If you or one of your clients want to improve their run in a HYROX, (like my client Lisa) or a running race, this article is for you.
Stay with me to find out why I have selected each drill for you, or you can skip to the end and go straight to 10 running drills using the ViPR to improve your running.
Lisa was struggling with the running component of the Hyrox. This blog will share the process used to help her. My hope is it could help you or your clients too.
Using two short video clips of her running, I set about looking at what changed. The first video was when she was fresh. She looked comfortable, upright and her feet were quick off the ground. The second was taken when she was tired, under fatigue. Here she looked pale, slower, and each stride looked heavy. She struggled to stay upright, and her eyeline was dropping lower and lower.
I am Joanne Groves, a personal trainer and course director, educator at Faster Health and Fitness. I can't stand exercises without a specific purpose, but love designing bespoke drills to help with specific movement outcome goals.
Here’s how to build 10 drills to help get a new running PB and that cheesy grin!
First discover our best run.
To improve our running, we need to define what “our” best run looks like. Then we can make a plan to make it more efficient. In the early video of Lisa, her running looked like it was effortless. She was tall and able to land and get back off the ground quickly on each stride.
This introduces what “her” efficient run looks like. Running efficiently means wasting less energy at a chosen pace. It’s having the ability to hold that pace while keeping the energy cost as low as possible. The less you waste, the longer you can hold your pace for a given time. This is also often called, “running economy”. This can be estimated, according to some research studies, by using oxygen cost at a steady, submaximal speed (Saunders et al., 2004).However, you can spot efficient running without any fancy gadgets, especially if you are good at seeing and predicting movement.
You stay taller, your eyes remain on the horizon, and your foot contacts the ground and leaves again at pace. You have one leg that is firm without much fold at the knee. Plus you can see the opposite knee drive through at pace, which helps fast turnover of the feet. This knee drive works with the opposite extensor reflex, which can be trained through drills like hopping, if you don't see it in your runner.
What you see when fatigue kicks in
In the later video, Lisa had lost her efficient running. She appeared to fold further at the hip and knee, her eye line darted about, and each stride looked laboured. Not only was she slowing down, each step was requiring more energy. Fatigue, here, is referring to the point where it becomes harder to maintain your efficient pace. This is not a blog about sleep, nutrition, or training volume. Although they are important when managing fatigue, our aim is to stay focused on how you see its influence on running. Look for what happens to your running when it feels harder, and then build specific drills to help keep your running efficient for longer. When fatigue kicks in, runners often spend longer on the ground, moving through a deeper fold at the hip and knee (Winter et al., 2016). This requires more energy in each stride, due to an increased range of motion to manage before the next step. It can look like your middle is struggling to stay tall, as your legs are trying to keep going.
This brings us to two specific components to challenge that will help delay fatigue: The core and deceleration.
Firstly the Core Component of running:
Core training is often trained in isolation, with sit ups, bird dogs and planks. These exercises can be useful in some scenarios, but they are not specific to how the core shows up in running. To keep me happy this blog needs to design core drills for maximum carry over, that transfer to our movement goal. We need drills to help us get upright, get off the floor at pace, and ensure it still looks like running.
When I refer to the core, I mean the coordination of all the muscles from the landing side glute and hamstring, through the pelvis and spine, all the way to the shoulders (Lieberman et al., 2006). Our aim is to train and challenge the right muscles, in the right sequence, with the right power output to maintain tension through the middle in a way that looks like running.
Secondly the deceleration component to running:
A run would not be a run without deceleration. In Lisa’s initial video her landing was quick and light. In the second it was heavy and slow. Every stride has a braking phase, the force that slows you down upon contact. Deceleration is the ability to manage that braking through eccentric control, where muscles lengthen under tension to "catch" your weight. Without this control, you sink into an increased range of motion at the hip and knee. This extra muscle length creates more range to manage, wasting energy and increasing ground contact time (Zandbergen et al., 2023). We need to train to stay tall and control the landing while moving.
Choosing the right tool for the job
Now that we know what is needed we can build the drills.
At Faster Health and Fitness we use a top down approach. We start with our client’s goal, assess what their efficient running looks like, and look at where fatigue shows up. We can then match the right movement task to these needs.
Movement task first.
- Arms fixed overhead (Shoulder Flexion)
- Arms leaning left (Lateral Flexion)
- Arms leaning right (Lateral Flexion)
- Arms rotated left (Spinal Rotation)
- Arms rotated right (Spinal Rotation)
To increase the demand further, we repeat the above with the arms moving from those fixed positions.
Time to add load.
These movements test your ability to co-ordinate the right muscles, in the right sequence, with the right power output for running. However, we want to create an adaptation at pace, without our client having to run the full distance of their race. It's time to add load.
By adding load to the above tasks, you can challenge your body further and improve your efficiency for longer, delaying the point where fatigue causes your running form to break down. We aren't just making it harder. We are teaching the body to co- ordinate efficiently to handle the extra demand, in a way that is specific to running.
The tool we are using today is ViPR.
While other tools can add load, the cylinder tube of the ViPR makes it easy to hold, and move into different positions. The length of the ViPR shifts the center of gravity away from your body. By holding the load overhead or to the side we increase the lever arm. This gives the weight more leverage to pull you into the fold we are trying to prevent. You must work hard against this shift, by coordinating internal tension through the core just to maintain your normal running height.
Adding movement
When we move the ViPR from the fixed positions we introduce momentum. A moving mass here can drag your center of gravity with it at pace. In these moving drills your body has to work even harder against this shift to decelerate the mass. This increases the demand on your braking phase, the deceleration, forcing your legs to work harder eccentrically to catch the load without sinking. Your body has to decelerate the momentum of the swinging ViPR while maintaining coordination and sequence.
If you start to see the height drop or the movement quality suffer, lighten the ViPR or remove the load. The goal is to load the coordination, not break it.
These drills challenge the required biomechanics for running, rather than just making muscles burn. This is the foundation of the Faster Process taught in my new Kinetic Specialist Loading course. We can use the ViPR because it allows us to load the exact biomechanics we need to improve.
Running drills with ViPR
Start 20 metres back. After each drill walk or jog back to the starting position. 45 seconds for each of the 5 drills.
Set 1: Static held positions while running
The ViPR stays held while the client runs, so the demand increases without the extra challenge of moving the ViPR.
1. Running with Overhead Hold in Shoulder Flexion: Hold ViPR overhead and stay tall.
2. Running with Left Laterally Flexed: Hold ViPR to the left challenging side bend.
3. Running with Right Laterally Flexed: Hold ViPR to the Right challenging side bend.
4. Running with left Rotated Spine: Hold ViPR around to the left and resist spinning out.
5. Running with right Rotated Spine: Hold ViPR around to the right and resist spinning out.
Bonus 1 to Runnng with left laterally flexed and left rotated ViPR
Bonus 2 left lateral and right rotation
Set 2 Moving Drills while Running
The running stays the task and the ViPR movement adds another layer of demand on your eccentric control.
Start 20 metres back. After each drill walk or jog back to the starting position. 45 seconds for each of the 5 drills.
6. Running driving Overhead Shoulder Flexing : Keep ViPR overhead and stay tall.
7. Running with Left Laterally Flexing: Keep ViPR driving to the left
8. Running with right laterally flexing: Keep ViPR driving to the right.
9. Running with left Rotating: Hold ViPR driving to the left and resist spinning out.
10. Running with right Rotating: Hold ViPR driving to the right and resist spinning out.
Bonus 3 left flexion Right Rotation
Bonus 4 Running Right laterally flexing with right rotating
After doing these drills, run without the ViPR. Notice how you stay more upright for longer, with less vertical drop and better control of the landing. If you film it, tag me in on Instagram so I can reshare it!
Running without Vipr after drills
And a preview of my next blog on acceleration with a run and throw of ViPR
Recap
We started with the client’s movement outcome goal: Lisa wants to improve her running. We defined what her efficiency looks like and analyzed the influence of fatigue. To delay that fatigue, we identified two components to train:
- The Core: coordination from the landing glute/hamstring through the spine and shoulders.
- The Deceleration Phase: Managing the braking part of each stride through eccentric control.
Instead of a tool-first approach, we matched the right drills to her specific needs and used the ViPR to resist those movements. You now have 10 ViPR running drills, each with a clear purpose. In the next blog, we will address using the ViPR to assist with acceleration.
Thank you for reading, and thank you to my client Lisa, who inspired me to do my first HYROX and I loved it.
If you enjoyed this blog, struggle to build innovative exercises and wish you had a solution that covered all training tools, then check out my Kinetic Specialist Loading Course.
As a thank you please take advantage of the code below to get 15% of any course.
Fitpro
Or message me on the number below for a complementary one to one call.
Whatsapp 07515 813171
https://wa.me/message/EGYSN4GHLCVJE1
https://www.fasterfunction.com/
Joanne Groves is a personal trainer, and course director and educator at Faster Health and Fitness.
References
- Arellano, C.J. and Kram, R. (2014) ‘The metabolic cost of human running: is swinging the arms worth it?’, The Journal of Experimental Biology, 217(14), pp. 2456–2461. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.100420
- Blagrove, R.C., Howatson, G. and Hayes, P.R. (2018) ‘Effects of strength training on the physiological determinants of middle- and long-distance running performance: a systematic review’, Sports Medicine, 48(5), pp. 1117–1149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0835-7
- Lieberman, D.E., Raichlen, D.A., Pontzer, H., Bramble, D.M. and Cutright Smith, E. (2006) ‘The human gluteus maximus and its role in running’, The Journal of Experimental Biology, 209(11), pp. 2143–2155. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.02255
- Llanos Lagos, C., et al. (2024) ‘Effect of strength training programmes in middle- and long-distance runners on running economy: a systematic review with meta-analysis’, Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01978-y
- Morgan, D.W., Martin, P.E. and Krahenbuhl, G.S. (1989) ‘Factors affecting running economy’, Sports Medicine, 7(5), pp. 310–330. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-198907050-00003
- Saunders, P.U., Pyne, D.B., Telford, R.D. and Hawley, J.A. (2004) ‘Factors affecting running economy in trained distance runners’, Sports Medicine, 34(7), pp. 465–485.https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434070-00005
- Støren, O., Helgerud, J., Støa, E.M. and Hoff, J. (2008) ‘Maximal strength training improves running economy in distance runners’, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 40(6), pp. 1087–1092. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e318168da2f
- Thelen, D.G., Chumanov, E.S., Hoerth, D.M., Best, T.M., Swanson, S.C., Li, L. and Heiderscheit, B.C. (2005) ‘Hamstring muscle kinematics during treadmill sprinting’, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 37(1), pp. 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1249/01.mss.0000150078.79120.c8
- Winter, S.C., Gordon, S., Brice, S.M., Lindsay, D. and Barrs, S. (2016) ‘Effects of fatigue on kinematics and kinetics during overground running: a systematic review’, Journal of Sports Sciences, 34(12), pp. 1175–1183. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1095947
- Zandbergen, M.A., Vanrenterghem, J. and Pepping, G.J. (2023) ‘Effects of level running induced fatigue on running kinematics: a systematic review and meta-analysis’, Gait & Posture, 99, pp. 60–75.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2022.09.089
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