- Morning, motivators.
Let's say that you are a runner.
And you have decided that you are going to focus
on strength training.
Strength training is a massive performance enhancer.
By replacing some of your running with strength training,
you can actually really improve your performance
without actually training anymore.
Now, I am a big believer in kettlebells
because for about 300 bucks worth of kettlebells,
you can stay busy for two years.
You don't need this huge setup at home.
but then you might be wondering,
"Okay, what kettlebell movements should I use?
Today, I'm gonna go through five kettlebell movements
that are going to increase your lower leg stability,
increase your balance,
improving your ability to transfer the effort
you're putting out into forward movement,
so you get faster and reduce injuries.
So when we're approaching strength training for running,
there's a few things that we wanna keep in mind.
Number one is because running is so leg focused,
we don't wanna be beating up our legs
to the extent of like feeling tired,
feeling sore the next day.
So we're going to design the movements and the workouts
in a way that it activates muscle, strengthens muscles,
but doesn't beat the muscles up.
Second is the big toe
and the stability of the foot with running
is really, really important for transferring that power.
So I'm gonna recommend that you do this barefoot
or with some of these super cool looking
Vibram FiveFingers.
Next is we wanna focus on lower leg stability
so that every time we plant,
it's nice and stable.
It's not planting and then shaking.
We want that to be nice and stable.
And then we want our core to not be wiggly.
We don't wanna be planting and then leaking energy
out to the side.
That leaking energy is gonna slow us down.
And that little bit of tiny movement
from side to side when we plant
is also going to result in injuries.
So we're going to focus on stability here,
activating muscles, not beating them up,
and strengthen stability in the lower leg.
Let's dive into the exercises.
First exercise we're going to do is a cross body clean.
A clean is just picking the kettlebell up
and getting it into the raft position.
How we're going to do this is by placing the kettlebell
at the opposite foot to our hand.
So if we're gonna pick it up with the right hand,
we're gonna have the kettlebell down at the left foot.
You're gonna twist a little bit,
and that twist is focusing
on the cross body activation.
Like when we land,
we need this side of the body to be activated
all the way across.
So, you're going to grab the kettlebell,
lift it up,
and you're gonna notice that everything across here
is going to be activated.
And it's as simple as doing that.
This rotational movement has also gonna open up our hips
and our mobility so that we don't get tight,
and just focus on linear movements
where we start losing range of motion.
Next movement we're gonna do
is a modified kettlebell swing.
It's a pause swing.
And why we're modifying it this way
is because it allows us to be a little bit more powerful,
little bit more explosive,
and stretch the muscles a little bit
so that we're strengthening our end range of motion.
It's not enough just to be mobile,
you wanna be mobile and strong
at the end of your mobility range.
So what you're going to do
is have your kettlebell out about two feet in front of you.
Nice wide legs,
maybe a little bit wider than shoulder width apart,
bend down, and look forward.
So this is going to strengthen your lower back.
So you're not arching your back
and likely creating back issues.
So look forward,
grab the kettlebell,
swing and the movement.
And the modification is that you stop it out front,
swing out,
swing out.
So you get that nice explosion of the swing,
but bringing it down creates that little bit
of stretching at the back of the hamstrings,
getting us the explosive power
while also focusing on strength at the end range of motion.
Next one, this is a really big favorite of mine
for stability, for that lower leg stability,
for stability in the core.
Seems really simple,
but I guarantee,
when you do this the first time,
you're gonna be astounded at how tough it is.
This is a favorite of mine
and NTK in behind the camera.
These are just around the leg.
So, to simple as bending over a little bit,
giving yourself a little bit of a stretch in that glute.
So that's going to, again, increase our mobility,
but you're going to really plant yourself,
put a lot of weight into that front planted leg,
and then just go around the body.
Again, chest up, flat back,
and go around the leg.
So you're getting a big stretch in that hamstring
while having to activate the big toe,
activating all the stabilizer muscles,
go back the other way,
and do that on both legs.
I find that this is huge for reducing back problems
and increasing stability.
This next movement is where we get into a little bit
of the fun stuff,
sort of the heavy stuff.
The stuff that looks really impressive.
This is a heavy double kettlebell clean.
Probably going to wanna make sure
that you're really comfortable with kettlebells
while doing this.
And to do that,
you can start just one single kettlebell,
making sure that this clean motion
isn't whacking the back of your forearm.
Once you get that
and you learn to move the kettlebell really well,
this heavy kettlebell clean
gets us that nice explosive movement
without being so super heavy
because we can't just load it up with tons of weight
and be flopping around.
There you're getting that explosive movement
that is going to be powerful.
You're gonna hit the ground
and you're gonna be able to rebound off
really powerfully with every single foot stride.
So to do this,
kettlebells in the middle,
flat back, you're always going to wanna grab this
with a flat back.
And the way you can work on that
is by looking ahead,
grab the kettlebells,
they hang just a little bit, and up.
Fortunately that wasn't my fingers.
So you gotta be pretty good at this.
And up, where the power's coming from?
Your legs and hips.
Not really a lunge and a lurch with the back.
It's the snap from the legs and hips.
So, that, it's not lifting that way.
And the flat lower back really encourages
putting the weight into the glutes and the hips.
The last movement we're going to do
is a single leg deadlift.
Deadlifts are really good for lower leg strength.
We're gonna do this on an unstable platform
to really get that lower leg getting fired up,
like, really activated.
Making that big toe work.
So you're gonna plant a leg
and if you got a foam pad,
you got a towel,
if you have a rolled up yoga mat like we've got here,
all of these things will work.
Plant one foot,
grab the kettlebell with the other hand,
you're gonna look forward,
and it's gonna help to look at a very singular point,
one definite point.
Extend the back leg,
have a straight back.
You'll notice that my knee moved in a little bit there.
That's the work.
We don't want to be moving in or out a lot.
So you've got to fire up that foot
to keep it nice and stable.
Teaching your body how to fire
all those tiny little stabilizing muscles
while building stability in the core.
Commonly running strength training
is recommended to be in the low rep range,
like the two to six sorta range with kettlebells
because you're moving things around
really kinda dynamically.
If you're going super heavy,
that's likely going to create an injury.
We don't wanna go super, super heavy with running,
because we don't wanna beat up our nervous system,
we don't wanna beat up our body.
What I like to do is have a weight that is challenging
but very comfortable.
And I like to do workouts that are like 20 seconds on,
10 seconds rest.
40 seconds on,
20 seconds rest.
This is going to actually keep your heart rate
nice and high.
And studies have actually shown
that when you design a kettlebell workout that way,
you get an improvement in VO2 max,
which again, helps our running.
So you get that nice stability,
that nice muscle activation
where your muscle tissues are nice and strong,
you're stable, and you're improving your VO2 max.
Do these five exercises,
and your running is going to be much more stable
and greatly improved.
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and if you want a training plan that incorporates 25 hours
of guided kettlebell strength movements,
you can go to app.mymotive.com,
where we have training plans for running,
trail running, cycling, triathlon, duathlon, swimrun,
all with this strength training guided for you.
Later, motivators.