Why You Don’t Need to Choose Between Strength and Running

[00:00:00] I’ve been training as a hybrid athlete for 30 years running and lifting since the mid 1990s. I just didn’t know it had a name. Most people think you have to pick, be a runner or be strong, but what if it could be both? That’s what hybrid training is and high rocks and. It’s the perfect test of all of it, but you don’t need to race high rocks to train like this.

[00:00:21] So here’s how I’d approach hybrid training, whether you’re a runner who needs to add lifting or a lifter who needs to start running. Either way, I’ve got you covered in this episode. I’ll be going over what. Hybrid is and why everyone is doing high rocks if you’re a runner, how to add strength without killing your cardio.

[00:00:38] And if you lift and you’re a strength training person, how to build your cardio without losing your muscle. A free training plan, a simple four or six day a week schedules that you can start right now and why you don’t have to pick between running and lifting anymore. Most people train life specialists, but life hybrid workouts and high rocks, it rewards people that can do both.

[00:00:57] I’m Daren Dele coach, lifelong runner and distance nerd. I’ve spent 30. Is figuring out how to get 1% better at the small overlook things that add up to great results. I’ve been lifting and running consistently since the 1990s, and that helped me gain muscle and run a sub three R marathon. So what is High Rocks exactly, and why is it everywhere?

[00:01:16] High Rocks is an indoor multisport race. Eight kilometers of running split into eight one kilometer chunks. So for your Americans, a kilometer is about 0.61 miles, or a little bit more than half a mile Between each chunk is a fitness station, ski erg, sled push, sled pull, burpee, broad jumps. Ro U Farmers carry weighted lunge walks and wall balls.

[00:01:39] Most average people do it in under two hours above average. Folks can do it in 90 minutes and super fast. Elite level pros, high rocks Pros. I don’t even know what a High Rocks Pro is. They do it closer to an hour, sometimes faster. I think I’ve seen some people in the 50 minutes. It started in Germany in 2017 and blew up worldwide post COVID.

[00:01:56] Once everything opened up, it’s outta control. Why? Because it’s the perfect test for people who want to be good. Everything and here is what I think is hilarious. ROCs attracts literally everyone in the endurance sport world. So you got runners, triathletes, CrossFitters, Jim Bros, and the Tough Mudder Adventure race type people.

[00:02:15] There’s this Venn diagram that I’m putting up here, and it shows how the different athletes overlap at ROCs in the middle. I call this the sport where everyone feels undertrained. And overconfident. That’s it. That’s high Rocks, the great equalizer. You can’t just be a runner though. You gotta be strong.

[00:02:30] You need both at the same time. But here’s the thing, you don’t need to race high rocks to train like this. The ideas behind it, building your cardio and your strength work for anyone who wants to be a complete athlete. A whole human, not just good at one thing, good at handling life and staying fit for anything.

[00:02:45] In the nineties, I was lifting heavy and running hard for basketball. My first true love, but I had no clue how to program both without wrecking myself. High rocks is what I wish existed back then. A plan that says you don’t have to pick and keeps you structured, keeps your focus, keeps everything in alignment.

[00:03:00] So here’s the big question. Are you a runner who needs to add lifting or a lifter who needs to start running? This is the fork in road. I’m gonna cover both. You can skip to your section using the timestamps below. So runners section three ish is for you. You’ll see the name for that. And lifter section four is yours.

[00:03:15] So whether you’re on Spotify, YouTube, whatever, just go in the show notes or whatever description, you’ll see the timestamps. Click on that. Or you know what? Stick around for both. Learn it more. Listen to it at two x, get more information, be a better overall human o. If you want to use this right now and want an actual training plan to become a hybrid athlete, ASAP, ’cause you ain’t got time for that, just hit the QR code here or link below in the episode description.

[00:03:38] I’ll talk more about this in a second, but just wanted to give you a bit of a relief. There’s something coming. Here’s something for you. But let’s start with the runners. Here’s what every runner gets wrong about strength training. They think lifting will make them slow, heavy, sore, stiff, or they think they’ll actually gain muscle by lifting like.

[00:03:55] Two weights twice. No. Gaining muscle is very, very hard and all that is wrong too. When I started running seriously around 15 years old, I was already lifting for basketball, as I said before, and guess what? The strengths, they didn’t slow me down. It actually made me more efficient. Think of it like your streaming service, using less data for the same video quality, same show, smarter delivery.

[00:04:14] I could run the same paces with less effort, and my legs felt stronger when the game got tough in the fourth. Quarter. So here’s the science. A 2016 study looked at competitive runners who added strength training. The result, they got three to 4% more efficient, meaning they could run the same pace while burning less energy.

[00:04:29] Here’s what you actually need from the gym. So I’m gonna break it all down, starting with upper body and then going to lower body. So upper body strength, not for looking good. Your grip strength, staying upright and not running outta gas at all those fitness stations is the point of having upper body strength.

[00:04:43] Here’s what happens in the high rocks race, your five kilometers or chunks or laps deep, your heart’s pounding, and you hit the farmer carry. So a hundred meters, and that’s about Usain Bolt length on the track with heavy weights on each hand. They’re extremely heavy for hours long as you have to walk them.

[00:05:01] You’re also fatigued. If your grip is weak or your shoulders get tired, you drop the weights game over, you gotta pick them back up. You lose many, many seconds and you gotta start over. It’s just tough. Or you’re rowing a thousand meters after running six kilometers and your upper back gives out before your legs do.

[00:05:16] Weak upper body equals wasted energy and lost time, strong back shoulders, and your core means that you can hold yourself when your form gets tired. That’s the difference between finishing strong and falling apart as station six. And for your runners. I’m talking to you runners out there, same as a marathon, 10 K, 5K, half marathon, whatever.

[00:05:34] You finish strong at the end because you have good upper body strength. Here’s the upper body plan for high rocks. I’m gonna go into more detail, but here’s just a couple of exercises and workouts you can do. So you wanna do a push pull, carry and core workout or exercise. So with push. You do pushups or dumbbell bench press or regular barbell bench press three sets, eight to 12 reps each.

[00:05:56] Were going a bit more in strength and muscular endurance, uh, with pulling. You wanna do pull-ups or bent over rows. I’d say start with bent over rows if you can’t do pull-ups and work your way up to pull-ups, assisted pull-ups, bandit, pull-ups, et cetera. Again. Three sets, six to 10 reps each. You need to figure out what they are.

[00:06:13] Just gotta do a trial session in the gym. Carry. So farmer carries really easy. Get some two heavy weights at the gym and just walk around. Try two sets of 50 meters, or even start at 25 meters with medium to heavy weight. You should be able to finish without dropping the weights. Obviously you can add more distance or more weight as you get better.

[00:06:29] I’ll show you how to progress that in the part about the schedule and the plan of this episode and then core. Everyone knows core, but if you don’t, planks front planks, side planks, dead bugs, uh, leg raises. Many ways to work your core. Just pick a couple and stick with them. Three sets, 30 to 60 seconds each when you start.

[00:06:48] If you can get up to 90 seconds, two minutes, amazing. That means you have a very strong core. Do these twice per week. That’s it. You’re not trying to get huge and jacked. You build in the frame that supports. You’re running for high rocks. Functional lower body work. Notice I said functional, not bodybuilder.

[00:07:03] Leg day. Think Bulgarian. Split squats. Step ups onto a box. Single leg deadlifts, PGOs and box jumps. Movements that build balance, strength on the fatigue and power, not just size. High rock stations like sled, push and weighted lunges. Make your legs work hard. When they’re already tired, that’s not the same as doing squats.

[00:07:21] When you’re fresh, you need strength that lasts, not just one rep max strength, quick run science nerve break. What is strength endurance? I’ve been talking about that. It’s your ability to keep producing force over and over without running outta gas. Pushings force is power and speed combined, so you obviously need to have weight behind it.

[00:07:39] You can’t just be having no weight, and this is things like 50 wall balls, squatting down, going up with the weighted balls, and then hitting the wall or holding a plank when you’re already exhausted and then moving your leg up. Those are force related activities. Power lifters, they train max strength, so one big rep, the Olympics, et cetera.

[00:07:58] Bodybuilders train for muscle size. A decent amount of reps, probably eight to 12%. It’s not perfect, but you need reps when you’re tired and this is different, so it might be a lot of reps or you know, a decent amount. You’re not doing four reps, you’re not doing 12, you might do 15 or 20. And that’s where High Rocks lives and where most runners, I think are the weakest, think of it like this.

[00:08:18] Max Strength is revving your car to the red line wants strength, endurance is driving across the country without breaking down and you get good fuel economy. Alright, so look, I just spent the last 10 minutes telling you. That you don’t have to be a specialist anymore. So here’s where I stop talking theory and actually give you that whole training plan schedule.

[00:08:36] Again, I talked about that earlier. So grab the free training plan at the QR code. Here are the link below. You’ll get four day and six day options, station rotations, pacing guides, all of it, no fluff. And in a few minutes I’ll walk you through this training plan in detail and give you a simple plan that you could start using this week.

[00:08:53] So I’ll give you kind of a one week sample. Oh, and while you’re here, drop a comment if you think High rocks is good or bad for endurance sports. I just wanna know, a lot of people are into this endurance sport thing. What do you think? Let’s get back into the episode. So Jim, crew lifters, strength folks, Jim Bros.

[00:09:08] This is your turn runners. Feel free to jump ahead to the next section or stick around ’cause you might learn something you didn’t know. But here’s the truth for you lifters. You’re not bad at running, you’re bad at pacing. When I started running, I loved to run, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d go out too hard.

[00:09:22] Blow up in a few minutes, or at best run in the dreaded gray zone. Zone three. I’ll talk about zone three. It’s not fast enough for gains in the long term. It’s not slow enough to build up that cardio aerobic base. Does that sound familiar? Are you in the gray zone? Here’s what I changed. I learned that running isn’t just cardio.

[00:09:38] Running is about feel and pacing. It’s a skill, kind of like basketball or like doing a squat with good form. And like any skill, you get better by doing it the right way, very slowly, with no weight in the beginning. You don’t just go really hard, so fix your pacing first. Most lifters run like every rep is an all out set.

[00:09:57] They burn out fast. They don’t know how to pace. Instead, learn to run easy. Force yourself like your life depends on it to slow down, put the brakes on, put the governor on, and this is where you can meet. Zone two, the world famous easy pace. So zone two is like cruising on the highway at 55 miles per hour instead of re lining at 90 miles per hour.

[00:10:14] You’re moving, you’re covering ground, but you’re not burning. Out your engine. It’s conversational pace where you could talk in full sentences. This build your cardio base without destroying your body or stealing from your lifting. Start with 20 to 30 minutes, two to three times per week. It’ll feel ridiculously slow at first.

[00:10:29] You’ll probably have to do walking up hills or just in general if your heart rate goes too high. That is the point. I did a whole episode on how to train with low heart rate. You can get it up here or the link. In the episode description, but quick, TLDR summary. How do you find zone two? Because that’s pretty much most the base and a bit of zone one.

[00:10:47] It’s pretty easy. Three ways. Talk test. You should be able to talk in full sentences without gasping. Just like I’m talking right now, I’m talking a lot. I’m very fast talker and I have a lot of energy. You should be able to talk mostly like this, not single words, so you’ll be able to breathe a bit. Actual sentences if you can only gro Yeah, you’re going too hard.

[00:11:05] Another test ’cause you don’t want to go. Too easy on. You don’t wanna be walking the whole time ’cause you’re not actually improving your zone. Two, someone on the phone, if you’re having a conversation, you had your AirPods in or something, you’re having a, a meeting, they would be able to tell that you are running or going up a flight of stairs, but you’re able to talk and da, da da, and then you take a breath, da da da.

[00:11:24] Then you take a breath. That’s how you know you’re pretty much in zone two mostly. So. Heart rate is another thing that you know, you’re in zone two. If you have a heart rate monitor, try to use the strap or the armand. The wristwatch, uh, optical is not very accurate for running, so you want to be within 60 to about 75% of your max heart rate and an estimate that you can use.

[00:11:43] That’s mostly accurate for most people, not everyone. You take 180 number and you subtract your age and then stay about 10 to 15 beats below that. That’s your range. So if you’re 35, then you want to go. 180 minus 35 and your range is now 145 beats. That’s your maximum. And I’d say you want to go below that so you, your range will be 135 to 145 beats per minute.

[00:12:06] Heart rate, that’s your zone two. That is just a really crude estimate. It’s mostly accurate. And the third way is nose breathing, to keep your heart rate low and to make sure that you’re running in a low heart rate. If you can breathe through only your nose for the whole run. You’re in zone two. The second you need to mouth breathe, you’ve gone too hard.

[00:12:22] That’s not for everyone. For most people, it’s a guide. Use all of these. There’s not one rule that rules them all and it’s the perfect thing. So pick one, stick with it. Try the other three, maybe use them. Most lifters will feel like zone two is stupidly slow at first. Again, that is the point. Alright, let’s go to run Economy Basics for.

[00:12:41] Bigger muscular humans. If you’re 200 pounds, uh, I think that’s about 90 kilos in the metric, and you’re built like a linebacker, uh, someone that plays rugby or football. Uh, American football, distance running may never feel easy the way it does for someone that’s 60 kilos, 130 pounds, and they just run all the time.

[00:13:01] Elliot kgi Pro marathoners. They’re built to be marathoners. They didn’t run and get skinny. They just were the type of body to be skinny. Like there’s tall basketball players. The tall people gravitate towards playing basketball. They don’t grow into playing basketball, and that’s fine. Again, if you’re a bigger person, you’re not trying to win Boston Marathon, your goal is to not die during the eight kilometers of a High Rocks race or just be more.

[00:13:24] In general and have more of an aerobic basin, have a better cardio system ’cause you’ve been lifting your whole life. So for the bigger folks out there, you wanna focus on cadence. Aim for, I’d say 170 to 180 steps per minute, similar to beats per minute. But it’s the steps that you take per minute. Shorter, quicker steps will equal less pounding per step, which equals lower heart rate, which equals less energy burned and a.

[00:13:47] Better finished time. A faster finish time. I did an episode on that. Go check that out up here. I did episodes on a lot of this stuff. If you wanna go deeper on cadence. Alright, next thing to focus on is posture and form. So your chest up, slight forward. Lean from the hips, not the neck. Don’t hunch. I did a whole run form series.

[00:14:05] Where I talk about all the things run form, and you can check that out at the link up here or the link in the episode description and breathing. You wanna relax your jaw, breathe through your nose for easy runs and through your mouth when things get hard for intervals, you can get the breathing deep dive link.

[00:14:20] In the description, or you can go up here. I did a whole episode on that. Let’s talk about energy systems and your cardio base. So aerobic base, your aerobic system is like a gas tank. The bigger it is, the longer you can go without redlining. Most lifters, they have a tiny tank. They’re built for explosive power ’cause they have fast twitch muscles or they’ve just been lifting their whole lives and not long sustained efforts.

[00:14:41] So then you got VO two max. This is your top end cardio capacity. So while you are still aerobic and using oxygen. You’re still running quite fast. Basically how much oxygen your body can use during maximum efforts. So think of it as your engine’s horsepower hit. High intention. E interval training is very much in the VO two max zone.

[00:14:59] And then for energy systems and anaerobic and run economy, these determine how efficiently you move and how long you can hold hard efforts, like again, miles per gallon in your car. Fuel economy metric people, I think it’s uh, liters per 100 kilometers. It’s how far you can go. And then how much petrol or fuel you burn.

[00:15:18] Polarized training, easy plus hard, nothing in between. That’s the 80% and then 20%, that’s the best way to sustain and build up fitness. It builds up the gas tank, but it doesn’t destroy your strength gains. Why? Because easy cardio, it does not tax your nervous system and it doesn’t create that much fatigue as heavy lifting or threshold runs do.

[00:15:37] So those are the tempo runs that a lot of runners do. You recovery faster and you adapt better. Win, win. Alright, enough theory, let’s build the actual plant. You’ve got the principles. Now let’s put them all into action. Here’s the four day plan and I’ll do, uh, a version of a six day plan. It’s really quick though, it’s just a slight modification to this, the key.

[00:15:57] Full body training. I always give people full body workouts, not splitting upper and lower body into different days. Why? Because life doesn’t split your body and if you miss a day, you’re not unbalanced for the week. Plus, running on legs that just lifted teaches your body to handle being fatigued and tired.

[00:16:12] That’s exactly what High Rocks test. And life. Try to have some kids and also go to work. You’re gonna be tired. You gotta work through the tiredness. Alright, so for Monday or day one, whatever you wanna call it, easy run. 40 to 50 minutes. Zone two, conversational pace, around 145 beats per minute. If you’re 35 years old, mid thirties, no heroics, just building up the gas tank Tuesday, full body strength plus high rock stations strength, 30 minutes goblet squats.

[00:16:36] Three sets of 10 pushups, three sets of 12 Romanian deadlifts, three sets of eight. Plank three sets, 45 seconds each. High rock stations, so you could do these for 15 minutes. Skier, three rounds of 500 meters with 90 seconds. Rest, sled push three rounds of 25 meters with two minutes rest. Burpee broad jumps, three sets of 10 reps.

[00:16:56] I’ll have numbers all up on the screen, so if you are listening to this, please get the video on Spotify or go to my website. The link is in the. Episode show notes of your podcast player Thursday, full Body Strength plus High Rock Stations, uh, again, different stations. So strength, 30 minutes. Bulgarian split squats, three sets bent over rows.

[00:17:15] Three sets of 10 step ups, three sets, 10 reps and dead bugs, or any core you want. I’d say do two to three sets. 30 seconds per side. You’re gonna work up to three sets. So if you’re brand new to doing any of this stuff, you start with one set for two, three weeks, then do two sets for two to three weeks.

[00:17:31] Then you do three sets once your body is physically conditioned and then high rock stations, you can throw in rowing three rounds of 500 meters with 90 seconds rest. And then farmers carry three rounds of 50 meters with 90 seconds rest and then do some wall balls to end it. Three sets of 20 reps.

[00:17:47] Alright, we got Saturday. So this is uh, if again, your four days tempo run or intervals, and we’re gonna alternate. So we have option a tempo, 10 minutes, easy warmup, then 20 minutes at comfortably hard pace. You can only speak. Three to four words max, then 10 minutes, easy, cool down, and then option B, so you can alternate these each week.

[00:18:06] So one week option A, next week, option B. On Saturdays you wanna do intervals, so 10 minutes easy warmup, then six rounds of three minutes. At hard effort you can only grunt hard as should be. Like your heart rate goes about. 85% to max heart rate, 90% max heart rate, and you have about two and a half minute easy recovery.

[00:18:24] And this is gonna work if you O2 max system. And then 10 minutes easy. Cool down. That’s it in the subsequent weeks. So weeks two and three, you rotate through the remaining high rock stations. Sled poll, waited lunges, and by the end of three weeks, you will have hit all eight stations without racing yourself into the ground Every Tuesday.

[00:18:41] Do not do all eight every single day. You’ll destroy yourself. Now, if you’re already doing upper and lower body splits and you love them, cool, keep doing that. Just add the high rock stations into your existing plan. But if you want the full program week by week, exactly which stations to do what your temp run should look like, and full body strength template, I built that all into one table again.

[00:19:03] Grab it at the QR code here. So I’m just, it’s just so much information that you really need to get this training plan. Sorry to do the hard sell on you, or you could get at the link below. It’s not complicated, it’s just structure. Then you can build and adapt it on your own and get fast and strong without burning yourself out.

[00:19:20] Training for your first high rocks might be jumping ahead a bit. Getting your cardio base right could actually pay huge dividends if you want to invest the time and effort. Learn more about running faster without getting tired in this video here. Or in your episode description below base.