Lunges are a great exercise to improve the strength in your glutes, quads and hamstrings. They also help to improve the stability of your hips and pelvis, and they engage and strengthen your “core” muscles.
Completing a simple lunge routine regularly, will make a big difference in improving both your running and cycling performance. Runners and Cyclists need strong glutes to move efficiently, and also to reduce the risk of overusing the other smaller muscle groups, which can lead to overuse injuries.
For Runners – your glute muscles help to support an upright posture and they also drive your hip backwards which is what propels you forwards.
For Cyclists – the power in your pedal stroke comes from pushing down on your pedals from the 12 O’Clock position to the 6 O’Clock position. Your glute muscles should be providing most of that downward pressure.
We recommend making this 3 minute lunge routine, a 30 day challenge. It will improve your strength, and you will become a faster, more efficient runner and cyclist.
When should you do this lunge workout?
For the 30 day challenge – Every Day.
Not doing the challenge? Then you can do this lunge routine on rest days, or on easy training days. Don’t do it immediately before or after any hard training sessions.
Performing it before a hard training session will create fatigue which will affect your leg strength.
After a hard training session your legs will be fatigued, and you are less likely to perform the lunges properly or to get the proper training benefit and strength adaptation.
Sports Specific Strength Routines Will Improve Your Performance
If you feel like you have hit a plateau in your performance, strength training could be the missing ingredient.
This 10 minute Kettlebell Routine is a very effective and time efficient workout to improve your strength.
Alternatively, you can check out The Body Mechanic Strength and Stability class in North Sydney.
Classes run from 6:30am – 7:30am on Monday and Wednesday mornings, starting and finishing in our Lavender Bay headquarters.
