We are told to stay at home. Not tot socialise. No to go to the pub or out eating. Stay away from the Gym! It’s all very restrictive to runners. So let us try and utilise the opportunity we now have to build on our core. To strengthen tour body. Be less prone to injury. Improve our strength throughout out our runs and improve our posture. And be much stronger when racing commences.
As runners we often focus a lot on our lower legs and hip area in terms of flexibility and making sure those areas are loose and feel good. However there needs to be some attention paid to the upper body as well. Upper body workouts for your back, arms and chest will improve your running posture and speed.
I know that you do not really need to be overly flexible in the upper body, it is not as important as being flexible in the hips, lower back and obviously the legs. However it is more about injury prevention to make sure stiffness in your upper body does not then cause problems further down the chain. If your back is tight and you’re hunched then your lungs won’t be able to expand to their full capacity and you will find running is harder than it needs to be.
You had the normal plank exercise to do in January. And the Side Plank for February. Coupled with the sit up and crunch stretches in February. Sadly no one posted any plank times when requested early March!! It would be nice to know that a few of you were into becoming stronger athletes. Why not post you times for the Basic and/or Side plank next Tuesday.
Tomorrow it’s a new set of stretches to add to your workouts.