Strength Run for Coached Fitness Members

Last Thursday evening, Ben Pulham, the founder of Coached Fitness, held a Strength Running Session at the Kallang Practice Track for its members.

Formerly known as Journey Fitness Company, Coached is a boutique fitness company that aims to help runners and triathletes to constantly improve themselves and to break their personal barriers.

Held since Coached had begun in February, these sessions are usually held fortnightly for Coached members to practise their drills and at the same time to get some feedback from Ben himself – to ensure that they are doing the drills correctly.

This group shot was taken at an earlier Coached session; these sessions have been held ever since Coached was founded.

This group shot was taken at an earlier Coached session; these types of sessions have been held ever since Coached was founded.

This is because doing drills wrongly may result in dysfunctions and possibly injuries in the future – as the wrong muscles may be utilised.

Drills help runners build core strength

Doing strength drills regularly, help runners to build core strength which can not only make one into a faster runner, but at the same time, also helps to reduce one’s risk of injuries. And having stronger core muscles will translate into better posture not only when running, but during other times as well.

Our session had started with a 20-minute warm up jog around the track. Then afterwards we did strength drills which took place up (and down) the hill leading to the 2nd storey of the Kallang Practise Track.

Comprising of exercises such as hill reps at differing heart rate intensities, squats and bounding, the drills started out okay at the beginning but after a while I could feel my legs beginning to ache slightly and my heart rate was rising quite quickly at the same time.

Uphill strength drills help runners develop their core muscles.
[Photo source centurytrek.wordpress.com]

Throughout the session Ben was constantly correcting the form of runners who did the drills inaccurately. For example, he advocates that squats should be done slowly, rather than rushing through the motions, because slower squats will result in a more effective workout.

While doing just one session may be too soon to reap the benefits of such drills, I can certainly see how the legs will eventually become stronger over time, if these are done on a regular basis.

According to Ben, doing the drills and combining these together with actual running training, will enable runners to be able to improve their endurance during races and reduce their chances of hitting the wall, yet at the same time they will need to clock less actual mileage.

Clocking lesser mileage is something that Ben strongly advocates through the Coached programme. He says that doing less running but more quality training is better. According to Ben, runners should focus on quality, not simply doing junk miles that have no true purpose in training.

Ben advocates quality training involving drills, rather than junk miles.
[Photo source www.stack.com]

Two Easy laps on the track to cool down

Following the strength training session, we did a couple of easy cool down laps around the track. As the session had been quite exhausting, it felt good when it had finished.