Dr. Yessis Sports Training Blog

Runners often substitute cycling to maintain leg strength and sometimes to help improve running speed. Cycling is a good substitute when you are not able to run as it does involve the same muscles but not to the same degree.

For example, cycling relies mainly on the quadriceps in leg extension. It is a dynamic move that powers the cyclists forward. Read more… »

Many athletes persist in trying to use the glutes and hamstrings in the running push-off. The reason for this is that they still believe that the gluteus maximus and hamstrings are the key muscles involved in the push off. But they are not.

The reason for this is that the glutes and hamstrings cannot be used in the push-off. During the push-off the leg is in contact with the ground. The leg joints (hips, knee, ankle) are undergoing flexion and the muscles are in an eccentric contraction. Read more… »

If you read the many reviews of running shoes and what each shoe supposedly does, it makes you wonder why we don’t have more outstanding runners. But then it may be due to some of the information about shoes presented on a lack of understanding of what occurs in running.

For example, according to an article in Runners World, “…a shoes flexibility is … important in helping the body generate maximum propulsion …” This flexibility is needed since “runners spend 70 to 80% of their time on the balls of their feet as they transition from footstrike to toe-off”.
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Runners often substitute cycling to maintain leg strength and sometimes to help improve running speed. Cycling is a good substitute when you are not able to run as it does involve the same muscles but not to the same degree.

For example, cycling relies mainly on the quadriceps in leg extension. It is a dynamic move that powers the cyclists forward. For runners, the quadriceps are used mainly for preventing excessive lowering of the body after touchdown and to create the vertical forces when pushing off in runners with poor technique who push off with a body above the foot. Read more… »

I recently ran across this exercise called Ninos, which plays a major role in the training of Ryan Hall, one of our premier marathoners. According to the article, it is a “rarely- seen core stabilizing move… and one that encourages hip stability and overall coordination.”

I agree that it is rarely seen and I hope it will be seen even less. The reason for this is that this exercise has the potential to injure the lower back. Bending and twisting as occurs in this exercise is one of the main causes of low back problems. This is why it is recommended that you maintain the normal spinal curvature when doing any twisting. Read more… »

According to Toby Tanser, who trained and help coach top Kenyons, runners “who do nothing but run have pure symmetry because they have only strengthened the muscles needed for running”. He believes that a runner’s arms are needed only for balance, and that the legs are best strengthed with running and plyometric drills.

These may be logical conclusions if you see runners only doing running training. However to fully evaluate running progress, it is necessary to look closely at how much hill running is done, the angle of incline of the hills and how much speed work is done and the terrain upon which it is accomplished. These are crucial factors in regard to development of strength and speed. Read more… »

After reading the reverse sit up blog, a few readers asked if the hanging leg raise was a good substitute exercise for strengthening the lower abdominal muscles –along with the hip flexors. Both of these muscles are strongly involved in hill running as well as in sprinting.

The hanging leg raise is a good exercise, but it mainly targets the lower abdominals. The hip flexors are involved but only moderately, unless you do straight leg raises in which you have a long lever and great resistance. If you raise the knees with the legs bent there is much less resistance. Read more… »

In a popular fitness magazine, it was stated that “it’s impossible to sprint as fast as possible without ‘digging in’ with your quad muscles”. According to the article, “as your foot strikes the ground squeeze your quads and use them to pull forward through each stride.”

Not spelled out however, was how it is possible to do this since EMG studies show that the quads do not play a role in moving your body forward. It is impossible for them to pull you forward since the main role of the quads is to support your body during the ground contact phase. Read more… »

Many runners believe that by running more and/or running faster, their legs become stronger. To a limited extent this is true, but if you do not run at a faster speed all the time, or at least at the same speed, the strength that you gained will soon be lost.

Also important to keep in mind that every time you increase your speed of running, if you do not have the strength to withstand the forces that are involved in each touchdown, then you are opening yourself up for injury. Understand that you do not increase strength during the run. Increases in strength occur afterward during recovery but only if there was sufficient overload to bring about super compensation. Read more… »

The overhead press strength exercise seems to appear in almost every article that deals with strength training for runners. There is no questioning the fact that the overhead press is a great exercise for strengthening the shoulders, especially the middle deltoid muscle. But will it improve or help your running?

Sadly, the answer is no. It is a great exercise for overall strengthening of the shoulders, but it has little to do with running. As a result, it will not make you run faster, longer and/or further. The reason for this is that the strength developed in the overhead press is not used in running.
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To improve performance, runners typically get involved in a weight training program to strengthen mainly the legs. Many also do core training (strengthening the midsection), and only rarely the arm and shoulder muscles. Strengthening these muscles is very important for successful running and your running will benefit.

For an even greater benefit to your running, the strength exercises should duplicate the joint and muscle actions displayed in your running. In other words, the strength training should be specific to the running technique. This means that you develop greater strength in the same neurological pathway established in your running technique. Read more… »

According to Tom Seabourne “sprinters carry a huge amount of muscle in their quads and hamstrings. They are all muscle from sprinting.”

To a certain extent, this statement is true since sprinting does help develop the fast twitch fibers which can lead to greater muscle mass. However, increases in muscle mass typically occur from heavy weightlifting programs not from speed and explosive work. In other words, just because the explosive white twitch fibers are involved in sprinting, it doesn’t mean that they increase in size because of this. Read more… »

What causes hamstring injuries? If you read articles on this topic, invariably you will be told that overstretching or forcefully stretching the hamstring can strain or tear the muscle or cause sharp pain, spasm, swelling and bruising. If it hurts to run or if your hamstring is bruised and tender, the diagnosis is overtraining, muscle tightness and fatigue. If you have pain while walking but not running, the diagnosis is possible low back injury.

You may also read that inflexible hamstrings limit motion and stress the lower back. If you have knee pain, it may be due to hamstring tightness (or weakness) because the knee has to work harder to perform extension movements. What is not mentioned however, is what inflexible or tight and strings are. Read more… »

According to an article in Runners World, “…weak abdominal muscles don’t support the back well. This strains the hip muscles and puts tension on the lower back which can cause painful back muscle spasms.”

To fix the problem it is recommended that you build strong abs. The exercise that is recommended is to lie face up with the hands under your lower back with the knees bent 90 degrees. Then contract your abs and slowly extend one leg so that the foot comes close to the ground and then hold for three seconds. Do three sets of ten with each leg. Is this, however, a good exercise for strengthening the abs and is this recommendation based on a sound information? Read more… »

According to many sources you get an imbalance between the gluteals and hamstring muscles (hip joint extensors) and the hip flexor muscles (iliopsoas, pectineus and rectus femoris of the quadriceps group) from running. According to these running specialists, weak gluteals do not allow you to “swing through” your stride. The hip flexors are then recruited to pick up the slack. They pull the pelvis down making the lower back arch excessively.

If you study these statements carefully they are difficult to understand. How can weak gluteals prevent you from “swinging through”? If anything they should enhance it! Emg’s of the muscle activity show that the swing-through of the thigh is made possible by contraction of the hip flexors with concurrent relaxation of the gluteal and hamstring muscles that contract at the end of the movement to stop the thigh when it is well in front of the body. Read more… »

According to many sources you get an imbalance between the gluteals and hamstring muscles (hip joint extensors) and the hip flexor muscles (iliopsoas, pectineus and rectus femoris of the quadriceps) from running. According to these running specialists, weak gluteals and hamstrings do not allow you to “swing through” your stride. The hip flexors are then recruited to pick up the slack. They pull the pelvis down making the lower back arch excessively.

If you study these statements carefully they are difficult to understand. How can weak gluteals and hamstrings prevent you from “swinging through”? If anything they should enhance it! Emg’s of the muscle activity show that the swing-through of the thigh is made possible by contraction of the hip flexors with concurrent relaxation of the gluteal and hamstring muscles that contract at the end of the movement to stop the thigh when it is well in front of the body. Read more… »