How Does a Strength Coach with MS Train for a Half Marathon? Part 2 – Lifting

by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS

Last week I provided a high level overview of my training as I prepare for the 2022 United NY Half Marathon while living with Multiple Sclerosis.  Between the challenges of working, parenting, managing my symptoms and working hard to get enough mileage in for a half marathon, my training program is full of obstacles.  

In that blog post, I discussed how I am handling my mileage, self care, nervous system and overall view of lifting.  This week, I want to take a few minutes and dive deeper into the details of how I am approaching lifting because I think that there are some nuggets in my approach that can be used for other endurance athletes and rehab patients.  

My overall goal for lifting weights while preparing for a half marathon is to provide my central nervous system with a variety of stimulus so it can continue to evolve (variety is the spice of life) and to also avoid overuse injuries.  While I am a strong believer that lifting, especially for endurance athletes, can have a huge impact on performance, that is not my focus.  Honestly, my focus is on surviving the race and having fun doing it.  The better I am trained going into the race, the more likely I am to enjoy the event.

Depending on the week (and everything on my calendar), I am lifting 2-3 days per week.  Here is the focus of my weight room programming:

• Load:  This is a classic mistake that a lot of endurance athletes make.  They don’t use enough load.  The mentality of endurance athletes is usually that they don’t like to lift heavy load and they don’t think that they need it.  No one likes to do things that we aren’t good at, so many endurance athletes shy away from load.  The reason that load is important for this population is that lifting should be supplementing their current training.  It should fill in the gaps with their strength profile and energy systems.  Distance runners already get a ton of low load, endurance work while running, so training them for endurance in the weight room is a waste of time and is often counterproductive.  We want to train the energy systems and capacities that they don’t get while they run.  Distance runners should be training at moderate to high loads to build strength and power (the areas they usually struggle with) to build a well-rounded, resilient athlete.  Further, moderate to high loads stimulate bone remodeling, theoretically decreasing the rate of stress fractures.  For me, I am just looking to stay healthy, so I am currently lifting with what I consider a moderate load (a mere fraction of the loads that I lifted when I played football) considering that I haven’t performed a lot of lower extremity lifting in the past few years.
• Volume:  This is another example of a classic training mistake for endurance athletes.  In an attempt to be “sport specific” many endurance athletes lift low loads for high volume.  Just as with load, this is a mistake because they are getting tons of endurance work done while they run or practice.  We want to keep the volume low to train strength and power to build resilience.  Keeping the volume low will also allow the endurance athlete to lift weights without fatiguing and decreasing performance.
• Power: Running is simply a series of single leg jumps, over and over and over again.  So, why are so many endurance athletes resistant to training for power (i.e. plyometrics, Olympic progressions, etc)?  Because the series of single leg jumps that runners perform is a low level jump, training for power doesn’t have to be very intense or complicated.  But, there does need to be some power development work  included in their training.  I personally am not very interested in performing Olympic lifts at this stage of my life, so the focus of my power training is box jumps and contrast training.
• Deceleration:  If we are performing thousands of single leg jumps while running, we are also performing thousands of single leg landings, necessitating work on deceleration and shock absorption.  This training also doesn’t have to be complicated for this population, but it is important for reducing stress injuries.  The goal is to remind the body to use their muscles to decelerate under control instead of their joints.  This unloads the foot, ankle, knee, hip and spine joints and promotes long term health in these areas. 
• Rotary Stability:  Training rotational stability is imperative for the distance runner and often overlooked.  Many people think that they don’t need to train rotation because they are running straight ahead, and not actively rotating.  The problem with that mindset is that it allows the athlete to leak energy in the form of very small, rotations over and over at the hip and pelvis.  If an endurance athlete is missing rotational stability, their pelvis will rock forward and back as they put force into the ground.  These small, oftentimes unnoticed rotations will lead to low back, low leg or foot pain at some point.  The focus should be on resisted rotation exercises to build rotational stability.  Distance runners don’t need to be able to create high quality, dynamic rotation, but they do need to know how to resist unwanted rotation.  
• Hip Stability:  Endurance athletes often struggle with hip strength and stability over time.  This is unfortunate because the glutes play an important role in running economy, stride length, and injury prevention.  It is important that we train the hip stabilizers in multiple planes of motion (i.e. transverse and frontal planes) to supplement their running.  This can be as simple as miniband sidesteps, core engaged bridging or open chain hip rotations.
• Single Leg Movements:  Single leg movements are important for all individuals, but especially for me, considering my right leg is quite a bit weaker and less stable due to my MS.  Performing single leg exercises allows me to focus on each limb separately and minimize my asymmetries.  As with a lot of the above programming principles, this should be part of everyone’s training plan.
• Upper Extremity:  I’m not going to focus a lot in this post on my upper body lifting, other than to say that I perform upper body lifting to feel good, look less mediocre with my shirt off, be able to continue to beat my sons in a pushup contest when needed, and include it as part of a well-rounded program.  Just as I believe, that athletes who can perform more pullups tend to sprain their ankles less, I also believe that people who have a strong upper body, tend to be more efficient and resilient runners.  

Here are a couple of sample workouts:

Day 1

• Superset 1:
  • Bench Press 4 x 8
  • TRX Row 4 x 8
  • Miniband Sidesteps 3 x 15
  • Pogo Jumps 3 x 15
• Superset 2;
  • Back Squat 8-6-4
  • KB Good Morning 3 x 8
  • Box Jumps – Emphasize Landing 3 x 6
• Superset 3:
  • DB Incline Press 3 x 8
  • Band Assisted Pullups 3 x 5
  • Single Leg Pallof Press 3 x 8
• Superset 4:
  • Bench Dips 3 x 8
  • DB Overhead Press 3 x 8
  • Band Hammer Curls 3 x 8
  • MB Slams 3 x 5

Day 2

• Superset 1:
  • Bench Press 3 x 6
  • Single Arm Band Row 3 x 6
  • Core Engaged Bridge 3 x 5 x 10″ hold
  • Single Leg Squat off Box 3 x 6
• Superset 2: 
  • TRX Split Squat 3 x 6
  • Single Leg Sandbag RDL 3 x 6
  • Squat Jumps 3 x 10
• Superset 3:
  • DB Incline Press 3 x 6
  • Eccentric Pullups 3 x 5
  • Rip Trainer Slap Shot 3 x 12
• Superset 4:
  • Band Push Down 3 x 6
  • DB Arm Curl 3 x 6
  • DB Lateral Raise 3 x 6
  • Reverse Trunk Curls 3 x 12

I’m not pretending to say that this is the best program that has ever been devised, but it does cover a lot of bases and allows me to complete it in about 40 minutes and facilitates recovery, rather than depleting my energy stores, which is all important right now.  

I invite you to follow me on this journey and support Team Tisch to find a cure for MS.  Visit mitchfightsms.com!!