Four great upper body
Exercises that all Endurance Athletes
Should be doing this season
IF you are a swimmer, cyclists, runner, or just a weekend athlete here are four upper body exercises you should be doing this year. Most endurance athletes shy away from strength training and focus on leg strength, while this is important your upper body plays a key role in the success of the events that you enter.
Though it might not feel as if the upper body plays a key role, if you think about it for a second the upper body plays a key role in generating and transferring power into motion and helping you resist the forces that come into play from weather and other forces. Let’s take a look on how we fit upper body workouts into your routine.
Fitting Upper Body
Strengthing in your Schedule
Most of us are to use a phrase that is overused is we are time-crunched. So, the next question is how we fit all of this into our schedule. Research shows just 2 x a week of 1-3 sets you gain performance advantages. So here are the exercises that you can incorporate.
- Pull Up (Lat Pull Downs assisted Pull Ups):
- Kettlebell single are shoulder press:
- Push-Ups: This is my favorite as you do not need a gym and can use any space to do this exercise. This targets the chest, triceps, lats, shoulders and abs. You can also adjust this exercise such as doing these from a sink or raised platform and as you get stronger you can lower closer the ground.
- Low and Mid Row:
This is one of the best upper body exercises you can do, it calls into action big muscle groups such as Lats, pecs, and delts also works biceps and triceps. As the title says you can use a Lat Machine, assisted pull-up machine, or band pull-ups to accomplish this exercise.
You can perform this with a Dumbbell as well. The great thing with this exercise is you are able to use on arm and the other side of your body has to resist the rotation and you activate your core as well. Make sure you start with easy weight to get the correct form and if you have questions reach out to us at SD Training Systems.
As a cyclist or runner, the main issue we need to work on is making sure your back is stronger. Think about how you sit in on the bike as well as running you are always in a position with your shoulders in an internal rotation position. We want to pull those shoulders back in simple terms and the rows are the way to do them. The TRX is a great way to do them, or a seated row is another way that you can do rows.
These are some basic exercises and if you want some assistance with them, please feel free to reach out to us and we are more than happy to answer any question you have.
Sincerely
Coach Mark