Weight Lifting Help Please!!

[Shannon Rose]

Hi, I'm new to this website and it's amazing!  I've been running for about a year and a half, just did the Indy Mini and Sunburst 10K.  I want to start implimenting weights into my training.  I am unable to go to a gym to lift.  I have 3,5,and 8 weights at home.  What can I do to start weight training at home?

If there are a few things you would recommend for me to purchase that aren't expensive that would be good for at home, please feel free to give those suggestions as well.

thanks!

[Paul Petersen]

Your best friend at a "home gym" is an exercise/stability ball. You can usually find these for about $20. I use mine for core work (crunches, etc.), squats, push-ups, and other things. You can incorporate your dumbbells into many of these exercises. Most balls come with a poster or set of instructions with pictures and descriptions of different exercises.

Lunges are also good for running, and can be done without extra weights or with light dumbbells.

[Sasha Pachev]

Paul had some good ideas on what you can do. In addition to that, I would caution against a common mistake. Do not weight train at the expense of your mileage, do it in addition. While weight training is beneficial, its benefits are much smaller than what you would get from just running up to at least 70 miles a week where some people start to hit the law of diminishing returns. Ideally you should do both, but as the time is limited you need to find a balance. If you have an hour you should probably run for 50 minutes and weight train for 10 or something like that, not the other way around.

[Josse]

Hi there, I use the ball to do a core workout.  I love the ball, you get a better workout on it.   I don't like doing lunges but use the ball and do squats with it.  I put the ball between the wall and my back and use it for guidance up and down (just make sure that your knees don't go over your toes).  I use the free wieghts to do arms and don't really do much leg stuff because of all the running.  I do about 15-20 mins twice a week.  But also do yoga that is a tough arm workout.

[Shannon Rose]

Well the good news is I do have a ball!!  I'm going to try these ideas.  If you have any more ideas on how to use the ball, that would be great   Right now I run about 12 miles a week, so I need to up that A LOT to hit 70, goodness that's sounds like a ton!!  I do 4 miles 3 times a week, but I am going to try to up it to running 4 times a week. 

[Paul Petersen]

Try doing a google search for ball exercises. I'm sure you will find some. Pictures are more helpful and concise than written descriptions, IMO.

[Sasha Pachev]

Shannon - run 6 days a week for best results. If 4 miles a day 6 days a week is too much, then do 2 miles a day 6 days a week. You will get better results than 4 miles a day 3 days a week.

[Joe Furse]

One thing that I did in High school was get some surgical tubing (that's the yellowish colored rubber tubing, or some other stretchy, tieable material) and tie it to my bedframe or some other immovable object and use that as resistance for some light to medium leg and arm work.  This method is very useful also to isolate different parts of your stride and strengthen the muscles that produce that movement in proportion...like knee ups or something (kinda hard to explain).  Great for injury prevention.  Also use your body for resistance too...i.e. situps, pushups, pullups etc.  For running it's especially important to have a strong core so do lots of abs and stuff.  At least that helped me...hope it helps.

[adam]

At one of the clinics I work at we use surgical tubing for resistance training, but it is more for rehab than anything else. It is fun to use though and very practical.

A good resistance program for distance training will focus on the core especially, back muscles, and overall leg muscles. Multi-joint exercises (such as the bench press, lat pulldown, or dead lift) can give a lot of benefit over single joint (such as just a bicep curl).

Some distance specific resistance exercises can include: Back raises, bench press, rowing (horizontal or bent over), dead lift, glute-ham raise, heel raise, lat pulldown, leg curl, leg extension, overhead press, squats, toe extension, triceps extension, and then bicep/wrist curls too, if you want.

[Sean Sundwall]

AGree with Sasha. Do not cut out mileage to make room for weights. You will run the risk of getting bulkier and heavier than you need to be.

[seesuerun]

Shannon,

I teach a power tone class at a University. I also personal trainer and specialize in helping people to work out at home. I am full and am not taking clients for a while but if you come to my class (first time is free and you don't have to be a student) and tell me who you are I can give you some pointers and I can focus the class on using mostly the hand weight sizes that you have at home. I love weights and feel like it makes a real difference in the way I look. I focus on muscular endurance and not so much strength so it will help in running.

Right now there are bands at walmart for $6-7. That is the cheapest I have seen for a while. They are the tubing with handles on them. There are a lot you can do with those bands and the springy resistance adds variety.

If you are interested in the coming to the class one time shoot me an email and I will give you the details.

Sue