Re-post of Eric's Training Circuit with Video Links

As many of the members of Running with Eric start diving into their Training Packages and get accustom to my run training methods, they soon have questions regarding strength training. So, I thought it was time to address this by posting a Strength Training Circuit that I often have my personal training clients perform during their training sessions.With the popularity of Born To Run, I have also had many inquiries from a variety of athletes who have read the book and been inspired by our story. These inquires have included former professional foot ball players and many who say they still perform quite a bit of strength training in gym that includes traditional heavy weights to promote muscle mass. This traditional strength work attacks major prime movers and often leads to overloading bigger muscles and neglecting very important stabilizing muscles. This bulk and muscle mass if also very inhibiting for a runner and leads to muscle imbalance and inefficiency.It is more beneficial to drop the heavy weights and work on developing equilibruim within the body, which promotes healthy movement patterns.This strength circuit will give you an idea of this approach, while providing you a great, simple and time effective workout to perform without sacrificing your run training time.
Perform this sequence as a circuit, repeating 1-2 times based on your fitness level and time commitment. This can be done several times throughout the week.
Wall Squat: 10-20. Progress to 20 reps and work on range of motion. These are hard, do not force it, just stretch it.http://www.runningwitheric.com/video/wall-squat
FB Push-ups: 10 reps. Do not exceed 10, just make 10 hard for you by how slow you move.http://www.runningwitheric.com/video/fb-pushup
FB Crunch and Reach: 10 reps. Do not exceed 10, just make 10 hard for you by how slow you move.http://www.runningwitheric.com/video/fb-crunch-and-reach
FB Knees to Chest: 10 reps. Work slow coming down.

http://www.runningwitheric.com/video/knees-to-chest

Progress to doing FB Toes to Chest.

http://www.runningwitheric.com/video/toes-to-chest

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Permalink Reply by Mindy Ward on December 25, 2011 at 10:43pm

Thank you. I haven't seen the training circuit, just the individual videos and sort of making up my own.

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Permalink Reply by James ("Jim") Keane on December 26, 2011 at 9:12am

You're welcome Mindy - took me a little research on the site to find all this, so I thought it would be neighborly to post it all in one place

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Permalink Reply by Laura Purbrick on January 28, 2012 at 6:17pm

Awesome! Thank you very much for posting this!

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Permalink Reply by James ("Jim") Keane on January 28, 2012 at 6:54pm

Here's my personal strength workout, incorporating Eric's - and I'm also starting to add more of Eric's that aren't mentioned in his core circuit, such as split squats - eventually I will have two different workouts for variety/muscle confusion:

Warm Up and stretch (10 min) (roughly following the P90X Tony Horton routine)

Workout Sequence, repeat 2X (30 minutes)

-Wall Squats

-FB Push Ups

-Lawnmower lifts

-FB crunch & reach

-pull ups (one of several types, switch it up)

-FB knees/toes to head

-shoulder fly's (one of several types, switch it up)

-FB prone rocker

-FB Lunge

-FB knee circles

-foot/big toe strength (4 direction iso's, towel pull, balance moves)

Stretch (5 minutes)

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Permalink Reply by James ("Jim") Keane on February 25, 2012 at 4:17pm

Wow, bad formatting from my iPhone - let me try that again. As a former p90x person, I have added a little more upper body to Eric's circuit and also grouped the work into 2 sections to be done on 2 different days if need be. I try to do each "day" two days per week, after my Eric-program run, or on my "rest" day. If I do these on my rest day I warm up very thoroughly, especially my neck and shoulders, as well as hips and calves - those hot spots where muscle spasms or tendonitis can result from training cold muscles. Pull ups, push ups and shoulder flys - great exercises, but risks of tendonitis and impingement abound, so warming up is a must.

Legs/Glut/feet - bare feet! (2 sets of each)

- wall squat

- speed skater ("bosu run")

- split squat snatch

- balance squats

- single leg arm scissors

- FB foot raise

- foot cycle (big toe iso's, towel curls)

Core/Upper Body (2 sets of each)

- FB balance push ups

- lawnmower lifts

- FB knees/toes to head