How not to lose shape in the off-season? 5 exercises for runners to do at home

Running Community Coach

How to train to stay in shape during the off-season? What exercises should runners do at home?

The street running season is coming to an end, and the weather is getting less and less pleasant every day. Cold winds, rain and sometimes snow, mud and slush – more and more often you want to stay home and skip your workouts. We understand! And we don’t insist on regular street jogging.

However, in order not to hibernate and stay in shape during the off-season, you should not relax at all. What you should definitely do is add a few home workouts to your schedule. Today I’ll share my favorite set of exercises and tell you how to stay in shape if you don’t feel like going outside at all.

Warm-up

We start any workout, of course, with a warm-up – warm up the muscles and knead the joints. Jumping rope is great for the first. If you do not have a jump rope or the space in the apartment does not allow you to use it, you can perform an imitation of such jumps or running in place. Duration – 10 minutes.

After warming up the muscles, we move on to the joints. It’s time to remember the school lessons of physical education: turning the head to the right and left, circular rotations of the shoulders and forearms, rotations of the hands, bending the knees – yes, yes, it will all come in handy now. We warm up from top to bottom, duration – 10 minutes.

Warmed up, stretching – let’s start the main part.

Squats

Technique

• Put your feet on the width of the pelvis, keep your back straight.
• On exhalation, pull the pelvis back and lower the hips to parallel with the floor. The back should remain straight.
• On the inhale go up and stay in the upper point for a couple of seconds, additionally tensing the buttocks.
• As you exhale, go down again.
• To complicate the exercise, you can squat with dumbbells.

Repeat the exercise 20 times.

Push-ups

Technique

• Starting position – lying down.
• Slowly lower yourself down, bending your arms in the elbow joint. Hands relative to the torso should be at an angle of 45 degrees.
• Then slowly return to the starting position.
• If it is still difficult to perform regular push-ups, you can do push-ups from the knees – the technique is the same.

Repeat the exercise 10-15 times.

Plank on the elbows

Execution technique

• Starting position is lying down on the elbows.
• Elbows should be bent at right angles and be in line with the shoulders. Do not bend in the back, do not lift the pelvis up.
• If we want to complicate the exercise, do a dynamic plank. Starting position is the same. Rise from the elbows to a lying position, then lower to the elbows and repeat for one minute.

Perform the exercise for a minute.

Standing leg swings

Technique

• Stand at the support, fix the lumbar – during the exercise there should be no bending.
• Slowly move one leg back, then sideways, then forward to the maximum possible level. At the same time, the body is not deflected, and the legs are straight.
• If you want to complicate the exercise, add weights.

Do it slowly, without hurrying, in each direction in turn 10 times. In total, you should get 30 lifts on one leg.

Twisting with leg swings

Technique

• Lie on your back, put your hands behind your head and bend your legs at the knees. The feet rest on the floor.
• Begin to perform twists: slightly raise the body, the right elbow reaches for the left knee, and the knee tends to the elbow.
• Try to lift only the upper back, so that the shoulder blades come off the floor, and the lower back remains pressed against it.
• Try not to press your chin to your neck and do not pull yourself up with your arms.

Repeat 30 times.

So, we have five exercises for different parts of the body – this is one circle. For an effective workout, it is necessary to perform three such circles, and after – be sure to restore breathing and do stretching exercises, thus completing the home workout.

In order not to lose shape in the off-season, you need to train regularly – at least 3-4 times a week – and watch your diet. And to make the process of training even more effective, I advise you to consult a trainer, because under the supervision of a specialist, training is much better and easier.