Most runners don't like strength training, including many of our experts in this episode. Our experts discuss why it is important, how we can implement it into our training program and the benefits.

Michael Wardian is a great example of how strength training can help him become one of the best consistent ultra athletes with over 300 marathons and ultras. He has many accomplishments including setting the record world record time in 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days and just completed a transcontinental run, "Running Home" in 61 days. Check him out on Instagram or learn more on his web site. Check out this video showing Mike's three core strength exercises that you can do anywhere (dead bugs, bridge, bird dog)!

Jason Fitzgerald had to be on this strength running episode because he has a podcast and website dedicated to the subject, Strength Running. Jason is a USA Track & Field certified coach, and frequent contributor on PodiumRunner, Runner's World, Active, MapMyRun, The Art of Manliness, Lifehacker and others. He has been running competitively since 1998 and competitively in the 3,000m Steeplechase. After you subscribe to his podcast, follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

Brad Kearns is a top endurance and multisport athlete, author, podcaster and coach. Check out more at:

• The Primal Endurancebook
• Primal Blueprintweb site
• Rad Podcast
• Primal Endurance Podcast

Alex Hutchinson has studied and written about strength training at Outsideonline. Here are some articles you might be interested in:

• a general grab-bag of info about strength training
• the link between strength training and running economy
• strength training and longevity
• figure out how many reps to do based on subjective effort

Alex is an avid runner and author. We did a series of podcasts on his book, Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.