Strengthen Your Core: 5 Ideal Exercises for Runners

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Strong core muscles reduce the risk of injury and improve running performance, especially over long distances, in the final stretch when fatigue is at its peak. The stronger your upper body, the longer you can maintain proper running shape. So today we are reminded of simple, but very effective exercises that will bring your core muscles into proper shape!

The core muscles are a complex of muscles that are responsible for stabilizing the pelvis, hips and spine. The muscles of the core include: oblique muscles of the abdomen, transverse abdominal muscle, rectus abdominis muscle, small and medium gluteus muscles, adductors, muscles of the hamstring, infraspinatus muscles, coracobrachial muscle, and so on.

As you can see, our core muscles help us keep our body upright, transfer energy, and distribute the load of supporting our body weight across two legs. The exercises that Runner's World coach Susan Paul offers have been familiar to you for a long time. They are very simple, they can be performed daily on their own without visiting a sports club and without additional equipment. To get started, follow several approaches. While doing the superman exercise, try to stay in the top position for 20-30 seconds.

Standard plank

If this is your first time, try standing in it for 30 seconds. Then gradually increase the time or the number of sets or perform more complex modifications: emphasis not on the toes, but on the leg raises, alternating leg raises, simultaneously raising the leg and the opposite arm, and so on.

Side bar

Superman

Press

In this case, you can choose your favorite option for the abdominal muscles and perform a whole range of exercises. For example, this.

Side press

The range of exercises is very wide, and you can choose any option that suits your level, equipment or training location.