Competitor / Jen Weir

Jen Weir

I'm a lover of all things outdoors and fitness -- inspiration for my work. I hold a B.S. in Exercise Science, am a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, an ACE-Functional Training Specialist and Health Coach and also maintain a Precision Nutrition Certification. I own and operate Front Range Fitness & Health Coaching where I offer coaching in-person and online to help clients conquer their mountains (metaphorical and literal). I am Montana born and raised and strive to spend every spare minute enjoying all this big beautiful state has to offer with my crazy little family.

Strength Training is Good for You, Runners—Here's Proof

By now, I know that you know (or at least have heard) that strength training is beneficial to runners. So, what’s stopping you? After reading (or skipping over) article after article about resistance training and runners, why have you still not drank the Kool-Aid and crossed over to the dark side? Whether it’s lack of time, fear of gaining too much muscle, doubt in the relevance of strength in an endurance sport, or you flat out don’t buy it, there seems to be plenty of reasons to stick to the

How Runners Can Train the Posterior Chain

The posterior chain is our power house and is comprised of some of the biggest and strongest muscles in the body. These muscles, including those of the back, glutes, hamstrings and calves, are critical to all athletic movements, including running. Why? The contracting of the posterior chain is what propels your body forward with each stride—the back muscles act to straighten and extend the spine; the glutes extend the hips and keep the femurs aligned; the hamstrings extend the hips and flex

Competitor.com • 11th March 2016

6 Useful Variations to Traditional Strength-Training Exercises

Whether you’re strength training to keep the injuries to a minimum or you’re working towards a new PR, the fact that you’re doing it is fantastic! Hitting the weights is one of the best steps you can take to develop yourself into a stronger runner. If you’ve been cranking out the same exercises workout after workout, it may be time to change things up. Adding variety to your routine does more than prevent stagnation—it provides an opportunity to work different muscles that are often neglected,

Why Runners Should Do Eccentric Training

Eccentric training is a term that sounds complicated, but it’s really not—if you’ve ever tortured yourself with an exorbitant amount of hill runs, you’ve done a form of it. Eccentric training is simply capitalizing on the eccentric action of muscles, which occurs when tension is applied to a muscle as it lengthens. Consider your quads as you run downhill—they’re absorbing the weight of your body as they lengthen in order to control your descent. Without your quads working eccentrically on a down

5 Reasons to Incorporate Unilateral Strength Training

We don’t run with both legs at the same time, so why do we train both legs together in the gym? Good question, right? The answer is, maybe you shouldn’t be. While bilateral training (think the traditional squat) is by no means a bad thing, unilateral training (single-leg squat, lunge, step-up, etc.) may be a better choice for runners. Unilateral exercises are an integral part of rehabilitation programs—they offer one of the most effective ways to retrain muscle groups and get your body working