Core Training - The New Approach to Running and Triathlon

Plank with medicine ball. One of the many challenging core workouts that runners should embrace.

A lot of coaches have similar philosophy of training. It is evident that we all strive to achieve the same ends for our athletes. And, for most of us, we support each other in achieving these goals.

It is the approaches that are different.

The approaches are as different as the athletes themselves, so a good coach keeps his mind open when it comes to approaches that differ from his.

My approach has definitely evolved over the years. And I'm not alone on this either. Many other good coaches, when given new data, have modified their approaches when new data has come out.

Take strength training, for example. It used to be that traditional weightlifting was the way to go. Get in the gym, throw some weight around, isolate the key muscle groups, and that should be good to get runners better.

Well, I religiously did that for two years in my personal triathlon training and it did nothing for me. And in recent years, science has proven my point.

Now it's functional fitness and core training. And this differs from traditional weightlifting in that you're NOT isolating muscles. Instead, you're recruiting a multitude of muscles to achieve an overall efficient movement.

You know, like running, swimming, and cycling!

Exercise is VERY specific. You isolate muscles in certain movements, and they'll do just that...and not recruit other muscles in the process. This doesn't achieve any goals when it comes to running and triathlon. Not at all.



But if you teach these muscles to help one another out, the result is greater than any individual muscle can achieve on its own.

I started doing functional fitness last year and I've seen gains like I haven't seen with traditional weightlifting. Now, for my 2019 training, I've upped the ante. My core does need a bit more work, so I've started training it three times per week.

A Google search for core training for running yields a plethora of information. Functional core training has seen many good returns!

And I got many of my athletes to embrace it. I'm already seeing gains from them.

And I think through these strength sessions, we're all going to do awfully well in our respective races in 2019!