- It's easy to think that training for a triathlon
purely involves swimming, cycling and running.
Unless you're strapped for time,
then it's going to be difficult
to justify fitting in any other training.
But if you can manage one
or two strength-conditioning sessions a week,
it can make a huge difference to your overall performance
and also your ability to train for those three sports.
So with that in mind, we've chosen a few key exercises
that you can fit around your training
that can be either done at home or in the gym.
(funky music)
Now we're going to begin with sideband walks,
as these are great for activating your leg muscles
as well as your core,
and they also act as a bit of an extended warm-up
before we get onto the heavier exercises.
You need an elastic band of some sort
that can fit around your ankles
and has enough elasticity so you can sidestep with it.
So lower yourself into a half squat start position
with your chest up, facing forwards,
and then sidestep sideways in a crab-style walk
maintaining pressure on the band throughout each step.
In this position, take 10 steps to your right
and then 10 steps to your left,
trying to make it smooth and light on your feet,
so you shouldn't actually see your head bobbing up and down,
it should be more of a continuous movement.
Take a rest and then repeat it once or twice more.
And if you're doing this properly,
you're really starting to feel it burn
on the outside of your bottom.
(calm music)
Superman is another activation-style exercise
that's going to focus on the trunk and the core.
So start in four-point kneeling with your knees and shins
and your hands on the floor,
and your hips should be directly above your knees,
your shoulders should be directly above your hands.
Start by simply lifting one hand off the ground
and extending your arm out in front,
place it back and then repeat on the other side.
Now this might sound simple,
but check that your hips and torso do not move.
Once you've got that control, you can then move
to extending one leg at a time behind you.
The movement needs to be slow and controlled
with all of the focus on keeping the hips still
and not arching the lower back.
The next step from here
is to work your arms and your legs together.
So you're going to be working across the diagonal,
so start off by extending one arm
and then you're going to extend the opposite diagonal leg
at the same time in a very controlled manner,
and then bring them back together.
So this will really be activating your core
across that diagonal,
and then obviously repeat on the other side.
It might sound easy,
but it's much harder than it looks to make sure
that you don't actually let your torso move too much.
And if you can, do it in front of a mirror,
or maybe get a friend to watch you,
to check that you're keeping that really good form.
And when it comes to this, it's very much important
to concentrate on quality, not quantity,
so I'm not going to give you a number here,
but as soon as your form starts to drop, then take a rest.
(calm music)
Single-leg squats are great
for increasing strength and control,
cycling, running, and even swimming,
are all unilateral movements,
and therefore, one side of the body
is moving separately to the other.
Well, this requires strong core, great coordination
and the obvious limb strength.
Start off by standing on one leg,
if possible, in front of a mirror,
then before progressing,
check that your hips are still level,
then start to lower your body down
by bending that standing leg
and pushing your bottom backwards
as though you're going to sit on a chair.
Go as far as you can maintain the control
and then straighten back up to single-leg standing.
You can even pop a chair behind you
and then go down to just touching and back up again,
but you need to make sure that the movement is smooth.
And you don't actually sit down at the bottom,
so taking a couple of seconds to go down
and a couple of seconds to come back up.
Get your knee tracking forwards over your laces
towards your toes, your chest needs to be kept up
and your gaze forwards.
If you really struggle with control,
then you can use a TRX-style cable or even hold a stick
to give you a little added stability.
It's just important to do this action correctly
as quality beats quantity here.
These squats are especially great for running
as they replicate that stance phase of the gait.
So they're going to activate all of those smaller muscles
that help to control your lower leg and your foot,
as well as obviously working the large muscles
such as your glutes, and of course your core
that we've already mentioned.
So if you start off by aiming
to do two sets of five reps on each leg,
and then you can progress this
by increasing the number of sets,
or the number of reps, and both,
and then when you really want to take it a step further,
you can add a weight.
But another progression that I actually quite like
is to change the surface which you're standing on,
so it really adds that challenge of proprioception,
making it something that's less stable.
(calm music)
Hip bridges will activate the posterior chain,
so those muscles at the back of the body,
and in particular, that really start
to get those glutes firing.
So for this exercise, you need to start
by lying on your back with your knees bent
and feet flat on the ground, and you should be able
to just brush the back of your ankles with your fingertips.
Begin this exercise by lifting your hips
and your bottom off the floor and raised towards the ceiling
whilst keeping your hips level and your thighs parallel,
so that gap between your knees remains the same.
Once you lift up into full-hip extension,
there should be a straight line
from your shoulders on the ground,
all the way up to your knees.
Aim to do it as one second up, one second down
in a continuous movement,
start off by only just three lots of 10 reps.
And this is quite an easy exercise to actually progress.
So the obvious progression will be to take to single-leg,
but here you need to really make sure
that you're still keeping your hips extremely level.
And if you want to then take it another step further,
you can add a weight that you hold over your hips.
While this does predominantly work your glutes,
a little bit of your hamstrings, as I've already mentioned,
but you can actually add in some more activation.
So if you put a block between your knees
and you've got to squeeze to maintain that,
that will start to work the inner thigh
and then the opposite, you could actually have
a band around your knee so you've got to maintain that gap
by putting out against resistance band,
which will work your outer thighs.
(calms music)
All my exercises are a little harder to do at home
and also hard to vary without weights,
but we're going to start with the obvious, the press-up.
Well, this is great for working your pecs,
your deltoids, your triceps, biceps,
and all of those muscles around your upper arms
and your shoulders, and that obviously are going to be great
for that strength required for swimming.
I expect you probably know how to perform a press-up.
So start facedown with your hands underneath your shoulders
and your arms extended.
The rest of your body should be in a straight line
from your feet up to your shoulders.
Then from this position, bend your elbows
and lower your body, in a controlled manner,
towards the floor,
just before the point of touching the ground,
push back up to your starting position.
You need to engage your core throughout this movement
to ensure you've got that nice straight line
of your whole body.
Now, if you do struggle to do full-body-weight press-ups,
you can alternatively do them on your knees
but do make sure in this position
that it's a straight line from your knees to your shoulders
and you're not just simply folding at the hips.
Now, as for the number, aim to do three sets,
but as to the amount of reps,
that depends really on where you're starting from,
so try to keep the same number throughout.
You should be finishing that third set
feeling as though you can't do any more.
Calf raises are a simple exercise
that can be performed pretty much anywhere
and they are great for strengthen your Achilles tendon
and your calf muscles,
both of which are essential for running.
To start with, you can do these
by standing on a flat surface and raising your body weight
onto your toes, lifting your heels.
As soon as you've got enough control, take this to a step,
then stand on the ball of your foot
with your heels over the edge.
And you can lower your heel down,
and then lift all the way up
so you're working your calf muscles
through that full range of movement.
You can progress this by moving to single-leg,
but do make sure that your hips stay level throughout it,
or you can even add weight to increase that difficulty.
So if you're doing double-legs, start off by trying
to do three sets of 10 reps, if it's single-leg,
three sets of eight, and then progress as you get stronger.
There're so many options for core exercises,
but today we're going to keep it super simple
with a good old plank.
Now, this is going to activate those muscles
around the trunk which will help to make you more efficient
for your swimming, cycling and running.
And yes, all the exercise we've already covered
are to going to actually your core to a certain extent,
but this one is really going to make you feel it.
You've got the option here
of starting on your elbows or your hands.
Whichever you use, though,
make sure that they're underneath your shoulders.
So facing down, raise your body away onto your toes
and elbows, or hands, and aim to get a straight line
or a plank shape, from your heels all the way to your head.
You might well start to experience the shake,
but hold through it for as long as you can manage.
If you can get someone to check
that you're not dropping your hips,
or that you're not cheating
by actually lifting your hips up too high,
and if you're finding this nice, and comfortable, and easy,
and you've got a stable position,
then you can progress it by moving to single-leg.
So simply lift one leg off the ground, hold it there,
replace and then swap it to the other side.
And then you've got side plank
which will move the concentration to the side of your trunk.
You can simply rotate onto one hand, or elbow,
and place one foot on top of the other.
Still keeping that straight plank position,
make sure you hold for the same amount of time
on the other side too.
Like I said, this is just a selection of exercises
that require minimal equipment, are straightforward to do,
and will directly help you as a triathlete,
but do feel free to experiment with them,
adapt and work out which exercises work for you,
and if you can, try to fit them in two to three times a week
and you will certainly start to see a difference.
Well, gives us a thumbs-up like if you've enjoyed it,
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and if you've got any exercises that you like to do,
let us know in the comments section below.
And if you want to see a video that's specifically designed
to strengthening and conditioning purely for runners,
you can find that one over here,
and if you've got knee injuries,
or you want to know how to prevent a knee injury,
you can see that one just down here.