Running on - Strength...
As in strength training because 'they' say strength training helps with the run. And I did find that earlier this year when I was running and lifting weights consistently my core felt more stable, my upper body more relaxed, and (ego talking) I loved how my arms looked in my short sleeve run tops!
Vanity aside, this go around will have strength training too. And a variety of different workouts. On non-run days, I will utilize my dumb-bells once a week (today was a set of 8 reps, then 4 since I haven't been lifting for a while). These dumb-bell exercises are not extensive, they take me a total of 15 minutes. They are more functional than body-building type lifts. And they are all upper body.
I plan to swim at least once a week (good arm workout there) and will supplement that with some resistance band work either before I go to the pool or after. The resistance band exercises mimic swim strokes so I can get stronger in the water (a poor to middling swimmer, I taught myself to swim the front crawl three years ago and am still working on improving both technique and speed).
And on three of my run days, I follow up the run with squats, calf-raises, bridges, planks, chin-ups, pull-ups and push-ups. No, I can not do a chin-up...or, for that matter a pull-up or push-up...but one has to start somewhere and I do variations of those exercises in the hopes one day I will be strong enough to execute a full push-up, pull-up and chin-up.
Writing it all out sounds like a lot of exercising, but it's not. Like I said, today's weight workout took 15 minutes. My resistance band workout is probably less than that. The after run workout takes a little longer, but I'm usually pumped from my run, so it's easy to get to it, get it done. If I make it too complicated, I know I won't do it.
Can't have that!
J
Vanity aside, this go around will have strength training too. And a variety of different workouts. On non-run days, I will utilize my dumb-bells once a week (today was a set of 8 reps, then 4 since I haven't been lifting for a while). These dumb-bell exercises are not extensive, they take me a total of 15 minutes. They are more functional than body-building type lifts. And they are all upper body.
I plan to swim at least once a week (good arm workout there) and will supplement that with some resistance band work either before I go to the pool or after. The resistance band exercises mimic swim strokes so I can get stronger in the water (a poor to middling swimmer, I taught myself to swim the front crawl three years ago and am still working on improving both technique and speed).
And on three of my run days, I follow up the run with squats, calf-raises, bridges, planks, chin-ups, pull-ups and push-ups. No, I can not do a chin-up...or, for that matter a pull-up or push-up...but one has to start somewhere and I do variations of those exercises in the hopes one day I will be strong enough to execute a full push-up, pull-up and chin-up.
Writing it all out sounds like a lot of exercising, but it's not. Like I said, today's weight workout took 15 minutes. My resistance band workout is probably less than that. The after run workout takes a little longer, but I'm usually pumped from my run, so it's easy to get to it, get it done. If I make it too complicated, I know I won't do it.
Can't have that!
J
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