We all know and every now and then have felt how cardio changes how you feel and how your body processes things like core temperature and wakefulness in the muscles. Fish oil supplement pills will always be there but they are useless if you don’t push those valves.
Starting with brisk walking and keeping at it is a great way to start off for the ER, slower ones so they could catch up and eventually move onto jogging and when you jog consistently you’ll start sprinting with ease in no time. Or realistically depending on your condition a few weeks or months, if you commit. Doing running drills is a great way to improve your form, speed and efficiency. Having the discipline to run is one of those staple roots you develop into becoming a proper athlete.
But running can be daunting and discouraging- easily. This is normal and yes it is frustrating but you have to step back and reconsider your ways. Maybe you are forcing it, exerting blind effort that could even possibly injure you. Maybe you are trying to do too much or doing it too full or hungry. Perhaps you are not well stretched or you don’t even fully stretch your muscles, especially the ones that ache the most. You could even be just too sedentary and lack overall toning, starting a light yet sufficient weight lifting program is also great for not just your entire life but also pump you some muscle too last long during marathons.
Starting off with some running drills are great for making you last serious running to avoid injury, loosening up all those muscles and joints while strengthening them. Not to mention will give you a nice, fit behind and killer thighs. The more varied the better, keep doing more running drills, not just more in repetition but different kinds.
You got to get down and really prepare yourself for real yet necessary pain. Don’t worry it will feel good later on even with the aches of the initial workouts. Running drills will make your legs, core and glutes stronger while popping different parts of your locked pelvis, knees, ankles and feet. Running drills will also strengthen and stretch your torso and elongate your body. You will not regret ever starting off an exercise regimen, you can only regret stopping it.
The communication with your brain and legs will vastly improve. Who doesn’t want good coordination and who doesn’t want to get better coordination right? As I pointed out or mentioned, ankles will benefit from this therefore the knees as well. High levels of agility are what make people feel youthful and indestructible, not to mention confidence. Agility is a combination of balance, coordination, speed, strength, reflexes and endurance. We perform well in all these areas when our proprioception is keen. Proprioception is one of our bodily senses that allow us to determine where are other body parts are in relation to one another, there is nothing like having bouncy reflexes and light feet with strong ankles.
Diet is important too, half the job. Eat light and healthy with sufficient protein to fuel up that run.
Here we will discuss some running drills to help start you off, hopefully you commit and feel the changes in your system. But first off what are drills? They are also known as technical work or a skill exercise that is usually done before the bulk of a work out and before the most basic and simple warm-ups. Like repetitive, intense warm-ups to make sure all your mechanics are in place before the bigger jobs. Doing drills twice a week is good for runners amidst their other strenuous workout routines. If you’re exercise routine schedules are not filled up try these drills at least three times a week, some of the drills can be done in a wide and safe indoor space but better you have a 50m space outdoors. Take not it is best to perform drills before large sports event tournaments or before the most physically tedious activity wherein endurance determines half of the results.
Some suggested drills before heavier exercises are yoga of course and there are so many different kinds with varying intensities. You shouldn’t underestimate yoga it can be difficult and even injury-prone if you are not that flexible and or strong. Go for hip opening sequences of course if you are going to do mostly running for that day, don’t ruin your body please stretch and stretch properly. To stretch properly you have to command your brain to make all your muscles work as a team. Encourage your body and it will follow what you want faster, breathe consistently from your stomach to maximize oxygen intake and relax. Even if stretch routines bore some people it might develop into one of your favorites for the sheer slowness of it all that you can think with more clarity as you gain more balance and muscle form smoothness.
Easy running drills or just mild running on flat surfaces are nice too and friendlier for beginners, elders and the injured or ill. Around 10-20 minutes of walking after a full stomach is very good for you and 15-20 minutes of light running a day is a nice start especially for the older ones who will need some time to build bone strength and balance.
Toning is very important, vigorous workout routines for a lot of athletes are mostly running and coming in second is the toning. The stretching you don’t have to do as much but have to be in between toning and cardio to help oil your gears and move you along. Squats with added weights makes them even better and are very effective, the results often faster in women visibly but for everyone squats feel great right after workout. Planking is a no-no to skip on and help strengthen and tone the muscles and trains them to lock in place properly to support one another, avoiding muscle strain or damage as much as possible. Remember to breathe, breathe and breathe properly! Forgetting to do so can cause painful tears in your body.
Moving on to something more intense and challenging are strides. Strides are timed sprints cushioned with slower jogs before and after. They are like a burst of lightning and may feel like so in your legs, it’s a great way to shock your system into burning loads more calories and expelling toxins more effectively, not to mention that creak in your leg loosened up finally. You start off with a slower jog and bring your acceleration up to nearly 100% of your speed capacity for 20-30 seconds then gradually slow again but not stopping abruptly.
Everyone should exercise and everyone should give running drills a try. Anyone who can use their legs to over maybe 60 or 70% capacity should at least try the most basic running drills. They are as good and daunting as those collard greens you keep ignoring on your plate, this time not drenched in butter.
It’s more ideal to perform these drills on a flat, unobstructed and firm plane to maximize your performance with the least distractions. And if you’re the type to be a little embarrassed doing drills in public and looking silly, it’s most appropriate in a field or track. Areas with soft grass are also great for injury-prone people and if you just want less scratches on your skin.
Here are some basic drill to start off with:
Of course we must start out with a straightened back, align our shoulders with our butt a tiny but out to help out the support and balance of the spine.There are tons of helpful videos online especially on YouTube demonstrating all these exercises just for you, charts are good for visualization too but workout videos exist for a reason: to give you proper guidance and push you more. Not to mention loads of diet help and recipe videos. No one really has an excuse to be very unfit anymore.
Here are the drills you should research and practice, some of them you already know from childhood PE and some you know from trauma being an uncoordinated kid.
High knees- We all had to do these in PE and they must have been hell for the less athletic ones. Now you are older and wiser, you now know that to beat this pain you just have to go through the pain. Relax and straighten your shoulders,be light on your feet and lift your leg until your knee is aligned to your diaphragm. This makes your stiff hamstrings more flexible and makes you land softer on your feet.
A-Skip- Reinforces midfoot landing like high knees and improves coordination. This is also called high knee skipping and you need a firm yet relaxed upper body and every time you step you have to drive the lead foot into the ground a bit to make that skipping effect.
B-Skip- This is a variation of the A-skip and is also great for your hamstrings and also opens up your hips. Also known as high knee skipping with leg extension.It’s just like the A-skip with your leg going out and down more like a kick, focus on a more steady rhythm to look more like your dancing smoothly yet intensely.
Butt-kicks- lift your foot straight up, bending your knee until your knee almost or lightly touches your butt, please try not to kick yourself in the butt.If you out your hand behind you, you will look like a giddy cheerleader.It’s a high knee with the feet tucking all the way in this time.
But-kicks with variation- This variation is nearly the same except the knees don’t go up and stay in the same spot almost, just bending to send the heels kicking the glutes.
Straight-leg bounds- Land on the balls of your feet with straight legs one foot at a time, with the leg in the back always slightly bent.It’s a motion that springs you forward and relieves muscles while strengthening them.
Carioca- We all must have been intimidated by this move before until we gave it enough time and found the right music to do this move to while not entangling your ankles. This increases hip flexibility and combined with other “skippy”running exercises will make you a stronger dancer. First, skip with right leg over left then left leg over right.
For the easily intimidated beginner just choose 3-4 drills to make up a 20 minute routine which is enough for everyday. It’s fine to do more and even more than these seven but don’t tire yourself out too much in one day and on running drills alone, a good workout regimen is challenged yet restrained enough for safety and practicality with schedule.
When performing drills take note that you should walk back to your starting point before beginning the next drill, it is more organized this way. Do a repetition of twice or thrice per skill exercise before moving onto the next to get the full work out of that activity. Most of these drills should be completed for about 30-50m.
It’s best to choose drills that guide your physical goals of the particular training session and also your specific needs.You have a combination of bodily conditions such as strange, little aches and injuries you should well know and accept so that you go more for exercises that smooth out these conditions.
Mastery doesn’t come with pain and that good, searing workout burn comes from effort and research. Don’t be afraid to slip on those neon or shiny, shimmery black shorts the panting and tripping will be less humiliating as time goes by.
