Upper-Body Training for Runners?

I've received a few e-mails asking about thoughts on the question of whether it's beneficial for runners to do any upper-body training.  As you might expect from a lawyer (like politicians, we are generally incapable of giving straight answers), the answer starts off with "It depends..."

If you are relatively serious about running and you are focused on setting PR's (personal records), then I would say that it's important to do some upper-body strength training, but it should take up a very small percentage of your total training time. 

True, when it comes to distance running just about all of the work is done by the muscles below the waist...the arms are simply there to keep the body balanced by swinging around a little bit.  But I find that having a strong upper-body helps to facilitate a nice, strong finishing kick at the end of a race since.  It's very hard to finish strong when your upper body is exhausted. 

However, I think you're better off doing relatively low weights and a high number of repetitions (better known as "reps"), which builds lean, endurance-based muscles.  Doing the opposite, high weights and low reps, builds bigger and bulkier muscles.  Those shiny, gleaming body-builders you see in body-building competitions look fantastic, but most of them can't last five minutes on a treadmill.  Very large muscles are simply dead weight that you have to drag around with you when you're out on a long distance run.

Myself, I have a 35 lb. dumbell that I use after every run (if time allows).  Just a few long sets of a few different curls while I watch the news.  Then, if I'm ambitious and there's enough time, I'll try to get in at least 100 stomach crunches.  I find that this simple post-run routine is enough to keep the upper-body sufficiently fine-tuned without building bulk.

But if you're not overly-focused on racing and you're looking for more of an overall, general sense of fitness (most runners probably fall into this category), then go ahead and weight-train all you want.  Doing nothing but running will not give you a well-rounded state of fitness...you'll be able to run around all day without getting tired, but you'll be useless when it comes time to move furniture around the house.  Cross-training is your bag.