It's back to that time of year when it gets colder and the days grow shorter. Runners either brave the cold or become gerbils on the habitrail (treadmill). If you've been obsessed with training, you realize that early darkness is more difficult to deal with than the Colorado cold, which is relatively mild.

One way to reduce the guilt of not running as much during the winter is to cross train. Several moths age I wrote an article (which I know you all read) on cross training to maintain your aerobic base while recovering from injury. This article will address resistance training to strengthen the muscles used in running, help maintain lean body mass and reduce our risk of injury.

The cardiovascular benefits of running are well known to most runners, but just as with chocolate, there is a "dark side" to running as our sole form of exercise. Studies on prolonged endurance exercise (triathletes listen up!) demonstrate a rise in cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that leads to a breakdown of lean body mass and promotes abdominal weight gain. Cortisol levels also rise with increased emotional stress, which indicates a mind-body interaction (not as strange as people thought 10 years ago). Essentially, cortisol is a marker for a "catabolic" state in the body, where proteins, as in muscle proteins, are being broken down - not good.

Resistance training places more stress on the body, initially increasing cortisol levels, but after a relatively short time, cortisol levels begin to drop and anabolic hormone levels begin to rise. These hormones promote the growth of lean body mass (muscle mass) which can make you:
1. Stronger: reducing your risk of injury
2. Leaner: lean body mass burns more calories at rest, enabling you to lose weight quicker
3. Better looking: check out these guns!
4. Less emotionally stressed: nothing like your new ability to kick someone's a__ after they kick sand in your face!

This is why anabolic hormones are so frequently part of the "nutritional supplements" used by professional wrestlers and football players.

The concept of "specificity of training" has been known by exercise physiologists for decades now. It means your training should be designed specifically for what you want to achieve, and the closer your training mimics your desired results (event), the more effective your training will be. As endurance athletes, we don't want to pile on muscle that our bodies then have to haul through a long race; we want muscles that will help us achieve our chosen endeavor.

Don't worry, bulking up (for you ladies) and losing flexibility are two myths that can be easily avoided by aligning your cross training program with your goals. Bulking up is caused by lower repetitions (6-10) with higher resistance and longer rest periods (over 1 minute). High repetitions (12-15) with lower resistance, and short (30 second) rest periods between sets increases your lean body mass and promotes capillary formation to feed the new muscle proteins oxygen and decrease the propensity for "bulking up". This results in muscle tissue that is useful during endurance events. Stretching the body parts exercised between each set will prevent you from losing flexibility. Women will not tend to bulk up as much as men because their bodies don't produce as high levels of anabolic hormones as men.

Keeping the specificity of training idea in mind, we want to work the muscles used in our endurance training, these can often involve the whole body (we tend to bring the whole thing to the finish line). Runners are going to want to concentrate on their leg and "core" muscles, but upper body strength will give us a better kick.

Core strength is currently a hot topic in most exercise circles and refers to the muscles of the trunk (abdomen/back muscles) working together. The basis for this is that by stabilizing the point from which movement occurs (the trunk), any movement coming from that point will be stronger. For example, exercises performed on machines, like seated knee extensions, support your trunk (with the seat) taking trunk strength out of the picture, and can lead to imbalances between the legs and the trunk musculature. The following exercises train the trunk and legs together which will lead to greater carryover into running/cycling/swimming improvement. The balance required by each exercise subconsciously recruits your core muscles. Pay particular attention to your form, balance and time. Stop when any one is altered. To increase resistance, hold a dumbbell in your hand.

Bridges
With your arms crossed on your chest, exhale and tighten your abdominals to stabilize low the back. Raise your pelvis and squeeze your gluts until your pelvis is in line with your knees and shoulders. Hold for 30 seconds. Advanced: Raise one leg slowly and straighten. Do not allow the pelvis to drop. Then return and raise opposite leg.

Golf Touches
Begin with your feet together and arms at your sides. Bend forward slowly while rotating over one hip. Keep opposite leg straight while bending and reaching downward with opposite arm. Reach as far downward as possible while maintaining balance and return slowly to starting position. Repeat. Then perform with other leg.

Helicopters
Similar to a lunge, except begin with your arms extended out to the side. Take a large step forward. Keep your upper body erect, with toes pointing straight ahead and do not lean forward. Bend downward until your knee approaches the floor. Make sure the forward knee does not extend past your toes. Then turn towards extended leg with only your upper body, maintaining lower body position. Return to starting position and repeat with other leg.

Dr. Ken Sheridan is a road and trail runner who competes in a variety of local events. He practices at Active Care Chiropractic and Rehab in Golden. To ask him your injury questions, call 303-279-0320.