Powerlifting and Running

R

raytattoo

0
Hello,

I had some questions about powerlifting and running.

I am:
31
5'10
~150 lbs. (haven't weighed myself in a while but I lost weight recently and usually go anywhere from 145-165 from fat not obviously

My question is about whether or not I should be doing my running program on the same day as my powerlifting program or on seperate days.
I have 2 main goals with my training:

Main Goal 1; Build Strength and Power.

Main Goal 2; Build a Running baseline of around 5 miles give or take

I always try to stay active doing some kind of sport. i.e. gymanstics, martial arts, rock climbing, some running, etc

Anyways lately I've been focusing on those two mentioned in the heading, running and powerlifting. I had a couple rounds of injuries over the summer and fall between trying to get back into running too much too soon, and performing the powerlifting moves either with improper technique ( I have been looking at a lot of videos and articles on the techniques so it wasn't haphazardly trying to do a deadlift with my back rounded like Igor) or jumping up in weight too quickly . So as a result of that I hadn't made much progress and just went back to square one after lots of fun with various knee, lowerback, and glute injuries/strains!

I've been running for the past 5 weeks injury free and just started back up with the powerlifting. I have been doing a running program of run/walk intervals building up to more miles 3 days a week. After the run I go to the gym and do a powerlifting program of (in this order) squats, bench press, and deadlifts on the same day. My squats and deadlifts I have just been focusing on conditioning the techniques before I start working with the heavier weights. I used to do more isolation weight training higher reps years ago but wanted to switch to compound exercises and heavier weights.

The powerlifting program will be:
[Squats warmup 5,5,3,2,1, workset 2x3-6], [Benchpress warmup 5,5,3,2,1 worksets 3x3-6], [Deadlifts warmup 5,5,3,2,1 workset 1x3-6] for now though... it is this:

Squats : warm up with bar doing various versions; front, raised arms, and back lowbar position, When I move onto the work sets I do back lowbar squats.
@reps of 8,5,5,4,3 and add 10lbs each on the 5,4,3.

Bench Press : I do 5,5,3,2,1 as a warmup then 3x3-6 @ around 85% max.

Deadlifts: warm up with bar then 5,3,1,1,1
The reps vary a little bit because I'm just listening to my body and erring on the side of caution after so many various strains and injuries from before.

The running is as I said above going good and making steady progress. The runs are not terribly difficult either and average around 30 minutes now. The main thing I want with the running is to just keep my tendons,ligaments,joints conditioned for doing 3-5 mile runs.

So back to the main question now that you have a background (hope that wasn't too much reading)
Would it be better if I did the running on seperate days from the powerlifting, effectively making my training schedule 6 days a week and also would that hinder the recovery of my legs since I'm running (more like jogging at this point) and then doing squats the next day? Or would it be better to keep them both on the same day making it a 3 day workout week with full recovery off days?
 
It depends on what your primary goal is. Typically, running or any other kind of endurance training is a good (and important) supplement for powerlifters in order to maintain stamina and control weight. (I'm viewing powerlifting as the area of absolute strength gains as opposed to the aesthetic body building thing, by the way, with powerlifting tending to promote higher body mass.) If that's the case, I wouldn't see any difference in benefit of doing your lifting and running on the same day or not.

If you mainly want to get good at running, on the other hand, powerlifting will tend to hinder quick improvements due to body mass you're needing to move as well as the fact that the majority of your workouts will involve training your muscular strength for moving higher loads at short duration. So if you're wanting serious improvements with running performance, crank up the volume of your running training and keep them on separate days so as to not have your muscles too fatigued for the endurance work.
 
Well I kind of do that mix of training normally anyway, broadly speaking. I am in a bit of remedial mode due to damaging myself twice in the last 2 years and have found fat gripz are a great way of making me keep the weights lower on deadlifts while still feeling intense. There are other methods but I need to feel like I've pushed hard for my general sanity. These or similar could help you too, there is no point pushing too hard before fully recovered so a way to make the exercise harder with lighter weight could be good.

I am a decade your senior, and my workout schedule is ideally as below, though life sometimes means weight training sessions have to move.
Monday Lunch 5.4 mile run
Monday Evening Squat session
Tuesday Lunch Interval session Timmons with 10 sprints instead of 3, I only do one a week
Wednesday Evening Bench session
Thursday Lunch 5.4 mile run
Thursday Evening Deadlift session
Friday Lunch 5.4 mile run

I make steady progress in my lifting and running, as anyone my age who has over 2 decades training behind them would. I aim for these to continually improve and there are obviously the support stretches etc. to ensure these are able to.

As Jrahien said there is a world of difference between pretty body building and power-lifting, but part of what I like with power lifting is that it doesn't require gaining a lot of bulk, just being strong for your size.

I find them very complimentary because I like to be fit in a variety of ways. As previously told to you there may come a point where you need to choose which is more important and focus on that while doing the other just enough to make it helpful, so lifting just enough to improve your running or running just enough to improve your stamina and endurance to give better recovery for lifting.

The individual sessions and exercises make no real difference to this, you'll be changing them every few months anyway. You will have days where lifting impacts your running performance or vice versa whether they are on separate or the same days, so just mix up the timing to find what works best for you. Personally my lifting timing is dictated largely by family commitments, I could run 5 days a week, but I don't, lazy or what.
 
Running and powerlifting are two activities that at first consideration may not seem to go together each other particularly well. Most runners train merely for fitness, aspire to keep light to reduce strain on their joints and waste most of their time on the road or pounding the treadmill. Powerlifters, on the other hand, are purely concerned with power, mostly on the three opposition lifts -- squats, deadlifts and bench presses -- and could potentially feel that running may sap their energy for strength training. However, provided you teach wisely, you can run while training for powerlifting and see outstanding results in both.
 
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