As running nuts, our weekly exercise schedules are dominated by running. However, many of us also like to vary our sports and include a few alternative hobbies.
Here are five other sports which will enhance your running:
Swimming
It’s a great sport to compliment your running; not only does it use a different set of muscle groups, but it will also increase your endurance and oxygen capacity.
Along with the many other advantages of swimming, it’s a great way of mixing up your training. You can work on either upper or lower body by simply using floats, or you can even go for overall strength by running through water.
The resistance of the water will improve both muscle and joint strength, as well as raising your heart rate and giving you a healthy workout.
An added bonus of this activity, and for swimming in general, is that it’s a great way of recovering from injury. Without putting too much strain on the injured area, you can slowly get back to your best before putting your feet on solid ground.
Rock climbing
Running doesn’t always come from the legs. Upper body strength is great for grinding out the long miles.
Rock climbing will give you great upper body strength and the speed that goes with it too.
Using your own body weight as a resistance is often better than weights when it comes to running. Once you get strong enough, you’ll be super light and super quick over flat ground.
Visit ukclimbing.com to find a climbing wall near you.
Boxing
This isn’t just about brute strength and reactions. Have you tried hitting a punching bag for three minutes? Try 12 rounds of that!
Boxing provides a full-body workout, while greatly improving speed, agility and foot speed. Aside from skipping, the core work involved in sparring and bag work will work wonders for your running posture and efficiency.
There’s a reason why boxers add plenty of running to their workouts and there’s no reason to say that it can’t be done the other way round.
You never know, if things get hairy while you’re out on a run, at least you’ll know how to handle yourself.
Rowing
One of the best things you can do to boost your VO2 max.
It makes runners aware of weaknesses they never knew about and pushes muscle groups they had never used before.
Rowing is great in two areas: body composition and cardio-respiratory. Both are crucial for running.
Where swimming is a great post-injury sport, rowing is a great one to do during injury. If you’re sporting an ankle or foot issue, getting out the miles rowing will still gain you every bit of fitness you need.
Cycling
For great bike workouts, mimic your running ones. Whether it’s intervals or endurance, cycling can make you a faster runner.
Whereas some of these other sports get the best out of your unused muscles, cycling will further improve the ones you already use for running.
With any runner, your leg muscles will eventually get to a point where they plateau and it will be difficult for these to be further improved. What cycling can do is take your muscles to the next level; meaning when you come back to running, you’ll be better than ever.
Lastly, your posture, hips and knees will all become stronger as a result of getting on the saddle, which is always great for long runs.
