Add These Core Activation Exercises to Your Warm-up
Doing core before your run can save you time and help you run strong.
If it’s not enough that steeplechase champion Emma Coburn incorporates core activation exercises into her warm-up routine, maybe we can convince you. It’s no secret that core workouts promote better running performance and coaches strongly recommend adding them to your training plan. While many runners might focus on this core work after their runs or on strength days — and others skip it altogether — adding midsection moves before your run offers a convenient way to optimise your training.
Case in point: You rely on your core muscles to carry you through the kilometres. And research shows that core strength training can improve the force you put into your steps, your overall energy transfer, and motor control, which ultimately leads to a better and more efficient running, according to a systematic review published in Frontiers of Physiology.
There are many ways to warm-up as a runner — foam rolling, stretching, drills — but core activation exercises implemented into your pre-run routine primes your body for the movement ahead and ensures you squeeze in a core workout a few times a week.
The Benefits of Core Exercises for Runners
While saving core for after a workout still has its rewards, it could also leave runners feeling fatigued through the moves, according to Tom Holland, exercise physiologist and author of The Marathon Method. He explains that doing core work before a run means you typically feel fresh and energised, can perform more repetitions, and may be able to increase time under tension, which plays an important role in strength building.
The core, which is made up of the abdominals, hip flexors, glutes, and obliques, is a crucial part of running mechanics. In fact, one study published in 2019 in PLoS One tested 21 male college athletes by giving them three extra core training sessions per week for eight weeks on top of their typical training plans. The athletes performed moves like plank variations, bridge variations, and the Pallof press. The researchers found that the supplemental core training programme can improve balance, running economy, and core endurance — all important payoffs for performance and maintaining posture and efficiency in the later kilometres of a long run.
“It’s always important before an activity to do things that will support and mimic the activity that you’re doing,” says Yusuf Jeffers, certified personal trainer and running coach. He explains that running involves many different muscle groups acting in conjunction with one another — with the core being at the centre of that movement. That’s why you want to activate those muscles before you start running.
Stronger Posture and Form
It’s important for runners to activate both the abdominal and lower back muscles, according to Holland, because these muscles work together to help with stability and absorb shock in each stride, which can improve run performance.
A peer-reviewed study published in 2021 in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that the core can provide stability, which is essential for maintaining good form. Additionally, the researchers suggest that weak core stability in novice runners may lead to an increased risk of knee pain.
It’s difficult to stick with running if you’re battling chronic pain. For runners who have weaknesses — which often lead to pain — doing corrective core exercises more often, such as during a running warmup, can help strengthen and improve that weakness, according to Jeffers. For example, core movements such as a plank or bird dog can help “wake up” the core before a run, especially if you’ve been sitting all day, he explains.
This is particularly true for those with back pain: A review published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science examined four studies examining core strength exercises. The researchers found that regularly performing core-strengthening moves that aim to help with balance, stabilisation, and motor control, can alleviate chronic lower back pain.
More Motivation
When you finish your run, you might be sweaty, thirsty, and tired. It’s likely that the last thing you want to do is lay down on the ground and get a core workout done. Starting with core first can ensure that you never skip a core workout again.
David Klein, a Pennsylvania-based head coach of high school girls cross-country, regularly incorporates a core warm-up into his team’s training plan for this reason. He adds that with a core warm-up, you may also be more motivated to tackle your run since the core work will be out of the way.
The Best Way to Add Core Activation to Your Warm-up
It’s smart to tailor your core warm-up to the different types of workouts on your training plan. Jeffers recommends doing a core warm-up before easy runs and long runs, while sticking to dynamic warm-ups, which should get the legs involved more, before track workouts or speed sessions.
A core warm-up also doesn’t have to be long or complicated. “Spending two to five minutes before a run performing a combination of movements such as the plank, bird dog, and glute bridges will reap big rewards,” Holland says.
5 Core Activation Exercises to Do Before Your Next Run
Jeffers and Holland recommend these go-to core activation exercises to help you run strong.
1. Glute Bridge
- Lie faceup, knees bent, and feet planted on the floor.
- Drive through heels, contracting the glutes to lift hips up toward the ceiling. Body should form a straight line from shoulders to knees.
- Lower back down slowly.
- Repeat.
2. Plank
- Lie facedown and place elbows directly under shoulders with feet hip-width apart. Make sure back is flat and the head and neck are in a neutral position.
- Drive forearms into the floor and think about pulling them toward you (without actually pulling them toward you) to activate the back of body.
- Lift the hips and squeeze the quads and glutes, and think about pulling belly button up toward spine. Body should form a straight line from head to heels.
- Hold.
3. Bird Dog
- Start on all fours with a neutral spine, knees under hips and wrists under shoulders.
- Extend right arm and left leg straight out and in line with torso, keeping hips and shoulders square to floor.
- Bring the right elbow and left knee in toward the chest so they touch.
- Return to all fours.
- Repeat on opposite side.
- Continue alternating.
4. Copenhagen Side Plank
- Lie on right side, right forearm on ground, left hand on hip, legs straight left foot slightly staggered behind right foot.
- Lift hips and right foot off ground and bend right knee 90 degrees so that right leg is hovering a few inches above ground.
- Hold for 20 seconds.
- Switch sides and repeat.
5. Dead Bug
- Lie faceup, both legs lifted, knees bent 90 degrees and held over hips. Lift arms so wrists are over shoulders and fingertips are pointing toward the ceiling. This is the starting position.
- Straighten left leg and lower heel toward ground, while extending right arm overhead and toward ground. Keep core engaged and lower back pressed into ground.
- Return right arm and left leg to starting position.
- Repeat with right arm and left leg.
- Continue alternating, moving opposing arms and legs.
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