Need Help For Isolation-itis? We have exercises to assist!

Exercises to help you get stronger during Lockdown from Adrian Le Roux sports scientist and coach www.lerouxcoaching.net

Shadow Boxing

Benefits of shadow boxing for the trail / mountain runner   In essence showdown boxing (especially if you are not a boxer) is a method of cross training and the benefits of cross training is well documented. It improves fitness, this might seem obvious but by doing different exercises your level of fitness improves in different ways. It improves posture and coordination, boosts your mental strength and will help you to recover faster as cross training often acts as active recovery exercise.   Benefits of shadow boxing for the mountain runner includes:

• You can do it anywhere (in lockdown too …)
• It improves your footwork, balance and coordination
• Although your main focus is arm movement you’ll be surprised how many muscles you’re working during the workout. It is a total body workout that demands work from most of your muscles including core muscles. Although your main focus is arm movement you’ll be surprised how many muscles you’re working during the workout
• Develop and boosts aerobic fitness.

The Turkish Get-Up

When you add all of the Turkish get-up benefits up, it is highly effective for overall mobility and stability of the core, shoulders, and hips. No other single exercise can do all of this. The get-up gives instant feedback as to what you need to work on. It can be a beneficial warm-up, functional strength, and/or corrective exercise for strength, power and endurance athletes. The ability to maintain overhead stability during movement is key in most sports, and/or is helpful in preventing injury at the shoulder joint.

As Joe DiStefano said: “The get-up. If you aren’t doing it, you better start. If you are doing it, do it more or do it better. It could be the single most effective bomb-proofing you do this race season.”

Mountain Climbers

If you have time for only one exercise let it be mountain climbers. It’s a simple exercise but solid workout if done correctly. It works several muscles at the same time. Core, abs, glutes, lower back and shoulder muscle groups are all switched on to keep your hips up while performing the knee lift.

The faster you go the more explosive the exercise. The exercise require you to be quick footed which makes it great for agility and coordination. It also serves as a great warmup exercise before more dynamic workouts like lunges and jumps

Example workout: Go all out for 30sec followed by 15sec rest. Repeat 5 times. If you want more of a challenge increase to 45sec with 15sec rest with more sets.

Mountain climbers can be done anywhere, anytime and at no cost and you certainly don’t need a mountain to do them!

Bulgarian Split Squat

The importance of single leg strength work can’t be underestimated. Building single leg strength will help every athlete and especially trail and mountain runners to improve performance.

The bulgarian split squat is one of the best single leg strength exercises you can do. It is a relatively safe movement that will build lower body strength and correct imbalances while also improving mobility and total body stability. This exercise is highly accessible, you can do them almost anywhere and is easy to learn. It is perhaps the perfect single leg exercise because they require just enough stability to make them work, but not so much that you can’t load heavy.

To increase the difficulty hold on to some dumbbells or a single plate or weight. Perform 3 sets of 8-12 reps