Body Weight Boot Camp: Rep Pyramid Workout

Welcome to the latest edition of workout Wednesday! I am excited to share a great rep-based pyramid workout for you today. This is a high intensity full body workout that you can do anywhere with no equipment. 

Ready to get started? Always warm up before beginning an intense workout. 

CIRCUIT #1: LOWER BODY STRENGTH & CARDIO

The first circuit is a lower body strength and cardio workout. You will perform 10 squats immediately followed by 1 rep of high knees (right up, left up = 1 rep). Without resting, perform 9 squats and 2 high knees, followed by 8 squats and 3 high knees and so on until you reach one squat and 10 high knees. Rest for at least one minute or until you are recovered before moving on the next circuit. 

Squat: Starting with your feet hip width apart, your toes pointing forward and your back straight, push your hips back and lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor (or as low as your flexibility allows) like you are sitting in a chair. In the low position engage your core, squeeze your glutes and push up to standing while putting your weight into your heels. 

High Knees: Stand up straight with the feet hip width apart. Jump from one foot to the other while using your core to lift your knee to hip height. Swing your arms with each rep. Touch the ground with the balls of your feet quickly moving back and forth between legs.

CIRCUIT #2: UPPER BODY STRENGTH & CARDIO

The second circuit follows the same format as the first. Start with 10 push ups followed by 1 mountain climber (right leg in, left leg in = 1 rep). Then move on to 9 push ups and 2 mountain climbers, 8 push ups and 3 mountain climbers until you reach 1 push up and 10 mountain climbers. Rest until recovered.

Pushups: Start in a high plank position with your hands placed directly under your shoulders. Keeping your body in a straight line, while engaging your core bend your elbows to slowly lower your chest to the floor. Once in the low position, push back up to the starting position. If this is too challenging, drop to your knees. 

Mountain Climbers: Start in a straight arm plank position with shoulders directly over wrists. Step one foot up in line with hip, then step back to plank position then repeat with opposite foot. This is one rep. Move as quickly as possible while keeping your core engaged and back straight.

CIRCUIT #3: CORE 

Let's start the second half of the workout with some core work that includes your abs and glutes. Start with 10 bridge marches (right leg, left leg = 1 rep) followed by 1 crunch. Follow the rep pyramid until you reach 1 bridge march and 10 crunches. Rest until recovered before moving on to the last circuit.

Bridge Marches: Lie on your back with your knees bent 90 degrees and lift your hips off the floor to form a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. With your hips off the floor bring your knees in towards your chest one at a time to march. March on the right leg then left leg equals one rep. 

Crunches: Lying on your back push your lower back into the floor, place your hands behind your head (do not pull) and lift your shoulders and chest up off the floor into a crunch. Pause for 1 second in top position while engaging your entire core before lowering back to the ground. 

CIRCUIT #4: CORE

Last but not least we have bird dogs and supermans for core work that includes abs, glutes and lower back. Start with 10 bird dogs (right arm and left leg extended hold for 1 second then switch sides = 1 rep) followed by 1 superman. Follow the rep pyramid until you reach 1 bird dog and 10 supermans.

Bird Dogs: On all fours with your wrists directly underneath your shoulders lift one arm off the floor to shoulder height while lifting the opposite leg in line with the hip. Hold for one second and switch sides. 

Supermans: Lying face down on the floor with your arms extended in front of you, raise your arms, chest and thighs off of the floor and hold for one second. Slowly lower your arms, legs and chest back down to the starting position.

Cool down and stretch after completing the workout.

Try it out and let me know how it goes.

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Coach Lea

I am a NASM personal trainer and RRCA adult distance running coach that specializes in strength training for runners. I offer in-person training in the Shredshed, online training and Fit to Run boot camps. If you are interested in a more in-depth running or strength training plan please contact me. Have questions? I'd love to help. 

While I am a certified personal trainer, I am not your personal trainer. Since I don't know your exercise abilities, injury background or medical history, please see your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

Warm up, Cool Down & Stretching

In this day and age we are often short on time so we look at ways to make things more efficient. What can we do faster? What can we do in less time? Sometimes that means that we do interval workouts instead of ones that take more time with long rest periods. Sometimes it means we increase the intensity but spend less time working out overall. These are great solutions to working out more efficiently but one thing you should never do to save time is skip the warm up, cool down or stretching portions of your workout. Skipping your warm up, cool down and stretching will not get you to your goals faster and may lead to injury, hinder your results and performance. 

FOAM ROLLING

foam rolling in the SHREDSHED

Foam rolling is called self-myofascial release. It is similar to a massage in that it releases muscle tension in overactive or shortened muscles. Use a foam roller (or similar device) before exercise to apply pressure to break up the knots within the muscle to release muscle tightness or tension. Foam rolling is suggested before stretching to potentially improve flexibility. I go into more detail on foam rolling in this post about foam rolling for runners. Foam rolling is appropriate before or after exercise.

WARM UP

GENERAL WARM UP

An example of a general warm up is walking for 5-10 minutes before running or lifting weights. A general warm up is not necessarily specific to the movements that will be performed during the workout, but it prepares your body for the workout by increasing heart rate, raising your body temperature, increasing blood flow to your muscles and mentally preparing you for higher intensities. 

SPECIFIC WARM UP

A specific warm up mimics the motions of the activity that will be performed during the workout. An example of a specific warm up is body weight squats before doing back squats with a weighted bar in the gym or high knees/butt kicks before a run. 

STRETCHING

Stretching before exercise warms up your muscles, improves flexibility and can help correct muscle imbalances. 

ACTIVE-ISOLATED STRETCHING

Active-isolated stretching is moving the joint through the full range of motion and holding the stretch for only 2-3 seconds. This is often considered superior to static stretching (holding the stretch for 30 seconds) because there is some evidence that static stretching before a workout can hinder performance in athletes performing explosive or power exercises. Consider the type of exercise you will be performing when choosing your stretch.

DYNAMIC STRETCHING

Dynamic (or functional) stretches are ideal for reasonably healthy and fit individuals. Dynamic stretches use momentum to take the joint through the full range of motion repeatedly. Hip swings, high knees, butt kicks and skips are examples of dynamic stretches.

COOL DOWN

The goal of the cool down is to gradually cool body temperature, reduce heart rate and slowly transition the body from exercise back to rest. You can reduce soreness and stiffness with a cool down after you exercise.

STATIC STRETCHING

Static stretching is holding the muscle in a stretched position for a minimum of 30 seconds. It allows your body to cool down after intense exercise and relaxes the muscles you worked. Exercise shortens and tightens the muscle, stretching it after exercise returns the muscles to their normal state, beginning the recovery process and improving flexibility.

Repeat after me: "I will never skip my warm and cool down again and I will foam roll and/or stretch before/after every workout." Your body will thank you for it!

Like this post? Please consider sharing.

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Coach Lea

I am a NASM personal trainer and RRCA adult distance running coach that specializes in strength training for runners. I offer in-person training in the Shredshed, online training and Fit to Run boot camps. If you are interested in a more in-depth running or strength training plan please contact me. Have questions? I'd love to help. 

While I am a certified personal trainer, I am not your personal trainer. Since I don't know your exercise abilities, injury background or medical history, please see your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

Unilateral Leg Training for Runners

Welcome to another edition of workout Wednesday! Today we are talking about unilateral leg training for runners. What is unilateral training? It is training one side of the body independently from the other. Think about it for a moment. When you run you repeatedly transfer your body weight from one leg to the other for the duration of the run. Since you run on one leg at a time, it only makes sense to strength train one leg at a time. 

While traditional bilateral (two leg) exercises like the squat are great for runners, you can take it to the next step in strength and balance by training each leg independently to increase runner-specific strength and help ward off injuries. I recommend incorporating both bilateral and unilateral training into your program.

WHY UNILATERAL TRAINING?

When you train both legs at the same time you may be reinforcing strength imbalances. If one side of your body is stronger than the other, that side is going to compensate for the weaker side. Training each limb independently will build up the strength on your weaker side and eventually even out the strength of both sides. If you don't train unilaterally, the dominant side of your body will stay strong, while the weaker side will stay weak. These imbalances can lead to injuries. 

I also love unilateral training because it requires more stability and forces you to balance and build core strength. Balance and core strength are essential for runners. 

Try these unilateral exercises in your next leg workout. Perform these moves without weights at first until you master technique and form. As your balance and stability improves, add weight to the exercises for an additional challenge.

Lunge 

Lunge

With your feet hip width apart and your toes pointed straight ahead, engage your core and keep your back straight. Take one large step with your right leg to lunge forward until your front knee is lined up over your ankle and your back knee is nearly touching the floor. Do not allow your knee to move forward over your toes. Resist the urge to lean forward or rest your arms on your thighs. Once you are in the lunge position push back up to starting position. Repeat for 20 seconds.

Single Leg Deadlift

single leg deadlift

Standing on one leg, keep your knee slightly bent and perform a deadlift by bending at your hip while keeping your back straight and neck neutral. Extend your free leg behind you in line with your body. Lower until your back is parallel to the floor. With your back straight return to the upright position. Repeat for 20 seconds.

Single Leg Squat

While the single leg squat is an advanced move, there are a couple of variations that almost anyone can perform. I like using a bench for the low position. Balance on one leg and lower yourself until you are sitting on the bench. Your knee may want to cave inward, which is sign of a muscle imbalance. Work to keep your standing knee inline with your outside toe as you lower to the bench. Keeping the 2nd leg off the ground stand back up to the starting position.

single leg squat

Another variation is the single leg wall squat. Lower yourself into a wall squat position, with your back flat against the wall and your thighs parallel to the ground. Lift one leg off the floor and straighten it in front you. Repeat for 20 seconds.

Bridge with leg extension

Lie on your back with your knees bent and lift your hips off the floor while engaging your glutes and abs. Straighten one leg. Keep your leg in a straight line with your body and your knees together. Hold for 20 seconds.

bridge with leg extension

Perform each of the exercises in a Tabata-style format: 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest for four minutes. Rest one minute then repeat the circuit two more times. This is a quick and effective unilateral workout that you can tack on to the end of your run.

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Coach Lea

I am a NASM personal trainer and RRCA adult distance running coach that specializes in strength training for runners. I offer in-person training in the Shredshed, as well as online training. If you are interested in a more in-depth running or strength training plan, please contact me. Have questions? I'd love to help. 

While I am a certified personal trainer, I am not your personal trainer. Since I don't know your exercise abilities, injury background or medical history, please see your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

Types of Running Workouts To Increase Speed

Welcome to another edition of workout Wednesday! This week we are talking about the types of running workouts that you can do to improve speed. Speed workouts, along with base runs, strength training, flexibility and balance practice are all part of a well-rounded training plan. I recommend no more than 1-2 speed workouts per week if you are just beginning speed training. Even experienced runners should limit their effort sessions to three times a week. Your body needs time to properly recover from hard workouts. Adaptation occurs during rest, so if you don't give your body the chance to recover you won't improve. 

You should have a sufficient running base before beginning any speed training. This means you should be running at least three miles at a time, several times a week at comfortable, conversational pace for a couple of months before beginning speed training. Check out my injury prevention checklist to make sure you are taking the necessary precautions to avoid injuries. Are you ready? 

Types of Running Workouts to Increase Speed

Hills

Running hills is a great way to introduce speed work into your run training. Hills running helps to improve endurance with minimal muscle stress and promotes an efficient running form.

Warm up by jogging for 10 minutes. Starting at the bottom of a hill, run to the top maintaining a comfortably-hard effort. This would be a 7-8 on the RPE (rate of perceived exertion chart below) or about 75% of max heart-rate if you are using a heart rate monitor. Don't get too caught up in the numbers. You can begin by just running up that hill at a pace that feels a little challenging without going 100%. Once you reach the top of the hill, jog or walk back to the bottom to recover. Start with five repetitions and build up to ten gradually over time by adding an extra repetition every week or two depending on how well you recover. Cool down by jogging for 5-10 minutes and stretching and/or foam rolling. 

When running hills lean forward slightly with a straight back (don't hunch). Imagine there is a rope tied your waist pulling you to the top. Pump your arms quickly, keeping your elbows close to your body. Do not allow your arm to cross in front of your body, keep them moving only in the forward direction. 

You can change up the variables to challenge yourself in new ways. Changing the distance or grade of the hill, your pace and/or recovery time can place new demands on your body. 

Stair running is a good alternative to hill workouts. Find stairs outdoors (I love stadium stairs at the local high school) or the stair machine at the gym.

Fartleks

Fart what? Fartlek is Swedish for speed play and it is exactly what it sounds like: playing with speed. Fartleks are great for people new to speed training or more experienced runners who want less structure in their workouts. I wrote an entire post on Fartleks that you can reference for more detail. The goal of fartlek is to practice running faster without specific time or distance work and rest intervals. In other words, go as you please. Warm up by jogging for 10 minutes, pick up your pace for an undetermined about of time by choosing a landmark in the distance. Run faster until your reach the red minivan and then slow down to a jog or walk until your breath is recovered. Run faster until you reach the park bench in the distance and slow until you are ready to go again. Repeat for about thirty minutes, then cool down by jogging 5-10 minutes followed by stretching and/or foam rolling. 

Tempo

Tempo runs are done at a steady state faster than conversational pace but not at an all-out effort. It is not sprinting, it is running at a comfortably hard pace for 20 minutes to up to an hour. It may take some experimenting to find your tempo pace. It should feel challenging but not so hard that you can't maintain it over a couple of miles. This would be a 7-8 on the RPE (rate of perceived exertion chart) or about 75%-85% of max heart-rate if you are using a heart rate monitor. You should not be running so hard that you are grasping for air. 

Begin at a shorter distance, about two miles to start, and gradually build up over time by adding 1/2 mile to your tempo runs every week or two.

Runners new to speed training can ease into tempo runs by breaking up the time at tempo pace. Try running for three minutes at tempo pace, followed by three minutes of recovery at a slower pace and then repeat. Work to reduce the recovery period and increase the work period over time until you are no longer taking a recovery period in your tempo runs.

Intervals

Interval workouts are done at a specific speed and distance with a specific recovery period. Interval workouts should be performed by runners who are currently running 20 miles a week or more and have some experience with hill and fartlek training. To reduce the chance of injury, if you are a new runner or new to speed training, start with hills and fartlek training before advancing to interval work. 

You can change the variables (speed, distance, rest, repetitions) in order to meet specific goals. Long interval work periods are best for runners training for long distances like a marathon or half marathon. Shorter work intervals are best for runners competing in 5K, track racing and for improving leg speed. My favorite interval workout is just 15 minutes long and incorporates both long and short intervals at varying speeds.

I like doing intervals on the treadmill because it makes it easy to control both distance and pace. They also can done on a track or streets with a GPS watch.

IMPORTANT! The pace and speed examples in the below interval chart are for reference ONLY. You should by no means arbitrarily follow these paces. These speeds may be too fast for some runners and too easy for others. Use the RPE chart (above) to base your speed on your effort and current abilities!

TIME	RPE	EFFORT	EXAMPLE SPEED	EXAMPLE PACE
3 MINUTES	2-3	WARM UP	3-4 MPH	20:00-15:00
3 MINUTES	7-8	WORK	6-7 MPH	10:00-8:34
2 MINUTES	4-6	RECOVER	5 MPH	12:00
2 MINUTES	7-8	WORK	7-8 MPH	8:34-7:30
1 MINUTE	4-6	RECOVER	5 MPH	12:00
1 MINUTE	9	WORK	8 MPH	7:30
1 MINUTE	4-6	RECOVER	5 MPH	12:00
1 MINUTE	9	WORK	8 MPH	7:30
1 MINUTE	2-3	COOL DOWN	3 MPH	20:00

Are you currently incorporating speed workouts into your running training? Even if you don't race, most runners can benefit from at least one day of speed training per week. What is your favorite form of training to increase speed? Any questions? Let me know in the comments.

LIke this post? It helps me when you share!

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Coach Lea

I am a NASM personal trainer and RRCA adult distance running coach that specializes in strength training for runners. I offer in-person training in the Shredshed, as well as online training. If you are interested in a more in-depth running or strength training plan please contact me. Have questions? I'd love to help. 

While I am a certified personal trainer, I am not your personal trainer. Since I don't know your exercise abilities, injury background or medical history, please see your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

Workout Wednesday: Plank Workout

Welcome to another edition of Workout Wednesday! Each week I put together a quick and effective workout that you can try at home. Runners always tell me they don't have time for strength training. I suggest you work through this core circuit after you complete your run. If you complete 10 minutes of strength training after each run this week, you could squeeze in a full body workout! 

I love planks. They are effective for building core strength, which is essential for runners! I like to do at least one to two minute low plank every day. #plankaday. If I miss a day, the @Plankpolice come after me. (No. I'm not kidding.)

Let's get planking!

HI PLANK

In a high plank position place your shoulders directly over your wrists. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels. Engage your abs and breathe normally. Hold for one minute.

MARCHING PLANK

In a marching plank you will transition from a high plank to a low plank position. Lower your right arm, then your left arm until you are in an elbow plank position. When transiting multiple times, like you will during this circuit, be sure to alternate the arm you first use to push up. Push back up to high plank starting with the right arm, but on the next rep, pushup to plank by starting with the left arm to minimize pressure on the shoulders. This is challenging! Work to complete one minute.

LOW PLANK

Position your elbows on the floor with your shoulders directly over your elbows. Your body should be in a straight line parallel to the floor. Engage your core, pulling your belly button into your spine while breathing normally. Squeeze your glutes. Be careful not to sink your hips or raise your butt in the air. Do not clasp hands. Hold for one minute. If you need to rest, break it up into 15 or 30 second increments. 

LOW PLANK SPIDERMAN

While in the low plank position, bring your knee out to side and bring as close to your elbow as your flexibility will allow. Be careful not to sink your hips low or raise your butt in the air. Alternate sides for one minute. 

SIDE PLANK

With a straight arm lift yourself up into a side plank position. Your shoulders should be directly over your wrists. Stack your feet and don't allow your hips to drop. Hold for 30 seconds before switching sides.

If a straight arm side plank is too challenging, start in a side elbow side plank and break it up into 10 or 15 seconds increments. Repeat on other side.

I recommend doing the circuit two to three times a week while continually challenging yourself. In order to keep progressing and getting stronger, you'll want to continuously make the circuit more difficult, either by adding more time, sets or progressing the exercises.

Like this post? Please consider sharing!
 

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Coach Lea

I am a NASM personal trainer that specializes in strength training for runners. I offer in-person training in the Shredshed, as well as online training. If you are interested in a more in-depth strength training plan for runners, please contact me. Have questions? I'd love to help. 

While I am a certified personal trainer, I am not your personal trainer. Since I don't know your exercise abilities, injury background or medical history, please see your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.