The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Run Pain-Free: 30-day strength training program w/ prehab/rehab

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 277

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Want to run more without getting sidelined by cranky feet and tight calves? We walk through a real client scenario—a 20-year-old cardio diehard who stacked three five-mile runs onto a week of classes—and show how to turn enthusiasm into a durable plan. You’ll hear the exact warm-ups, strength circuits, and weekly progressions we use to build mileage safely, fix plantar fasciitis flare-ups, and keep motivation high.

We start with the biggest injury driver most runners ignore: sudden volume spikes. From there, we map a simple progression rule of thumb, then layer in intensity with controlled tempos once volume settles. The foundation is strength built around running’s demands. Day one is hinge-focused with hip thrusts, chin-ups, and deep landmine calf raises. Day two is squat-focused with low-impact jumps, heels-elevated back squats, and core patterns that train adduction and extension. Day three turns unilateral and frontal-plane, using skater hops with stick landings, single-leg RDLs, and suitcase carries on toes to blend trunk stiffness and foot strength. Throughout, we target the plantar fascia, gastrocnemius, soleus, tibialis anterior, and peroneals so every step gets more stable.

We also get practical about tools and coaching. Footwear rotation, soft tissue mobilization with a barbell or lacrosse ball, and isometrics to calm tendons when symptoms spike. For coaches and ambitious self-trainers, we dig into anatomy-driven programming, progressive overload, and the career skills that make plans stick: clear cues, on-the-fly adjustments, and confidence that comes from mastering the fundamentals. If you’re chasing bigger miles, stronger glutes, and fewer setbacks, this is the blueprint to build resilient legs and a steady training rhythm.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showofffitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Haday y'all. Welcome back to the Show of Fitness Podcast. Today we're going to talk about designing a program for a client who wants to run more. It's December 1st. We did our Swift. We didn't have as many podcasts in the month of November. So I'm going to challenge myself to do one for the next 30 days in a row. Get information out there about getting clients, building a book of business, facing those automatic negative thoughts. Whatever it is, let us know. I'm going to be doing a podcast today. This weekend will be in the OC, Lakeshore Irvine, that's the 5th and 6th, January 9th and 10th in Atlanta. Phoenix, January 23rd and 24th. And we just added Red Bank, February 7th and 8th. We're going to be doing our weekend seminars now, upper body focus, lower body focus. So Lakeshore Irvine, we're going to be doing lower body addressing knee, ankle, low back stuff, very similar to the month avatar within the level one and two certification within Show Up Fitness. So we have a client, Jenny. She's 20 years old. She weighs 145 pounds. She's in great shape. She sleeps 79 hours. She is a cardio junkie. Her current program, Monday, she does body pump. If you don't know what that is, check out Les Mills, do some research. Tuesday, Orange Theory. Wednesday, five mile run. Thursday, F45 and Bar, which is like a sculpt class. Friday and Saturday, she does a high ROX class. And Sunday, she runs another five miles. So just last week, she started running three days a week for five miles. And one of the issues that she's having, some plantar fasciitis. So when we go through this program, and if you like the whole thing, email info at showupfitness.com. I'm just going to go over the warm-up in the first day. We're going to talk about some common injuries with running. This is a very common situation that us as trainers would probably come across ourselves because we get an itch. Maybe Jenny had a friend who signed up for a marathon in March. So she wants to start running more. She's active. And so she starts doing 15 miles per week. And what do you know? Her ankle, her feet, they start getting jacked up. It's a tissue capacity issue. It's not that her running is bad, but we're going from zero miles, maybe a little bit in the orange theory. We'll do these like 22 to 28, 30-minute run classes. So she's getting a little bit. So let's say one to two miles per week. And then all of a sudden we jump that up to 15 miles. That's like doing one set of bench press and then the next week doing 15. What's going to happen to your body? It's a significant increase in mileage. And the number one reason why people get hurt with running, it's because their mileage goes from zero to 100%, or it's increasing more than 20% per week. So what I would like to have seen here, Jenny, but we can't do this. But hypothetically, is she's doing her orange theory, getting a couple miles per week. Add one more day for two to three miles. And then the next week increase that 20%. So you go from two miles to four to six to eight. You can play around with tempo runs. So the prior week, if she's doing six miles, the next week she can do six miles, but do them faster. So you're working on the intensity portion. It's always about volume, frequency, and intensity. But when the volume increases that much from one to two to 15, your body's going to start breaking down. She's already doing a lot of classes, but do you think she's training optimally? Probably not. Does she have a coach? Does she have a trainer? No. That's why she's coming to you. So understanding and taking a look from the needs analysis side that NSCA implements, I'm looking at the actions that are taking place when we go for a run. What plane of motion? It's sagittal. We need a lot of frontal plane stability with the hip unilaterally. So if we're not doing frontal plane stuff, that's just going to set the lower body up for wreckage. And that's what she's experiencing. It could be her shoes. Maybe she's not changing them regularly. There's a lot of things that go into it. But the most important thing I want to address is the volume. For those that get injured, Joe, I'm talking to you. Pojan, I'm talking to you. They wanted me to help or give some advice on some of the running programs. You go from one to two miles a week to running seven miles on one day to doing 20 miles in the week. Hey, I saw this one guy run a hundred miles in the month. So I want to do that. You need to progress accordingly. Look at the front of my book, volume two, progressive overload and milo. You need to give yourself little stresses so it can adapt, sleep optimally, and recover. And we're not doing this. So I really feel for people who are motivated and they're doing it for a couple of weeks, that third or fourth week, their body starts talking to them. And what do they do? They quit and they point the finger at the gods and say, Oh, it's me. No one wants me to get in good shape. It's so hard. No, it's just you did too much too fast. So let's take a step back and let's work on some correctives that we can implement for prehab and rehab during the warm-up, during the accessory. We can add some stuff into bulletproof the body. So when we go through her program, I want to see a nice warm-up getting into the plantar fascia with some soft tissue mobilizations. Do that for a good 30 to 60 seconds. It does not feel well, especially that bottom part of the foot. You're gonna smash it on a barbell or use a lacrosse ball, hold for a good 30 seconds and breathe through it. Then let's get into some calf drills. Let's do some calf raises. Maybe you're taking your shoes off and walking around, working on big toe mobility, movement of the toes, doing some calf raises for 20, 25 reps. Let's look at some other vulnerable areas, the hip flexors. We like to blame the hip flexors, but they're very similar to like the upper traps. They're just getting a lot of work. So let's strengthen them. Let's do some bands on the toes, do a sprinter's drill where you're coming up and you're holding, going out in the frontal plane, coming in slow, eccentrically, working on frontal and sagittal strengthening, do some Copenhagen planks for the adductors. Let's do some single leg touchdowns with bands and eccentric step downs. So that's my warm-up right there, which may take a little longer because she has this issue, five to 10 minutes. Then we're going to get into a hinge-specific day one full body workout. By implementing the CCA, we're going to do some hip thrust first into some chin-ups, into a single leg calf rase on the landmine that really gets that extra stretch. Awesome exercise to strengthen the gastroc and the soleus. Because we're in that standing position, it's more gastroc because it's biarticulate, crosses the knee and the ankle joint. When you do a seated calf rase, that's going to be looking at more the soleus. But don't neglect the anterior parts, doing dorsiflexion and some toe raises. Again, a common mistake that we make is just hitting either standing or seated and just targeting the gastroc and the soleus. We need to look at the anterior and posterior tip and also the peronials by doing some external rotations. You do that first circuit for three rounds. She's already been lifting. So we don't need to do 10 plus reps because she's already strengthened her ligaments and tendons. So I'd like to see for her for the hip thrust to get down to six to eight reps. The second CCA will do some plie deadlift because no one wants to do a sumo deadlift. If you're a girl, you want to do plie deadlifts. It sounds more inviting. Let's follow it up with an upper body push since we already did a pull, some incline dumbbells, and then we'll do some farmer's carries on our toes, really strengthen the calf muscles. For the third circuit, we're going to do a CCC with some RDLs, high step up. So we'll get the glutes focusing on the e-sensor control. And then we'll do a military press. It's a full body workout, hinge specific, but we're still getting a push, a pull, and the shoulders. At the end, if time permits, you could do a little METCON with some ball slams and some glute isolations, wall sits, isometrics, bandwalks, and so forth. That would be where I want to implement some additional prehab rehabbing to make sure we're bulletproofing the body in those weak lengths. So when we go to workout two, which would be a squat specific now, we're going to start with a warm-up, getting into the plantar fascia. I'm not playing with my clients' feet. I hate feet. If you want a massage, do that stuff, whatever. I'd have a tennis ball or variation of that barbell smash. I love getting a barbell and just having your clients walk down it, holding a pole or some type of beam so support you can take some of that pressure off because it does hurt like holy hell. Now let's do some different calf drills, seated this time, more hip flexor band drills, Copenhagen planks again. And let's do some more single leg touchdowns with eccentric control, but now more in the frontal plane. And when we get into the first CCA, we're going to incorporate some jumps because she wasn't doing that prior into some heel elevated back squats. Again, getting down a little heavier, so six to eight reps. And then we'll do some planks. I call them butt planks because you'll be in that plank position in a prone position. We'll do some Aductions to really strengthen the hip in the frontal plane, extensions, trainer engagement, three rounds of that first CCA. The second one, we're going to do goblet squats, 10 to 15 reps there, into some aussies for a pull, and then some bike kicks with some flutters, trainer engagement, three rounds there. And for the last CCA, we're going to do some Bulgarian split squats into a landmine press. Since we're on that press, let's just do some landmine anti-rotations. I love that combo where we don't have to do another piece of equipment. We can just stick right there and then do that for three rounds. If you have time, again, like we said earlier, for a METCON, we could focus more on the arms now. So you could do some triceps and biceps, lateral raises, some pogo jumps. You want to do some ski or some jump rope, do that for five to eight minutes. And then for the third workout, unilateral specific, we're doing that. Warm-up is going to be very similar to prior plant our fascia release techniques. And then we're going to do some calf drills, do some pogo jumps, some hip flexor stuff. And we're going to get into some Copenhagen planks for the adductors. And then more single leg touchdowns, which are very specific to running. Do that for five to 10 minutes. The first CCA will do some ice skaters back and forth in the frontal plane with good stability. I don't want to see repetition after repetition. I want to see a jump and a hold, stabilize, plant it, and then go to the other side. Into some reverse lunges and some bird dogs. Three rounds there. The second CCA, single leg RDL, into some chin-ups with some bands. Let's go for reps on this one. So 10 to 15 reps for endurance and then get into some suitcase walks on our toes. At the end, you can work on some dorsi flexion to get that anterior tip and then do some lateral walks or some little shuffles for the peronial muscles there on the side. The last one we'll do a CCC with some walking lunges into all planes. You can do clockwork lunges. Forward is 12, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock. So that's six per leg and go into the other side into some single arm cable rows with some bands for the glutes back and forth into some push-ups. You'll notice how on day two I did a CCA. You could do a CCC there if you wanted to because of the landmine attachment. I just did a CA. And then I'm going to end off on a METCOM for the abs, just a little ab circuit. Get creative with those variations. So that's what the first week of workouts would look like for lower body emphasis for someone who wants to grow their glutes, but at the same time better their mileage and prehab rehab for running injuries that may already be present or the prehab aspect, make sure it doesn't happen in the future. If you don't have that prehab, guys, exercise library, make sure to get that. Within their app, you can click on the exercises. It's a really cool feature because you can send it to your clients. I use that all the time. And you're going to get a little discount if you use show up as the code. They will give you a discount for the exercise library. I think that's a game changer for trainers, but also your clients as well. If you want the entire workout, send me an email at infoshowpfitness.com. We'll be going over this within the level one. Tori teaches on Mondays at 11 California time. Adam does programming on Tuesdays at 1 30. And then we have Tyson doing the anatomy portion, two o'clock on Fridays. That's for the level one. The level two is for people who are already certified and looking to build their book of business. I'm going to be doing these daily podcasts for the next 30 days to help trainers, whether if you're a level one, you're studying to get certified. You can't get a refund for your NASA M ASIS to say, pass that as quickly as you fucking can. And I say that exhaustively because I feel for that trainer. I just read a post on Reddit this morning and they're saying, I have until January 31st to take my exam. That's 61 days. You need to get certified now if you can't get a refund because that textbook cert does not set you up for success. Great, you're certified. How do you get hired at a gym? What happens when they deny you? Because you sent in a three-page resume and you have no experience. Are you confident with sales? When we're in Dallas, I love what Derek does there. In order to get hired, you need to have a couple years of experience or your SUF CPT. And then he brings you upstairs and says, okay, go out there, find a client, take them through an hour workout, and then come back and we're going to talk about it. I'm going to go to the client and see if they would hire you. That's what the industry needs more of. Not making it easier to get hired, and then you trial and error on your freaking clients. That's not a professional industry. If you want to turn your passion or fitness into career, you need to be professional, which means mastering the fundamentals of movement, planes of motion, actions, 14 muscles around the knee. Can you tell me that? We've been to over 20 lifetimes in the last two years. And it's rare that a trainer can tell you the 17 muscles around the shoulder. And these are the top trainers that are out there. So if you want to charge more, if you want to build streams of revenue and you don't have the fundamentals down pat, you're not going to have that confidence in the sales delivery. And what's one of the biggest issues trainers have? Burnout and not being able to sell. I feel like I'm a salesman. It's because you're not confident in your product. Hell, I charge three, four times more than what the average trainer charges. And I don't see myself as a salesman. And I know for a fact they're going to sign up because I'm the best trainer in front of them that day, that year, ever. You have to have that confidence. And it begins with mastering anatomy, understanding how to program on the fly, and being confident in your delivery. And you know what helps with that confidence is having a physical therapist and an RD on your team. That's what I really help with within that level two mentorship. So if you're struggling with your programming, email me, info at showupfitness.com. I will send you this month plan for Jenny R Avatar for the month. If you need to get certified for life, we have the SUF CPT soft tissue mobilization certification. You'll also get one CEU for that, which we help you get linked up with a physical therapist. We have your nutrition coaching certification, which you'll also get one CEU, and you get linked up with an RD. You're going to be set up for success so you can help change your clients' lives, but also make a living from doing this. Level up your anatomy. Shoot me a message. I'd love to hear about some topics you'd like me to address in these next 30 days. See y'all in Lakeshore Urbine this weekend. Atlanta, the 9th and 10th of January, Phoenix, the 23rd and 24th, and Red Bank the 7th and 8th of February. We have our biggest sale going on right now,$4.99 for everything across the board. CPT, soft tissue, nutrition, all$499. Our seminars,$4.99. In the new year, we're going to revamp, go through our Swift, see what the market is like, but then we're going to increase because supply and demand. When you have the best certification out there and the proof is in the pudding, you get a charge more. And that's the same with your business. If you're charging$120, you should not feel bad about going to$150 because you're better serving your clients. That's what we provide. Have a great day. Remember, big biceps are better than small ones. Keep showing up.