Over the last two years, I've been learning more and more about strength training. In fact, our new strength program High Performance Lifting (details here) has rocketed to our most popular training course.

Like many runners, I'm not in love with weightlifting (I'd rather be running!) but I've come to appreciate just how valuable it is for endurance athletes. Higher levels of strength almost always lead to faster race times.

That's why I'm thrilled to present a new podcast with strength coach Tony Gentilcore.

Tony previously joined us on the pod to talk about why runners should lift.

He's back on today to go into more detail. Tony pointed out during our conversation that all of us deadlift all day long. Whenever we pick something up from the ground (a child, a bag of groceries, your running shoes), we're performing a deadlift.

If we practice that movement and get stronger moving in that way, it will make life - and our running - a lot easier.

And that's the mentality we should all have when we think about strength training: it's exercise that makes other exercise easier.

But we're going to talk a lot more about the deadlift in this episode:

• Is there such a thing as "perfect" lifting form?
• Should we chase ideal form or make adjustments based on our own anatomy?
• The similarities between running and strength training

If you're not sure where to start, don't miss SR's free strength series.