Should you be doing strength work to reduce your risk of injury?

There are lots of articles that tell you that strength work is beneficial for you but what impact does it have on reducing sports injuries and how can you find time for it?

The challenge is that there are many variables to reducing sports injuries including technique and training load. Strength training is just one element but the evidence points to it being beneficial and there are simple ways to incorporate it that don’t involve going to the gym or replacing one of your runs.

One of the most quoted studies is that of Lauersen et al. 2013 who did a systematic review of the benefits of strength training amongst 26,610 participants. The studies covered a range of sports rather than any being solely focussed on running alone but found that strength training reduced overuse injuries by almost 50% and sports injuries to less than a third.

The challenge is that everyone is different and depending on how you run and your physiology there are different people who will need to strengthen different areas. The key is to get a balanced strength programme and the best is the one you have time to do which is why short bodyweight workouts less than 15 minutes long such as this one hereare perfect.

Given the potential benefits it’s surely worth a try to see what impact it has for you? You can search for a specialist to help tailor you a routine hereor why not try this free30 day challengethat’s only 10-15 mins a day and see how you get on?

The creator of the programme is James Dunne who coaches runners and triathletes and he told SportsInjuryFix that just a few minutes invested in strength, stability and mobility work a few times per week will help any runner prevent injury and build consistency in their training. It’s this consistency that allows us in-time to run faster for longer.