A strong core sets a solid foundation for strength in the rest of our body! 

Core strength benefits for runners:

• increased stabilization
• core strength allows the pelvis, hips, and lower back to work together more smoothly, with less rocking & less excess energy expended
• improves balance, meaning that you recover quickly from missteps
• prevents bad form when we get tired at the end of a long run or race
• increased strength prevents low back pain
• core strength makes increased speed possible
• a strong core makes us feel healthy! 🙂

Time to get to work on that strong, powerful & stable core!

Day 2 Plan:

• Morning Workout Routine (#MWR)
• Coffee Break Workout (#CBW)
• Day 2 exercises
• Food Challenge – Weightless Wednesday – time to weigh in! – You do not have to post this but it is a good idea to know where you are at.

Day 2 Exercises: 2-3 sets of 10

• High Knee Sprint with Dumbbell
• Standing Rainbow Crunch
• Wood Chop with Knee Raise
• Straight Leg Kicks
• Plank (:30 or more x 3)

Bonus: If you have a stability ball, do your planks on the ball today. Take a picture and post it for us…tag it #StabilityPlanks for bonus points today! No other bonus today. Since we are still easing into our month and we already have lots to do we don’t need to add more. But go out and log a mile, or two, or more! 🙂

Day 2 “how to” videos:

High Knee Sprint with Dumbbell: This is a great move that we do often, but this time we are adding a dumbbell to the mix. Taking out the ability to use our arms (will be holding a dumbbell out in front of us) will force us to use our core to bring our knees up. Hold your core tight and bring those knees up as high as you can. 10 x leg for each set.

Standing Rainbow Crunch: This move should be slow and controlled. Choose a weight that is heavy enough to give you some pull in your abs when rotating over your head but not so heavy that you have a hard time getting through the sets.

Wood Chop with Knee Raise: The wood chop with knee raise is a basic exercise that increases balance while strengthening the core including the lower abdominals and hip flexors. Make sure you are using your core to bring the arms across your body and you knee up. Try to bring your knee straight up in front of you as opposed to it crossing your body.

Straight Leg Kicks: Straight Leg Kicks are a dynamic stretching exercise, which focuses on reducing the risk of injury, optimizing power-production capabilities, and improving flexibility. If done correctly, using your core muscles to bring the leg straight up, you’ll feel the burn in your abs too!

Plank on Stability Ball: If you have a stability ball…grab it for your planks today! If not…or if you are new to planks, please stick with the regular forearm plank and build that core strength before trying to move up to a more advanced plank. Regular forearm plank is below this video. 🙂

The plank on a stability ball is going to take a little bit more core strength. You can do this! Start slow with :30 each plank and repeat 3 times.

Forearm Plank: If you are new to the Crew or are still working on mastering the plank, please do a regular forearm plank. Same thing here…:30 per plank 3x today. If you can hold it longer….go for it!

https://youtu.be/xFGXIMoArw4

Hopefully you’ve read through our August Challenge Main page and are all ready to get to work! If not….

STOP!

Click HERE!

Find out what’s in store for August, then come back!

Ok – now that you’ve read through the info page and are back….let’s GOOOOO!!!

August is all about abs BUT, since we are starting on a Tuesday, we have to tackle some leg and arm work first. Today will be fun I promise! 🙂

Day 1 Exercises & Food Challenge:

• Morning Workout Routine (#MWR) – see below
• Coffee Break Workout (#CBW) – see below
• Squats and Push Ups (hourly)
• Wall Sits (3x – :30 or more)
• 7 Key Stretches for Runners
• Tiny Tuesday! – Small portion sizes today Crew! You want to be very aware of the amount you are eating today. Once you have it…go smaller. 🙂 You can eat more than 3 meals. Just make them tiny and healthy!

We will start out with our Morning Workout Routine (#MWR), then go straight into today’s Squat & Push Up Challenge. We will start first thing in the morning with 20 Squats and 10-20 Push Ups and continue each hour ALL day!

You don’t have to do the same squats and push ups all day. Break it up with different types…regular squats, sumo squats, squat pulse, curtsey squats, pistol squats, etc… there are SO many options here! Same thing for the push ups. Do some against the wall, on the stairs, on a counter, from your knees and some full push ups! Do what works for you and what will help you get it done.

Set an alarm to go off each hour so you don’t miss a set and push through strong! This will hurt tomorrow….but that’s ok…if it hurts you’re doing it right!

On top of our Squat & Push ups, we also have our Coffee Break Workout (#CBW). Sometime throughout the day, throw in this routine. You can do it in 3 separate rounds, or 3 rounds at once. The point is to get moving during your day, ESPECIALLY if you sit all day at work.

#MWR

#CBW

Wall Sits – Over the past few months, we’ve been working on our wall sits so you already know how they can help us build strength in our legs. This month, instead of 1 wall sit, we are doing 3. You can break them up throughout the day just like the Squats & Push Ups. If you’ve been doing wall sits for a while now, you can hold them longer than :30 but if you’re just getting started, :30 is awesome! So here’s the “why” we are doing it this way this month…I’ve done some research and found that breaking up our strength training into smaller segments but adding more repetitions can be beneficial to building strength and endurance. So by backing off on the length of the wall sit (and planks too by the way) and adding more reps, we should be building additional strength. Again, if you can hold this pose longer WITHOUT your form suffering, feel free to do so, but I still want you to get in 3 wall sits today. 🙂

Last thing, today is the day to post your goals and your buddy for August. If you don’t have a buddy, post that you need one and we will find you one! Tell us where you are now, and what you’re working towards. Mileage goals, strength goals, race goals, a certain number of workout days posted goals, eating goals, weight loss goals….whatever your goal is, share it with us so we can encourage and help keep you accountable!

Ok…this really is the LAST thing. 😉 Since we are pushing our legs and arms to their limit today, PLEASE take time to stretch tonight. A lot of us do speed work on Wednesdays, and even though I am not giving out speed work this week (it will be back next week), we really need to show our legs some love and take time to stretch them out! Link to our stretches are below. Easy to throw in while you are watching TV, having a glass of wine, or whatever you do to wind down before bedtime.

7 Key Stretches for Runners

***If you want to throw in some speed, you have lots of past workouts to choose from. If you don’t have one and really want to push the pace this week, reach out to me and I will guide you through it.

That’s all for today Crew….let’s GOOOOO!!! 🙂