The IronStrength Workout

Today was my day to go to the gym and lift weights, something I have been trying to do twice a week since completing my marathon in December.  Winter is down-time for me and most other runners, so it is a good opportunity to hit the gym and strengthen some muscles; runners are notorious for having unbalanced muscular strength and I have found over the years that cross-training can keep injuries at bay.  And my last marathon was affected by some issues that could perhaps be remedied with some leg presses, curls, extensions, and toe-raises, all of which I have been doing for several weeks.

This month's issue of Runners World has an article about Dr. Jordan Metzl's IronStrength workout.  Metzl is an accomplished marathon runner and triathlete and the author of a book called The Athlete's Book of Home Remedies, which I happen to have bought a year or so ago and read with great interest; it includes a series of exercises designed to strengthen runners in particular - the glutes, hamstrings, and other weak spots runners all develop over years of running - most of them not requiring weights.  Here's the link, but it doesn't seem to be working today, probably because every reader who subscribes to Runners World is watching the video:

http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/ironstrength-workout

The most important exercise in the workout, which I incorporated into my own workout today, he calls the plyometric jump squat (or, in the book, iso-explosive bodyweight jump squats.  This lovely lady demonstrates the exercise in the video, which Dr. Metzl says should be easy for runners to do:

I did a few of these on the aerobics floor where I could scrutinize my form in the big mirrors on the walls.  And needless to say it was a challenge for an old guy like me.  No, that is an understatement.  My legs burned so much going up the stairs from the weight room that I wondered why nobody had considered installing an elevator.

Will this make me a stronger runner, as the editors of Runners World who tried to workout for a few weeks claim?  Time will tell. 

Also, my long run tomorrow morning may be a bit of an ordeal to complete.