Hi,

I was wondering if it's ok to not do any weight training on my lower body because I run 45 miles every week. I do work out my upper body and my brother keeps telling me that I'm gonna get unbalanced if I don't start weight training my legs too. But I don't lift extremely heavy weights for my upper body and only do 3 sets with 12 reps. Any advise would be helpful.

Thanks

What are your goals?

Running is not necessarily lower body training, at least not in the same way that weight-lifting is (squats, leg press, etc.).

I highly recommend you DO train lower body. Not only will it keep you from an unbalanced look, but lower-body training also helps with upper-body goals.

Hi,

I was wondering if it's ok to not do any weight training on my lower body because I run 45 miles every week. I do work out my upper body and my brother keeps telling me that I'm gonna get unbalanced if I don't start weight training my legs too. But I don't lift extremely heavy weights for my upper body and only do 3 sets with 12 reps. Any advise would be helpful.

Work your legs, any reason you run so much? Running doesn't build much muscle in legs so you may need help. How do legs look?

The real question is what do you want? have you got it already or still looking?

No one has to lift extremely heavy weights, they only need to lift as much as they are capable of lifting for the rep/set program they choose. Always progress.

My goals are to lose weight and look overall toned up. Right now I weigh about 167 lbs, 5'10", and I'm 22 years old. I've been working just my upper body now for about 4 months, but I can't seem to go up higher on some excersises like my biceps. I guess it's hard to tell if I'm unbalance because of the layer of fat I have. So i'm not too sure yet.

My goals are to lose weight and look overall toned up. Right now I weigh about 167 lbs, 5'10", and I'm 22 years old. I've been working just my upper body now for about 4 months, but I can't seem to go up higher on some excersises like my biceps. I guess it's hard to tell if I'm unbalance because of the layer of fat I have. So i'm not too sure yet.

You are near a great weight level for your height on any chart. But you still have a layer of fat, while running 45 miles a week and doing some lifting. Does that tell you anything?

The reason I was running so much was because I was training for a marathon and was running around 70 miles per week, but ended up messing up my hip so I dropped it down to 45 mpw to maintain fitness and ended up scraping the marathon. I don't know if its too much aerobic or not. The thing is that I'm not sure how to balance weight training for my legs and running. I tried it for a week and I couldn't do both at the same time so I dropped weight training for my legs figuring that running was good enough for my leg muscles.

Also, saying that you can't go higher on your upper body exercises should give you some clues. First, you are overtraining because you do this insane cardio AND weight lifting. You should only do 1 or the other, meaning cardio in moderation and not a marathon each week. Another is that you are neglecting your largest muscles in your body to stimulation to grow. Once you built the resistance to cardio you stopped growing your leg muscles. The only way to revive that is to train them with weights.

I was training for a marathon and was running around 70 miles per week, but ended up messing up my hip so I dropped it down to 45 mpw to maintain fitness and ended up scraping the marathon.
Was hip, a joint problem or muscle/tendon?

Train the legs unless there is a sport-specific reason not to (like running marathons would count in that realm). If you want to be a marathon runner you are going to want a different body than one that just looks good. Obviously in that case you wouldn't be too concerned about upper body muscle, in fact you'd probably wouldn't want a lot.

If you want low bodyfat, look good kind of results, definitely train the lower body. You can put on a lot of muscle which will help shed the fat.

I'm done with running marathons. I don't think my hip was anything serious because I could still run, but it was getting annoying so I cut back and it went away. Right now I just want to look good. But does that mean that I should stop running 6 days a week and focus on only weight training?

I'm done with running marathons. I don't think my hip was anything serious because I could still run, but it was getting annoying so I cut back and it went away. Right now I just want to look good. But does that mean that I should stop running 6 days a week and focus on only weight training?
That would be my suggestion. Give it a try for 6 -12 weeks. Go HIT or Max-OT, get on a program you can get help with and get results.

If you enjoy running, I see no reason to stop.

Watch how many sets and reps you do for your weight-lifting, your biceps may have stopped growing because you are overtraining them -- doing too much.

Even though you are done with running marathons, you should note that weight-training has been "proven" to positively effect your performance as a runner (i.e. it is one of the many ways to drop time off of your PR).

I at least would add some lower body work, which can be as simple as wall squats to failure and hamstring curls on the swiss ball. (And whatever you perfer for calves, as well.)