A couple months ago me and my partner in running crimes (a.k.a. Linda) decided that we wanted to start putting regular strength exercise sessions in our workouts. Both of our problem areas are in the rear. Not only do I have a big bum, but it's really difficult for me to even work on it since I have a sway back and naturally concentrate all exercises on my thighs rather than my glutes. That ends up to be rather a Catch-22 - where my thighs get stronger and my glutes get weaker. We started dedicating mondays to these sessions. The first monday we did:- 15' warmup run
- 100mt uphill running
- 20 steps on park bench
- 100mt run downhill
- 5 lunges per leg
- back leg lifts - 10 x leg
- 15' cool down run
The first time I did this session I could barely walk two days later. I think the thing that did me in were the lunges. I was really careful to not come up using my thigh muscles but rather the glutes.
We were on our third week and I was all excited because it started to feel right. I told P about it and he burst our little bubble. "To be really effective you should be doing them twice a week".
Oh. Okay, twice a week. I like that when I tell Linda these kind of things she doesn't even flinch.
Every week we upped the series by one so that we would start the month out at four and end with eight. On the second month I came up with this one:
- 15' warmup run
- 50mt uphill sprint
- 20 half squat
- 15 leg circles (on knees)
- 25 leg lifts (on knees)
- 1' posture stretch
- 15' warm down run
In the second series we briefly had two other women that were coming with us but after a couple of weeks they started showing up late (no apologies) and altogether missing sessions. We hadn't even let them know that we were doing it twice a week!
This week Linda is in Prague so I was on my own for the new session this month. I wanted to put the lunges in since I think those really help and I added a jump rope for coordinating my "running" feet. So this month is:
- 30' run
- 20 walking lunges
- 20 elbow to knee
- 1' jumprope
- 15 arms behind head
- 100mt stride
- 100mt skipping, rec.1'
This was great because the next day I was sore in all the right places! So the big news is that I can really FEEL the difference. I'm building muscles and, when I run, I can really feel them working for me. I'm hoping that by having some glute muscles it'll help me have better posture and run with them rather than reverting to my quads to take the brunt of the run. My cycling seems to have benefited from it also. Yippee!
2 comments:
I know what you mean!
I've been a dancer all my life, and this week I decided to pick up my work out routine a notch too... nothing too much,just pilates, but enough that today I was "sore in all the right places!" :)
But isn't that a better feeling than when one doesn't work out?
wow that's a great idea :) and very efficent too!
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