One of two presentation by Coach Jay Johnson at the 2009 Colorado High School Coaches Association clinic. All videos available at www.coachjayjohnson.com

1. Simple Strength Training
for HS Distance Runners
Jay Johnson
coachjayjohnson @ Gmail.com
www. coachjayjohnson .com

2. You don’t need to take any notes as
all of the material I’m about to
present is on the internet right now
Jay Johnson
coachjayjohnson @ Gmail.com
www. coachjayjohnson .com

3. Some Clinic
Presentations Stink

4. Some Clinic
Presentations Stink
Presenter doesn’t give you anything that you
✴
can implement into your program
Presenter gives bland, generic, evasive answers
✴
to get out of telling you what they actually do
They try to squeeze their entire training
✴
program into a 45 minute presentation
Their slides don’t match their handouts
✴

5. Some Clinic
Presentations Stink
Presenter doesn’t give you anything that you
✴
can implement into your program
Presenter gives gland, generic, evasive answers
✴
to get out of telling you what they actually do
They try to squeeze their entire training
✴
program into a 45 minute presentation
Their slides don’t match their handouts
✴

6. We only have 45 min
I’m not going to go into any science, especially
✴
regarding the endocrine system (i.e. hormones)
I’m not going to give you examples of fast
✴
people who do General Strength daily (i.e. Alan
Webb, Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher)
You can watch every exercise I refer to on your
✴
computer when you get home
You are ALWAYS welcome to come watch any
✴
practice I conduct if you are really interested

7. We only have 45 min
I will explain the natural, logical progression
✴
underlying this type of work
I will give you a 13 week training plan that will
✴
take you and the athletes through the outdoor
season, ending with the State Track Meet
I will show a handful of key videos and walk
✴
you through the important details, teaching
you what to look for when you assign this
work to your athletes

8. We only have 45 min
All of this
information is on the
internet right now
If kids do this work
they will run faster

9. Wouldn’t you love
to do the following
for your athletes:
Decrease the chance of injury
✴
✴ Improve recovery
✴ Improve Running Economy
✴ Allow them safely to train harder
✴ Allow them to safely run more miles

10. If a pill could do this,
would you prescribe
it to your athletes?
Decrease the chance of injury
✴
✴ Improve recovery
✴ Improve Running Economy
✴ Allow them safely to train harder
✴ Allow them to safely run more miles

11. This presentation is
simply about giving
athletes those
benefits...
Simple

12. The problem with the pill
analogy is that our society
is constantly
questioning
and wondering
who is clean
and
who is not...

13. yet the irony is that the
General Strength
exercises I’ll share
with you today
do up-regulate
HGH and
Testosterone...

14. and that’s the primary
reason General Strength
has such an impact
Do I condone
drug use?
NO, NO, NO

15. I’m going to show you simple
exercises you can do at the track
with your team, all year long
You can do this with 2 kids or 20 kids or
✴
100 kids, males and females
You don’t need any equipment to do great
✴
General Strength work that is challenging
When we do add equipment let’s simply
✴
use equipment that is already at the track
...but what about
Simple the weight room?

16. “the Next
Logical Step”
- Mark Wetmore
...but what about
the weight room?

17. “the Next
Logical Step”
- Mark Wetmore
Is the weight room really the
next logical step for your athletes
to improve as distance runners?

18. “Train
Movements,
not
Muscles”
- Vern Gambetta
Simple Principle #1

19. Lunge Matrix Warm-Up (LM)
You work in all three planes of motion
✴
The more you run, the more you tend to be
✴
good in one plane of motion (sagital plane)
You can watch every exercise I refer to on
✴
your computer when you get home
Simple Principle #1

20. Lunge Matrix Warm-Up (LM)
You’ll be sore following the first 3-4 times
✴
following the warm-up
After 7-10 days, no soreness; after 3-4 weeks
✴
you don’t “feel right” without doing it
If you want to learn more about this approach
✴
to human movement, go to one of Gary Gray’s
seminars...I hope to go to one soon myself
Simple Principle #1

21. Lateral Lunge Warm-Up (LL)
More challenging than LM, so use it following
✴
workouts for 1-2 weeks before using it as a
warm-up
After 7-10 days, no soreness
✴
This is assigned daily as part of the Warm-up
✴
LM and LL take less than 5 min
✴
Simple Principle #1

22. General
Strength
has
historically
focused on the
Anterior Chain
Simple Principle #2

23. General
Strength
for running
should
be highly
focused on the
Posterior Chain
Simple Principle #2

24. “Simple ain’t
Easy”
- Thelonius Monk
Simple Principle #3

25. “If you can
do more,
then you
can do
more”
Simple Principle #4

26. General to Specific
...and a few kids are
ready for specific, so
JUST DO IT.
Simple Principle #5

27. These people are wired to deal
with lactate, so don’t treat them
like Leadville 100 runners

28. RunningDVDs.com
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Questions