At the right intensity, running is both regenerative and performance-enhancing. Learn how running improves your performance here.
Table of contents
To improve your performance, you need to train. One often neglected element is running. In this article, you'll learn how running can improve your performance, where running is an important addition to your other training, and in which sports running plays an essential role.
1. Why running is important for your performance
Like any other training, running is a conditioning program for your body. The type of conditioning depends on what you're training for. Over short distances up to 10 kilometers, your cardiovascular system and muscles will adapt differently than during marathon training .
But one thing is practically guaranteed: Regular running training increases endurance . Most people involved in endurance sports know this. But did you know that a well-trained endurance athlete can have 40-60% more blood than an untrained person?
A higher blood volume increases your stroke and cardiac output , ensuring better blood flow to your muscles . Your body can also use the extra blood for heat regulation and sweat production, preventing blood from having to be drawn from your muscles for this purpose. [1]
The German Athletics Association recommends several types of running for active recovery . Long-distance runs are said to contribute to recovery in the first few days, especially after intensive training.
We recommend 20 to 45 minutes of low- to moderate-intensity endurance running outdoors. Thanks to their soft surface, grass runs offer ideal conditions for short, easy runs and can be adapted with progressions or technical runs.
If long runs aren't for you, you can also boost your performance by doing short , intense sprints instead . Research from Canada's McMater University showed that "very short, high-intensity workouts improve muscle performance just as much as several weeks of traditional endurance training." [2]
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2. Sports in which running is a practical addition
Running is also a useful addition to your strength and functional training . In many WODs (Workout of the Day) , athletes also complete short-distance runs and sprints to increase their personal performance .
Typically, the goal is to cover a certain distance as quickly as possible or to achieve the maximum distance within a given time.
A study by Dr. Kenji Doma of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, shows that running sessions can be complemented by strength training : This study found that the weakening of endurance performance caused by the workout is measurably reduced as long as there is at least 6 hours of recovery time between intensive workouts and endurance training. [4]
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By the way: Running is also an important part of tennis. Since players have to change their position on the court in a flash, for example, during fast rallies, they need a corresponding acceleration to reach difficult balls. So, a tennis player runs more than they seem.
Between 2018 and 2020, the ATP Tour collected statistics on the world's top tennis players and the average distance each of them covered in the first two sets of a match. The statistics show that tennis ace Rafael Nadal, for example, runs the equivalent of almost 2 km in the first and second sets . [3]
3. Sports where running is essential
Athletes like professional soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo invest a lot of time in their leg muscles, which they need for more than just a powerful shot. Modern attackers in soccer today require explosive acceleration with high top speed to break through clever defenders.
And what applies to soccer also applies to other team sports like handball, ice hockey, and basketball. While soccer players run an average of about 10 km per game , basketball players cover at least 5-6 km.
However, a basketball player has to expect fewer rest breaks while on the court, but always uses turbo during his sprints. A soccer player, on average, runs at a slower pace.
In athletics, there are also various disciplines that require some form of running: for example, a long jumper would miss his personal best without a short sprint to the landing pit, or a pole vaulter would not be able to generate enough momentum to catapult himself over the bar.
For triathletes, however, running is one of three disciplines they must master. In addition to the 40 km bike ride and 1.5 km swim, they also face a 10 km run at the end. This is a special challenge for the body, which has to battle the elements, fatigue, and cold.
4. Talking Brains Podcast: Find your way to running
5. Conclusion
Running can be practiced as an individual exercise and hobby , or it can be part of a workout to improve personal performance for strength training or team sports . Especially when intensive training sessions are on the agenda, running can be a form of active recovery.
Running training conditions your muscles and your cardiovascular system so that, under the right conditions, you can produce more blood, which in turn makes you more efficient.
6. Sources
[1] Chair of Sports Medicine and Sports Nutrition, University of Bochum. Work Regulation and Training. [ http://vmrz0100.vm.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/spomedial/content/e866/e2442/e4446/e4554/e4579/index_ger.html ]
[2] Gibala, MJ et. al (2006). The Journal of Physiology, p. 901-911. Short‐term sprint interval versus traditional endurance training: similar initial adaptations in human skeletal muscle and exercise performance. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2006.112094 [ https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2006.112094 ]
[3] O'Shannessy, C. (2020). atptour.com. Running With The Bull: Curious Nadal, Federer Patterns Revealed. [ https://www.atptour.com/en/news/nadal-infosys-beyond-the-numbers-may-2020 ]
[4] Doma, K., Deakin, GB. (2014). Eur J Sport Sci, p. 107-15. The acute effects intensity and volume of strength training on running performance. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2012.726653 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24533516
