Runners, what if you substituted 10 minutes of running with 10 minutes of daily mobility and strength? In a recent interview, renowned athletic trainer, Bill Knowles, called the warmup the "dollar-a-day strength training" opportunity 1.  Doing a series of exercises that emphasizes mobility, postural stability, and light force production BEFORE you are tired from your workout greatly enhances your body's ability to learn these motor patterns.  If you only perform these activities AFTER your runs, your muscles are tired and won't learn the skill as well.  Plus, these movements obviously raise your heartrate and warm your muscles to prepare you for your run.  I'm not saying don't run to warmup, I'm saying consider cutting down your warmup run and substituting some of that time for uptempo movement training.  Here is some simple mobility work you can do to get the hips loose and train important posture muscles as you move over and under the rope or bungee.  

1 ​Knowles, B (interview). Reconditioning with Bill Knowles. GAINcast episode 49, http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2017/01/gaincast-episode-49-reconditioning-with-bill-knowles/  Jan 26, 2017

Ready to up your strength game?  Check out Carrie's Strength Training for Runners programs.  

I recently returned from a trip to my former hometown of Charlottesville, VA.  It was filled with running related events, including speaking at the UVA Running Medicine Conference, watching friends and former athletes run the Charlottesville 10 Miler, providing input on a soon-to-be started treadmill studio, and hanging out at a new local brewery founded by some former UVA runners.  All this hanging out with runners got me thinking about how to maintain longevity in running and stay healthy doing it.  Here are 4 recent observations I made:

Strength training, especially for endurance athletes, does not have to be complicated.  In our USTFCCCA strength training courses, we talk a lot about prioritizing:
1. the amount of tissue that is under tension
2. dominating your workout with rotational and stabilizer exercises 
3. challenging your muscular coordination with complex movements
These pushups "with a twist" hit those points.  The exercise itself achieves the objective of recruiting a lot of tissue, emphasizing both rotational and stabilzer work, and providing an overall challenge to the neuromuscular coordination.  This is another great general strength exercise to add to your circuits after a recovery run:

Here is a twist on an old favorite.  Supermans, or "dead fish," are a staple in many runners' general strength routines.  Adding a med ball places more emphasis on strength in the muscles of the upper back.    Just like regular Supermans, cue the athlete to lift the limbs with the upper back and the glutes. Make sure that you can see daylight between the quads and the floor and the chest and floor.  Overall, you are getting a great strength activity that focuses on the entire posterior chain.

While I do feel "plank" routines are over-done by many athletes, I like this challenging stabilization series.  It tests endurance and stability throughout the "pillar."  That is, all stabilizers from the deep pelvic core region up to the musculature around the scapulae.  I use this for most endurance and speed/power athletes with good strength-to-bodyweight ratios.  Usually gymnasts, climbers, and swimmers are the best at it.  Make sure you have a good level of stability and endurance in these muscles before you attempt it.  
​American flag shorts are not required but they do insure you will get your picture taken.