates. Seems to be a good balance of building lean muscle (as opposed to bulking up as my previous personal trainer was pushing for) and flexibility. Still early but thus far I'm favorably impressed.

I have wanted to get into yoga to help increase flexibility and dextarity, but have not been able to fit it into my schedule. So I just stick with the weight training and running program.

Nick Morris wrote:I have wanted to get into yoga to help increase flexibility and dextarity, but have not been able to fit it into my schedule. So I just stick with the weight training and running program.

Yoga is great Nick you really should try to included it twice a week. Try doing it on the nights that you don't do weights. You can pick up some DVD's and do right at home. Not only is it good for what you mentioned above but it really is very good for breathing and relaxation.

Like John I despise doing it. But I'll do some upper body work about 3x a week and lower body about once a week. I'll do core work almost everyday. I just do low weights and higher reps.

No weight training, ever. But...my job feels like an entire day of cross-training, before I get to my workout! I do 60'ish crunches before bed most nights.

Doing core training is obviously important for us runners. But doing leg strength training is super important. It increases both running efficiency, and fatigue resistance in the trained tissues. It made a huge difference for me when I was training for my ultra, and I know I'll be picking it back up again soon.

I am surprised to find out that many here do not include weight training in there marathon training. I feel that it is a very important component to training.

As a caveat - I did weight train last summer, but did not train last fall/winter very much. It was my first marathon and I had just started running. This year it is my first medium-distance triathlon that I'm training for and I made the decision to focus entirely on cardio for just this training season. I recognize its importance and will drag my butt to do it again this fall. As for the big arm and chicks dig it thing, I guess I am one of the unlucky ones that have never been able to produce many results, even when I was young and in the service and did a lot more weight training ... I don't foresee a six-pack in my future, but I'm sure core strength makes a huge difference as well.

I used to strength train my legs, until I ramped up my mileage and noticed that my quads were always tired. So I nixed lower body weights. Instead, I'll incorporate that kind of explosive strength training into my training via hills (long, steep ones) as well as ME intervals and sprints on the bike.

I still keep up a 2-3x/week upper body/core routine. Currently hitting biceps, triceps, chest, and shoulders with one isolated-muscle exercise (4 sets) followed by 2 combination exercises (2 sets) for each. So for triceps/chest, maybe seated dips (between two benches) and flys followed by bench press and bar dips. I really only do it for the reasons John stated: chicks dig it. One in particular, and we have a six-pack contest, so that keeps the motivation high.

Core training
Push ups
Pull ups
Very light weight training about 2 times per week.

Core training - uppder body - 2x per week.

Sometimes core 3x