An Apple a Day . . .

By Jessica Green

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." The same can be said for a strength move a day for runners. Each week I preach about getting out there and doing your strength work and for the last two months I've been listening. It's made a difference. My lower back no longer aches from time to time and my hamstring doesn't feel as tight. I attribute a large part of this to my commitment to some type of strength work almost every day of the week. 

What does this look like? In our training plans we often provide suggested strength routines for both core and lower body. These routines typically take 10-15 minutes to complete. That kind of time can be difficult to carve out of our busy lives day in and day out. What's important though is trying to - or at least remembering to think about strength training on a regular basis.  For myself, this means getting down on the ground and actually doing something on a daily basis. On some days, it's only one series of planks/side planks/planks, but on other days it turns into a full blown 20-minute routine. Sometimes I'm in my pj's and other times a sports bra. No matter what it feels great to know that I've done something. The biggest benefit - I stuck to my routine and didn't let another day pass without some sort of strength.

Imagine going a week or even two without running . . . not good, right? Well, the same should be felt for two weeks of no strength.  If you're looking for one move to get you through tonight, start with bridges with knee folds.  They are great for pelvis stability, glute and hamstring strength and help prevent IT band issues. 

Lie on your back with your hands at your sides and bend your legs to bring your feet flat on the ground and about a hands length away from your buttocks. Raise your hips by firing your glutes and driving your heels into the ground. Lift up until you create a straight line from your hips to the knees. Maintain this position by firing the glutes and not flexing the lumbar spine.

Once in bridge position, alternate bringing each knee up towards your chest keeping the leg bent at a 90 degree angle. As you raise and lower each leg, keep the pelvis steady and avoid rocking back and forth. Press your arms down into the ground with your palms facing down to help keep you stable. Continue alternating knee folds for 30-60 seconds. Repeat 2x.

Post-Pregnancy Lunges

By Jessica Green

Ask any fitness professional for recommended exercises to do post-pregnancy when returning to running and they are most likely going to include Clock Lunges as part of a suggested routine. This is because after pregnancy it's especially important to rebuild hip and pelvis stability.

Clock lunges improve hip stability PLUS ankle and knee stability while moving through all planes of motion. So, while these lunges improve stablity in the hips after pregnancy, they also help develop overall balance, activation and mobility for key running musculature. This is especially important for injury prevention and returning to running with proper strength and trunk support after carrying your baby for 9 months. Whether you gave birth a few months ago or over a year ago, considering adding clock lunges into your strength routine a couple times a week.

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Imagine you are standing in the center of the face of a clock.
2. Keeping your right foot planted, step forward to “12 o’clock” with your left foot, reaching your arms forward at shoulder height at the same time.
3. Push off the left foot and bring your feet back together.
4. Continue lunging and reaching counter-clockwise around the clock with your left foot. Try to get at least 7 lunges in. Repeat 3 times around with each foot.

* Make sure to warm up with some dynamic stretching for at least a few minutes before doing this exercise. Do not do these exercises until you are cleared by a medical professional to start exercising. 

Fleshman's Awesome Abs Routine

With recovery on our minds this month, I (Jessica) committed to "recovering" my pre-pregnancy abs starting this month. It's been almost 9 months since I gave birth and it's time to feel feel strong through my core again. There are no excuses at this point!

While texting my friend every night about my latest core routine triumph has been helping, I got another boost of motivation from the latest ab routine video by Lauren Fleshman, a kickass professional runner, fellow Oregonian and new mom as well, on Runner's World's website last week.  The video is geared towards runners with a special focus on what recovering runner moms need in terms of core strength post-pregnancy.  As with any post-natal abdominal exercises, check with your doctor first before diving into what Runner's World calls a, "Freaking Awesome Ab Workout." Once you're ready, I highly suggest getting on board the Fleshman Ab Train. 

Strength Move of the Week: Squat to Leg Extension

Do you ever have the feeling that your legs are ahead of your upper body when you are running fast? Or, your legs are rotating around your pelvis as if your inner and outer thighs have nothing to do with your stride? One of the reasons for this is due to a lack of hip stabilty and balanced strength between your front muscles and side muscles in the leg.

If you are runner, you need hip stability and would probably also like inreased leg power to help you pick up the pace. One way to increase both of these is to implement squats with a leg extension into your routine. This move involves a slight twist on the regular squat to help strengthen abductors (outer thighs) and adductors (inner thights) as well as the gluteal muscles to promote hip stabilty. Try it out this week! 

Strength Workout: Phone a Friend

By Jessica Green

Eight months have passed since I had my first child in August. For the last seven and half months, I attempted to do core work on a daily basis. I failed . . . miserably.  Finally, I phoned a friend for some serious accountabilty. My friend, like myself, gave birth to her son in August and had grand plans to do core work a couple times a week, but was struggling to make it actually happen. On our runs we discussed this problem regularly with myself frequently complaining that I had zero core support on the downhills or when trying to pick up the pace. Both of us have fall marathons on the calendar and believe very strongly about the value of proper strength before and during our training. So, it was time to get serious. For the last two weeks, it's worked and I've done my core work almost every night. 

I know that each week I present you with a new suggested strength exercise telling you it's as easy as one move a week. Well, sometimes we need more than a blog post telling us to do something. Sometimes we need a friend texting us in the middle of bathing our child that she just did her ab workout and it's time for you to do yours too. Perhaps it's the competitor in us that makes us do it. Or the real time reminder. Whatever it is, it's working! 

If you are struggling to make time for strength work (or any type of workout), then I challenge you to pair up with someone and start keeping tabs on each other this week. It works!

Strength Move of the Week: Calf Raises

As running coaches who promote long term, injury-free running, strength work is always a part of our recommended weekly routine for every runner out there. So, where to start? Start with just one move a week and build from there. Hot Bird Running has you covered with our Strength Move of the Week!

Move of the Week: Calf Raises
Why we love these? Calf raises feel like a miracle move sometimes. They are simple, can be done just about anywhere and help prevent shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, runner's knee, calf strains and more. Plus, they help power you up hills and pick up the pace in training and on race day.

We recommend single leg calf raises for maximum benefit because you are running on one foot at a time after all. To help with balance and proper execution, find a wall, chair or something to help you balance while you do the following:

1) Stand on a flat surface with feet hip width apart. Shift your weight onto the left foot, bending slightly at the knee to prevent locking. Draw the right knee up towards your right hip until the right foot is completely off the ground.

2) With all of your weight on your left leg, slowly lift your left heel off the ground and rise up on the ball of your foot as high as possible.

3) Slowly lower back down until the heel almost touches the ground and then rise back up on your toes again. Count to 3 on the way up and as you lower your heel back down and as you lower, emphasizing balance and control making sure movement is only in the ankles, not the knees or hips. Repeat this 15-20 times on each side.

Here's how it looks:

Strength Workout of the Week: Shin Splint Prevention

It seems like shin splints are in the air the last few weeks.  Perhaps it's because as the weather gets nicer people are ramping up their running.  There are a few, very simple strength exercises you can do to prevent the onset of this nagging injury often caused by overtraining, ramping up your mileage too soon, or an imbalance in strength between the shin and the calf. These exercises include the following (do them every day if you can):

1) Toe/Heel Walking: Walk the length of the room on the toes and then heels with the feet and knees pointed straight ahead of you. Then externally rotate the legs 45 degrees and walk the length of the room on your toes and then heels. Finally, internally rotate your legs 45 degrees and walk the length of the room on your toes and then heels. Walk slowly, emphasizing balance. Make sure knees are tracking the same direction as the toes.

2) Calf Raises: Stand on one foot, with other leg bent and standing knee slight bent to prevent locking. Slowly raise up on the ball of foot as high as possible and slowly return to the floor, emphasizing balance. Repeat for 2 sets of 10 repetitions on each side. Use a wall or railing for balance.

3) Toe Taps while Seated: In a sitting position lower and raise the left foot with the heel on the ground as high and as quickly as possible for 60 seconds. Repeat on the right side. Start by doing this on each side once and build up to 2-3 times on each side.

4) Side-to-side Weight Shift on Toes: Stand on toes and ball of the feet, shift weight from the inside of the feet, near the big toe, to the outside of the feet, near the small toe. Rock from the inside to the outside of the feet slowly and under control, emphasizing balance (that is one repetition). Repeat for 2 sets of 20 repetitions.

If you are prone to shin splints, warm up with 5 minutes of walking and then do this routine before every run - it WILL make a difference. 

 * If you are currently suffering from shin splints, stop running for a few days to a week, ice the front of your shins and avoid hills once you return to running (pain free). Do not try to run through shin splints. This will only make them worse.  

Strength Move of the Week: Dynamic Warm Up

As running coaches who promote long term, injury-free running, strength work is always a part of our recommended weekly routine for every runner out there. So, where to start? Start with just one move a week and build from there. Hot Bird Running has you covered with our Strength Move of the Week!

Move of the Week: Dynamic Warm Up
Why we love this? Before diving into a strength workout or a run, you need to warm up the body. Specifically, you want to perform a set of exercises that increases blood flow to your muscles, increases your heart rate and awakens the nervous system to improve neuro-muscular control during your workout. The benefit? A significant decrease in the likelihood of overuse injuries and muscles prepared to maximize the impending workout. 

Below is a video demonstrating our recommendation for a simple, yet effective, dynamic warm up to do before any run. Before beginning this routine, walk briskly, jog slowly or do some jumping jacks for a few minutes.  Also, remember to ease into each activity progressively.  For example, start with high knee marches and then transition into high knee runs. Lastly, as you do these exercises, actively control your movemens by contracting your muscles. This prevents forcing your joints to extend beyond their natural range of motion.  

Strength Move of the Week: Pyrolates at Firebrand Sports

Holy cow! Last night I took one of the harder strength classes I have ever been to. It's called Pyrolates at Firebrand Sports in Portland, OR. The name actually explains it all. It felt like my entire body was burning most of the time, but in a controlled, Pilates-like fashion that's safe, effective and insanely hard! Normally, I am not a fan of burn until you die workouts, but this class is an exception. 

Picture from Firebrand Sports' website of its Pyrolates class

Portlanders, if you're looking for a strength class that gets results, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Firebrand's Pyrolates class. Like most Pilates workouts, this class is especially great for runners because it targets hip stabilizers and abdominals in a way that will seriously benefit your running form and running strenght. Not to mention, a glute, hamstring and quad workout that crushed me the second half of class. Legs and core are happy, but very spent.

When you do show up for your first class, don't be shy about modifications - the instructor in my class was amazing at providing them on both ends of the spectrum.  Here's the machine that you use for this class. It reminds me of a reformer on steroids.

A word of caution for any runner: don't plan a hard running workout for the day after one of these classes. You're going to need a recovery run day.  

Strength Move of the Week: Superman

As running coaches who promote long term, injury-free running, strength work is always a part of our recommended weekly routine for every runner out there. Incorporating strength doesn't come naturally to a lot of runners and often feels overwhelming. So, where to start? Start with just one move a week and build from there. Hot Bird Running has you covered with our Strength Move of the Week!

Move of the Week: Superman
Why we love these? This move strengthens the lower back muscles needed to keep the pelvis stable while running which promotes better running posture and a stronger core. Not to mention a weak lower back can put strain on your hamstrings and alter your stride which increases your risk of injury.

To do a proper Superman, lie on your stomach with your legs straight, feet together and arms straight out in front of you by your ears. Squeeze your legs together and engage your abdominals to lift both arms and legs a few inches off the floor until you feel the lower back flex. Look straight ahead at your fingers. Hold for 3 seconds. Lower and repeat 20 times or for 60 seconds. If you are new to this exercise, begin with the modified version - alternatel lifting one arm and the opposite leg at the same time. After a couple of weeks switch to both arms and legs at the same time. 

Strength Move of the Week - Walkouts

As running coaches who promote long term, injury-free running, strength work is always a part of our recommended weekly routine for every runner out there. Incorporating strength doesn't come naturally to a lot of runners and often feels overwhelming. So, where to start? Start with just one move a week and build from there. Hot Bird Running has you covered with our Strength Move of the Week!

Move of the Week: Walkouts
Why we love these? Walkouts stengthen hamstrings, shoulders, abdominals, lower back and promote hip stablity in runners. Strong shoulders, core and stable hips are all things every runner needs to ward off injury and improve speed! As you do these focus on keeping your hips stable and using your core to push yourself back to the start position - NO rocking back and forth! If you have trouble get back to standing without rocking, don't go down and far. Also, if you can't touch the ground without bending your knees, then bend your knees at the beginning to get your hands to the ground and then straighten them as you walk your hands out.

Strength Move of the Week - Single Leg Deadlifts

As running coaches who promote long term, injury-free running, strength work is always a part of our recommended weekly routine for every runner out there. Incorporating strength doesn't come naturally to a lot of runners and often feels overwhelming. So, where to start? Start with just one move a week and build from there. Hot Bird Running has you covered with our strength move of the week!

Move of the Week: Single Leg Deadlifts
Why we love these? This movement strengthens your hips, engages your hamstrings and gets the glutes firing - all of which are needed for stabilizing the body while running. Plus, balancing on one leg reduces the strength imbalance between your left and right sides. Bonus - this also feels like a great stretch at the end of your runs.

Repeat 8-15 times on one side. Switch legs and repeat.