As we enter the summer training season, let me offer an alternative core routine for you. The reason we do core work is so that late in a workout, or more importantly a race, we can maintain the strength to finish well without breaking down in our running form.  Core work helps you with strength in general and another nice side effect is that it helps you look good. It is one of the ancillary things you can do to improve yourself as a runner.  Now most people will do the usual combination of planks, crunches, captain chair, etc, etc, etc.  Those are fine and way better than nothing.  But I have had the privilege of working with a coach at North Star by the name of Sara Domeier.

She gets credit for all of the stuff I am about to show you.  Sara was a standout high school runner back in the day and attended UNL, competing for the Huskers in the old Big 8.  She is currently pursuing her USATF LEVEL II certification and has been working with a number of athletes in their post-collegiate career.  Her big breakthrough in coaching has been working with Angee Henry and her return as one of the top 800m runners in the country.  But I have born witness to her at the high school level.  We have done many of these exercises at our school and I honestly feel like we get just a little bit more out of our athletes.

If you have done some boot camp sessions before at your local gym, these videos will look very familiar.  The difference is that Coachy (as the kids call her) has cherry-picked the ones that are best suited to running.  Many of these exercises don’t work the mid-core directly.  They are geared more towards the muscles that give you power in running; glutes, hammies, and quads.  Here are some things to keep in mind when completing these routines:

• Pick and choose what you want to do.  I have not done video for all of the exercises, just the ones you are likely not familiar with.
• Do not do these everyday.  Maybe twice a week.
• They take time, so you may need to shorten up one of your runs or add more time to your workout.
• You WILL feel beat up the first couple of times,and your workouts might suffer a bit in the short-run

So here is the routine:

SIMPLE WARMUP THIS CAN BE DONE BEFORE A HARD WORKOUT.  PICK WHAT YOU WANT TO.
A Walk – 15m
Trunk Rotations/Twists – 4 points, 10 left and roll 2x/10right and roll 2x
Backwards Walk – 15m
Wood Chopper – 20swings
Lunges – 15m
Toe Touches – cross over/10 touches each foot
Dance Kicks – 15m
Leg Cross overs on back x10 each side
Butt Kicks
Inch Worm – walk it up
Knee up cycle hip arund and alt
Achillies stretch and raise leg 5x each

Core Strength/Plyometric Power  VIDEOS FOR SOME OF THESE EXERCISES ARE BELOW. OTHERS ARE COMMON ENOUGH YOU CAN FIND THEM ELSEWHERE ONLINE OR MAYBE YOU ALREADY KNOW THEM
After a good warmup or even workout here are 2 optional days – make sure 48hrs in between at least
2-3sets at 15-30+ of reps

Day 1                                         Day 2
Mountain Climbers             Floor Jacks
Frog Hops                               Power Squats
Burpees                                    Push ups
Fire Hydrants                        Star Jacks
Walking Pushups                 Knuckle Squats
High Knees                             Survivors
Vsit ups
Jump Split Squats                Burpees
Bicycles                                    Leg Raises

BURPEE/CORE!!!
burpees        exercises
2x                  15x push up
4x                  15x bicycles
6x                  15x tricep dips
8x                  15x V-up crunches
10x                15x prison squats

Alternative Burpee Core
*10 Burpees
20x jumping lunges
20xbicycles
10x push ups
*10 Burpees
20x prison squats
20x crunches
10x tricep dips
*10 Burpees

POWER/PLYO Exercises
Tuck Jumps. (2×6)
Rocket Jumps.(for height) (2×6)
Line Hops. (2×8)
Skips For Height. (3×30 meters)
Skips For Distance. (3×30 meters)

Floorjacks from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Froghops from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

JumpSquats from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

KnuckleSquats from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

PrisonSquats from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Star Jacks from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Suitcase Crunch from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Survivors from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

V SitUp from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Walking Push-Up from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Rocket Squats from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.

Special thanks to Tony Berger for doing the modeling for our video. He has been a wonderful volunteer coach for us: