We have talked about how important it is to have a strong core–in fact we have talked about your core so much, I hope you are still listening! Your core is key to strong, injury-free running, and hardly any of us work our core as much as we could.
Here’s a great article based mainly upon interviews with Greg McMillan (one of my favorite coaches) and Lolo Jones (one of my favorite track athletes). The discussion on why the core is important is a strong primer on what is going on with your body. The exercise set that they describe is well-designed, covers a lot of the important muscle groups, is pretty simple and very time efficient.
Should you do this set instead of some of the exercises we’ve worked on together? Trick question! We hope that if you find this appealing you will add this routine to your mix and run through it now and then. There is no one right answer to core work! And the article supports this view; McMillan says in the article you should change your routine every six weeks or so.
Remember to keep changing up your routine. Use Greg and Lolo’s workout sometimes, use our ‘8 minute core’ sometimes. After a run, get in a circle and take turns suggesting a core exercise and lead the group–and if you can’t remember one, do some pushups or hold plank!
Remember there is no one right answer, to core work or training–and don’t let anyone or any coach tell you there is only one way to succeed! Well there is one requirement–you are going to have to work hard. But we are also going to have to try different workouts and change emphasis over time to continue to improve. Sometimes we all wish there was one right answer–it sure would make training easy! We’d only need one book and one training plan and we’d be good to go. However, lots of the fun in athletics is trying different things and working hard to figure out how to be successful. Hopefully this article will be one of the puzzle pieces that helps you succeed!