A Mini-Band Workout for Runners to Fire Up Your Butt
Muscles
Strength training is a must
for runners, whether your goal is to get
faster, prevent injury, or simply help your miles feel easier. And
this mini-band workout for runners is a great routine to slot into your program
to reap those benefits.
In this video,
which is the next installment of Sweat With SELF’s Fitness for Runners series,
you’ll take on a lower-body and core workout that only requires a
mini-band. Rhandi
Orme, a certified run coach and personal trainer, and trainer Quan Bailey lead
you through a routine that’s focused on firing up the small muscles in your
lower body—particularly your hip abductors, or the smaller two of your three
glute muscles. These muscles, which make up your side butt, are super important
for stabilization and play a big role during running.
Your hip abductor muscles (the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) work primarily in
exercises in the frontal plane of motion—think side-to-side movement, like with
a lateral shuffle. Your gluteus maximus (the largest glute muscle), on the
other hand, works primarily when moving in the sagittal plan, or forward and
backward movement (like a squat). In this mini-band workout for runners, you’ll
be working in both planes of motion for a complete workout that fires up every
part of your butt.
Moves like the
lateral band walk, standing leg extension, and side-lying leg extension will
focus on your hip abductors, while exercises like the glute bridge and forward
monster walk hit your gluteus maximus. And the glute bridge hold with abduction
combines both planes of motion to work all of your glutes in one move!
This routine is
also heavy on the single-leg work—with moves like the banded knee raise—which
help your body get used to the single-legged aspect of running. Every time you
push off the ground, you’re working unilaterally, which makes it even more
important to build up those stabilizing muscles in your butt.
So grab a
mini-band—the thicker the band, the more resistance it’ll give—set aside 20
minutes, and get ready to strengthen your butt and improve your running form!
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