Dominic Stone
Running is a great way to improve your cardiovascular health and keep your body and brain in shape. It is a full-body workout that engages all of your major muscle groups, from your shoulders to your big toes. Running is an effective way to strengthen your core and lower body muscles, including your hips, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. It also helps to improve your balance, stability, and endurance, making it easier to perform everyday activities. Additionally, running can aid in fat loss, improve your skin health, and reduce your risk of various health conditions such as heart disease, strokes, and osteoporosis.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Muscle Groups | Hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, abdominals, and shoulders |
| Muscle Composition | Three key muscles make up the hip flexors, while the glutes are made up of three muscles: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus |
| Benefits | Improved cardiovascular health, increased bone density, reduced risk of heart disease and stroke, improved skin health, and reduced stress |
| Injury Prevention | Maintaining muscle balance and flexibility is crucial to prevent injuries like tendinopathy, runner's knee, Achilles tendon pain, and shin splints |
| Core Strength | A strong core improves balance, stability, posture, spinal alignment, and stamina |
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What You'll Learn
Hip flexors
The hip flexors are a group of muscles that are responsible for flexing the hip, or bringing the leg upward toward the body. They are made up of three key muscles, including the iliopsoas (made up of the psoas major and the iliacus), the rectus femoris, and the sartorius. These muscles are located in the front of the hip and are responsible for lifting the knee and driving the legs forward.
When running, the hip flexors are crucial, especially during sprint and hill workouts when the knee drive is more explosive. The hip flexors work together with other muscle groups to propel you forward during a run. For example, the gluteus maximus extends the hip when pushing off the ground, while the medius and minimus push the weight to the opposite side. If the glutes are weak, the hip flexors, hamstrings, or deep lateral rotators may compensate, which can lead to hamstring injuries or piriformis syndrome.
Having strong hip flexors can improve your running form and efficiency. Research has shown that strengthening the hip flexors can increase running economy by improving the balance between hip flexor and hip extensor strength. Additionally, strong hip flexors can reduce the strain on the lower back and hamstrings, as weak hip flexors may lead to overcompensation by these muscle groups.
To maintain strong and supple hip flexors, it is important to include strengthening and stretching exercises in your routine. Examples of such exercises include lunges, glute bridges, planks, crunches, and clamshells. It is also important to get up and move throughout the day to avoid tightness in the hip flexors, which can impact the pelvis' ability to rotate properly.
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Hamstrings
The hamstrings are responsible for generating force and stabilising your body when you run. They help in the push-off phase of your stride, where they push against the ground to propel you forward. This is the portion of the running cycle when the hamstrings are under the most tension. They are trying to slow your shin from flying off your thigh and help pull your leg down towards the ground.
Strong hamstrings are essential for runners to generate more force in the push-off phase, enhancing their performance. They also help in reducing the risk of injuries. Research has shown that incorporating hamstring exercises can effectively lower re-injury rates and decrease the risk of hamstring strains.
However, runners need to be careful not to overuse their hamstrings, which can lead to tendinopathy, a condition where the tendons in the muscle begin to break down. To prevent this, it is important to maintain a balance between the hamstrings, hip flexors, and glutes. Incorporating exercises that target other muscle groups, such as the quadriceps, glutes, and core, can provide a well-rounded approach to injury prevention and improved running performance.
To strengthen your hamstrings, you can add exercises such as Bulgarian split squats, good mornings, or dead bugs into your routine. These exercises will help improve your running performance and make you a more resilient runner.
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Quadriceps
Running is a full-body workout that works muscles throughout the body, from the shoulders to the toes. The quadriceps are a group of four long muscles located on the front of the thigh: the vastus intermedius, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, and rectus femoris. Three of these muscles work together to extend your knee during each stride, while the rectus femoris also crosses the hip joint, making it key for bending the hip.
The quadriceps are responsible for straightening and stabilising the knees, and they help to propel you forward when running. The energy that begins in the quadriceps is then transferred into the hamstrings. Running is a chronic type of stress on the quadriceps, and while it may make them slightly stronger, it is best to strengthen them directly with resistance exercises if you want to prevent injury and improve your running ability. Quadriceps-dominant running can lead to early fatigue and an increased risk of knee injuries, so it is important to keep the muscles balanced and working together in harmony.
To strengthen the quadriceps, you can isolate them with exercises that only work those muscles, such as the banded quad extension, which has been shown to elicit near-maximum quadriceps activity. Alternatively, you can select compound exercises that mostly involve the quadriceps. If you have tight quadriceps, isolation exercises are great, but if you want to get stronger overall and improve your running economy, compound exercises are best.
In addition to preventing injuries, strengthening the quadriceps can also help alleviate knee pain and improve running economy, race times, and top speed. The body responds to the acute stress of heavy quadriceps exercises by making the muscles stronger and more aerobically fit.
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Calves
Running is a full-body workout, but it especially benefits the calves, which are composed of two primary muscles: the larger gastrocnemius and the soleus beneath it. The calves produce the most amount of force during push-off compared to any other muscle in the body relative to their size. This means that if your calves aren't adequately prepared to produce this force, your push-off power will be reduced, which will either require compensation from other muscles or may even lead to injury.
Running on an upward incline increases the pressure on your calves and ankles, but it also makes it easier to push off from the ground. This is because some of the energy from the shock of impact is absorbed by the calves, which then provide power as you propel forward.
To strengthen your calves and avoid injury, you can add calf raises to your weekly routine. Stand on your tiptoes with your heels lifted off the ground. Press into your toes to engage your calves and raise your body a few inches upward. For an added challenge, hold a dumbbell while performing this exercise.
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Core
Running is a whole-body workout, but it primarily engages your core and lower-body muscles. The core muscles are responsible for stability, proper form, and spinal alignment, all of which help runners perform at their highest capacity with maximum efficiency.
The core muscles include the rectus abdominis, pelvic floor muscles, transverse abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, erector spinae, and diaphragm. The lower back, glutes, and hip flexors are also sometimes considered part of the core as they work closely together to allow your legs to move.
A strong core helps to maintain proper posture, balance, and form while running. It can also help to properly align your spine, pelvis, and lower body. Strong abdominals help your body stay upright and reduce the shock impact on your back. A weak core may cause you to compensate with other muscles, which can lead to injury. For example, weak glutes have been linked to knee pain in runners.
To strengthen your core, exercises such as dead bugs, bird-dogs, bridges, planks, side planks, and supermans can be beneficial. Planks are especially great for emphasizing the relationship between your core and limbs, as they strengthen your abs, erector spinae, chest, shoulders, quads, and hamstrings.
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Frequently asked questions
Running is a full-body workout that engages all of your major muscle groups. Some of the primary muscle groups that benefit from running include the core, hips, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.
Running automatically engages your core muscles, which include the abdominal muscles such as the transverse abdominis and obliques. A strong core helps to maintain proper posture, balance, and form while running, as well as stabilise your hips and spine.
Running works the leg muscles, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. For example, the hamstrings help to propel you forward during a run, while the calves absorb the shock impact and provide power as you push off the ground.
