20 November 2015

Strength and Mobility Moves to Help You Become a Stronger, Faster Runner

I’ve written a few heavier posts lately…and it’s time for a little lightness and a little running talk. (But thank you for your super kind words.)

After running two marathons this fall, I could have either colossally burnt out or gotten super charged up about running.

After the way I’ve talked about running the past few months, you know it’s the latter. Although it was a huge disappointment to get injured and not be able to chase a marathon PR, in some ways it was a blessing for me to chill out and just enjoy running without pushing myself for a PR. I hope to run for the rest of my life, so there’s always time to PR.

 

Finish Line Strength Training

Janae’s talked about the “1 percent” (or 3 percent? I don’t know, I can’t find the post) — those little things you know you should do to become a better runner, but you don’t always necessarily do.

I am already in a serious long-term relationship with my foam roller, but I’m terrible at stuff like mobility work, strength training and core training, and I’m resolving to work on those now in the “off season.” 

Which is why I’m going to what I fondly call “Runner class.” My awesome PT, Finish Line Physical Therapy, is offering a Functional Strength Series, and this first round of classes is called Mostability. Or Mo Stability (Yo), as I prefer to think of it.

It’s meant to help runners recover from their fall races and work on mobility and stability. The 50 minute-classes start with mobility work, move into circuits and end with a wonderful cool-down.

Here’s a sampling of some of the exercises included in our workouts. Our bodies exist in a three-dimensional plane, but we usually just stretch in one-dimension (great explanation here.) Everything we do in this class involves those three planes — for example, we’ll lunge forward, laterally and then work on external rotation.

What are those extra things you do to become a better runner? What are your favorite strength/mobility moves?

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