How to quickly increase leg strength
As we age, our physical and mental endurance has dropped to the edge of a cliff. A decrease in muscle protein is a typical condition that occurs with age. In older adults, falls and fractures are common due to reduced muscle strength and extreme frailty. Research shows that strength training can also effectively reduce the frequency of falls and fractures in the elderly.
No matter what age runners are, few make the effort to exercise muscles other than their legs. However, regularly arranging a series of simple upper body strength exercises in daily training will effectively improve the trainer's running ability. The goal is to improve shoulder and arm strength and endurance, as well as abdominal and back muscle strength. By using their arms properly, runners can improve their performance by nearly 12%. The average runner who doesn't know how to use his arms is unlucky. The longer the distance he runs, the more tired his arms become. The arms are effective in maintaining stride because they act like a metronome to rhythmically drive the rhythm of the legs.
Increase upper arm strength through simple push-ups. Don't do push-ups too fast, and pay attention to the width of your arms to strengthen your back, shoulders, and arms, all of which will play an important role in the final stages of a long run. Don't do too much at once, just start with 4 to 5 reps, and then gradually increase the reps as your strength increases. The great thing about doing push-ups is that you use your own body weight to provide resistance,3 without investing in any equipment.
Another important muscle when running is the abdominal muscles. A weak and flabby abdomen means that during the final stages of long-distance running training and competition, your stride length decreases, your chest shrinks, and the total amount of air transported to your abdomen decreases. In addition, due to poor abdominal muscle strength, it may cause trouble to the waist muscles opposite to the abdomen. The solution is to do sit-ups in a planned and regular manner. This exercise exercises the back, waist, and abdominal muscles. Integrating upper body strength into your daily running routine is as simple as doing it as you would a clean-up exercise after your daily run. Start with 10 sit-ups, 5 push-ups and 20 dips, then increase to 12 sit-ups, 6 push-ups and 24 dips after two weeks.
Strengthen your running strength as much as possible. Once you have a certain endurance foundation, the easiest way to increase your stride is to run on hills. A regular mountain running program will do wonders for your daily running, and even more so for your race performance. Mountain running can enhance the runner's thigh strength, enhance leg coordination, and enhance brain coordination. More effective for older runners. Survey results at Stanford University showed that the bone density of older adults who ran hills was much greater than those who did not participate in training and participated in lack of stimulation training.
You can start slowly when training for mountain running. First, you don’t have to run steep hills when training for mountain running. If you run up a steep hill, the only thing you do is climb the hill. The ideal mountain run should be a quarter mile long and the slope of the mountain should not be too steep, so that you can exercise the kicking strength of your legs without over-straining your muscles. Secondly, try to run uphill as much as possible. Because when you run downhill, the impact force of the ground on your feet, ankles, knees and legs increases (about 4 to 5 times your body weight). When you run uphill, the impact force will be much smaller, which is more conducive to strengthening the thigh and stretching the Achilles tendon. Reduce your stride length when running downhill.
Based on the results of other series of mountain running, run once in the first week and twice in the second week. 8 to 10 weeks before you plan to race, effectively integrate hill running into your weekly high-intensity training. Repeat 1 to 2 times a week to make hill running a moderate proportion of your daily, regular, moderate-intensity training.
Speed
For a runner, there are many ways to train for speed: go to the track and field and repeatedly perform various short distance runs; play speed games; Run up and down quickly; participate in competitions, etc. Speed training is possible for everyone, but it is more effective for the elderly because it maintains the good biomechanical structure of the human body while maintaining gait, both of which will gradually disappear with age. Many adults who have never run think that they just adapt to jogging at a pace of 10 minutes per mile day after day, regardless of the intensity and speed of running. This is incorrect.
There are three ways to increase speed:
⒈Increase cadence
⒉Increase stride length
⒊Increase cadence Also increase the stride length
The first method is more preferable than the second method. Increasing the stride length will cause the stride length to be too large, which will in turn cause some biomechanical problems and sports injuries.
Speed training, especially in track and field, should be a gradual (painless) increase in cadence and stride length. The important thing is to improve gradually. Speed training on the track is important for developing a feel for speed while also providing an opportunity to improve running form.
What is the best and simplest training method on the track and field?
Rest
Of the 4 elements of running, many runners have laid a good foundation in training endurance. Some runners coordinate speed and endurance quite well.
However, few runners take this important part of rest seriously. There is enough evidence to prove that rest is the most important factor among the 4 basic elements. Running brings us many benefits, and these benefits are all obtained at a cost. In running, this price is the repeated process of constant destruction and reorganization of muscle tissue in the body. Running endlessly will eventually lead to muscle damage, and in running we think of damage and overuse as synonymous. And muscle tissue becomes stronger than before after resting.
In order for us to stay healthy, injury-free, and run better, we need to follow some basic principles when running.
1. Run a few fewer days a week.
2. Replace 1 or 2 days of running with some low-intensity training each week. Such as aerobic, sweaty training on a power bike.
3. Incorporate some walking activity into your training
4. There should be fewer races.
5. When you have no competition tasks and are preparing to maintain your physical fitness, you should try to reduce the amount of exercise as much as possible to maintain performance and insist on reducing the amount of training.
6. Perform deep tissue massage in a planned manner.
7. Apply the same theory to your daily life. We should learn the art of rest and relaxation as much as we learn to work. This art is worth pursuing. By learning to rest and relax creatively, our bodies and minds can recover and become stronger.