[music] Heather: Want to improve your running
from the comfort of your home? Well, great. You're in the right place because today we've got five
exercises that don't involve any running and don't involve going outside. Well, we're going to be
covering all of the large muscle groups that are involved in running well, in particular, trying
to wake up and get firing those that will really have an impact on the efficiency of your running.
Maybe you're fairly new to running or you're one of those few and lucky
runners that hasn't experienced any injuries or weakness issues.
If so, you might be questioning the need for additional exercises. Well, all you need to do
is just watch some of the pros and you'll soon see how much work goes in behind the scenes
of the running track in order to help them with their running. A little bit of work
now will go a long way in the long run. Excuse the pun there. Anyway, for today,
all you need, or mostly we need is bodyweight. We've all got that. Then there's one accessory, a
resistance band. It doesn't matter what type, you can adapt it, but just something that's got some
elastic or stretch in it. If you don't have one of those, stick with me because I will be giving you
alternatives all the way through. [music]
We're going to kick things off with a really nice simple one, calf raises. All you need for this is
a step or alleged something that's stable and ideally a wall or a rail just next to it so you
can hold on to start with for your balance. Start by standing on the step with the balls of your
feet. If you're new to this exercise, you'll want to begin with double leg calf raises. Gently drop
your heels down until you start to feel that stretch at the back of your calf. From here,
rise up onto your tiptoes all the way to the top. Once you're at the top, then lower straight back
down again in a nice controlled manner. Aim to do a set of 10, have a rest and repeat it twice more.
These can then be adapted and progressed. Single leg calf raises are the obvious
level up. Make sure to keep your hips and shoulders level. If you are using the support,
try to reduce this. This exercise predominantly works the gastrocnemius muscle, which is the big,
most notable calf muscle, but if you want to also work the soleus, which sits lower down and more
underneath, then you need to repeat the same exercise, but with your knees bent.
Have a slight bend in the knees and maintain that knee joint position
whilst then going up and down on your toes. You'll just feel it working lower down in
your calf. This exercise is also prescribed for athletes recovering from Achilles tendinopathy.
It's a great one to help strengthen that tendon as well. If after all of this, you're still finding
it too easy or you're ready to progress it one step further, why not add in some weights. No,
you don't need to go to a gym for this, you can simply get a rucksack and put some wine bottles
or some tin cans inside it, add a little bit of weight and you'll soon find it feels much harder.
I love these crab walks and you will soon discover what muscles they're
working after. Just a few steps. Trust me. This is an exercise that you do need a
resistance band. Make sure it's got enough stretch in it and it has enough resistance
to make the exercise challenging for you. Place the band either around your ankles, just above,
or just above your knees, not on the joints themselves. You want to feel tension on it when
you're standing with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees into a semi-squat position. It's
a good idea to put your hands on your hips. The idea is to maintain this position with as little
body movement as possible whilst taking sidesteps. Depending on the space available, you might need
to adapt, but try to take 10 steps in each direction in total. If you've got a mirror,
then just check your shoulders remain level, or why not try and balance something on your head
to make sure there's no excessive movement. If you've got it right, you will feel a burn in the
outside of your glutes pretty quickly, trust me. Take a rest after you've done 10 on each side and
try and repeat it so you do a total of 3 sets. Now for the variation, if you really don't have
a resistance band or even a pair of tights or anything that you can use instead, then you can
do an isometric hold standing against a wall. You need to stand so that your hip is just away
from the wall and you're at 90 degrees, your sidearm. Then you're going to go into that demi
squat position again and simply with your lifted leg, your leg against the wall, you're going to
try and push the wall away from you, so you're pushing outwards in the same position or the same
action that you would be doing if you were doing a sidestep. However, this time there's no movement.
It's a good compromise. [music]
Grab yourself a chair or find a step, something that's ideally around knee height and is very
secure and stable and will have a flat top to it. Then you need to start by facing the step and
simply putting one foot on it, stepping up into a nice straight position at the top. Concentrate
on keeping your hips and your shoulders levels throughout because they have a tendency to drop
on the non-weight-bearing side. Once you've mastered the control of the single-leg step,
then add in arms and a leg drive into an A-frame shape. Make sure to use the arm with the opposite
leg so you're replicating running, and stick with just six to eight reps on one leg before swapping
and try and complete three sets on each. [music]
This exercise is a little bit different. You'll want to find a smooth surface, ideally something
like a wooden floor and then a cloth, or something else that would just slide comfortably across it,
maybe even some slippery socks. Just think of anything you wouldn't want to walk on, then
that's going to be perfect for this exercise. Then lie on your back with your knees bent and one foot
resting on the cloth or using the socks, raise your hips up into a hip bridge and in a controlled
manner, slide that foot away on the clothe until your leg is straight, then under control,
pull it back so it's parallel with the other side. Complete 10 before swapping to the other side.
Then if you want to progress this, when the calf leg is extended, you can slide it out
away from the midline, bring it back in again before returning to that starting position.
This will change the challenge then the glutes a little bit more. If you're finding that easy,
then you can progress to doing it with both legs at once, sliding both heels away from you.
However, I would just go a short distance to start with because it's much harder on the
return than you might expect. It's basically a hamstring curl whilst engaging your glutes
and your core. It's really quite a tricky one. We'll soon get the burn going. If you don't want
to try this, you can stick to a nice, simple hip bridge. If you want to make that slightly harder,
you can put your heels on a step, it's just going to change the action of the exercise slightly.
The wood chop. For this, you want to find a resistance band and the tricky part is
finding something to attach it to. It needs to be at least shoulder height, ideally higher.
If it's higher, then you can do the exercise standing up. If it's shoulder height,
then you'll need to kneel down, but it doesn't really matter that much.
We need to attach a band and then take hold of it with both of your hands just above and slightly
wider than your shoulder because you're going to be pulling in a diagonal movement across.
Once you've got your hands in the right position, make sure you've got just a little bit of tension
on the band and position yourself in a good starting place. As the title alludes to,
in a wood chopping movement, pull the band down across the front of your body in a diagonal line.
This will engage your core and the cross-body movement relates to the
running stride with the arm and leg coordination. Try for 10 on each side 2 to 3 times. It does
obviously depend on your band as to how many you're going to manage. If you don't have a
band or you can't find anything to attach it to then a side plank will do a pretty good job
of firing up your core. If you want to make it a little bit spicier, then simply lift that top leg
away from the base leg and bring it towards your chest in a crunch or a running style motion
forwards and backwards. If you repeat it 10 times on one leg, flop onto a side plank on the other
side. You can do that three times too. [music]
If done correctly, all of these exercises should be able to challenge you and they're
working slightly different muscle groups, so there will be a crossover and hopefully,
they'll all complement each other. Have a go at all of them and if there's any that
you really like, then why not incorporate them into your regular program or stay with all five,
if you're new to these exercises. Anyway, let me know how you find them. If you've got a favorite,
you can do that in the comment section below. Give us a like if you've enjoyed the video and
you can also check out our social media channels to see what we're up to there and follow and
subscribe to us here on YouTube. [00:09:06] [END OF AUDIO]