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The Physio insights Podcast by Runeasi
Welcome to The Physio Insights Podcast by Runeasi, your trusted space for real conversations at the intersection of science and sport.
Every two weeks, we sit down with passionate clinicians, biomechanists, and rehab experts to share the insights, tools, and stories shaping the future of running performance, injury recovery, and movement science.
🔍 Created for physical therapists, gait geeks, and rehab specialists who care deeply about helping athletes move better, faster, and stronger.
Hit subscribe and elevate your clinical game!
Welcome to the Physio Insights podcast presented by Runeasi. I'll be your host, Doctor. Jimmy Picard. I'm a physical therapist, running coach, and team member here at Runeasi. On this show, we have real conversations with leading experts, digging into how we recover from injuries, train smarter, and use data to better guide care.
Jimmy:Whether you're a clinician, a coach, or an athlete, we're here to explore what really matters in rehab and performance. Let's dive in. Philip, welcome to the podcast. How's your day going today?
Philip:Hi, Jimmy. Nice to see you again. My day is going good. So with Runeasi, we have some cool plans in the next couple of weeks. So we're busy working.
Jimmy:Awesome. Well, yeah, I'm excited to dive into this conversation. Hoping to pick your brain and learn a lot more about your thoughts around strength training and running. But before we dive in, I'd like to introduce you a little bit and then have you introduce yourself. But I've met you probably six months ago and I know you as a outstanding physiotherapist, a very fast runner, I think you might be the fastest employee at Runeasi.
Jimmy:A running coach, a teacher, you teach a course on running biomechanics and strength training. Yeah, so why don't you roll with it from there? Tell us a little bit more about your background.
Philip:So,
Jimmy:correct. Are the fastest employee at Runeasi, is that what you're saying?
Philip:Yeah, Matthias will maybe doubt it, but let us say on certain distances, I'm the fastest. Some distances Matthias is faster. So it's like a fiftyfifty, would say. Okay, So I would say my background is more from the middle distance part. So I started early in my early years, six, seven years old, started with running.
Philip:I really loved running. Why? Because I was also good at it. So I think that was also a main part why I loved running. So then I started doing, let us say, the 1,500 meters.
Philip:My preferred distance because it has speed, it has duration, but not too long. But actually I shifted. Now I'm running marathons. It's a complete different distance, different needs. So it's hard for me from middle distance to marathon the transition.
Philip:Yes, indeed. So a lot of things you need to consider, strength, endurance, fueling, everything needs to be right. Otherwise you will hit the wall. Literally. I felt this already before.
Philip:Also succeeded, of course. I think I learned a lot from running, not only from, let's say, the performance side, but also injury side. I got a couple of injuries in the past, Achilles tendon injuries, typical one. Also bone stress injuries. It is important that you also learn to deal with those injuries.
Philip:And let us say that I'm not that frequently injured anymore because I think I found the right element of training and strength training to not get injured.
Jimmy:Awesome. So before we start, like getting into the nitty gritty, your role at Runeasi, so you're the data scientist here. Can you tell me a little bit more like what that looks like?
Philip:So I started a couple of years within the company of Runeasi. So I was working as a PT, more specialized in running gait mechanics. There, I switched actually my career a little bit because I really wanted to invest to make sure that everybody could utilize the benefits of wearable technology. I think wearable technology has a lot of potential. But yeah, you need to have the right interpretation, making sure that you understand the metrics quite well.
Philip:And then you can use the data quite a lot. So, as a data expert, you try to help to develop a few things in the system, but also that the PTs can learn and make the interpretation in terms of the analysis they make. Because it's also sometimes nuancing the results and finding why and where is the main problem.
Jimmy:So it sounds like a lot of what you're doing is helping the end user like me in the clinic because these sensors get tons of data and you're helping figure out what data is actually relevant for me. So like you're making my job a bit easier by saying, hey, pay attention to this stuff. You're also behind the scenes kind of like helping design the reports and making like those clean and easy for the practitioner, but also the end patient, making it easier for them to read as well.
Philip:That's correct.
Jimmy:So yeah, that sounds like a fun job. And then are you currently training for anything right now?
Philip:Yeah, myself, I'm training for the marathon. Valencia Marathon in December will be the next goal.
Jimmy:Nice. Yes.
Philip:Yeah, I'd like to say for the rest, I'm also coaching a lot of other runners towards their goals. Some are running the New York Marathon, some races here in Europe. Yeah, we have some You work to
Jimmy:have this unique perspective coming from a running background, a physio background, a data scientist, and a coach. So what I'm interested is like, how do you, with all those hats on, how are you taking a runner that you work with or yourself and programming strength into the routine? Like where do you start with that?
Philip:I think the most important thing is like, okay, each runner has different goals, has different backgrounds. And it's first of all useful to know, okay, and where do we start implementing strength training. I think everybody can benefit from strength training, I would say. But in some parts, it could be like a process where you can first implement first the foundation and then you implement a little bit more strength training. So it's always a balancing act, I would say that we need to first start it.
Jimmy:Yeah. And I think, Ofer, you also mentioned like at the beginning part here, the value of like, first just even asking the question why?
Philip:That is, I think one of the most important question. Why? Because the runner don't want to do something where they will not benefit from. I think that the first thing, yeah, you need to invest your time and the time could be like, okay, we have six hours in the week to train and we need to maximize that as much as possible. Now, for a lot of runners, I think they think, okay, let's benefit the most from doing only the running part because that's the most specific part.
Philip:Strength training should be, let us say, complementary. It is giving us a lot of benefits that running is not able to give. But of course, yeah, let's just say, are they maximizing, first of all, their running gains? I think we need to make sure that if somebody has only two hours of time in a week, yeah, to make it more specific, I think we don't need to invest in the first place purely strength training. Maybe we should invest more.
Philip:Okay, let's focus this on the running part, the most specific part, because we need to create endurance. And that endurance part is, of course, with an endurance exercise. And of course, you try to do it as specific as possible. So we take running. But if we have more time, we have ten hours, twelve hours training a week, if that's possible, yeah, then we have a bigger window of opportunity.
Philip:So, strength training will be giving us maybe more than two hour extra running. So, I think that's the first thing that we need to see in the program. Okay, who will benefit from the strength training? And then, of course, what are the benefits?
Jimmy:Yes.
Philip:And first of all, benefits. I would say we will improve the structural integrity. So we can make bones stronger, tendons stronger, muscles stronger. It has influence on acute injuries. So when we do maybe some strides, it could lower, for example, those, like we say, muscle strengths.
Philip:Because we are training the muscles, we're making them stronger, so they're more resilient towards high intensity running. Or more the running related injuries, like the typical injuries, Achilles tendon, when we make them stronger, we can withstand the loads better because they are stronger.
Jimmy:So you're thinking of, correct me if I'm wrong, we could back up to the question of why, why strength training? So runners are notorious for only wanting to run and sometimes it's pulling teeth to get them to do something outside of running like strength training. And so when we're selling this to the athlete, the benefits are we are going to use strength training as a way to essentially over prepare the body for the demands of running. Is that correct?
Philip:Yes, correct.
Jimmy:And so we can start there and say that's why we're doing this. Then we say like, look into the actual schedule of the client and say, what's the time that's available? How much can we fit in here? Does it even make sense to strength train, yeah if you can only run two hours or you only have two hours a week, we're not going to put strength training because we're going to take away from what's actually valuable for you. That makes a lot of sense.
Jimmy:Do you ever get like backlash from patients or runners where they say like they don't want to strength training, you have to try to convince them of the value?
Philip:I think that they see the value somehow. But the thing is sometimes like it's maybe not the right timing. First want to invest in getting back a runner. Actually, it is always possible to combine it because I think it's also beneficial to start early on with strength training. To not make it too, let us say, too monotone the training.
Philip:So like a good complementary part strength training running. But in some occasions, let us say, take the person with two hours of running. Now, let us say there is a lot of recovery time. So like maybe the needs are lower than someone that has a lot more load on the body. So we also need to consider this.
Philip:If their demand, for example, will be a marathon running, that's already different than doing only two sessions a week just to stay fit.
Jimmy:Yes. Yeah.
Philip:Of course, it has also health benefits. So I will not speak about this, but you could also say that, like I mentioned before, strength training can give different things than endurance training. So it has also benefits on, let's say, response on, let's say, bone, let's say strength. So it's also useful when we age and that we don't get problems with our bones.
Jimmy:There's a strength coach named Dan John here in The US and in his book, he has a book called Interventions, and he goes through his assessment process and one of the first things he tries to determine is like, is the person you're working with, are there goals around health or are there goals around performance? Because those look very different. And I think you look, I think we could, it's pretty easy to argue that competitive elite distance running is not very healthy for the body in the long term. And so it's, I've always found the challenge being like when I have a more recreational runner, getting them to do some strength training for the health benefits outside of like the actual performance benefits. And then with a more elite runner, it's like very it's it's more we can tie in what we talked about earlier, this durability component, and it's easier to sell that.
Jimmy:But I do think, yeah, it's like when we're starting out with beginning the program for a person, it's trying to figure out, yeah, which of those two paths are we heading down? Is it the health side or is it the performance side? Yeah, correct. So yeah, let's keep going with this performance side. So how do you yeah, how do you get started?
Jimmy:So you've you've sold the runner on why it's important. We've got an idea of how much time they can commit to it. How do you get started with it? Is there some sort of testing protocol you'll go through or how you're deciding what exercises and intensity in that to start with?
Philip:Yeah. I think assessing the strength capabilities is crucial. It's an important step because we want to have a benchmark baseline, making sure where we start. I think this is also part of the puzzle in terms of why we need to do strength training. Like you already mentioned before, it's like we are over or making prepared body to a certain degree that is way higher than the demands.
Philip:And we need to make sure where is that baseline. Is that very close to, let us say, what the demands are? Or do we have some room? I think that's one first important step.
Jimmy:So you're saying you're going to start with trying to determine where, like how much wiggle room their current capacity has for the demands that we know we're going to place on them with training or racing?
Philip:Yeah, that's an important step. I would like to know, in this case, okay, where do we need to start? We can do a lot of different type of testing. There are a lot of options. We have like the typical isokinetic testing, which is used quite often with ACL injury to assess strength between hamstring quadriceps.
Philip:But it's limited. It's very standardized, that's a positive thing. But it is limited in, the specificity. It is also more expensive at this type of testing. In practice, yeah, you can use isometric testing using a handheld dynamometer.
Philip:Very friendly. It's good for some strength tests, but when you want to assess the bigger missile groups, there are some problems to we need to make sure that we have good fixation. But still, it is isolated missile testing. We can consider maybe some specific tests. Then we have the specific tests.
Philip:These are simple MSK tests that you can use. For example, side plank tests for time. You just check left side, right side, look in time, look in execution and see if there are left to right differences. There are some benchmarks which is required to have, if you're lower than this, it is a limitation in the abductor muscle groups or the lateral chain. We can consider, let us say, a hill race test if we want to assess, for example, the golf muscles.
Philip:Again, those tests are useful. We have certain research on it. But the negative thing is about the standardization of execution. The motivation is really important because you have to do number of reps and how far are you going as a runner? Do you want to go as maximal?
Philip:When do you stop?
Jimmy:Yeah, there's a lot more like subjectivity to it. Indeed. But it's valuable. It's easy to do. It's like, I know part of my assessment is, yeah, I do these physical performance tests but it is very subjective.
Jimmy:It's, oh, how does that feel? It looks like you're shaky on this single leg bridge. And they say, yeah, I think so. Yeah, is there another layer to this then?
Philip:Yeah, think this, what you are mentioning, I think this is a crucial part. I think those type of tests can give you some valuable information, not necessarily in the objectivity, but like how do you feel about it? Was it harder on one side? What is about the execution? And do you see some flaws in the execution?
Philip:And do you see more a trembling heel raise test? So all those little nuances in these type of tests are I think very useful.
Jimmy:And when you're, to interrupt real quick, when you're doing these more like, I call them physical performance tests, but whatever you call them, are there specific muscle groups you're going to make sure you target here?
Philip:I think you can measure quite a lot, but a few muscle groups I really test in those, let's say more specific test is like, first of all, around the pelvis, we have like the abdominal muscle groups, crucial one. On the opposite, we have the gluteal muscles, then the lateral abductors. The abductors can also be included, but I think it can be more relevant if we think about more higher velocities. The lower velocities, I don't think it will play a big role. Those muscle groups are more in terms of stabilisation.
Philip:Lower in the chain, yeah, I see quadriceps hamstrings more as a complementary work, more with compound type of testing. Think about a squat test, squat assessment. You can consider, for example, the hand strength, also like range of motion, but also maybe the strength in the range of motion that is a useful one. Because You can have a high range of motion but poor strength. You can have a low range of motion but still are able to produce a lot of force at those long ranges.
Philip:So this is also important to consider. And then, of course, lower in the chain, I think cull of ankle complex is a crucial one in runners. I think there is where a lot of weaknesses are in runners, both in hips, like the stabilizing components, but also like the stiffness in the ankle joints, but more from a positive standpoint, of course, the stiffness like how we can withstand loads in a very short end of time.
Jimmy:And yeah, and we see that in the data where we see like the forces, the loads on the body and the lower leg and gastroc and soleus are very high. So when you're assessing, can you just walk me through like some of the key exercises or movements you would use to assess those? So it sounds like side plank, glute bridge, What else are you doing?
Philip:Yeah, you can, let let for example, with a with a squat, you can do different things. That depends a bit on if you have other equipment, like you can do some force velocity profile. And force velocity profiling is where we do a movement, a component of movement, and we see how strong you are in the strength component versus the velocity component, which gives us information about like, are you in balance? Or is the power disturbed by more strength orientated versus velocity orientated? I would say more simple tests for the muscle groups.
Philip:Think about abdominal muscle groups. The leg lowering test is a useful one. I have a flow where you can assess, okay, are they able to hold that position without even moving downward? Or we can think about where one leg is going down, can the person hold it without compressing or arching in the first place, but also that they're not bracing too hard, so you can already see them trembling. Can they still speak?
Philip:And then you can also consider, okay, are they really strong? Yeah, they can do it with both legs.
Jimmy:Nice. Okay. Yeah. And then for the lower leg, for the foot and ankle?
Philip:Foot and ankle, I think you can consider heel rest test. Heel rest test, you can think about isometric strength testing if you have the equipment. You can think about reactive tests, which is more, yeah, if you think about angle stiffness, the heel raise test and the isometric test will not assess this. I think you need to go a lot more functional. That's maybe another thing that I want to go through is how specific are all those muscle tests?
Philip:Are they specific enough? I think from research perspective, we can already see that they will not give us that much value in terms of injury risk and the performance side. We have to consider different type of tests.
Jimmy:Yes. So, performance test is like the So far we've talked about like the isokinetic testing, which is kind of like out of reach for a lot of people. I don't have like the equipment here to do that. I'd have to refer somebody else. So I don't have that.
Jimmy:So I'm gonna throw that one out. But the performance tests are kind of like the base layer and it's very similar to like a physical therapy. The start of my objective exam is like looking at these performance tests. Is there, you're getting to this point now, but I think there's like there's something in between like the isokinetic testing, or where it's just very science, like very standardized, very objective, then our physical performance tests. There's something over here which like run easy does a good job at with our like jumping assessment and then our gait analysis.
Jimmy:So can we transition to talking about what that phase of the exam or like the assessment of trying to establish point A. How do we use those things?
Philip:Yeah. First of all, maybe we can go to the end part of the assessment is like the running gait analysis itself.
Jimmy:Okay.
Philip:So the benefit of doing a running gait analysis with a runner is it's the most specific part. It's the most specific. It's like we are assessing the movement they're doing day by day. So I think it's very useful that we know how they are running, how they load, how well they are stabilizing, are there any asymmetries, how they respond to speed, like, okay, are there any changes with certain speeds they are training at? What about the duration?
Philip:Like, is there a limitation in the fatigue resistance in that running specific assessment? But what we are missing there is also the other part of the puzzle. So we are assessing something really specific in submaximal speed, you could say. So like, So when I run at 14 ks per hour, for example, it is not my marathon pace, is not my maximal velocity running. It is my easy run, you could say.
Philip:During that easy run, you try to find the most beneficial stride. It's like the self optimization theory, you could say. We always try to find the most optimal way. Of course, not everybody is running in the most optimal way, but somehow we will find a solution. The thing is, there we are not assessing the capacity of the athlete.
Philip:So we want to know, we know how they are running their loading behavior, but we don't know where their ceiling is. I think we need to have different tests. First of all, it can be like the strength testing, but the strength testing in more isolation, isometric is really specific, muscle specific. We have to consider more compound type of tests, where we assess the maximum output of what that person can do. I think there the jump assessment plays a
Jimmy:role. I'm going to interrupt real quick. So for the listeners who maybe aren't the less familiar with Runeasi and what it does, when you're doing your gait analysis and you're getting data using Runeasi, what are the things you're looking at? Can you explain kind of the metrics that you're getting? Said loading profile when you're just speaking.
Jimmy:Can you kind of explain what you're looking at when you're getting this kind of data?
Philip:Yeah. I think with the running gait analysis, what we are going to do is we're mapping based on some key components. One of those components is dynamic stability. That means the side to side, how much are we moving from side to side in the hips? So it's like a stabilizing component.
Philip:How well can we stabilize if we are not able to stabilize this well? That means also we load our stabilizing muscles a lot more. So there's a lot more stress on, let us say, the stabilizing muscles. So if you have some problems with ITB or perineal muscles, that could be a component that could disturb the
Jimmy:Yeah, so the one metric is this stability metric, which is excessive side to side movement or how much is side to side movement is happening. Visually, would you see this or what would you see if you weren't using RunEZ, what does dynamic stability look like?
Philip:Yeah. I think it's hard to showcase dynamic stability. Yeah, how can you visualize this? I think it's really hard because it's a multiple component part. It's like your rotation plays a role, your side to side movement upper body plays a role, just your stride itself can play a role, also the landing can play a role.
Philip:It's more like a multiple component part, you can actually do it from video analysis to analyze, okay, where are we losing it? What is the compensation in the upper body? Can we hold our pelvis in a relatively neutral position and not dropping too much, for example? And how about the lower lips? So, you can assess it, of course, through video analysis.
Philip:But I think combining it with metrics such as dynamic stability can be very useful because it's more objective and it's
Jimmy:Yeah. So you're going from qualitative visual data where you're just saying, this is what I see to saying, okay, here's the actual number. And for assessment purposes, it's nice to have a number. I'm all right. So there's, I think there's two more metrics.
Jimmy:Do you want to kind of explain the other metrics?
Philip:Yeah, I think the second one is the impact loading. For the impact loading, we are looking at how much we are loading our body, so it's the impact magnitude, and then we have the impact duration. It's more about the timing component from initial contact till we reach, let us say, that specific impact peak. That time component will give us more information about how we are absorbing, or let us say, are we more like an active absorption where we use our lower limb muscles, or are we more a passive absorber where the impact is traveling quite fast through the body, where we're not absorbed with the lower leg muscles. Because we are measuring, let us say, higher in the chain, it also means that the traveling through the leg is also playing a useful role.
Jimmy:Got it. Okay. And then there's also symmetry across these metrics you just Correct. So as you're doing, yeah, I'm to bring this up because we're going to come back to something else. But like when you're doing your assessment and you're kind of looking at these metrics, are they guiding the strength program that you're going to prescribe?
Jimmy:Or what does that look like?
Philip:I think this is one of the parts that can describe the strength program. Not necessarily in terms of muscle perspective, but in terms of, or let us say the strength part, but more in terms of like, okay, what are currently functional limitations in that specific movement? It could be stability and it requires stability training. Of course, you can assess stability in different ways. It could be that, for example, in this way, mobility can play a role.
Philip:So, it's always useful to assess, is it mobility? Is it neuromuscular control or the reactive stability component where it's more a neuromuscular aspect? Or is it more the muscle strength in those muscle groups that we need to train? So, we always have to dive a little bit deeper into what is missing in the stability part. That's why I sometimes do first a running assessment, see where are the weaknesses right now, and then I further test, okay, I see stability, and I know that stability could be a limitation in hip mobility.
Philip:It could be that neuromuscular coordination, where the person can't fire the stabilizing muscles in the right timing, or it could be like the strength capacity is lacking in those muscle groups. We need to assess that to understand, okay, where do we start in the train?
Jimmy:Obviously, we can do this. Can we do this without the objective data from a device like Runeasi or some of the other products out there?
Philip:Yeah, think it's similar to the strength testing. Of course, specific testing can always be like, if you are not using equipment as force plates or a handheld meter or an accelerometer, you can always do an assessment. But of course, objectivity, and that is maybe also a part of the motivation for runners, that with objective data, they directly see what is lacking and what can be optimized. And that's way harder when you only use video analysis, I would say. There you can explain it on the video, you already go into the details while if you keep it in more objective terms, here is your value, and this is where the norm is, let us say for your sports or your event, then you have a better reference of, Okay, I really need to improve this.
Philip:It's also a good baseline of like, okay, in the next testing, did I improve it?
Jimmy:Yeah, and I think for me clinically, it's like before when I was doing mostly two d analysis, there are a lot of assumptions you make about like forces, you just kind of see somebody over stride and you assume that means that they're pounding the ground really hard, but maybe they're actually not and maybe they're absorbing that load really well and maybe it's less important. But yeah, so if we, you kind of talked about running as a skill, and I think I've heard you talk about maybe it's like the top of the pyramid. What's on what are and then maybe at the bottom of the period or pyramid are the performance tests, the physical performance tests like that we talked about earlier. What's in between?
Philip:Yeah, I think the performance tests that I already explained is like, okay, think about mobility, think about all the manual missile testing or the specific tests. Those are like basic capacities you need in order to withstand the load as well as to utilize in that running gait. But in the middle part, have to also consider that it's not all about force, but it's also about how we are coordinating it and how we can more that neuromuscular part of the puzzle. And there is like, for example, the gym testing where you assess compounds. You're actually assessing lower limbs in not in isolation and the lower limb muscles, more in a combined, so like as a compound movement, where we assess explosive strength, for example, and reactive strength.
Philip:So explosive strength, what are we assessing there is how much power we generate over X amount of time. So think about a Squad Jump test or Quantum Momentum test. Those are assessments that are maybe not really specific in terms of movement of Renegade because if you think about the ground contact time or the time you're producing force is quite long. But it gives us already more information about how quickly can we produce force. Think about the metric rate of force development and the quickness of force development.
Philip:I think this is an important part because it's more the neuromuscular component and not necessarily like how strong are our muscles, but more about how can I apply strength with my muscle?
Jimmy:Am I right in thinking about it as a pyramid with like the foundation is the strength capacity with the performance test? Then the layer above that is explosive. And then above that is more the reactive test. Can you tell us about that?
Philip:So the reactive tests are repeated jumps. It could be a drop jump, which is one jump from a box and you jump as high as possible, as quick as possible. So your ground contact time should be short. The same thing could be with repeated hops. So you could jump, let us say in the test we use in Rennesi, we jump for 10 long as high as possible with a short amount of time on the ground as possible.
Philip:And there we assess actually the reactive capacity. So the reactive capabilities of the athlete. Now, is the difference between the explosive jump testing and reactive jump testing? It's all about the timing. So if you look at the ground contact times, it's way faster than the explosive jump test.
Philip:So the contraction time is closely related to running. Double is, of course, a bit shorter than single leg because we have the stability component in there. But with the double leg, we see values in between one hundred and two hundred milliseconds.
Jimmy:So now we're getting closer to the skill that is running, but just one layer down.
Philip:The ground conduct time will represent also where are we producing most of the force, or where do we absorb and reutilize, for example, energy. In a counter movement jump, we are compressing a lot, which means we are storing energy both in ankle joint, knee joint, hip joint. So that's already completely different than running gait. In running gait, it's more, of course, it depends, of course, on your ground contact time. That's why ground contact time is still an important metric also in running gait.
Philip:But let us say in the ReactiveJumpTest, we absorb a lot in the call of an ankle joint. I already mentioned, this joint is a really crucial element because it's the first point of contact, you could say, at the foot and ankle joint if you combine them. And it is an important one that this one is functioning quite well because this will also makes it easier higher in the chain.
Jimmy:And we're assessing that with Runeasi's jumping module using double leg and single leg. So we're getting a lens into both of those.
Philip:Yeah. I think you can measure them in both ways. A double leg gives you more value. You're eliminating the stabilizing component in it. With a single leg variant, of course, you need to have a good stability.
Philip:You need to make sure that your stabilizing muscles can also operate well. Looking into both values, could also say, when we see a drop or a big decline in single leg jumps, then that could also mean not necessarily that the reactive capabilities are disturbed, but it's more related to let us say the stabilizing component.
Jimmy:All right, so this is a thorough assessment as we're trying to determine all of this is just to determine point A, like where is the runner as we get started with implementing strength and running programming. So like I'm gonna just quickly, yeah, quickly summarize it's like we're doing our performance tests, we're doing some explosive screening tests with a squat jump, counter movement jump, doing a reactivity screen with a double leg pogo and a single leg pogo essentially. And then we're watching them run and this is giving us a pretty thorough picture of like the strengths and weaknesses of this runner in isolated muscles all the way up to the task that is running.
Philip:Yes correct.
Jimmy:Okay, so now yes, you've convinced the runner they need to strength train. They understand why they need to strength train. You now know where they are, point A. What do we do from here?
Philip:First of all, you need to analyze it, of course. Like, okay, what are the weaknesses? And I think you need to you in this process, we need to see like, Okay, what can we optimize? What is now a window of opportunity for training that fits well in, let us say, the training part of the, let us say, goal setting of the athletes. I think what I always do, especially when I train also the person towards the goal set, like the running sessions itself, it is always useful because there you can already see, okay, now I have a window of opportunity or it is more a long term development plan that we need to make.
Philip:What are quick gains? What are long term gains? To improve structural integrity, it takes a lot more time to build. Like bone strength, tendon strength, it takes a bit more time than the neuromuscular training part. So you can already make a lot of improvements if they are strong, but just not apply them well.
Philip:So that is one important thing, I would say. So you can set the plan. I think to know the plan is also crucial element that we need to explain. Okay, what are we working on? And then the programming, of course, where do we start?
Jimmy:Yeah, where do we start? Do you have like a I don't know, I've seen some coaches who have like, yeah, you have like a generic template that you're going to fill in based on that assessment that we just talked about? How does that work for you? How do you structure things?
Philip:Yeah, I think starting from a more generic structure is not bad because generic structure can be helpful in prioritization. The prioritization part is also crucial element. It's maybe not, I won't go too much in detail right now, but generic template can be a good starting point because we are not only working on weakest links, we always need to consider, Okay, what can we maintain also? You can consider, Okay, this person is strong, so we can neglect strength. Now, I would not say that we need to neglect strength, but we could see, a smaller portion in the preparation can be on strength, and we can invest a bit more time in more of the functional part of strength training.
Philip:So it's more about shifting the timing or, let us say, the part of the strength training program that we can shift. But that doesn't necessarily mean that for example, who is already strong that we only do like more specific.
Jimmy:Yeah, okay. So tell me more about how like you structure your strength training. So like you understand your weaknesses or your clients weaknesses. How do you start structuring things in the early phase?
Philip:Yeah. I think the first question that we need to ask ourselves, where are you going to do the strength training? How much time do you want to invest in strength training? When you know how much time they want to invest in it, how do you prefer it? Is it a small amount of work in a short amount of time?
Philip:Or do you prefer maybe twice
Jimmy:a
Philip:week you do a full program? I think they need to already give the information, I prefer in this way, to train, so you can implement it more easily. I think you will have benefits from both plans. There is never a perfect strength training program. I think it's never.
Philip:But I think you will get the best benefits if we can apply it in a more consistent way. So that means also that it needs to become a habit. And of course, the personal view on this part is also crucial. Otherwise, they will lose, let us say, not the hope, but they won't be able to hold the program. In the beginning, it's like all new.
Philip:It's the same thing with running. If you want to gain the metal or you want to be at your best version of yourself, you need to build the consistency, not like short amount of time we do a lot of training.
Jimmy:Yeah. So it's more about understanding where they're coming from and like what's realistic for them to get done. What's the environment that they can train in? And so I'm trying to make you commit to telling me what to do, which you're being, you're telling me it depends.
Philip:Yeah, it depends. I think there are studies that show that strength training can still be beneficial when you apply it with like short amount of loading, minimal workouts, but more frequently. That's one requirement. You need to do it more frequently. So we have multiple stimuli.
Philip:The good thing is bone stimulus, tendon stimulus can be in a very short amount of time. In fifteen minutes, you can do already a lot on structural integrity. Or do they prefer more like a full program? And then we have to consider, okay, twice a week is the minimal to build, you could say. Once a week sometimes is okay to maintain.
Philip:So I think that is a necessary component.
Jimmy:Yeah. Do you feel like runners or coaches go wrong with this process? As we start to try to implement? Do you feel like there are common errors people make here?
Philip:I think it depends, of course, the situation. If you're more a strength coach versus a PT, I think everybody has different strengths in terms of strength training. As a PT, for example, I think prioritization is part that needs to be taken into account. I think when are we doing that strength training part, because we need to be careful also what we do in running. Personally, I had, like last year, quite some issues in terms of muscle problems.
Philip:When I do higher intensity workouts, I felt like I was a little bit more vulnerable, because I was including a bit more strength training. And there I felt like, yeah, I got one muscle injury. So that's a bit the pitfall sometimes. It needs to be well placed in the total program.
Jimmy:And by that, do you mean timing within the week around key running workouts? Or what do you mean by
Philip:that? Yeah. So one thing is like, what is at that moment, am I training into certain fatigue or not? In marathon training, yeah, of course you go at a specific moment into some sort of fatigue, which makes you a little bit more vulnerable for injuries. And if you then do like strength training and maybe you do like the day after a harder workout or some strides, like that could also also happen during the strides that you feel like, oh, my muscle does a little bit pain, a little bit of pain in my in my hamstring.
Philip:Yeah. That could be due to the fatigue of the strength training. So I think planning this wisely within the week is an important one. Yes. If you have the time, it's okay.
Philip:But depends a bit on the situation.
Jimmy:How do you handle that? So I see some coaches focus on keeping hard days hard. And so they're stacking hard running sessions with strength training, protecting the easy day, then other people doing different things. What do you like to do?
Philip:I would say depends on the strength training program. But if the program is digestible, it's more related to stability training, you can combine quite easily with the running sessions. But if you train the prime movers, so think about quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, those type of muscle groups, I think it's useful to understand, okay, what is the loading within the forty eight hours? What I do now is I do indeed the heavier days. You can make them a little bit heavier and I prefer to do strength training after a heavier day of training.
Jimmy:Why? Like the next day or the same day, just later in the day?
Philip:I think you can do both, but it depends of course, if the training session is a hard session and you go like almost all out. Yeah, of course, then we don't do strength training that day. But if you do like a tempo workout, you still are able to load, unless that there is a risk. So if you do like plyo work, we don't need to do that in fatigue. Because when there is fatigue, yeah, it could induce the risk for acute injuries.
Philip:But for general, slow loaded heavy strength training, yes, that can be combined, because there is a low risk. What is a high risk? When we do first strength training, and then do something that could induce the risk. For example, think about strides. It can be if you do the strides.
Philip:Everybody has this. Sometimes you don't warm up that well, and you do some strides. Now I know that I need to do a little bit more quiet. Yeah, the first two reps are a bit more calm, but in the past it was like sometimes, okay, the first try already do it as it should be the third rep. But that could create problems.
Philip:So we always need to consider this, the timing of strength training.
Jimmy:And it sounds like the goal is obviously you kind of protect the running session. That's what's most important. So you want to go into that feeling fresh. And then it's maybe a little, it's more, it's okay to come into the strength session, feeling some fatigue from that run.
Philip:I think there indeed quality sessions should be done with quality, unless that you really want to create that fatigue. So it could be a couple training where you do strength and then do an easy long endurance event or easy run-in certain fatigue, that's okay. But if you want to create quality and training, yeah, don't make sure they are in too fatigued state.
Jimmy:So basically, it's like, what I hear you saying is we can do it different ways. It's just understand why you're doing it. Don't just like haphazardly do it. There should be a reason for why you're programming it in the week, in the way you did.
Philip:Indeed. I think that's the most important thing.
Jimmy:Yeah, so I would say like, I think my experience working with runners is often they're just scrambling to like fit it in if they can fit it in somewhere. And they intuitively know, yes, like I don't want to lift the day before a hard session, a hard running session. All of a sudden the strength training now becomes a thing that was originally there to build this runner up and help them tolerate more running, but now it's actually contributing to maybe some injuries or some niggles now.
Philip:Yeah, correct. And I think that's the most important thing. I think education plays a vital role. Making sure that we educate them well, okay, do we do strength training? And if your schedule is messed up, what is the best solution that you can do?
Philip:If they know this, they can plan it. But it's like, they just need to know it. And I think the education part in this is crucial. And then they can self fill it in. Of course, we can plan it for them, but we also know that it's not always feasible for them to fit it in as it should be.
Philip:And then you get like these situations like, okay, we should help them not creating difficulties.
Jimmy:Yes. So if we go back to the idea of periodizing our strength work, if you were to take like a typical marathon or schedule, so we start early with like more base building and then we get more specific with marathon training later in the season and then we get to racing. How do you adjust strength training as the season progresses?
Philip:Yeah. Okay. So let us say you have twice a marathon a year, one in April, one in October. We're right now in the middle, I think, or maybe already closer towards racing. But let us say in the early part, first we need to recover.
Philip:You can do two things. Once they are on muscle level, they are recovered, we can start doing more of the first baseline building. It could be a bit more stability workouts, not necessarily try to create fatigue already in the prime movers again. That should be done maybe a little bit later in the process. Like, let us say, bringing back to routine.
Philip:That's the hardest, doing again the exercises.
Jimmy:Just getting back into the rhythm. You're less concerned with like pushing heavy weight or anything like that early. It's just get in there, move the body, maybe we focus on one of your weak link components maybe.
Philip:Yeah, indeed. That's actually a good moment where we can work on the weak components because later in the process, it is always harder to do that. I think in the first part, maybe the foundations, good stability, maybe a little bit of strength, getting back to some strength in certain muscle groups that are already recovered. Then secondly, I would say, once they also regain, let us say the volume, and so they are back running again after one or two weeks and they start running again, I always consider four to six to eight weeks of baseline training. That baseline training consists of building up the volume again, but slowly.
Philip:It will include after a while strides and easy, not necessarily Vue to max workouts because it's already more stressful on the both musculoskeletal level, but also on physiological level, but already inducing some strides. That's actually the moment where we can back building the foundational strength for explosive strength, the reactive strength, like the slow loading, heavy resistance training. Because you also need to rebuild this. You lost already quite a lot from the gains. You can't jump back in into your strength training routine.
Philip:We have to build this up.
Jimmy:Yeah, think that's important for athletes. I had somebody who just finished a 50 ks last week and we're rebuilding and had to tell him like his first week back in the gym it's like we're just doing one session and I'm like I want you going light on everything, Forget about the weights you were lifting a month ago, like we're starting over. Like I don't want you trying to hit those same weights. This should feel easy. Just get that habit back.
Jimmy:And then gradually getting into that routine, progressing the weight, because yeah, think typically the volume in running is building up, but it's still lower relative to where it's going. And so we can start doing more in the gym and it's a good time where like, yeah, the fatigue is not in the legs, so we can start challenging them in the gym a little bit.
Philip:Indeed, indeed. I think that's the moment where you can do like the heavy strength training where there can be like some delayed muscle.
Jimmy:And it's almost like you can see, the way I would talk about to them is like, let's that soreness out of the way now. So that like, as we do the gym work in two months from now, you're no longer getting sore from it. You're used to it, your body is accustomed to it. Just like with as we start adding intensity and running, same thing. It's like the first couple of workouts suck, you're really sore, you're noticing it, it's lingering.
Jimmy:But months down the road, it's no, your body's accustomed to it.
Philip:Indeed, indeed. And that's, I think that's the ideal moment Because later in the process, when, like you were saying, when we are starting with a more specific type of workouts, and you have like muscle soreness, it will not be pleasant. That specific training will feel like heavy and they are not able to hit certain paces. I think that should be the moment where we already maxed out strength training. Then we started already doing or a bit more specific, like we are shifting a bit, some more reactive strength training, like plyometrics, combination with some maintenance heavy strength training, but more as maintaining that foundation.
Philip:And then into the specific period where we do high volume, but also high volume workouts. Think about the thirty-thirty five ks or it will be 20 miles, I think. Like those kind of workouts with some tempo blocks. Yeah, there we need to do the maintenance work. There we need to not focus on strength training.
Philip:It is more like supplementary at that moment to hold the gains, because you can lose it. What you also need to consider in marathon training, it's very monotone running. Emphasize a lot on the endurance part, slow volume or LT1 workouts, how to say the tempo workouts. But it's very monotone, very stressful also, like for the central nervous system. And I think sometimes doing like a training where you challenge the neuromuscular system will also keep them alive.
Philip:Otherwise they are like always being sleepy and don't want to do like the strides. Think doing this kind of workouts is useful.
Jimmy:Can you be a little bit more specific there and give me an example of that? So the runner is, yeah, kind of in the heavy part of marathon training, more specific workouts, running workouts. What would a gym session look like?
Philip:Yeah, warming up, I would say like, okay, you do like five minutes of easy cycling And that's not the most important part, but let us say getting warmed up a little bit. Then I sometimes give a block of low load plyometrics. What is low load plyometrics? Ropes, jump rope. Domingo some pogo jumps.
Philip:It can be a stabilizing component, like where you do it single leg and you do side to side jumps. So it triggers a little bit neuromuscular component, but not necessarily is fatiguing those muscle groups. It's not, it's more neuromuscular training. Then they're warmed up. So yeah, okay, you can think also about range of motion exercises, some flexibility before I did this.
Philip:But then it's like main strength part. Main strength part would consist of a couple of maintenance exercises. It can be maybe, for example, a full squat.
Jimmy:Like barbell? Are we talking about Yeah,
Philip:depends, of course, on the level and the situation. But let's say when they use weights, that could be a squat with barbells, like with some heavy lifting but low reps. So we just maximize also that neuromuscular component. And then maybe a single leg Romanian deadlift to keep it a bit more functional, also that stabilizing muscles are triggered. They should be able to do that at that moment.
Philip:In the beginning, I'm training a bit more on making sure they are able to do the movement again, feeling that stability. And then at a given moment, they should be able to do it. And then you can maximize, let us say, the loading.
Jimmy:Anything else?
Philip:Would say. Yeah, you can actually do it, let's say, like some heavy lifting. Maybe two exercises, low reps, and not too many sets. Making sure they are not fatigued. So think about reps in reserve, making sure they are not fatigued at the end of that part.
Jimmy:Yeah. Are you thinking like two reps in reserve or more?
Philip:Yeah. When you do like, I think two reps, it depends of course on how many reps you're doing. But if you do like four-five reps, you should be able to do at least two reps in reserve. It's of course on how high you go in the load. If you go a little bit lower, yeah, you're more on the power side, you could say.
Philip:And you do it a little bit faster. If you do it at 85% of your maximum voluntary contraction, or in one RM, then it will be way harder to do it fast. So it depends on that part. But enough rest, making sure they are not fatigued. And then you can do some ply work.
Philip:It could be, not everybody is doing it, but you can do drop jumps, you can do some box jumps, maybe also on the more speed spectrum of the training. So it's more like, if you see this strength workout, it's more like a neuromuscular strength workout. And not necessarily the fatigue in the strength workout.
Jimmy:Because you're keeping the volume fairly low? Preferably. Correct me if my thinking here is wrong, but how I typically think about progressing strength training through a training block would be early in the season I can have higher volume in the gym, the intensity might be lower because running volumes low but it's going to build. So my gym volume is going to kind of go down while my running volume goes up. And so as the gym volume's going down and the sets, the total sets and reps are getting less, I'm okay with the intensity, the load starting to progress higher and higher because I like when I program, I'll creep down towards like three sets of three towards the end of the block where it's like they're doing nine reps total, but they can lift a heavy weight, but hopefully they've become accustomed to it so that fatigue is not lingering and affecting now their key marathon training workouts or something.
Philip:Indeed. Indeed. I think that's the most important thing is, and that's like the biggest pitfall is that we think that we need to give a lot of exercises to give a lot of because they think like the number of exercises will give the value of the strength workout. But I think it's like just the right element of work with the highest quality. Yeah,
Jimmy:that's a hard thing because I find athletes I coach that I do get pushback with like them. Like it's funny because you used to have to like pull, it was pulling teeth to get a runner to commit to doing strength training. Now I feel like the buy in is a little bit easier. You're seeing professional runners doing more and more strength training. You're seeing it on social media.
Jimmy:So it's easier to get them to buy in. And then all of a sudden you're it's almost like I have to convince them that hey like five exercises in the gym is plenty for you. Like your running volume and you're running 70 miles a week. We don't need to do 10 exercises in the gym. I do get frustrated with it because I feel like I get that often where my the way my general template is similar to what you described where it's like light warm up, few plyometrics, then a double leg movement, single leg movement, and then I finish with my PT hat on whatever there's there, if they have a little niggle and Achilles thing, a hip thing, throw that in at the end, more of like my PT exercise.
Jimmy:So we're talking like I said, five or six exercises and they want to throw in all the fancy things that they see on Instagram or whatever. And it's funny because you're like, I'm a big fan of like, what's the minimum amount we can get away with and get the results that we want to And trying to convince the athlete of that. So did you there was a study that came out this past year where it looked at strength training and distance runners and the effects on durability. Did you see this study? I forget
Philip:who Durability, yes.
Jimmy:Durability. It looked at like maintaining were they able to maintain like running economy at the end of a ninety minute run, they compared a group of runners with just running training and a group of runners with running plus strength training and showed a big increase in durability. So their ability to maintain running economy at the end of that ninety minute run.
Philip:It's a hot topic, fatigue resistance and durability. I think that's also one of the main limitations like in marathon running is like, you can have like high VO2 max, high thresholds, but still not able to be at your best, let us say, the marathon. I think those limitations plays a vital role. For me, that's also my biggest limitation. For example, it's the fatigue resistance.
Philip:I have really good values in terms of lactate and thresholds and VO2 max, but I'm more limited in the fatigue resistance. And strength training can be helpful. And actually, is of course a little bit off topic, but you could say that one of the limitations of muscle cramps in marathon running is not related to sodium, the body or let us say the hydration part, but it's more related to let us say the muscle damage.
Jimmy:Yeah, I can attest to that. I remember doing a 50 ks trail race that had a very long, maybe like six to eight mile descent just bombing downhill. And I wasn't where I was living at the time, wasn't able to train for that kind of long sustained descent. And the last five miles, my quads were just destroyed and cramping up and didn't matter yet how much sodium or calories or carbs or whatever that I got in, the damage was there.
Philip:The problem is, when do you feel this is when you're doing it. And then it's already too late. You already lost your goal. And that's a bit the problem with the strength training part is like, it's in the end, you will see what the benefits are like, I run actually faster than in the past, or I didn't feel my muscles this time, but then it's already too late. I think we need to have intermediate steps, are able to assess limitations.
Philip:I think this is an important step that you have those type of tests. Otherwise, they only see the value when it's too late.
Jimmy:And what do you mean by that? Can you give me an example?
Philip:Yeah, for example, if somebody, when you do an assessment and you see like the reactive abilities are way too low, or that certain muscle groups are really weak. Yeah, let's say all the strength tests that we do, and we see big limitations, I think that's already a good intermediate step as a wake up call. See it as a wake up call, okay, we need to improve it because your goal is to examine the time. It is a marathon, we know the limitations that it could bring. So we need to prepare right now.
Philip:And at the moment of the preparation, you don't feel that. You don't feel those limitations because you're not doing a 40 ks or like a 20 mile run at that moment. And also, the speed at which you're running at, because you can do like an easy long run, but that's not the same as like at your full potential doing the marathon.
Jimmy:So what I hear you saying there is like, all right, we use assessment to determine point A, but then we use your goal and what you're training for to determine point B and the demands that we need to prepare you for.
Philip:Yes.
Jimmy:If we circle back to that durability study I was talking about, the reason I brought it up was because that the intervention, their strength training program was very simple. I think it was four exercises, maybe five exercises. They were progressive in nature, which I think is something that maybe we should talk about because we have talked about, but just to like hit home is like, just like your running training should be progressive in nature, the strength work that you're doing should be progressing. It shouldn't be like, oh I've been doing the same four exercises with no change in load and I'm just going through the motions, right? But yeah, I think like, so again, simplifying the routine saying like, what are we know your limitations are?
Jimmy:What are the demands we need to train you for? Being concise with our prescription and then having some progression to the load.
Philip:Yeah, I think in general terms, I would say, if you think about the phases, here is the marathon running, here's the starting point. In the first phase, we need to build strength. So here we have a lot of progression in the strength training. But at a given moment, we will stop the progression in strength training because we are now in maintenance phase. While there is where we increase the load in running and not necessarily in total volume, but eventually the total volume will also increase, but the load per session and the load per session is also more stressful on the body because it requires a lot more recovery time.
Philip:I think that timing is a crucial one in the first place, looking at when are we going to progress. Then, of course, how are we going to progress? I think I already mentioned, we can start with like a bit more reps, for example, a bit because we are training again, like the basic movements. We are training more maybe the strength and stabilizing muscles, we can do a little bit more volume in them. But we progress towards higher loads.
Philip:But of course, we need to reduce that in, let us say, the end of work. So we need to We can't do, of course, the same loads at higher reps, because then we induce fatigue. So we need to just make a shift, I think, from more reps, a bit lower load, making sure that there is structural strength, or we train the basic components, and then we can go towards the face of very high quality strength training. Of course, not for everyone. Not everybody is going towards that heavy lifting.
Philip:For some people, I stay also to the basics because they prefer to have a home program. And yeah, it's of course not maximizing the strength training, but at least they are creating consistency.
Jimmy:That makes me think of this area where I tend to struggle with. And I've had, I wonder this with my own training and with runners that I work with is like, is, when do we consider the runner or the athlete strong enough? Because it's like easy to continue to want to progress and you get, everyone's different but I do see that runner, like there's a certain breed of runners who start to really enjoy the weight room and they're able to start lifting heavier and heavier weights, but at some point when it, yeah, when is there, you have a way to think about like when strong enough, when the athlete is strong enough?
Philip:Yeah. I think at a certain moment, especially on the demands of of of the athlete, okay. If we are a sprint athlete, it is different than, an endurance athlete. And so the demands are more important when we do like the explosive events. When it's being strong enough, I think, first of all, if you know where is the benchmark.
Philip:So for example, when we assess explosive strength, when we assess reactive strength, for example, we know what are the typical values for endurance athletes. And if you gained a lot compared to, let us say, your running peers, based on the benchmarks that we have, for example, then we know, okay, actually it is enough for endurance events. Then we don't look anymore at, let us say, the strength, but we look more into the functional components. Can we still gain in the functional components? Because then we can include a bit more functional strength training.
Philip:Being strong enough, I think it's always like, okay, you can always become stronger, stronger is better. You can consider a bodybuilder doing a running event. It could be that they are strong, but they're not utilizing their muscles anymore. I have to say in sprint training or in sprinters is also a balancing act between speed and strength. Some people say, I really need to gain in strength, and they gained a lot in strength, but they lost it in the speed spectrum.
Philip:So you can also lose certain qualities. And in this case, in endurance events, could say like, okay, body weight can play a role, let's say we take that away, the body weight part. Of course, you don't want to be bulking. But then let us say, if you do the strength training we prescribe, you won't get bulky muscles. It's like always a But balancing then do we lose it in the functional component?
Philip:Do we lose that reactive ability? That is one thing that we need to maintain and make sure that we don't lose certain qualities.
Jimmy:Gotcha. So you go back to the test, the data that you've had to say like, to show that they're improving, and then to decide if you feel like they are strong enough to say like, yeah. Awesome. And then I'm always curious about this. If we let's say we're the race is coming up, your key A race, when do you stop strength training?
Jimmy:When do you pull it from the runners routine?
Philip:There are a couple of options. You can keep a certain maintenance. I think in strength training, let say, within my athletes, I don't describe the last two weeks. No strength training anymore. I've seen some studies saying like four weeks is also already a good timeframe.
Philip:But the thing is, depends on how long did you build up the strength because the gains can go finish quickly when you did it for a long time. So depending on the timeframe, I would say, when you had a short buildup, keep it one to two weeks, no strength training. If you had a longer time of buildup and you have maybe some good specific workouts that are like priority, you could already stop four weeks before. But it could be like some maintenance exercises.
Jimmy:Yeah. But the main meat and potatoes of the strength routine, you're going to get rid of somewhere around four to two weeks out from the key race. You're going to start pulling that out. Yeah, because you're trying to balance that, keeping them fresh, not adding fatigue to the legs or to the system as they're getting into that race mode. Awesome, yeah, because I think that's another thing I see runners push back.
Jimmy:It's like once they get into the routine, where runners are weird breed where like, once they get into the routine, then they push back when I try to pull it out of the routine and say like, hey, you're not gaining fitness anymore, we're not gaining strength anymore, let's like, let your body freshen up, sharpen up as the race is now two weeks away.
Philip:Indeed.
Jimmy:I think it goes back to that what you said which is pretty important is always just like trying to do your best as a coach or a PT, whatever your role is with this runner or athlete of educating them and helping them understand why you're doing what you're doing and not just removing it and saying yeah with no explanation. All right Philip, yeah I think we've talked about a lot, we've covered a lot here, we've kind of taken or we started with why we want to strength train, we went into how we were going to assess what needs to be strength, what we need to train and what we need to work on with strength training, implementing it, periodizing it throughout a runner's schedule as our key race approaches. We talked about when to pull it out at the end of the block. And then you even talked about, yeah, restarting and starting the next cycle. Is there anything else that you feel like we need to add here to kind of put a bow in it, or is that where you would wrap up?
Philip:No, I think the most important part is, as clinician, that we find a good structured way of assessing athletes, or let us say runners, making sure we have objective data which we can can supplement, for example, with more qualitative data. Important one. And try to also analyze running gait, making sure we know how they're loading in specific movement, as well as assessing certain capacities which is needed for, let us say, the event. Then the most important thing is that you use this objective data to motivate them and to make sure that we do reassessments also to see the progress, because that's a good step to keep them motivated in strength training plan. Because we don't have actually a lot of data and running it simple, you did a race or you did a workout and it felt already better.
Philip:Okay. You can say that also in strength training, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're better in running gait or like, let us say in the running itself. So it's also not that specific in terms of feeling the progression. So those specific tests can be very helpful in the process. And then we then have a plan, making sure that you have a structural plan, a goal plan, making sure that it fits in their schedule.
Philip:Then you can find the right exercises and when to do what exercise. And then also, okay, what type of exercises I do in each component. So that's part of the prioritization. And then it's like the execution, making sure they are just executing the programme, and also feeling that they can adopt the programme in terms of the loading per week. So sometimes athletes have a couple of weeks that are a bit tougher, and then sometimes we have to shift a little bit in training.
Philip:And not only in the running program, but also in the strength training program. And then I think when you find the balance between those two components, you will get the most benefits. And of course, in the long term, it's not that one half year of training that makes everything. I think also, take this with you in the next phase. And then eventually, the athletes who did this consistently, they will make the biggest progress and they will not stagnate.
Philip:Awesome.
Jimmy:That's great. So Philip, where can the listeners learn more about you?
Philip:Yeah, you can. I have my own coaching platform.
Jimmy:Yeah. Where is that?
Philip:Like hybrid loop coaching. It's like running coaching. So this is also something I combine running with strength training because I know like what are the pitfalls a bit of strength training. So that's my personal platform, you could say.
Jimmy:Are you taking on new coaching clients?
Philip:Mostly I coach Belgian runners. But yeah, I'm also doing a lot of online coaching. So it is possible to do some online coaching with me. So if you're from The US, don't worry. I can also or Jimmy, you can also you also provide.
Jimmy:We'll link put to your website. It's quite nice. I was on it the other day. We'll put a link to that where people can learn more about your coaching services. And then yeah you're busy working behind the scenes that run easy most days of the week so keep doing good work and I love what you're doing.
Philip:I would also say like if you have any questions or like I spoke about testing etc. But if you have questions about the things that I test, for example, I can always give you some information. If some listeners are interested about the test or about, for example, the ReniZi data, because I spoke a lot about ReniZi data, you can always ask me. On the ReniZi website, you can always contact us.
Jimmy:All right. Well, Philip, thanks for your time. And yeah, I hope you have a good rest Yes. Of
Philip:And you are you going to run?
Jimmy:I ran this morning.
Philip:Okay, great. I've ran with Matthias at lunch.
Jimmy:Nice. There you go. Awesome. Well, happy training and yes, we will talk soon.
Philip:See you soon.
Jimmy:That's it for today on the Physio Insights podcast presented by Runeasi. Would you like to share an interesting case, insight, or have a thought about the podcast? Comment below and don't forget to follow us for more episodes.