Simple hip mobility for runners

by Carrie Lane, Director of Sport Performance

Runners, what if you substituted 10 minutes of running with 10 minutes of daily mobility and strength? In a recent interview, renowned athletic trainer, Bill Knowles, called the warmup the “dollar-a-day strength training” opportunity 1.  Doing a series of exercises that emphasizes mobility, postural stability, and light force production BEFORE you are tired from your workout greatly enhances your body’s ability to learn these motor patterns.  If you only perform these activities AFTER your runs, your muscles are tired and won’t learn the skill as well.  Plus, these movements obviously raise your heartrate and warm your muscles to prepare you for your run.  I’m not saying don’t run to warmup, I’m saying consider cutting down your warmup run and substituting some of that time for uptempo movement training.  Here is some simple mobility work you can do to get the hips loose and train important posture muscles as you move over and under the rope or bungee.