Hello and welcome to this week’s Lounge fitness roundup. Every Saturday, we pick some of the best stories of the week, full of fitness advice that you can use to become a better athlete. After all, here at Lounge, we believe that no matter how good your workouts are, they can always get better.
This week, we have three great stories to recommend. You could see them as part of a theme, workouts that will improve your overall fitness, while ensuring that you have a strong foundation, a healthy spine and good habits. The stories this week range from strength training for runners, simple mobility exercises you should do each morning, and why it’s important to train your legs.
Why strength training is important for runners
For many runners, especially those who are new to the activity, running is seen as an end to itself. For them, running is in itself the main exercise, and they think that just going out for a run every morning is enough to maintain fitness. What many people don’t realise is that running is a sport, and just like every sport, one needs to train for it.
As fitness writer Shrenik Avlani points out in this very interesting story, one of the key things you need to do if you’re serious about running is to do strength training. Avlani speaks to fitness and running experts to tell you why this is so. This is a must-read for all running enthusiasts.
Five mobility exercises you should do every morning
Here in Lounge Fitness, we have written earlier about why experts consider early morning to be the best time for a workout. The main reason for this is the fact that the human body’s hormonal profile is at its peak in the mornings, which makes it primed to burn extra stores of fat.
For this reason, even if you’re not really into working out each day, there are a few mobility exercises that you should do soon after you wake up. In this story, writer Pulasta Dhar lists out five such simple but effective exercises which will keep your body supple, your spine healthy and ensure that you lead a healthy, pain- and injury-free life.
Why you need to train for stronger legs
Leg day is the black sheep of the fitness family for a lot of people. When training for better strength, much of the attention goes to the arms, the chest or the shoulder muscles. However, you ignore training your legs and posterior chain muscles at your own peril.
As Bibek Bhattacharya writes in this story, we use our glutes, quads, hamstrings and calf muscles the most every day. Whether it is doing something as simple as sitting down or standing up, bending and lifting, or playing a sport and running, our legs are literally our foundation. In the story, Bhattacharya lists out three different leg workouts that you should do, whether you’re using your bodyweight, or dumbbells, or resistance bands.
Also Read: Why you should exercise first thing every morning
