Lower Body Exercises

Good Morning!  I hope you guys are having a good week so far…cant believe it is already Wednesday!  Before you know it will be the weekend again!  Did any of you get hit with the big storm? We pretty much just got ice/rain here in Baltimore. I cannot wait for the weather to get a bit nicer…enough with the snow! I have had to do a lot of my training runs on the treadmill because of this snow.  I hear we are supposed to get more snow on saturday…sunday is my 14 mile long run…I am praying that I can do this outside!  Anyway, in preparation for the Boston Marathon, Hal Higdon suggests lifting about 2-3 times a week:

The important message here is that to prepare for Boston–and the aftermath of Boston–you must condition your legs by training on hills, not only many of your long runs, but also hill repeats, both up and down hills. You must also lift weights to strengthen your legs: specifically the quadriceps muscles, but also the calf and hamstring muscles. To fail in this regard is to invite injury and to insure an inferior performance. This Boston Bound Training Program takes this message seriously.

So far I have been lifting every Monday and Wednesday.   I switch things up each time and add in a lot of arm moves, too; I do not work JUST the hamstring, quad, and calf muscles.  But today, I thought I would share with you some of my lower leg exercises. Do you have any lower leg exercises that you like to do that are not listed below?

Jumpies

This works your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your arms hanging at your sides. Squat down until your knees are bent about 90 degrees…but make sure your knees are not over your feet!  Swing your arms overhead and jump upward as high as you can.  When you land, gently bend your knees and sink back down into the squat position.  Make sure to swing your arms… it will give you the momentum you need to get air!

Squats with Dumbells (or you can use a bar…which I like to use) :

This is just like jumpies without the jump (obviously).  Hold dumbells at your side (or a bar on the meaty part of your back) while standing upright with your legs in a shoulder-width position.  Pretend like you are sitting on a chair or the toilet….sit your butt far back until your legs are in 90 degrees and your knees should not be over the toes.  Squeeze back up into standing position– do not lock out the legs!

LUNGES

Hold a pair of dumbells at arm’s length next to your sides, your palms facing each other. Step forward with your right leg and slowly lower your body until your front knee is bent at least 90 degrees. Pause, then, raise up and bring your back foot forward so that you move forward (like you’re walking) a step with every rep. Step forward with the alternate leg and repeat.  If you do have room just do STANDING LUNGES.  I like do to standing lunges for 10 repeats on both sides and then I will stay on one leg and do another ten, switch legs and do another ten, repeat that and then PULSE for ten on each leg (pulse means you hover down low and make small jerking movements up and down)

WOOD CHOPPER

Works shoulders, abs, glutes, hamstrings, and quads
Grab an 8- to 10-pound dumbbell with both hands and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Let the dumbbell hang naturally in front of your thighs. Squat down until your knees are bent about 90 degrees [A]. Keeping your elbows slightly bent, brace your abs and press up to standing, swinging the dumbbell up until it’s directly overhead [B]. Lower the dumbbell back toward the floor.

CALF RAISES:

Placing the balls of your feet on the edge of stairs, slowly lower your heels and then raise your heels, a few inches below, then a few inches above the stair.  You do not NEED to use stairs but it helps.

DEADLIFT:

Using a bar for this one works best.  Stand up right with feet in shoulder-width position.  BEND FROM THE WAIST and tip over until the bar grazes your shins.  You really are not moving any part of your body but your hips. You simply bend from the hips and let the bar hang down.  Keep the knees bent (slightly) for this

CLEAN AND PRESS

Step #1

Stand with Your feet slightly wider than Shoulder width apart. Grab a barbell (palms in) with your hands at the same width as your feet.

Step #2
Drive the barbell up from the floor, deadlifting it with your legs, pulling the bar up like an upright row.

Step #3
Catch the barbell and drop your body underneath it, all in one fluid motion. Hold the barbell steady against your chest as if you are doing a push press.

Step #4
Drive the weight up, extending your arms. Bring the barbell back down in the same motion as you did on the way up, until you are back starting at the floor again.

LEG CURLS:

Lie facedown on a leg curl machine and hook your ankles under the padded bar (A). Keeping your stomach and pelvis against the bench, slowly raise your feet toward your butt, curling the weight up (B). Come up so that your feet nearly touch your butt and slowly return to start.

Source

These are just some of the exercises I like to do for the lower body.  I learned Clean and Press in Body Pump Class…it takes a little while to perfect the form of this move but once you get it, it is easy to do.  Please be careful when lifting and always make sure you have good form. If you are not sure about something, ask someone around you. It is better to ask than to do the move wrong and hurt yourself!

Besides lifting during marathon training, I also like to do yoga.  It helps me to relieve stress and stretch out my muscles (I hate stretching so this sort of forces me to do it).  I love yoga!  My friend Todd asked me to go with him last night…I am glad I went…I felt so much better afterwards!

Question: Do you like yoga?  Do you do any other type of training during Marathon training?

• Share

Tagged as: body pump, calves, clean and press, dead lift, glutes, hamstrings, jumpies, leg curls, lunges, quads, squats, weight lifting, wood chopper, yoga