The Most Effective Ways to Build a Bomber Body: Ryan McMullen

How did I build my way to a 2:58 marathon at age 42 with no injuries? A big part of it was strength training.

If you don’t want to be one of the 50-80% of runners who gets injured this year, proper strength training can help hedge your bets. While there’s no way to 100% guarantee that you’ll be one of the lucky healthy runners, strengthening your body for running can make a big difference.

Today, I’m introducing you to my strength coach, Ryan McMullen.

Welcome to the Planted Runner. I’m Coach Claire Bartholic and my mission is to help you improve your running, your mindset, and your life with science-backed training and plant-based nutrition.

In this conversation, Ryan and I will go over:

Exactly how much and what kind of strength training helps runners best

Whether we should lift heavy or light or both

And why and how you should mix up the ratio of strength training to running in different seasons

I also ask Ryan what it’s like to train me and I promise you we didn’t edit his answer at all!

Ryan has worked with hundreds of clients on nutrition, strength training, and more. He has owned a CrossFit gym in California since 2014 (but don’t worry, he doesn’t make me do CrossFit!). He coaches nutrition and strength with MetPro and helps clients navigate their goals from weight loss, body composition changes, training programs, and increasing performance across a wide range of different sports. Including runners like us.

Now, a little warning that Ryan and I have a few differing opinions on certain aspects of training for endurance runners, which you’ll hear. But that’s actually pretty great since there are lots of ways to build muscle and my preferred way might not be the most effective for you.

Learn more about MetPro or schedule a free call to work with Ryan.

LINKS:

This episode is sponsored by Nourify Plus premium protein powder by Previnex. My friends at Previnex are giving The Planted Runner listeners 15% off your first order with the coupon code PR15. And when you come back for more, you’ll get 10% off every Subscribe & Save order. Head to www.previnex.com and use my code PR15 to get started today.

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