Brief Summary
Stephen Scullion emphasizes the importance of incorporating gym workouts into a runner's routine to enhance performance and prevent injuries. He shares a gym routine focusing on strengthening key muscle groups like calves, hamstrings, glutes, and quads, using exercises that mimic running movements. The routine includes calf exercises, hamstring holds, glute bridges, lunges, plyometrics, and squats, with an emphasis on proper form and controlled movements rather than lifting heavy weights.
- Prioritize gym workouts to enhance running performance and prevent injuries.
- Focus on strengthening key muscle groups: calves, hamstrings, glutes, and quads.
- Incorporate single-leg exercises and plyometrics to mimic running movements.
- Emphasize proper form and controlled movements over lifting heavy weights.
- Consistency and manageable routines are key to seeing benefits.
Stephen Scullion recounts advice from Mo Farah about the importance of gym work for runners. Farah advised him to get back in the gym to strengthen his body after a half marathon. Scullion highlights that gym work helps runners access their full fitness potential, preventing physical breakdowns, injuries during training, and performance decline on race day. He notes that runners often prioritize running over gym workouts, but gym work is crucial for overall fitness and injury prevention.
Stephen Scullion discusses his gym routine, typically performed on Wednesdays or Sundays, and emphasizes the flexibility of incorporating it before or after runs. He stresses the importance of consistency, aiming for two to three times per week. He admits to feeling weak during a recent gym session, highlighting the need to improve physical strength to support his running goals.
Stephen Scullion always begins his gym routine with calf exercises, as the calves are the first point of contact with the ground during running. Strengthening the calves helps prevent other muscles like quads, hamstrings, and glutes from overworking. His routine includes calf walks, calf raises (single and double leg), and calf holds, using equipment like a box or leg press machine. He aims for two to three calf exercises, focusing on stimulating the muscles without pushing to failure.
After calves, Stephen Scullion moves to hamstring exercises, such as hamstring holds, Romanian deadlifts (RDLs), and single-leg RDLs. He focuses on maintaining proper technique, particularly tucking the pelvis. He also incorporates glute exercises like glute bridges, box step-ups, and activation routines before and after runs to address chronically tight glutes. He adjusts the lever length during glute bridges to isolate the glutes more effectively.
Stephen Scullion incorporates lunges, including raised leg lunges and high box split squats, to work the quads and integrate multiple muscle groups. He emphasizes maintaining proper running form during these exercises, keeping the chest high and head straight. He stresses the importance of working the muscles without overexerting them, to avoid hindering running performance.
Stephen Scullion includes plyometrics, such as single-leg pogos, countermovement jumps (CMJs), and box jumps, between hamstring and lunge exercises. These exercises improve muscle recruitment and explosiveness. He advises caution with box jumps to avoid injury.
Stephen Scullion performs squats with a lighter weight, focusing on quarter squats or slightly deeper, based on the technique he learned from other elite athletes. He emphasizes thrusting the hips forward at the top of the squat for added power. He acknowledges that his squat strength has decreased, but he prioritizes proper form over lifting heavy weights.
Stephen Scullion summarizes the gym routine, advising viewers to focus on strengthening muscles that break down during running. He recommends checking out jingroom.com for more exercises and strength guides. He emphasizes that the routine is not about showing off, but about consistently strengthening key muscle groups. He advises assessing which muscle groups feel fatigued after a gym session and adjusting the routine accordingly, also suggesting core exercises for stabilization.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “Professional runners gym routine | helped me run 2.09 marathon”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 I was at a race with moar we had been training together in fun Mo and he says to me just before I get on the plane home don't forget to get back in the gym in a couple of days time you've broken your body down quite a lot today 6108 very very fast for a half marathon but he didn't say get the mileage back up he didn't say start working on those tempos again don't forget to get back in the gym once you've been doing it for maybe 2 3 weeks you'll really start to see the benefits you'll notice that you don't fade in Tempo runs you'll notice that your intervals don't take as much out of you get into the next day and then hopefully I really do hope for you on race day you see that you hold your pace for longer and that's because you already had the fitness you just weren't able to bring it out of yourself gym on
0:47 multiple occasions for multiple athletes is probably something that we skip as the first protocol we prioritize running or we prioritize an extra run you guys likely think from a Time perspective you might not have time to do gym but gy is what's going to help you get the full fitness out of your body rather than the body physically breaking down perhaps in training getting an injury in the buildup or perhaps worse on race day when you feel good you aerobically feel good the breathing feels good but physically something starts to talk to you something starts to say we're going to have to slow down or worse like in my recent lesbian half Marathon we're going to have to stop because if we don't
1:33 glutes hamstrings calves something's going to break down so let's talk about JY and let's give you a routine that you can start doing so Sunday was long run day I like to do gym on either weddingday or Sunday you can do it in a couple of different ways you can do it before a run after a run wherever time permits there's not one way to do this you need to build it into your routine so that it's manageable and it's consistent even for two to three times per week I actually felt pretty weak in the gym hamstrings were shaking when I was doing some of those holds some of this gym is very very basic and I'm literally shaking thinking how can you expect to run 2810 Olympic marathon time when your current
2:20 physical shape or physical strength you're struggling doing a hamstring hold so this is going to be really important over these next four weeks they extract that big result th to me on race day at London but I start most gym sessions with a little walking routine so that's some calf walks and really the the calfs are the first part of the you know body feet calfs that are going to hit the ground during that running technique I think it's important for your Cales to be strong to then stop other parts of your body like quads hamstrings glutes having to overwork because they're supporting the Cal so it starts with a little calf routine which is your calf walks some calf raises single leg and
3:06 double leg and then I also move into some calf holds and it depends what equipment that there is in the gym so sometimes I'll use a box like a where you would do like a box step up and I'll hold a kettle bell in the sort of lunge position and I'll just do bent leg holds for an isometric hold and that isolates single leg which is what running is you're not you know jumping with two feet at the one time but sometimes I'll also use the leg press machine and then you'll see me with the leg extended out my toe planted up nice and tall and I'm working that muscle isometrically but I'll aim for two to three calf exercises and that basically stimulates the calves in a way that I'm not doing the exercises until failure
3:53 but I know that by putting load through the calves it's going to really help to strengthen those and that's the beginning in of all my gym routines always start with the calves and then I tend to just move up the chain I have all different exercises that I that I know are are good for running you know and and then so what I'm doing is as I'm going through the gym routine I'm trying to think to myself what area have I worked already maybe it's calfs so then I might move into hamstring holds I might do some rdls some single leg rdls or double leg rdls and again I'm never looking to break the muscles down to the the point of you know I'm absolutely
4:40 dying but I just know that the body responds well the two to three times per week injecting it with just a little bit of load a little bit of stimulus so if I'm doing like a hamstring hold for example I might hold it for 6 seconds or I might hold it for 10 it really depends would have done that morning in this scenario it was a 20 mile run and 17 Mile of that was it 320 perk or 520 per mile so it didn't take as much for my legs to start shaking while I'm doing the hamstring holds or to you know get sore and so therefore I don't want to say here's the exact time that you should be doing this for just make sure that your Technique is in a good place
5:26 really when you're doing hamstring holds or a lot of this gym stuff really start to think about where your pelvis is sitting and you want your pelvis to be tucked under you which is like squeezing the glutes through tuck that pelvis under then you can come up into your hamstring hold hold it for a healthy amount of time try to hold that pelvis position and then you can swap legs same with your like the rdl's you want to make sure that that pelvis is in a really good position you can use a Swiss ball and do hamstring curls there are other hamstring exercises or when you're squatting for example which I will later then I'm still using my hamstrings during that exercise but I then move from hamstrings perhaps the glutes glutes you can do glute Rees you just have to shorten the
6:12 length of your leg instead of doing a like a long lever you know hamstring hold or hamstring walkouts you can do a shorter lever which means you bring your bum closer to your you know your place that you were holding your leg up and that is now going to start to isolate the glutes more than it was the hamstrings you might find that when you're doing the glute Bridge you're still using your hamstrings quite a lot and then so maybe shorten the Gap again this is going to Target the glutes you can do a box step up which is really useful for you know your glutes you don't have to use weight one thing I would say get the pelvis tucked make sure that when your foot is getting ready to plant to then drive up make sure that you can actually feel the glute connecting make sure that you can feel it you know tensing and that you're
6:58 actually working at your using it another way to you know help the glutes is your activation routines before runs or post runs really you want to manage those glutes across the week that's something for me that has got really quite tight lately and likely tight almost like chronically tight from racing some marathons and then never really doing anything about it after the marathons not introducing treatment in there like maybe rolling on a daily basis but then also a gym routine which isolates at the glutes gets those a bit stronger I then might do some raised leg lunges or just a lunge routine and this is going to start to work muscles in sync but it also brings quads into this sort of routine and hip flexors a little
7:43 bit into the routine so like a high box um split squat I think is really useful for the you know the quads but also then starting to work these muscles together which becomes a lot closer related to when you're actually out there running so Jim think single leg routine a lot of single leg stuff but then also work in these areas together so you're going into this you know high high step up split squat you're you are tucking your pelvis as per usual and then you're you're dropping up and down but think about that running routine think about that chest being high that head you know straight forward and just manage it in a way like before that you're that you're working the muscle but you're not working it too much that you're going to
8:30 move to a place of hindering and not helping the running these are mostly exercises so far that you could have done at home or you could have done in your living room or you could do Post Run Etc you don't need all this the fancy gym equipment so what I tend to do between maybe some of the hamstring stuff or maybe the split leg lunges is I'll do some Plyometrics and I stick to Basics again jan.com check it out there's there is more plyometric exercis is there and a lot of this footage comes from that but you've got your single leg pogos you've got some cmjs they're called which is just a very simple you you stand quite neutrally and then you go down into the squat position and then you spring up but it's a
9:15 very it seems explosive but it is very good for that muscle recruitment you can do the pogos you can do the cmjs or you can do some box jumps actual jumping up onto the box and then see how high you can go being very careful not to go too high to end up hurting yourself please so then the only other exercises that I'll really do that involves weight and and weight on the back is a squat my squats are probably the talking point of the video that I'm going to be told I don't do them right I'm just copying what I learned from mofar Basher Abdi these titens of the sport we would go down to about a quarter squat sometimes a little bit deeper than a quarter squat
10:01 but it depends if we're doing the when you get to the top of the squat or you're coming up from the squat you can really thrust the hips forward which adds a bit of power but then sometimes the the bar will jump up and you have to support it with your arms make sure that you're catching it before it goes down onto your back the squat is probably the area that I can see where perhaps I've lost strength the most because currently I did about 60 or 70 kg and that was was in the gym yesterday and I know that I had built that up the almost 90 or 100 and I'm probably getting the same Doms in fact I'm getting sorer Doms today than I would have done when I was doing 90 or 100 but don't think of any of this gym stuff is macho Macho trying to show
10:49 off just start adding some of this stuff into your routine go check out the website Jing room.com heaps more stuff on there gym routines more strength guides more exercises that you can pick from but it's really not complicated think of the muscles that are breaking down strengthen them when you're leaving the gym think to yourself have a d m calfs hamstrings adductors quads glutes if you need to do some core to help stabilize do some core there's more routines on the website start doing some bloody gym as Mo Farah would say get yourself in the bloody gym and take care
