CEdgar2

Last updated 01:00, Thursday, 12 April 2007

RUNNING forms the biggest part of exercise around West Cumbria. One reason for its popularity is the scenic routes, especially deep in the Lake District. These can be both challenging and beautiful and bring the best out in your performance.

The undulating roads around West Cumbria can play an integral part in everyday fitness. For the beginner they provide the basis on which fitness can be developed; and for the advanced the difficulty can be raised as and when you like.

To develop your running, however, you need to consider the muscles being worked and how these muscles can be improved.

Let’s look at what I call added resistance. This basically means adding something away from the norm during a sport-specific exercise, for example attaching a resistance cord around your waist, attaching the cord to the wall and sprinting as fast and as far as you can. It’s this added resistance that burns the calories, makes you stronger and improves times.

Let’s get started with what equipment you need.

n EQUIPMENT NEEDED: Weighted vest; weighted sleigh; sandy beach

The weighted vest isn’t a cheap option – they can cost about £50 – but in terms of benefit they are brilliant. The weighted sleigh is all about sprinting power, not the best for long distance runners. Running on a beach creates one major advantage to running on the road – stability. You won’t find many long strips of beaches in West Cumbria, but the ones we do have are great to run on while completing a long run. Runners from Sellafield should try running to Seascale along that beach – it’s quite hard.

n THE EXERCISES: Different intensities create improvement; running three miles every day doesn’t. You will soon notice that you can’t beat your personal best any more due to fatigue and injury.

If you are training for a 10km road race then gradually work your way up to that mileage. Try and perform three long runs a week leading up to the race and in between that perform these exercises along with speed training. Remember, your muscles have slow and fast twitch fibres. The slow builds the strength and endurance and the fast builds the explosive power needed for sprinting, so you need this mixture to improve your body’s reaction to high and low intensities.

n WEIGHTED VEST BURPEE: Burpees are one of the best bodyweight exercises. They generate good strength in your calf muscles but also provide your upper legs and core with the power movements which will help with your sprint work during running. With the weighted vest you give yourself that added resistance.

Level 1 – Bodyweight Burpees. Level 2 – Weighted Vest Burpees. Level 3 – Weighted Vest Burpees with jump onto box

n LEARNING POINTS: A burpee is a squat thrust followed by a jumping squat. With the palm of your hands flat on the floor, extend your knees and position your feet so the back of your toes are flat on the floor.

Bring both of your legs up towards your chest by flexing them. At this point, when the knees are flexed, bring your upper body up so you are in a squatting position. Now spring up through your calves and upper legs as far into the air as possible. Repeat this for 30 seconds. It’s important to spring into the air and leave distance between you and the ground as this tells you the progress you have made over a period of time. This is level 1: for level 2 put the weighted vest on and perform the same exercise. For level 3, find a box that is waist-high and when you spring into the air land onto the box. This gives you a target each time to hit, which will induce a huge amount of lactic acid in the legs, so proceed with caution.

n MUSCLES WORKED: Back and front calf muscles, quadriceps and hamstrings (front thigh and back thigh muscle), buttocks and core.

n THE BENEFIT: The problem during long-distance runs comes from the build up of lactic acid in the muscles, especially the calves. The spring generated from the burpee will strengthen the calf muscle but also give it the stability during impact. This is a taxing exercise that will increase VO2 Max whilst building strength.

n WEIGHTED SLEIGH SPRINT: For the sprinters out there this provides the extra explosive power needed to compete over 100 metres. It is essential to perform this on grass. The cable will be attached to the sleigh and in most cases a belt will be supplied so you can put that round your waist and attach the other end of the belt to that. Perform over 50 metre distances.

n LEARNING POINTS: Begin in the starting position as you would do for a 100 metre sprint. As you bring your body up ensure you pump through with both arms and legs. Don’t make short steps – try and lift your knees as high as possible.

n THE BENEFIT: Develops the fast twitch fibres in your legs which will give you that explosion out of the blocks. Perform 10 sets of 50 metre sprinting with 30 second rest between sets.