Pay attention to Smart Running to help you run as light as a feather and without injury
The opening of the Tokyo Olympics is getting closer and closer. As the leader of the Chinese track and field team, Su Bingtian naturally bears a lot of pressure and responsibility.
Su Bingtian has broken the 10-second barrier 7 times and is currently in good condition. This means that as long as he performs stably, Su Bingtian is very hopeful to stand on the stage of the Olympic 100-meter flying showdown. At the same time, he is also expected to lead the Chinese 4×100-meter relay team. He even won a medal in the near finals, which is Su Bingtian's goal for participating in the Olympics this time.
Su Bingtian, who was born in 1989, is 32 years old this year. Although he often jokes that he is "too old", his body and condition are still in good condition. Su Bingtian's competitive career has not been smooth sailing in the past few years. In the early days, he encountered a relatively sluggish state, so that many people looked down on the prospects of this 30+ veteran in the Tokyo Olympics;
but Su Bingtian had a clear understanding of himself, and let others go his own way. This is The attitude that adults and mature life should have, Su Bingtian returns to his peak state in 2021.
On June 11, 2021, at the National Track and Field Championships and Tokyo Olympic Trials, Su Bingtian ran a good result of 9.98 meters in the men's 100-meter final, successfully winning the championship and reaching the standards for participating in the Olympic Games.
This time Su Bingtian ran 9.98 meters, which not only refreshed his personal season best, but also opened the 10-second mark again before the Olympics. This not only reflects that his current condition is very good, but also greatly encourages his personal confidence.
There is no doubt that the most famous, strongest and experienced sprinter in China is Su Bingtian. He is also one of the focus figures of the Chinese track and field team and even the Chinese delegation.
The Tokyo Olympics may be the last Olympic Games for the 32-year-old Su Bingtian. I also hope that he can achieve his goals in Tokyo, stand on the stage of the 100-meter decisive battle in the Olympic Games, and complete a breakthrough in personal and Chinese sprint history. Come on Su Bingtian!
What makes China Dash so rapid?
. Adhere to the path of internationalization
A very important reason why China Dash can continue to break through history is that it adheres to the internationalization strategy of "going out and inviting in".
The typical person invited in is the 65-year-old American man Randy Huntington. This top coach who once brought out Michael Powell, the men's long jump world record holder, and Banks, the former men's long jump world record holder, came to China a few years ago and began to coach the long jump team. It brought out a number of top athletes such as Li Jinzhe , Wang Jianan , Gao Xinglong .
Not only that, he also taught Wei Yongli, the number one female sprinter, how to use the gluteal muscles to generate force and how to strengthen the line pressing technique; at the same time, he also helped Su Bingtian change his starting technique.
Importantly, Huntington also brought a new training method to the track and field team.
Going global is reflected in the continuous organization of athletes to train and compete abroad, so that Chinese athletes continue to internationalize.
Su Bingtian has gone to the United States for training several times in recent years. Previously, his speed in the second half was slow. After receiving training from an American coach, his performance improved significantly. During the training of Chinese sprinters in the United States, in addition to foreign head coaches, they are also equipped with multiple assistant coaches and physical coaches. After training, they use hydrotherapy, vibrators or other recovery methods immediately. In addition, orthopedic sports experts provide services.
The Chinese coach said: "The amount of training that needs to be completed in one hour abroad must not be divided into two hours, and then immediately follow the hydrotherapy, ice therapy and recovery, one link after another."Scientific training, strengthening international exchanges, updating training concepts, and paying attention to fatigue recovery have all become the reasons for the rapid growth of the Chinese sprint team.
. There is no racial distinction in sports. We only talk about scientific training.
Black sprinters have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, strong explosive power, and pelvic muscles. Narrow, long Achilles tendon and other advantages, so black athletes have racial advantages over yellow people. If this statement is correct, does it mean that yellow people have a higher proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibers than black people, and we are more suitable for long-distance running?
As we all know, long-distance running is still the domain of Kenyans and Ethiopians . In other words, the fast twitch muscle fibers of yellow people are not as good as others, and the slow twitch muscle fibers are not as good as others. Such people do not look for reasons from their own training and shirk responsibility. They are lazy people. In fact, thinking is harmful.
In fact, there were major deviations in the training concept of sprinting in my country a few years ago. For example, it did not pay attention to upper limb strength training, and only focused on the training of the quadriceps on the front of the thigh, neglecting the gluteal muscles, The methods of training the hamstring muscles and strength training are single and do not pay attention to post-training recovery and other issues.
. Pay great attention to and carry out targeted strength training for running.
Strength is one of the most important physical qualities required in almost all sports. First, this is especially true for sprinting. For a long time, strength has been the shortcoming of Chinese athletes. On the one hand, this reflects that our coaches and athletes do not pay enough attention to strength training. On the other hand, it also shows that Chinese athletes are not very good at strength training, especially special strength training. Training.
For example, in terms of sprint strength training, the traditional view is that squats represent everything, but even if our athletes do a lot of squats, they still cannot outrun black athletes. And if you look at how Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye are doing it now For strength training, you will understand why the two of them are so strong, because the strength training they perform has been highly integrated with running.
Of course, this does not mean that squats are bad, or that squats are not important, but that deep squats are not important. Squats are not everything in strength training for sprinters.
Perform running-specific strength training like Su Bingtian.
. Squatting is a good movement, but it also has flaws.
For novice runners, squatting exercises are helpful to improve strength. , for experienced runners or runners with a certain running foundation, the effect of squat exercises on improving running ability is gradually decreasing or has almost no effect.
Because squats are only a basic strength training method, not a specialized strength training method for running.
Even if the strength has improved, the legs seem to have more strength. Whether it can be used for running is another matter!
. The form of squatting is different from running.
What kind of strength is the specialized strength that runners need?
Strength training that is highly integrated with running movements. Exercises that train the whole body to coordinate and exert force are the specialized strength that runners need.
Against this standard, let’s take a look at why squats are not a strength training exercise for running.
The basic action when running is to push off the ground with one leg to exert force, while the other leg steps forward. Therefore, the two legs perform different actions. When doing a squat, although the ground is also pushed up to exert force, the The two legs perform exactly the same movements, so squatting does not meet the characteristics of the lower limbs in running. No matter how good you do squatting, it cannot be applied in running.
In addition, when squatting, it is an action of hip extension and knee extension, while when running, when landing on the ground to exert force, the back leg knee extension is not large, but more of a hip extension followed by knee flexion (swinging the thigh back, folding the calf). The front leg is a movement of hip and knee flexion (leg lifting), so after movement analysis, the structure of squatting and running movements are completely different.
. The muscles exercised by squatting are different from running.
When squatting, the buttock muscles and the quadriceps on the front side of the thigh are mainly exercised. These two groups of muscles mainly play an important role in the process of pushing off the ground. These two muscles Although the strength of the leg is important, running also requires the simultaneous participation of two other groups of muscles, especially the hip flexor muscles (iliopsoas) and the hamstring muscles (hamstrings). These two groups of muscles play an important role in folding the calf and raising the leg. effect.
Therefore, squatting actually only exercises part of the muscle strength required for running. Squatting cannot exercise the power of pushing off the back leg, folding the calf and swinging the front leg, which is required for running. Only the stronger calf can be exercised. By folding and raising your legs, you can increase your stride length and save more effort without affecting your cadence.
This is illustrated by the strong ability of high-level runners to lift their legs and fold their calves.
. Incorrect squatting is very harmful to the body.
From the previous two points of analysis, we can know that squatting is only a general exercise method to enhance leg strength. The leg strength enhanced by squatting is difficult to truly apply to running.
Moreover, if the squat is not done standardly, it will also cause great harm to the body. The most common wrong movements include excessive knees over the toes, buckling the knees in, and bending over. These wrong movements not only cannot help improve strength, but also lead to The pressure on the knees and lower back increases, and the more you practice, the more painful it becomes.
After the above scientific analysis, runners should know that squatting can enhance basic strength and is suitable for ordinary people and novice runners. If you are a runner with a certain foundation or a senior runner who wants to improve the specific strength of the lower limbs, squatting Squatting is no longer enough, you need real running-specific strength.
. Running strength training needs to be closely centered around single-leg kicking and swinging the leg.
Only strength training that simulates running movements is truly efficient strength training.
What are the core features of running action?
That is, one leg is always exerting force, and the legs alternately push back and swing forward, and at the same time, there is also a certain amount of lifting and folding of the calf.
Therefore, simulating the forward swing of one leg with pulling and folding, and the action of pushing one leg back is a special strength training for running. This is also the movement that Su Bingtian focuses on training in special strength training for running.
running-specific strength training movements suitable for mass runners
running-specific strength training movements
1
single-leg deadlift
Analyze this action carefully and find that pushing off the back leg is actually a coordinated process of the gluteal muscles exerting force to extend the hip and the hamstring muscles exerting force to fold the calf.
This action mainly trains the ability of the hip muscles and hamstring muscles to coordinate and exert force.
2
Single-leg deadlift followed by knee lift
Compared with single-leg deadlift plus knee lift, it is more integrated with running.
3
Single-leg supine hip thrust
Compared with the supine hip thrust in basic strength training, the single leg increases the difficulty and strengthens core control. It also conforms to the technical characteristics of running single-leg push and stretch.
4
Single-leg supine hip thrust and knee lift
Compared with single-leg supine hip thrust, it is more integrated with running-specific movements.
5
Lunge followed by leg raise
A very typical push-up extension followed by leg swing, which is consistent with running movements.
6
Going up the steps with one leg and then Raising the leg high
also requires one leg to push hard and stretch up the step, and the other leg to swing up actively, which is consistent with the height of the running action.
These are the movements Su Bingtian trained!
7
Side bridge arm swing and leg swing
This action swings the arms and legs in the side bridge position. The action imitates running and requires good pelvic control. It is a full-body training action that seems simple but is actually difficult to control.
8
Lunge and jump forward
to train the explosive power of supporting leg extension and swing leg swing. It is also a special strength training action combined with running.
Summary
The success of Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye is the success of China’s sprint innovation. Their emphasis on running-specific strength training is also an important part of it. Whether it is sprinting or long-distance running, strength training is very important.
Running Research Club has carefully created a series of courses called "20 Lectures on Specialized Strength Training for Runners" for the public runners. It will explain in detail the upper limb, lower limb and core strength training movements for runners. You will be able to practice it after reading it.
(Click on the column card to listen to the course)
. There is no racial distinction in sports. We only talk about scientific training.
Black sprinters have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, strong explosive power, and pelvic muscles. Narrow, long Achilles tendon and other advantages, so black athletes have racial advantages over yellow people. If this statement is correct, does it mean that yellow people have a higher proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibers than black people, and we are more suitable for long-distance running?
As we all know, long-distance running is still the domain of Kenyans and Ethiopians . In other words, the fast twitch muscle fibers of yellow people are not as good as others, and the slow twitch muscle fibers are not as good as others. Such people do not look for reasons from their own training and shirk responsibility. They are lazy people. In fact, thinking is harmful.
In fact, there were major deviations in the training concept of sprinting in my country a few years ago. For example, it did not pay attention to upper limb strength training, and only focused on the training of the quadriceps on the front of the thigh, neglecting the gluteal muscles, The methods of training the hamstring muscles and strength training are single and do not pay attention to post-training recovery and other issues.
. Pay great attention to and carry out targeted strength training for running.
Strength is one of the most important physical qualities required in almost all sports. First, this is especially true for sprinting. For a long time, strength has been the shortcoming of Chinese athletes. On the one hand, this reflects that our coaches and athletes do not pay enough attention to strength training. On the other hand, it also shows that Chinese athletes are not very good at strength training, especially special strength training. Training.
For example, in terms of sprint strength training, the traditional view is that squats represent everything, but even if our athletes do a lot of squats, they still cannot outrun black athletes. And if you look at how Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye are doing it now For strength training, you will understand why the two of them are so strong, because the strength training they perform has been highly integrated with running.
Of course, this does not mean that squats are bad, or that squats are not important, but that deep squats are not important. Squats are not everything in strength training for sprinters.
Perform running-specific strength training like Su Bingtian.
. Squatting is a good movement, but it also has flaws.
For novice runners, squatting exercises are helpful to improve strength. , for experienced runners or runners with a certain running foundation, the effect of squat exercises on improving running ability is gradually decreasing or has almost no effect.
Because squats are only a basic strength training method, not a specialized strength training method for running.
Even if the strength has improved, the legs seem to have more strength. Whether it can be used for running is another matter!
. The form of squatting is different from running.
What kind of strength is the specialized strength that runners need?
Strength training that is highly integrated with running movements. Exercises that train the whole body to coordinate and exert force are the specialized strength that runners need.
Against this standard, let’s take a look at why squats are not a strength training exercise for running.
The basic action when running is to push off the ground with one leg to exert force, while the other leg steps forward. Therefore, the two legs perform different actions. When doing a squat, although the ground is also pushed up to exert force, the The two legs perform exactly the same movements, so squatting does not meet the characteristics of the lower limbs in running. No matter how good you do squatting, it cannot be applied in running.
In addition, when squatting, it is an action of hip extension and knee extension, while when running, when landing on the ground to exert force, the back leg knee extension is not large, but more of a hip extension followed by knee flexion (swinging the thigh back, folding the calf). The front leg is a movement of hip and knee flexion (leg lifting), so after movement analysis, the structure of squatting and running movements are completely different.
. The muscles exercised by squatting are different from running.
When squatting, the buttock muscles and the quadriceps on the front side of the thigh are mainly exercised. These two groups of muscles mainly play an important role in the process of pushing off the ground. These two muscles Although the strength of the leg is important, running also requires the simultaneous participation of two other groups of muscles, especially the hip flexor muscles (iliopsoas) and the hamstring muscles (hamstrings). These two groups of muscles play an important role in folding the calf and raising the leg. effect.
Therefore, squatting actually only exercises part of the muscle strength required for running. Squatting cannot exercise the power of pushing off the back leg, folding the calf and swinging the front leg, which is required for running. Only the stronger calf can be exercised. By folding and raising your legs, you can increase your stride length and save more effort without affecting your cadence.
This is illustrated by the strong ability of high-level runners to lift their legs and fold their calves.
. Incorrect squatting is very harmful to the body.
From the previous two points of analysis, we can know that squatting is only a general exercise method to enhance leg strength. The leg strength enhanced by squatting is difficult to truly apply to running.
Moreover, if the squat is not done standardly, it will also cause great harm to the body. The most common wrong movements include excessive knees over the toes, buckling the knees in, and bending over. These wrong movements not only cannot help improve strength, but also lead to The pressure on the knees and lower back increases, and the more you practice, the more painful it becomes.
After the above scientific analysis, runners should know that squatting can enhance basic strength and is suitable for ordinary people and novice runners. If you are a runner with a certain foundation or a senior runner who wants to improve the specific strength of the lower limbs, squatting Squatting is no longer enough, you need real running-specific strength.
. Running strength training needs to be closely centered around single-leg kicking and swinging the leg.
Only strength training that simulates running movements is truly efficient strength training.
What are the core features of running action?
That is, one leg is always exerting force, and the legs alternately push back and swing forward, and at the same time, there is also a certain amount of lifting and folding of the calf.
Therefore, simulating the forward swing of one leg with pulling and folding, and the action of pushing one leg back is a special strength training for running. This is also the movement that Su Bingtian focuses on training in special strength training for running.
running-specific strength training movements suitable for mass runners
running-specific strength training movements
1
single-leg deadlift
Analyze this action carefully and find that pushing off the back leg is actually a coordinated process of the gluteal muscles exerting force to extend the hip and the hamstring muscles exerting force to fold the calf.
This action mainly trains the ability of the hip muscles and hamstring muscles to coordinate and exert force.
2
Single-leg deadlift followed by knee lift
Compared with single-leg deadlift plus knee lift, it is more integrated with running.
3
Single-leg supine hip thrust
Compared with the supine hip thrust in basic strength training, the single leg increases the difficulty and strengthens core control. It also conforms to the technical characteristics of running single-leg push and stretch.
4
Single-leg supine hip thrust and knee lift
Compared with single-leg supine hip thrust, it is more integrated with running-specific movements.
5
Lunge followed by leg raise
A very typical push-up extension followed by leg swing, which is consistent with running movements.
6
Going up the steps with one leg and then Raising the leg high
also requires one leg to push hard and stretch up the step, and the other leg to swing up actively, which is consistent with the height of the running action.
These are the movements Su Bingtian trained!
7
Side bridge arm swing and leg swing
This action swings the arms and legs in the side bridge position. The action imitates running and requires good pelvic control. It is a full-body training action that seems simple but is actually difficult to control.
8
Lunge and jump forward
to train the explosive power of supporting leg extension and swing leg swing. It is also a special strength training action combined with running.
Summary
The success of Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye is the success of China’s sprint innovation. Their emphasis on running-specific strength training is also an important part of it. Whether it is sprinting or long-distance running, strength training is very important.
Running Research Club has carefully created a series of courses called "20 Lectures on Specialized Strength Training for Runners" for the public runners. It will explain in detail the upper limb, lower limb and core strength training movements for runners. You will be able to practice it after reading it.
(Click on the column card to listen to the course)
