The track season is just around the corner, but your preparation should already be in full swing. Your season doesn't have to start on the first day of practice. You can get a head start on the competition long before your coach starts working with you in the spring. Strength training and conditioning should be taking place year round, and it is just as beneficial to distance runners as it is to throwers.
The goal of strength training is to strengthen the muscles that you use in your particular event. As with other forms of exercise, this activity promotes fat burn, but also systematically builds muscle. How does it work? When you train with weights, you're using muscles to push against the extra pounds. This strengthens and increases the amount of muscle mass in your body by making your muscles work harder than they're used to.
But strength training is not limited to lifting weights. You can also strengthen your heart and lungs by "pushing" those muscles with aerobic exercises such as running or biking. These activities force your muscles use more oxygen, more often, thereby making them stronger. The key is, build hard and slow. Of course, because of this slow-build process, it is easy to become discouraged in the early stages of your strength-training program, as results don't happen overnight.
While some athletes do have the luxury of using their high school weight room in the off-season, others may not be as fortunate. Instead of dropping a few hundred bucks a month on a Gold's Gym membership, you can work on your strength and conditioning using body resistance exercises and plyrometrics.
The following exercises do not require a lot of fancy equipment, but some simple mats and forgiving surfaces are highly encouraged. Here is a look at a few strength and conditioning exercises that you can do in the comfort of your home.
Abdominal Work
Start by doing each exercise for 30 seconds. Each week you can add an additional 5 seconds, working your way up to 60 seconds.
- Kick Backs – Start on all fours and bring your knee of one leg to chest and then extend leg back as far as possible and up as high as possible.
- Flat Backs – Start on your toes and forearms with a flat back and then alternately raises each leg.
- Front Leg Lifts - Sit with one leg extended to the front with other leg bent inward, arms are crossed, leg is lifted repeatedly as high as possible and resistance is given on way back down, touch heel lightly to ground and repeat.
- Fire Hydrants – Start on all fours and slowly raises one leg in the bent position up to parallel with the ground.
- Jane Fonda's – Start on your side and raise upper leg in a scissors manner and resists on the way back down.
- Toe Touches – Lay on your back with legs perpendicular to the floor and held by partner, shoulders are flat on mat and are raised off as your touch your toes repeatedly.
Plyometrics Exerciese
Plyometrics is defined as exercises that enable a muscle to reach maximum strength in the shortest time possible. The goal of plyometrics is to develop explosive speed and power. Start with 30 seconds for each exercise and do the entire circuit with short breaks between each exercise. Plyometrics should be done more than 3 times per week.
- Ankle Hops – Stand erect with arms at sides and feet together and uses the feet and ankle flexion/extension to jump as a high as possible, attempting to spend as little time as possible on the mat.
- Pogos – Hop the same as with ankle hops adding the forward and upward lift of the feet to as close to the "L" position as possible.
- Front-to-Back – Jump with feet together to the front and then back very quickly.
- Side-to-Side – Jump with feet together back and forth from side to side quickly.
- Square – Jump in a perfect square with the feet together, first to the right and then to the left.
- Squat Jumps – Start in a perfect squat position with thighs parallel to the floor and hand on hips. Explode upward as high as possible and returns to the squat position very briefly before jumping up again. Maintain good posture at all times with shoulders back and do not break at the waist at any time.
- Rim Jumps – similar to ankle hops, but arms now extend down to the mat and then reach for the ceiling when jumping up—pretend your dunking the basketball.