In this episode of Running to the Castle, Dr. Ali welcomes special guest Betsy Foster, founder of Foster Strength and Built Bodies and host of the Your Strongest Body podcast. Together they dive into the world of strength training for women in their 30s and 40s, breaking down the myths about “bulking up,” soreness, and calorie-burning workouts.

In this episode of Running to the Castle, you'll learn how to incorporate strength training into your runDisney race prep without overdoing it or making your pain worse. 

In this episode of Running to the Castle, you’ll learn why strength training isn’t the magic fix for every slow or injury-prone runner—and why blindly adding more strength may be doing more harm than good.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn what to do to start recognizing patterns so you can stop getting worse and start to feel better.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn the top 3 main reasons RunDisney runners do not finish (DNF) their races:

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn how to strength train the right way as an injury-prone runner.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn the top 5 activities to avoid when you’re strength training as an injury-prone runner.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn how to prevent knee pain and achieve long-term running success.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn how to decide what exercises to do when you’re an injury-prone runner.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn if squats and lunges are the best exercises for runners with knee injuries.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn how to finish the Dopey Challenge even when you’re injury-prone without getting injured with strength training.

In this episode of Running to the Castle, you’ll learn why jumping straight to heavy lifting might be sabotaging your running goals—and how starting small is the key to long-term strength and injury prevention. 

In this episode of Running to the Castle, you’ll learn why eccentric exercises are essential for runners with tendon injuries and how to perform them effectively.

In this episode of Running to the Castle you’ll learn the 5 key elements that you need to include in your strength plan so it works and you stop getting injured. When you have some of these elements but not all of them you won’t get stronger and stop getting injured.

If you’ve ever experienced knee pain or other running injury and you’ve thought to yourself “oh I need to strength train more”, “I need to stretch more”, or something like that… more in these cases are just more, it’s not better.

Listen to the episode to learn whether you should strength train before or after you run.

Other topics I talk about include when to start new strength exercises, add more weight or resistance, strength train on long or short run days, and strength train on rest days or not.

In this episode of Running to the Castle I’m talking about what to do and what to avoid when doing strength workouts as a runner with knee arthritis. Learn how to back off painful knees, how to load them properly to maximize your workout without flaring up your knee arthritis.