Assisted/Resisted Running Good or Bad for Young Athletes?

 Jason Price, MS, CSCS, ATC, LAT, CPT, USAW Club Coach

In his book “Explosive Running” Dr. Michael Yessis asks the question if you can consider running a natural movement for humans.  I know a large number of you reading this will say that it is.  The truth of the matter is that it isn’t.  Next time you are watching the Nature channel and see a herd of Gazelles galloping across the savannah in Africa try to spot out the differences between the strides of the Gazelles.  Now the next sunny weekend day take a look at all of the joggers and see if you can spot their differences in their running gate.  I bet this is beginning to change your answer. The true answer to Dr. Yessis question is that running for humans is not a natural movement.  It is one that must be learned and refined through practice.  Now, I believe running is a natural ability for humans and we are made to run but that it takes large amounts of practice to reach full potential as a runner.  Sprinters like Usain Bolt were not born and raised to run sub 9.6 100 meter dashes.  It takes countless hours of training and skill perfection to be on the edge of human performance like Bolt. 

So now that we know running is a skill which must be learned I have a question for you.  Who taught you how to run?  Did you have someone introduce you to running technique?  Now, unless you have run track or been lucky enough to receive coaching in running mechanics chances are that you taught yourself how to run.  I know I taught myself how to run long before I even understood what the term biomechanics meant.  Needless to say there are a lot of people out there who have not ever put a moment’s thought into their running technique.  As a Strength Coach one of the most common requests from athletes I work with is to make them faster. There are several ways to make people faster.  Some are appropriate and some I believe are not.  One technique that I think is over used and is used too early in an athlete’s training program is resisted running.  Resisted running is usually done with Parachutes, weighted sleds, rubber bands, and other means of resistance. 

Resisted forms of running are excellent for developing hip power and as long as they are being used for these means can be a very advantages part of a training program.  With that being said using these means solely as a means of improving running is a huge mistake.  Will an athlete get faster using these means?  Absolutely they will.  But, stealing a line from Mark Rippetoe “Everything works, just something’s better than others.”  Thinking about ways to train athletes that may work better than others lets reevaluate our use of resisted and assisted running in training of athletes.  If an athlete’s running biomechanics are near their full potential and flaws are minimal then by all means do some resisted/assisted running as a part of speed training.  But, if an athlete is not running with efficient biomechanics adding resistance to them will only reinforce the poor biomechanics or even worse make their running form even more flawed. 

So, instead of adding resistance to train for speed try working on some running biomechanics.  By eliminating flaws in running form and improving movement you can make great improvements in speed for athletes and more importantly drastically reduce the risk of running related injuries.