Dr. Damhoff Blog Series: Insight Into Our Strength Work


Plainfield North displaying their strength workout routine (photos courtesy of Dr. Brian Damhoff)

The cross country season is in full swing and so is our training. As our team deals with adversity, (see my previous blog), we are starting to get healthy at just the right time. The temperatures are dropping, the leaves our changing color and championship season is almost upon us! I wanted to dedicate a blog this season to what we do for strength work at Plainfield North for our distance guys. I have gotten a few questions from coaches about this topic and I am more than happy to help any coach desiring information in that area, just shoot me an email briandamhoff@gmail.com.

What we do is not groundbreaking or revolutionary, it won't turn your athletes into superstars overnight. I'm sure there are many other programs in the state doing similar work to what we do. If your program doesn't have a dedicated strength component to your training then you are missing out on large dividends. To start, I should mention my credentials. I have a doctorate of chiropractic and a masters in sports rehabilitation. I interned with the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks chiropractor and have an extensive background of working with every type of athlete from weekend warriors to the professionals. I have offered my expertise for a couple strength programs for some elite Division II college distance programs. I'm a nerd when it comes to sports biomechanics and I'm constantly reading research, blogs and books to improve my knowledge in those areas.

There are a lot of different ways to approach strength work, what we do may not work for your program. I'm going to lay out a model week for us and the type of strength work we do. However, there is no such thing as a model week so every week is different. Some of the strength work and corrective exercises that we do are built into our warm up and those include basic body movements, some glute and core activation, diaphragm breathing and lunging in different vectors. We always foam roll before practice and after practice as well and encourage athletes to work on their diaphragm breathing at home.

Hurdle mobility work in full progress

Day 1: Hurdle Mobility Circuit (Various movements over hurdles)

  • Glute Circuit
  • Double Leg Glute Bridges
  • Sideline Hip Abduction
  • Clamshells
  • Reverse Clamshells
  • Single Leg Glute Bridges

Day 2: Weightroom circuit

  • Warm Up: Diaphragm breathing and stir the pot
  • 3x6-8 Reps of the following exercises:
  • Barbell Glute Bridge
  • Dumbbell Single Arm Bent Over Rows
  • 1-Leg Squats
  • Standing Curl Press
  • Step Ups
  • Pull Ups
  • Calf Raises

Day 3: Single Leg Stability Pads

  • Barefoot Circuit
  • Bounding
  • Slow Dynamic Drills
  • Walking on different parts of foot

Bear Crawling at its finest

Day 4: Bear Crawl Warm Up

  • Plank City! (With movements for more advanced athletes)
  • Front Planks
  • Side Planks
  • Wall Bicycles with braced core (My favorite core exercise)
  • Push Up Variations
  • Bird Dogs
  • Explosive Medicine Ball Throws

Day 5: Pre race

  • 5-10 minutes of diaphragm breathing
  • Slight glute work to get them firing

Day 6: Post race

  • Calf Mobility
  • Core/anything we need to do

Every week I make tweaks to what we do. It depends upon the amount of time we have left for the practice, what workout we just did, how guys are feeling, etc. There is never a set in stone plan, just a general idea. Some of the guys do more corrective exercises for instance a guy with IT Band pain will do extra glute work. We preach perfect form on everything and although it can be hard to watch 40 guys, a proper demonstration including common flaws and verbal cueing goes a long ways. Our athletes have really bought into the system and it shows!

-Dr. Brian Damhoff