Best Core Exercises for Runners

Best Core Exercises for Runners

Strength and core workouts are essential for keeping a runner’s body strong, healthy and injury free. Your core provides stabilization when you run. Your core includes not only your abdominal muscles but your hamstrings, hips, obliques lower back and glutes too. Many of these muscles are your postural muscles which can become tired the longer you run. It is important to strengthen these muscles and areas of your body to make you a strong and efficient runner.

Here are some of my favorite core exercises:

1. Basic Plank: Prop Your weight on your forearms. Keeping your body straight and extended, balance your weight on your arms and toes for a determined period of time. Hold.
2. Candlestick:  Keep your back and arms on the floor. Kick your legs up to a 90 degree angle then slowly lower them to the ground keeping good control. Repeat.
3. Side Plank: Similar to the basic plank you will rest on one forearm with legs extended. Stack your feet. Hold your body in a straight line. Repeat on the other side.
4.  Toes To Bar: You will need a pull up bar. Here are the steps according to Muscle and Fitness: FLEX: Squeeze both your butt and abs, creating a “hollow-body” position where your feet are slightly in front of your torso. With these muscles flexed, your body’s ready to swing. KIP: Kipping generates momentum, taking your body from the hollow position to an arc or superman position. Open your shoulders, squeeze your butt, then drive with your hips. TRANSITION: To transition from backswing to upswing, simply drive your knees toward your elbows, then extend your legs, kicking your feet toward the bar as they rise. DOWNSWING: As soon as your momentum toward the bar ends, pull back into an arc and squeeze your butt to load your hips for the next rep.
5. Bicycle Crunch: Lie down. Raise your head cradling it in your hands along with lifting your chest. Engage your core. Repeating this motion, bring your right elbow to your left knee, straightening your right leg and repeat.

Doing core exercises regularly will make you a stronger runner and will help you to stay injury free.

What are some of your favorite core exercises?