Though they power most upright movements, the calf muscles are often overlooked in stretching routines. But tight or stiff calves can cause issues across the lower body, from your ankles to your lower back, making even basic daily movements like walking and climbing stairs uncomfortable.

The good news is that even a few minutes a day of moving and stretching your calf muscles can help you stay pain- and injury-free.

The Anatomy of Your Calf

Your muscle runs along the back of your lower leg, from behind your knee to the back of your ankle. It’s made up of two main muscles: the gastrocnemius and the soleus. A smaller muscle, called the plantaris, runs between the gastrocnemius and soleus and connects to your Achilles tendon. (FYI: Around ten percent of people do not have a plantaris muscle.)

The Achilles tendon, which connects your heel bone to the gastrocnemius and soleus, runs from the heel to the middle of your calf.

Working together, the Achilles and the muscles of your calf are responsible for —when the toes point down and away from the leg (as if you’re pushing your foot down on a gas pedal). “We activate our calves with nearly every movement our lower body does, whether that’s running, jumping, or walking,” says Marco Capizzano, a chiropractor and the founder of , a chain of stretch therapy clinics.

What Causes Tight Calf Muscles?

“Prolonged periods of sitting or general inactivity can shorten the calf muscles and decrease their strength and flexibility,” says Capizzano. Other culprits include wearing uncomfortable shoes like high heels, which put the calves in a , and repetitive motion that initiates in the calves, like running or jumping, Capizzano adds.

When your calves are tight, they can limit mobility in your ankles and cause you to compensate with your knees, hips, and lower back, he says.

Common Calf Injuries

Injuries associated with tight calves don’t just happen in the calf muscles themselves. Overuse injuries, caused by repetitive activity without proper recovery, include (inflammation of the tissue in the foot), (inflammation of the tissue around your shin bone), and (inflammation of the tendon that connects the calf muscle to the heel), all of which areĚýassociated with calf stiffness.

“When the calf muscles are too tight, any kind of sudden stretching or explosive movement puts them at risk of injury, limiting your athletic performance and even activities of daily life,” says Capizzano.

7 Moves to Loosen Tight Calves

To keep your calves feeling good, Capizzano suggests a mix of dynamic and static stretches.

“Active or dynamic calf stretches promote blood flow, flexibility, and mobility in the muscles, preparing them for the stress of activity,” he says. These exercises also increase joint mobility and prevent strain or injury when doing high-impact activities like running and jumping, he adds.

Perform the dynamic/active calf stretches in the morning before starting your day or before you engage in any physical activity. Use the static stretches to help you recover from a workout or before bed.

When performing any of these stretches, listen to your body. “If you feel pain or sharp discomfort, ease off the stretch and try again with less intensity,” says Capizzano.

1. Calf Raises

Move Type: Dynamic/Active

:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart
• Slowly raise up onto your toes
• Slowly lower back down
• Perform two or three sets of 15 to 20 reps

2. Dynamic Calf Stretch

Move Type: Dynamic/Active

:

• Stand with the balls of your feet on a step (a box, bench, or even the bottom step of a staircase) with your heels off the edge
• Allow your heels to drop below the step
• Rise up on your toes as high as possible. Pause.
• Lower back down
• Perform two or three sets of ten to 15 reps

3. Inchworm

Move Type: Dynamic/Active

:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart
• Hinge at the hips, fold forward, and place your hands on the floor
• Walk your hands forward until you’re in a high plank
• Pause, then walk your hands back towards your feet and stand upright
• Perform two sets of ten to 12 reps

4. Banded Single-Leg Calf Stretch

Move Type: Static

:

• In a seated position, extend both legs in front of you
• Loop one end of a long resistance band (like ) across the arch of one foot and hold the other ends in each hand
• Gently pull on the ends of the band, drawing your foot towards your body
• After holding, release and repeat on the other side
• Hold each side for 30 to 45 seconds, then switch sides
• Perform the stretch twice on each foot

5. Standing Calf Stretch/Gastrocnemius Stretch

Move Type: Static

:

• Stand facing a wall with your toes about two feet away from the wall
• Place your hands on the wall at about shoulder height
• Step your right foot forward so your toes are about six inches away from the wall, allowing your leg to bend into a lunge, keeping your foot flat on the floor
• Keeping your left leg straight, push your heel into the ground while leaning your torso towards the wall to deepen the stretch
• Hold for 30 to 60 seconds on one side, then switch. Repeat twice.

6. Soleus Stretch

Move Type: Static

:

• Begin by standing with feet hip-width apart, with your hands on a wall or the back of a chair
• Step your left foot forward
• Bend both knees, keeping your heels on the ground until you feel a stretch along the calf muscle of the rear leg
• Hold for 30 to 60 seconds on one side, then switch. Repeat twice.

7. Downward Dog

Move Type: Static or Dynamic

:

• Begin in a high plank position with arms straight
• Push your hips back and upwards and press your heels towards the ground so your body forms an inverted “V”
• You can hold here for a static stretch
• For a more dynamic move, alternate bending your knees, pressing each heel down towards the floor as you go
• Hold, or alternate knee bends for two or three sets of 30 to 45 seconds

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For classes, camaraderie, and the latest equipment, you can’t beat the gym. But for those times when you don’t want to make the commute, have a packed schedule, or just want to get your session in without having to jockey for space by the dumbbell rack, you can get a full-body workout at home with just a few pieces of well-chosen strength training gear.

With a set of adjustable weights, resistance bands, and a raised platform, you can reap all the same benefits of a gym workout—improved cardiovascular health, increased muscle mass, and greater mobility—while enjoying a cleaner environment and zero wait times for your favorite piece of equipment.

How to Build a Strength Training Set-Up at Home

One key to building an effective home gym is determining how much space you have to work with. A jump rope, for example, will only be effective for building cardiovascular fitness if you have enough space to spin the rope without hitting the ceiling, walls, or a piece of furniture. You can get most of the benefits by doing the same jumping exercise without the rope itself.

A barbell and plates are fantastic for building strength, but if you live in a small apartment, that takes up a lot of precious space (and deadlifting might bug your downstairs neighbors). A dumbbell or kettlebell can be a worthy substitute.

Anything that provides resistance, from weights to elastic bands, can be an effective tool for muscle building, strength, and endurance training. With a set of bands in varying weights, you can mimic weighted exercises, including squats, push-ups, planks, and rows. To make a move more challenging, you can add reps, change the tempo of your movement (slowing down the lowering phase or adding a pause at your end range), or decrease your rest time between sets.

Strength Training Tips

If any of these exercises are new to you, start light and slow. Here are some tips to make sure you get the most out of your at-home training.

Don’t Automatically Go for the Heaviest Weight

To avoid injury and maximize the impact of your workout, ensure you’re moving with proper form, using a weight you can handle. Reach for the lightest option and try to perform six to eight reps. On a scale of one to ten, your perceived level of difficulty should be about around a seven. If it’s lower, try a heavier weight; if it’s higher, scale down.

For the kettlebell moves, instead of buying a set of kettlebells, go for one that’s a little heavier than your usual working weight and start with lower reps and longer rest times. To get the most out of your kettlebell, consider purchasing an so that you can increase or lower the weight as needed.

Create a Goal and Stick to It

Focusing on a goal will help you determine the structure of your reps, sets, and rest time. For building strength, aim for three to six sets of one to five reps, with two to five minutes of rest to recover between each set. Your working weight should be 80 to 100 percent of your one-rep max, or the most you can lift for a single rep.

If your goal is to build more muscle mass, try three to six sets of eight to 12 reps, with one to two minutes of rest between sets. Your working weight should be 60 to 85 percent of your one-rep max.

Looking to increase your time-to-fatigue on your runs, rides, or swim sessions? You’ll want to work on building muscular endurance. To do that, aim for three or four sets of twelve or more reps, with 30 seconds of rest in between sets. Your working weight should be 60 to 75 percent of your one rep max.

4 Essential Pieces of Strength Training Equipment (And How to Use Them at Home)

If you’re just starting out with at-home workouts, you don’t need to purchase a lot of equipment. Here are a few of our favorite space-saving items and some of the movements you can try with each of them.

1. Adjustable Dumbbells

At the start of the pandemic, were among the most difficult pieces of equipment to find, and with good reason: they’re the most versatile resistance training equipment. You can train bilaterally or unilaterally, effectively training both the upper and lower body. You can change the level of difficulty as you increase your strength and skill.

Goblet SquatĚý

To , turn a single dumbbell so it’s vertical and grasp it with two hands under one end. Separate your feet so they’re shoulder-width apart. Keeping your torso upright, bend your knees and lower your hips towards the floor at the same time. Pause for a moment at the bottom. Brace through your core, press your knees out to the sides, and stand up, keeping your torso upright. That’s one rep.

Floor Press

For , begin seated on the floor, knees bent and feet flat on the ground, holding one dumbbell in each hand. Roll back so your torso is now on the ground, with your arms straight, directly over your chest. Slowly lower the weights towards your chest, stopping when your bent arms touch the floor. Press your arms back up over your chest. That’s one rep.

You can perform these with elbows bent away from your body to focus on your pecs or with elbows tucked into your torso to focus on your triceps.

2. Kettlebells

If you’re looking for one tool to improve your total-body strength, power, and force production, reach for a . It can be used in place of a dumbbell for any strength exercise (squats, overhead press), but because of the uneven weight distribution, it can also be used to blend strength and cardio into a single movement. The kettlebell swing, in particular,Ěý to increase maximum and explosive strength as well as cardiorespiratory fitness.

Swing

Start by placing a kettlebell on the floor. Stand about two steps away, facing the kettlebell, with feet shoulder-width apart. Bend at the knees and hinge at the hips, reaching forward to grab the handle of the kettlebell with both hands. Look straight ahead, maintain a flat back, and swing the kettlebell through your legs and behind you with arms straight. As soon as the weight is behind your legs, thrust your hips forward, swinging the weight to chest height. Hinge at the hips as you swing the bell back behind your legs again. That’s one rep.

Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Press

A starts with a low lunge. Begin on the floor with one leg bent in front of you with your foot flat on the floor and the other behind you with your shin and the top of your foot on the floor. Your kettlebell should be on the same side of your body as your back leg. Reach down, grab the handle with one hand, and bring it to your shoulder. Brace your core and press the weight overhead. That’s one rep. (If you’re sinking into the hip of the back leg or if your torso is twisting to one side, the weight is too heavy.)

3. Resistance Bands

You can get an effective strength workout even without weights. Resistance bands, which often come in a pack of various levels of thickness and in or versions, are inexpensive and easily transported or stored. Because the bands themselves are light, the risk of injury from doing a move incorrectlyĚýis lower, making them beginner-friendly.

Banded Clam Shells

To execute a , pull a small elastic over both legs, placing it just above your knees. If you’re using longer bands, double-loop the lightest band and place it on the same spot. Lie on one side of your body, knees bent and the inside of your feet touching. Keeping the insides of your feet in contact the entire time, slowly open your top knee towards the ceiling, then slowly lower it back down. That’s one rep.

Upright Rows

For , stand on the open loop of a long resistance band with your feet hip-width apart. Hold the opposite end with your hands, palms facing down. Pull up on the band, bending your elbows out to the sides. Draw the band all the way up to your chin, pause, then lower back to the start. That’s one rep.

4. A Box or Bench

A or a bench can help you regress or progress a challenging movement. For example, a pushup on the floor, even on your knees, can be too much for someone new to strength work. You can work up to that exercise by elevating your torso with your hands on a platform.

When you need a bigger challenge, you can increase the difficulty by having your toes on the platform and your hands on the floor. Benches usually come in two options: or adjustable ( folds up to save space). Adjustable is a bit more versatile for dumbbell movements.

Step-Ups and Step-Downs

You can do a with or without weights. If you’re using weights, hold a light dumbbell in each hand. Engage your core and step onto the box or bench with one leg, allowing the other leg to hover just behind the edge of the platform. Pause, re-engage your core, and slowly lower your hovering leg to the floor. That’s one rep. Keep the other foot on the platform, press your foot into the platform, and raise the back foot again to keep moving through the reps.

Push-Ups

To do a push-up, place your hands on the box or bench, about shoulder-width apart. Step back with both feet until your body is in a plank position. Bending your elbows out to the sides, slowly lower your torso towards the platform. Pause with your torso just above the platform, then press through your hands to return to the top. That’s one rep.

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Rest days are crucial for healing, muscle growth, and injury prevention, but when you’re craving the endorphin rush of a good workout, sitting still can feel pretty uninspiring. You don’t have to stay glued to the couch to reap the benefits of a day off, though. A little movement—specifically active recovery—can go a long way, both physically and mentally. Light movement can speed up recovery and bring movement into your day without adding too much additional stress to your body.

Active recovery, which should be scheduled in between your regular workouts or big races or competitions, can include walking, steady-state running or cycling, swimming, mobility exercises, stretching, and even low-intensity strength training. These moves increase blood flow to your muscles, which speeds up the muscle repair process and can (DOMS).

When Should You Schedule an Active Recovery Day?

In general, after a challenging or high-intensity workout or a big race/competition, you should take 48 or even 72 hours of rest. The amount of rest time you take should be long enough that you can execute your next workout or competition without compromising form or intensity, says , an ACE-certified trainer.

On a day off, you can choose between total rest or active recovery. “The intensity of the workout or event you are recovering from can help you determine the type of recovery that is needed,” says Gagliardi. The most important considerations are which type of recovery will help you get ready for your next workout and how much time you have between training sessions or competitions. If you’re injured or feeling extreme levels of fatigue, total rest may be necessary.

“Recovery is about the body returning to a point of homeostasis,” says Gagliardi.

With active recovery, Gagliardi cautions that it’s important to keep the intensity low enough that you’re not veering into overtraining. “The idea would be to increase blood flow to a recovering part of the body through low-intensity movement and with less impact so that you optimize recovery without further stress to the part of the body in need of recovery,” he says.

To recover from a run, Gagliardi suggests swimming or heading to the gym and hopping on the elliptical. To ease aching muscles from a strength session, try walking or steady-state cycling.

A 10-Move Mobility Routine for Active Recovery

While a casual walk is a great go-to active recovery practice for your lower body, mobility exercises promote recovery across the entire body.

When your muscles are stiff or achy, they can’t move or control your joints as well, making even basic movements challenging (think about how stiff you feel trying to pick something up from the floor when your quads are sore after a long run). When one joint is limited, it has a ripple effect throughout the body and can cause further aches and pains. Mobility exercises take your joints through their full range of motion while increasing blood flow to the surrounding muscles.

Gagliardi recommends running through all the movements listed below if you have time or picking a few and doing them throughout the day as “movement snacks.”

Repeat each movement for six to twelve repetitions and, if you’re doing the full list, run through the entire routine one to three times, depending on the intensity of the workout you’re recovering from. “This should feel relaxing and productive but not intense,” he says.

1. Bodyweight Squat

Muscles Worked: Abs, glutes, hips, calves, and thighs

:

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, toes turned slightly outwards, and your hands clasped at your chest or by your sides.
• Engage your core and hinge slightly at the hips while bending at the knees, keeping your torso upright.
• Slowly lower down as if you’re sitting back in a chair, trying to bring your thighs parallel to the floor. Hold for a second or two at the bottom, re-engage your core, and push through your feet to stand up.

2. Standing Ankle Mobilization

Muscles Worked: The calves

• Stand facing a wall with your feet close together.
• Place your hands on the wall and step back until your arms are straight and your toes are about three feet away from the wall, with your heels flat on the floor.
• Slowly lift your right foot off the floor and bend your knee to 90 degrees.
• Without shifting your weight into your left hip and keeping your left heel on the ground, swing your right knee across the body towards your left side and turn your head to the left at the same time.
• Hold your knee there for one to two seconds, then swing to the right side and hold for one to two seconds.

3. Inverted Flyers

Muscles Worked: Abs, glutes, hips, core, and quads

• Stand with feet hip-width apart, arms hanging by your sides.
• Engage your core and pull your shoulders back and down.
• Squeeze the glute and thigh muscles of your right leg and lift your left knee up to hip height at a 90-degree angle.
• Hinge at the hips as you extend your left leg behind you and your right arm in front of you, pointing the toes of your left foot.
• Hold for three to five seconds, making sure you keep your trunk from twisting and avoid collapsing into the hip of your standing leg.
• Slowly return to standing.

4. Gate Openers

Muscles Worked: Abs, glutes, hips, and thighs

• Begin by standing with feet hip-width apart, arms by your sides.
• Engage your core, shift your weight to your left leg, and lift your right foot from the floor, bending the knee up towards your chest.
• Draw your right leg across your body towards the left side, keeping your knee at about hip height.
• Keep the left hip stable and pointed forward.
• Draw your right leg back to center and then over the right side of your body, opening your hip.
• Return to the starting position.

5. Downward-Facing Dog

Muscles Worked: Arms, back, glutes, hips, calves, and thighs

• Begin in a straight-arm plank position.
• Engage your core and draw your hips back and up high until your body forms an upside-down “V.”
• Try to push your heels back and down towards the floor.
• From here, you can hold the position or pedal your feet.
• Slowly lower to the plank position and begin the next rep from there.

6. Cat-Cow

Muscles Worked: Back and chest

• Begin on all fours with your toes pressed into the floor and your heels pointed towards the ceiling.
• Engage your core to keep your spine in a neutral position (aka tabletop position).
• For the “cat” pose, exhale and pull your spine upwards towards the ceiling.
• Hold for ten to 15 seconds, allowing your head to fall towards your chest; your back will make a letter “C” shape.
• Slowly return to the starting position.
• For the “cow” part of this move, arch your lower back and draw your shoulder blades together; your back will be shaped like the letter “U.”
• Hold this position for 10-15 seconds, then return to a neutral spine.

7. Cobra

Muscles Worked: Abs and back

• Lie on your stomach with your hands flat on the floor under your shoulders, fingers pointing forward.
• Extend your legs and press the tops of your feet into the floor.
• Exhale and press your hips and hands into the floor as you pull your chest away from the ground until you feel a stretch in your chest and abdominals.
• Hold for 15 to 30 seconds, then slowly lower back down until you’re lying flat on the floor. Repeat.

8. Fire Hydrant

Muscles Worked: Abs, glutes, and hips

• Begin on all fours with your knees directly under your hips and your toes pressed into the floor with heels pointed towards the ceiling.
• Keep your spine in a neutral position.
• Engage your core and raise one bent leg off the floor; try to avoid sinking into the opposite hip or rotating your trunk.
• Pause, then lower the lifted leg back down.

9. Glute Bridge

Muscles Worked: Abs, glutes, and hips

• Begin by lying on your back with your knees bent and feet hip-width apart and flat on the floor.
• Engage your core, press your feet into the floor, and lift your hips up, contracting your glutes as you press upwards.
• Press up only as high as you can before your back begins to arch.
• Pause, then lower your back slowly until it’s flat on the floor.

10. High Plank T-Spine Rotation

Muscles Worked: Abs and shoulders

• Begin in a position.
• Press your right hand into the floor and lift the left hand up.
• Keeping your left arm straight, twist the hips and shoulders to the left, raising the left arm towards the ceiling.
• Pause, then bring your left arm back to the floor and switch sides.

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An ankle injury can stop you in your tracks, making running painful or even impossible. Injuries at and below the knee make up approximately of all running-related injuries in athletes of all genders, and the ankle is the second most likely spot (after the knee) to get hurt. But most of the common ankle injuries, like —which is caused by repetitive stress to the tendon that connects the heel to the calf—can be prevented.

By spending just a few minutes a week building mobility and strength, you can stop most overuse injuries from interfering with your running goals.

“I always ask my clients if they’re warming up before a run because that’s the most modifiable thing we can do to prevent injury,” says ,Ěýa physical therapist based in Toronto, Canada.

Your ankles are made to flex and extend as you run and absorb the shock of repeated foot strikes on the pavement. But if the ankle joint’s range of motion is limited or the surrounding muscles aren’t strong enough to withstand the impact, they can’t do their job properly.

“A lot of runners wait too late to start doing this preventative work,” says London. Even if you have never had ankle pain or injuries, focusing on maintaining the health of your joints can keep you moving well through your weekly 5K or to the finish line of your next marathon.

The Anatomy of Your Ankle

Your is a hinge joint, which means it can move forward and back in one plane of motion—unlike the ball-and-socket joints of the hip and shoulder, which can do that and move side to side or rotationally.

Surrounding the ankle joint are muscles, including the calf, tibialis (anterior and posterior), and peroneals, which flex and extend to move your foot. The soft tissue of the ankle’s ligaments connects the ankle bones (like the tibia, fibula, and talus) to one another and stabilizes the joint. Tendons, such as the Achilles, connect the ankle muscles to the bones. Finally, cartilage, which covers the ends of your bones, acts as a shock absorber.

When your foot strikes the ground, the ankle flexes (dorsiflexion, when your toes are pointed upwards) and absorbs the impact, explains London. The ankle extends (plantarflexion, when your toes are pointed downwards) when you push off from the ground to push forward.

Common Ankle-Related Injuries

Your body is a kinetic chain, which means all the muscles, tendons, and bones are connected and work together. Weak or limited ankles don’t just impact a single joint; they can cause issues across your body. Because your ankles help you maintain balance, weakness or tightness can lead to instability when standing or moving. Added wobbliness will make you more prone to acute injuries from tripping or falling or cause knee pain and muscular imbalances from placing more weight on one limb.

Sprains

Sprains are among the most common acute ankle injuries in runners. Low ankle sprains usually occur when a runner rolls or twists their ankle inward or outward while moving.ĚýSprains can be relatively minor (a pull or strain in a ligament) or more significant (a partial or full tear of the ligament).

High Ankle Sprains

are less common and occur when the ankle is dorsiflexed (toes pointed up) and turns inward or outward at the same time, often caused by a quick change in direction while running or jumping. Though this is more likely in sports like football and soccer, it can also happen to runners, especially in activities with uneven terrainĚýor where quick pivots are necessary, like obstacle course racing.

Stress Fractures and Shin Splints

Overuse can also lead to ankle injuries like stress fractures, which are small cracks in the bone, and Achilles tendinopathy. London says shin splints, characterized by pain along the inside of the shin bone that tends to feel worse with dorsiflexion, are one of the biggest complaints from the runners he treats. Caused by repetitive activity like running, shin splints are an inflammation of the muscles and tendons around the tibia.

Signs of Limited Mobility and Poor Ankle Strength

While noticeable stiffness and discomfort can signal mobility issues, there are other less obvious ways to spot concerns.

Tight Calves

Feeling tenseness or strain in your calves indicates a limited range of motion in your ankles. To check the flexibility of your calves, try standing on the edge of a stair and seeing how low you can drop one heel. “If you can only slightly drop below the edge, you’re really tight through that foot,” London says.

Losing Balance Easily

When assessing a client’s ankle mobility and strength, London first asks them to stand on one foot. If they can do that without losing balance, he hands them a weight and asks them to move it from hand to hand so their center of mass shifts as they balance, forcing them to work harder to stabilize the foot of the standing leg. London isn’t just looking for whether the ankle moves inward or outward but whether the client has enough control to bring it back to center.

If the knee of the standing leg caves inward along with the ankle, that’s also a sign that there may be some ankle weakness and that the knee may be in danger of sustaining an injury when you run.

Stiff Ankles

For another at-home mobility test, you can also try squatting with your toes pointed forward; if you have to spin your feet out to the sides, that’s a sign of ankle stiffness.

7 Moves to Build Ankle Strength and Improve Mobility

You can prevent and rehab from a lot of ankle injuries by improving your ankles’ range of motion and ability to absorb impact.

“Most running injuries are caused by overuse,” says London. By building the strength of your muscles, you also improve the strength of your tendons and ligaments, allowing them to take more impact before sustaining injury. That makes it more likely you can run longer and, more often, pain-free.Ěý“Strength training allows you to do more,” London adds. “It’s really about having a foot that’s mobile but also strong.”

Mobility work primes your muscles for movement, increasing blood flow to the area and warming up the muscles. Performed before a run, they help increase your range of motion and can help prevent injury. Many ankle mobility exercises can be modified to strength exercises by slowing them down, doing additional reps, or adding weight.

Five to ten minutes of mobility work (including ankles, hips, and shoulders) before your run is a great starting point to ensure “you’re not over-fatiguing, you’re just priming the system,” says London. You can do the strength exercises twice a week as part of any other strength routine.

Perform the two dedicated mobility moves first, then do one set of each of the moves labeled “Mobility or Strength” as mobility exercises before adding weight or time. Try to do sets of around 12-15 reps, which will fatigue the muscles and help build endurance.

Watch this video to see a compilation of all the ankle strength and mobility moves explained in this article. (Video by Brad Kaminski)

1. Banded Ankle Mobilization

Move Type: Mobility

:

• Place a step or a low box about two feet away from an anchor point (the leg of a couch, a stair railing, or a squat rack).
• Loop a long resistance band around the anchor point.
• Place your right foot on the step and your left knee on the ground so your legs are both forming 90-degree angles, as in a deep lunge.
• Grab the end of the resistance band and loop it over the top of your right foot, right below the hinge point of your ankle joint. Deeply bend your right knee forward, bringing your knee over your toes.
• Pause for three to five seconds at the endpoint, then return to the start.
• Do 30 seconds of deep bends on one side before switching sides.

2. Pogo Hops

Move Type: Mobility

:

• Begin standing with your feet hip-width apart.
• Push off the balls of your feet and begin doing quick, short jumps, keeping your knees straight but not fully locked throughout the movement. Continue for 30 seconds.

You can jump forward, backward, and side to side as you get comfortable. You can also do this on one leg, jumping on one side for 30 seconds and immediately switching to the other.

3. Heel Walks

Move Type: Mobility or Strength

Heel walks warm up the tibialis anterior, which runs along the front of the shin and is primarily responsible for ankle dorsiflexion.

:

• Walk for 30 seconds with only the heels of your feet touching the ground, taking short steps. Draw your toes up as high as possible as you walk.

4. Toe Walks

Move Type: Mobility or Strength

Toe walks help warm up your muscles in the calf and those through your feet and prime your ankles for plantar flexion.

:

• After 30 seconds on your heels (from your heel walk), switch to walking on your toes for 30 seconds.

Make it a Strength Move: Hold a dumbbell in each hand as you walk

5. Single-Leg Calf Raises

Move Type: Mobility or Strength

:

• Stand on a step allowing only the balls of your feet to be planted on the step (your heels will be hovering behind the step).
• Lift your right foot slightly.
• Holding onto a wall or railing for balance, slowly lower the heel of the left foot until you feel a stretch in your left calf. Press through the ball of your left foot to bring the heel back up and rise up onto the toes of your left foot.
• Slowly lower and repeat.
• Do 30 seconds of raises on one leg before switching legs.

Make it a Strength Move: To improve calf strength and help protect the Achilles tendon, slow down the heel drop, lowering for five seconds before coming back to neutral and onto the toes.

6. Tibialis Raises

Move Type: Strength

:

• Stand with your back against a wall, feet flat on the floor, and hip-width distance apart. The first time you try this, bring your feet just about a foot away from the wall.
• Keeping your legs straight, slowly pull your toes off the floor, continuing to pull and engage the shin muscles until only your heels are in contact with the floor.
• Pause, then slowly lower down.
• Do one or two sets of 12-15 reps on days when you are not running, with 30 seconds of rest in between sets.

To increase the difficulty: You can make this move more challenging by bringing your feet further from the wall.

7. Single-Leg Deadlift

Move Type: Strength

:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart; keep a soft bend in both knees.
• Shift your weight to your left leg and lift your right foot off the ground.
• Tighten your core, hinge at the hips, and kick your right leg behind you.
• With your hands crossed over your chest, lower your torso down towards the floor until both your torso and right leg are in a straight line and parallel to the floor.
• Do two sets of 12-15 reps on each side with 30 seconds rest between sets.

To increase the difficulty: Grab some free weights and hold one in each hand. Another option: hold one free weight in the hand opposite your lifted leg—if you put a weight in your right hand, your left leg would be raised—then switch sides.

Want more ofĚýšú˛úłÔšĎşÚÁĎ’s Health stories?Ěý.

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Moving your bike indoors for the winter can feel uninspiring. There’s no scenery to gaze at, no cycling crew to keep you company, and no changes in terrain to keep things interesting. But there’s also less time spent layering up, fewer frozen fingers, and no junk miles commuting from home to your starting point.

Instead of thinking of as a necessary evil during the winter months, consider the benefits: You don’t have to worry about slipping on ice or navigating around cars, pedestrians, and pets. You can adjust the temperature indoors, making it warmer to mimic summer races or turning on a fan if you need to cool off. With fewer distractions and more control over your environment, you can get really dialed in with your training.

While outdoor cycling allows you to practice bike handling and climbing and descending hills, indoor training is great for honing your pedaling efficiency and cadence.

How to Choose Indoor Cycling Equipment

There’s no match for your own bike, especially if it’s been fitted to your body and has a seat you can comfortably sit on for hours. If you want to keep riding the same bike indoors, you can mount it on a bike trainer or rollers.

Bike trainers fall into two main categories: and . A wheel-on trainer attaches to your bike’s rear wheel and uses a metal roller pressed against the tire to add resistance. With a direct-drive trainer, you remove your rear wheel and set your bike on the trainer’s cassette. Wheel-on trainers can quickly wear out your back tire, but they also tend to be more affordable; direct-drive trainers, which are larger and heavier, provide a smoother ride.

Rollers sit flat on the floor and include three long cylinders attached to a metal frame. While you ride, your wheels spin the cylinders, offering a realistic road-feel. This apparatus requires more balance and skill to stay upright than other indoor cycling options.

While it won’t replicate your outdoor riding experience as closely, , a coach and training specialist with Peloton, says a stationary bike can also help you build your overall endurance. “When you’re focusing on general fitness, just getting on a bike and pedaling is like 90 percent of the battle,” he says.

Unlike devices that attach to your normal bike, a stationary bike is a separate piece of equipment specifically meant for cycling indoors. Your pedal strokes spin a flywheel at the front of the machine. Depending on the model you’re using, you can turn a knob or pull a lever to adjust your level of resistance. There are a few different types of stationary bikes, including upright (which most closely resembles a regular bike), recumbent (with a reclined seat), and dual-action (the handlebars move back and forth, offering an additional upper body workout). Upright and dual-action bikes will feel most similar to your outdoor bike, but if you have back pain, the reclined seat of a recumbent bike offers more comfort and support.

Set a Goal

When your outdoor cycling season ends, Wilpers says that’s the time to set your goals for the coming year. “It puts a flag in the ground to say, ‘OK I need to be ready for this,’” he says. “It gives purpose to your workouts.”

If there’s a bike race on your calendar, plan your training program around your main race (your “A” race). Think about where you want your fitness to be by that race, and work backwards to where you are now. You’ll want to start your first phase of training about six months before race day. If your aim is to simply ride more, or be able to ride a certain distance, there’s still value in sticking to a structured training program to stay motivated.

“The difference between training and exercising is simply having a goal, and I think you need to have your goal in mind to really start getting the most out of your training,” says Wilpers. “That makes you less likely to miss a training day and more likely to have a higher quality session.”

Focus on Technique

While training indoors, pay attention to where you’re feeling the work of pedaling. You should primarily be using the big muscles of your glutes, quads, and hamstrings, rather than smaller muscles like your calves. If you’re feeling it in your knees, that could be a sign that you’re “just mashing the pedals,” Wilpers says.

While your legs power your pedals, your core is responsible for keeping the other half of your body upright and balanced on two wheels. Activate your core to control your hips in the saddle and avoid bouncing or rocking when you’re riding at a higher speed, Wilpers says. You should also be drawing on your core strength and stability to initiate your pedal stroke and take some of your upper body weight off of your handlebars.

Warm Up

Regardless of your training phase, Wilpers recommends a five-minute warmup that starts with an easy pedal for about a minute. Follow that with three to four minutes of spin-ups for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off of building to a higher and higher cadence, then slowly backing down. “Being able to quickly turn over the pedals and apply force to the pedals is what makes a cyclist fast,” says Wilpers.

You can also add in some single-leg pedaling drills, which can help identify and correct power imbalances. Unclip one foot from your pedal and pedal with one leg, paying attention to any spots where you lose power. Start with one minute on each leg.

Indoor Training Phases

To best prepare for spring and summer rides, your training cycle should have two phases: base (which begins about six months before a goal race) and build (which starts about 12 to 16 weeks before your goal race). During base training, your focus will be on increasing your aerobic fitness and endurance as well as pedal stroke efficiency. The build phase “relies on a strong aerobic engine and foundation built in the base phase,” says Wilpers. In this phase, the volume and intensity will increase.

Base Training

During base training, which should last about six to 12 weeks, you’ll focus on upping your fitness and overall cardiovascular capacity. Wilpers suggests aiming for threeĚýworkouts a week. You can sub out one ride a week with other endurance exercises, like running or swimming.

“If you’re in base training, everything needs to be endurance,” says Wilpers. That doesn’t mean purely long, slow distance rides though. While one ride a week should be your long ride, the others should include high-intensity interval training. Those rides, which can be kept to about an hour, should include several intervals around eight minutes long (you can build up to 15-minute intervals) which feel like a seven on the one-to-ten scale of rate of perceived exertion (RPE).

You can throw in some sweet-spot training as well, which helps increase your aerobic capacity. This entails riding at about 88 to 94 percent of your functional threshold power (FTP), or the maximum amount of power you can sustain for an hour at a time. Start with four eight-minute intervals or two 15-minute intervals, resting four minutes or seven minutes between each interval. These intervals should also feel like about a seven in terms of your rate of perceived exertion.

“Sweet-spot training is considered one of the most beneficial intensities to train at to start bumping up your FTP,” says Wilpers. “I like using sweet-spot training at the tail end of base training because you are starting to get hungry for more intensity…but it’s not yet time to make that jump into the build phase.”

During the base phase, recovery is particularly important to ensure you don’t get injured or burn out before your training can really begin. As you get older, Wilpers says, it becomes more challenging for your body to absorb the work you’re doing and adapt to training intensity.

Build Training

Your build phase should start about 12 to 16 weeks before your goal race and last around six to eight weeks. Aim for two to three 60- to 90-minute long high-intensity workouts per week, in addition to your longer endurance ride. During this phase, you’re bumping up the volume and intensity. VO2 Max intervals—riding in a zone five level of intensity, where your heart rate is at about 90 to 100 percent of your max—should be around five minutes. Threshold intervals—in which you’re riding at the highest level of power you can sustain on an hour-long ride—should be about eight to ten minutes with recovery between intervals at about half the time spent working. Aim for an RPE between seven and eight.

Training should start getting more race-specific as well. Consider the elevation of the course and add hills accordingly, and increase long rides to get closer to the amount of time you anticipate riding during your peak race.

The Pillars of Off-Season Training

Frequency: Find a schedule you can stick to. How much time can you realistically devote to training? “If you over-schedule yourself and you can’t stay consistent, nothing is going to happen,” Wilpers says. “You’re just going to get frustrated.” Three sessions a week is ideal, but during your base phase, you can swap one of those for another kind of cardio you enjoy.

Duration: Start with easy endurance work and gradually increase the length of your workouts as you progress. Even if your goal race will have you in the saddle for several hours, don’t spend your entire off-season just pedaling slowly for hours at a time. “You want to show up on race day ready to race and excited,” says Wilpers. “But if you’re just doing endurance rides for 24 weeks, you’re going to get to the race and be like ‘I’m already over it.’” Instead, schedule two of your weekly sessions to be around an hour long and use that time to work on interval training, which will increase your pedaling power and endurance.

Intensity: Unlike frequency and duration, intensity is a bit subjective. How hard does your workout feel? If you plan for one ride per week to be low intensity, the other two (or three) should incorporate intervals at a higher intensity, which can include increasing your speed, shifting your cadence, and adding hill work.

Strength Training

You can build strength both on and off the bike.

On the bike, you can build strength with muscle tension or high-force intervals. Add an incline on the bike (or get into a higher gear) and take your cadence into the 50s or 60s, pedaling slowly “so you’re getting lots of muscle fiber activation,” says Wilpers. Try to hold that cadence and power for five to six minutes, building up to about 20 minutes. Muscle tension riding is great for building glute strength, something cyclists often neglect in favor of their quads and hamstrings. When you head back to higher cadence rides and sprints, this should make your pedal stroke even more efficient.

Off the bike, Wilpers suggests focusing on the “main movers”—the glutes, quads, and hamstrings—to increase force production on your pedals. Think: squats and deadlifts and cleans. Unilateral (single-leg) work will help ensure you’re building strength in both legs, rather than allowing one side to handle the bulk of the work. It can also help correct any muscular imbalances you may have developed during the racing season. For upper body work, add in bench presses, overhead presses, lat pull-downs, and rows.

Wilpers recommends at least two or three total-body strength sessions per week, depending on your training phase. During early base training, the addition of a third session can “help enhance strength improvements while your cycling training is just getting started,” he says. As your cycling training gets more demanding, decrease the volume and intensity of your strength workouts and switch to just two sessions per week to maintain the muscle you’ve built.

“A good indication that it’s time to dial back the strength training to strength maintenance is when you feel that residual fatigue and/or soreness from strength sessions is starting to interfere with your cycling training,” Wilpers says.

Rest and Recovery

Wilpers recommends at least one rest day a week, adding more based on how hard you’ve pushed yourself and your overall health and stress levels.

“Every athlete has a different rate of adaptation or absorption, and that will change as your life changes,” says Wilpers.

Rest doesn’t have to mean melting into the couch, though. You can use that time to focus on mobility work or do a low-impact workout you enjoy like yoga.

It’s tempting to assume that only professional athletes need dedicated rest days. But shifting your thinking about why and how you train may be the key to getting the most from your time on the bike and avoiding burnout.

“People say ‘I’m not an athlete.’ Well if you’re training, you’re an athlete,” says Wilpers.

The post How to Optimize Your Indoor Cycling, According to a Peloton Coach appeared first on šú˛úłÔšĎşÚÁĎ Online.

If your lower back or knees ache at the end of a long day on the slopes, you may have limited hip mobility.

Compromised range of motion in the hips can be “a silent culprit” for pain elsewhere in the body, says Mandie Majerus, a physical therapist with in Kirkland, Washington, and co-founder of the , an online ski and snowboard training program designed by physical therapists to improve performance and reduce injuries. If you lack mobility in your hips, “your body is going to find it somewhere else,” Majerus says.

Majerus has been working on the medical team for World Cup ski races and training camps for 14 years. During that time, she has noticed a consistent trait in the athletes who top the podiums: “They wake up, do their hip mobility work, go ski, and then come right back to the gym to do their cooldown.”

For the rest of us, dedicating even a few minutes a week to improving our hips’ range of motion and stability can have a meaningful impact on ski performance, longevity in the sport, and overall health.

How Do Your Hips Move When You Ski?

Think of your hips as “the steering wheel of your lower body,” says Majerus. Each turn is initiated from the hips. As you carve, your hips alternate between abduction (the movement of the leg away from the body) and adduction (the movement of the leg towards the body), or external and internal rotation.

If your hip mobility is compromised and you can’t rotate well, you’ll be less effective at turning your skis, Majerus says. As a result, you’ll start relying on your back to power these movements, which can lead to aches and pains.

Similarly, if you’re lacking mobility and stability in your hip muscles (including the glutes, adductors, hamstrings, and hip flexors), “that load all goes into your quads and therefore your knees,” explains Majerus.

About one third of all alpine ski injuries occur in the knee, with the majority impacting the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), according to published in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. These injuries often occur when we catch or lose an edge in a turn, or fall backwards. But there’s evidence that strong hip muscles can lower your risk of knee injury. A 2015 study published in the found that lower preseason hip abduction and external rotation strength increased the risk of suffering a non-contact ACL injury during the competitive season.

Even if you stick to groomers, you’re likely to encounter some uneven terrain. Your hips are responsible for absorbing the shock of those bumps, maintaining your center of gravity, and helping you adjust quickly to ice and bare patches.

When Can You Work Through Discomfort and When Should You Seek Help?

If you experience a nagging ache while skiing or develop a new acute pain when you stand up at the end of après, you may need professional help, Majerus says.

She suggests following a traffic light scale to determine if you can keep skiing or if it’s better to take a break. Green would be “no pain.” Yellow should register at about a four out of ten on the pain scale, when you can ski through a small amount of discomfort that doesn’t seem to be increasing. Red is when your gut tells you not to keep pushing, or when there is localized swelling, pain, or warmth; that’s when it’s time to rest and seek care from an orthopedist or physical therapist.

The Moves

Majerus suggests starting to work on hip mobility and stability at least two to four weeks before your ski season begins with two to three sessions a week, then repeating your exercises two to three times a week throughout the season. (The couch stretch can be done daily). You can do this routine—which promotes mobility, flexibility, and stability—in the morning or evening. Just be sure to do it at a time of day when you’re able to pay close attention to how your body feels as you move.

Before you head out for a powder day, be sure to do a dynamic warmup. Once you’re off the slopes, give your hips some extra care and attention.

“Instead of coming home from a day of skiing and then just grabbing a beer and sitting on the couch, do a couple of hip stretches and maybe some foam rolling,” says Majerus.

Hip Hinge

How it helps: Ensures your hips are hinging correctly before you load them with your body-weight while skiing

Begin by standing with your back to a wall or other vertical surface, like the side of a box. Step a few inches away from the wall (about the length of one of your feet). Your feet should be hip-width apart and your arms can be crossed over your chest or held straight out in front of you. Maintaining a straight back, bend slightly at your knees and hinge at your hips to push your rear back until it taps the wall, then return to standing. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings throughout the movement. If you are unable to tap the wall, try moving a little closer. Perform two sets of ten reps.

You can progress this movement by stepping farther away from the wall, or by holding a kettlebell at your chest.

Supine Hip Internal Rotation Stretch

How it helps: Improves internal hip rotation

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Your feet should be about two feet apart (if you’re on a yoga mat, they should be just outside the edges of your mat). Let both knees drop towards the same side until you feel a stretch on the outside of your hip. Repeat on the other side. Hold about five seconds for each rep, repeating ten times on each side.

Side Lying Hip Abduction with Wall Support

How it helps: Strengthens hip abductors

Lie on your side with your back pressed against a wall. You can either rest your head on your bottom arm or cradle it in your hand to support your neck. Straighten your top leg and allow a slight bend in your bottom leg. Raise your top leg up, sliding your heel along the wall, and stop before your upper leg rotates or pulls away from the wall. Then, lower it back down. You should feel this movement primarily in your glutes. Complete ten reps on one side before switching sides. Perform two or three sets.

To make this exercise more challenging, move your upper body slightly away from the wall but keep the heel of the top leg in contact with the wall as you raise and lower. When you’re ready to progress from there, you can try this move without wall support.

AirplaneĚý

How it helps: Improves hip rotation

Stand on one leg with a slight bend in your knee, hinge forward at your hips, and raise your opposite leg slightly so your foot hovers over the floor. Maintain tension through the raised leg. With your arms outstretched to the sides like airplane wings, twist your torso towards the standing leg, aiming for about a 45-degree angle, allowing the opposite hip to drop slightly. (If balancing in this position is challenging, try performing it next to a couch, chair, or countertop and holding on for added stability). Return to center, then twist and open your torso towards the opposite side, aiming for about a 10-degree angle only. You should feel this movement primarily in the glute, hamstring, and quad of the standing leg. Perform one set of ten reps, completing all reps on one side before switching sides.

Bulgarian Split SquatĚýĚý

How it helps: Teaches you to properly engage your glute muscles during movement

Stand about two feet in front of a bench or a chair, facing away from it, with your feet hip-width apart. Lift one leg, bend at the knee, and place the top of that foot on the flat surface behind you. You can cross your arms at your chest or extend them in front of you. Engage your core and begin to lower your butt towards the ground, bending the knee of your standing leg,Ěýand allowing a slight hinge at your hips. Your opposite leg should bend as well, but most of your weight should be in your front leg as you lower into the squat. Continue to lower, making sure the knee of your front leg stays in line with your ankle, until your front thigh is parallel with the floor. Press the foot of your standing leg into the floor to return to standing. Keep your back leg elevated on the bench throughout the entire set. You should feel this movement primarily in the quads, hamstrings, and glutes of your front leg. Complete ten reps on one side before switching sides. Perform two sets on each side.

You can make this movement more challenging by adding an isometric hold at the bottom of the last rep of each set for about 20 seconds.

Couch Stretch

How it helps: Opens up the hips and helps relieve tight hip flexors

Begin in a kneeling position facing away from a couch or chair. Bend one leg and rest the top of that foot on the couch or chair. Step your opposite leg forward to form a 90-degree angle, with your foot flat on the floor. Engage your core and glutes, keep an upright torso with your shoulders over your hips, and push your hips forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your hip and thigh. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds for two sets on each side. You can do this movement daily to maintain flexibility in your hip flexors.

The post The Secret to Better Skiing? Hip Mobility. appeared first on šú˛úłÔšĎşÚÁĎ Online.

If you’re used to following a fitness program, the prospect of taking a break over the holidays can feel daunting. Will all that time spent sitting in airport terminals or melting into the couch set you back in your training? Will you return from vacation a slower, weaker athlete?

Let’s start with the good news: A short break from working out can actually be helpful. “As long as you’re staying consistent before then, taking a three- or four-day rest is actually going to be a net positive because you’re giving your body that time to recover,” says Grayson Wickham, a doctor of physical therapyĚýand the founder of , a stretching app and website.

During a break from exercise, cardiovascular capacity typically declines faster than strength, but even that reduction in aerobic fitness takes longer than you may think. A 2024 meta-analysis published in the journal suggests that it takes at least 12 days of not training before your VO2 max starts to decrease. You have even more leeway when it comes to strength training. The researchers behind a 2024 study published in the say that people who lift regularly “should not be too concerned” about taking up to ten weeks off once a year.

But this doesn’t mean you should be sedentary for the duration of your vacation either, as prolonged sitting may lead to muscle and joint , which can make everyday tasks difficult or uncomfortable. A little movement can go a long way.

Yes, Body-Weight Workouts Still Count

Body-weight exercises might sound easy for experienced athletes. But there are three levers you can pull to make an on-the-road workout harder: eccentrics, isometrics, and plyometrics. “Varying your exercise choice, as well as tempo and speed, can make your workout more challenging and lead to increased strength, power, and hypertrophy,” Wickham says. Ěý

Eccentric training involves controlling a weight (including your body-weight) as it moves downward (think: lowering into a squat or a pushup, or bringing a weight back down after an overhead press). Focusing on the eccentric portion of an exercise can also lead to greater “as there is typically more muscle damage elicited during the exercise” rather than at a typical speed, Wickham explains.

Isometric holds involve while keeping its length constant. When performed at a joint’s end range of motion—like the bottom of a squat or the top of an overhead press—isometric holds “are very effective for improving mobility and range of motion,” Wickham says. This will then lead to increased joint stability and injury prevention potential, he adds.

—jumping movements that challenge you to quickly exert force and target your fast-twitch muscle fibers—“are great at improving power as you are now taking a movement and then increasing the speed at which you are performing it,” Wickham says. During this type of training, your muscles need to control the descent back to the ground, he adds. Plyometrics particularly benefit athletes whose sports rely on fast, forceful movements (think: tennis, martial arts, sprinting).

If you’re primarily focused on training for one sport, you can structure your body-weight workouts in service of that goal. Cyclists, for example, can focus on leg exercises and may want to do higher rep sets to improve muscular endurance.

If you’re a higher level athlete or otherwise concerned about straying from your usual schedule, plan ahead by building in a de-load or taper week to coincide with the holiday break.

The Moves

These exercises cover five fundamental movement patterns typically used while training and performing everyday tasks: squat, lunge, hinge, push, and pull.

Build your own workout(s) by choosing one or two moves from each category. Each basic exercise can be enhanced by slowing down the eccentric movement, holding an isometric pause, or adding a plyometric component.

Any amount of time spent working out is great, but try to fit in a session that’s 20 minutes or longer if possible.

For each exercise, complete three or four sets of eight to twelve repetitions with about 60 seconds between sets.

Squat

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and hands by your sides. Engaging your core, hinge at the hips and bend your knees at the same time. As you lower into the squat, keep your arms straight and raise them to chest height. Keep your gaze straight ahead as you maintain a flat back and proud chest. When you’re ready to rise back to standing, press your feet into the floor and imagine that you’re trying to pull the floor beneath your feet apart. This will help keep your knees from caving in as you stand back up.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Try lowering for a count of three.

Isometric

Hold a two-second pause at the bottom.

Plyometric

At the bottom of the squat, bring your straight arms slightly behind you, then quickly bring them forward and use them to help you drive your body up from the floor. Extend your legs as you rise so your ankles, knees, and hips are at full extension in the air. Land with control and then repeat.

Reverse Lunge

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and arms by your sides. Take a big step back with your right leg and bend both knees so your legs form 90-degree angles, bringing your arms to 90-degree angles by your sides. Your right knee should hover an inch above the floor, and the majority of your weight should be in your left leg (if you’re feeling this more in your right leg, try leaning your torso slightly forward). Press through your left foot and straighten both legs as you return your right leg to standing and let your arms hang by your sides. Complete all reps on one side before switching sides.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Lower into each lunge to a count of three.

Isometric

Hold at two-second pause at the bottom of the lunge, keeping your back leg hovering just above the ground.

Plyometric

For this one, you’ll switch legs after each rep. At the bottom of the lunge, press into both feet and jump up, coming to full extension of the ankle, knee, and hip in the air. Land with the opposite leg in front and lower into a lunge on that side. Keep switching back and forth.

Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and a soft bend in both knees. Shift your weight to your left leg and hover your right foot off the ground. Engage your core and hinge at your hips as you kick your right leg back behind you. Lower until your torso and leg are in a straight line and parallel with the floor. You can keep your hands clasped at your chest for the duration of this movement. To make this move more challenging, hold a weight or another household item, like a water bottle or book, in each hand. Alternatively, you could hold a single weight in the hand on the same side as the elevated leg. Maintain a flat back throughout the movement. Switch sides.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Lower to parallel to a count of three.

Isometric

Pause for two seconds at the bottom of the hinge.

Plyometric

Romanian deadlifts should be slow and controlled but you can similarly challenge your hip hinge with a box jump or broad jump. For a box jump, use a sturdy platform like a stair or bench. Stand with your feet parallel in front of the platform, bend your knees, and jump up, landing with your hips and knees in flexion. Stand up and step back down. For a broad jump, choose a spot on the floor in front of you, and bounding off both feet at the same time, jump toward that spot. Land with your hips and knees in flexion, then stand up, turn around, and jump the other way.

Push-Up

To do a standard push-up, begin on the floor on all fours, your hands shoulder-width apart. Step one leg back at a time so you’re in a plank position. Bending your elbows out to the sides, slowly lower your body in a straight line without arching your lower back or raising your hips. When your torso is just above the floor, press your palms into the floor and rise back up to plank position.

In addition to doing traditional modified push-ups on your knees, there are several other ways that you can make the basic push-up easier.

• Elevated push-up: Place your hands on a chair (as long as that chair is pressed against a wall) or similar elevated surface. To make this even easier, stand with your hands pressed into a wall.
• Banded push-up: If you have a resistance band, place it around both arms, just above your elbows (a long loop band may need to be wrapped around twice). As you lower into the push-up, the band will help you press back up to the top.
• : Begin by sitting on the floor on your knees. Walk your hands out in front of you until your back is flat, keeping your knees and toes planted on the floor. Bend your elbows and lower your body all the way to the floor. When your chest touches the floor, pause, lift your hands one inch off the floor, place them back down, and push yourself back up.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Lower for a count of three (you can do this as a hand-release push-up as well).

Isometric

Hover just above the floor for two seconds before pressing back to the start position.

Plyometric

Plyometric push-ups are a particularly advanced move when done on the floor. Try this move first by beginning in an elevated push-up stance as explained above. Lower your chest towards the bench or other sturdy elevated surface, keeping your elbows pressed into the sides of your torso. Press your hands into the bench and try to explosively push your body away from the bench, extending your arms straight as you rise; your hands should be off the bench for a brief second before landing back into push-up position. That’s one rep.

Resistance Band Rows

Pulling pattern movements are going to be most effective with something to pull onto. If you can slip a long resistance band (loop- or handle-style) into your bag, there’s a lot you can add to your workouts.

You can do these two ways: horizontal row and vertical row.

For the horizontal row, attach one end of a resistance band to a sturdy anchor point at about chest height (this might mean kneeling to use a door knob or table leg, or standing and closing a door on the band). Grip the opposite end of the band in both hands, keeping your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width. Drawing your shoulder blades together and engaging your lats, pull your elbows back. Hold, then return to the starting position.

For the vertical row, stand with your feet hip-width apart, one end of the looped band under your feet. Grip the opposite end with both hands about shoulder-width apart. Keeping an upright torso, draw your elbows high, pulling the band up towards your chin. Hold, then slowly return.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Resist the band for a count of three as you return to your starting position.

Isometric

Hold for a count of two at the highest point of your row.

Plyometric

Making a banded row plyometric is challenging (especially when it’s attached to the doorframe of someone else’s home). For a plyometric pulling exercise, try attaching one end of your band to the top of a door or, if possible, a tree branch outside. Hold the opposite end of the band with two hands, shoulder-width apart. As you would on a Ski Erg machine, in one quick motion, hinge at the hips and pull the band down with force, drawing your hands towards the outsides of your hips, as you might with a pair of ski poles.

The post A Body-Weight Workout You Can Do Anywhere While Traveling appeared first on šú˛úłÔšĎşÚÁĎ Online.

Touching your toes. The standing quad hold. The overhead tricep stretch. These are the static positions our high school gym teachers taught us to warm up with before engaging in any physical activity. But to adequately prime your body for movement—whether you’re biking to work or trekking up a mountain—you have to actually get moving.

“Why would you do something passive to improve something active?” says Grayson Wickham, a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of , a mobility and stretching app. Dynamic stretching, he explains, “happens when you are moving your muscles from a shortened to a lengthened position by moving your joint in a specific direction.”

Dynamic stretches are best for warming up. These controlled movements mimic the exercises you’re about to perform in your workout, with a slower, more deliberate pace. For example, before a run, you might do a few walking high knees and arm swings. If you’re climbing, you may spend more time practicing hip-opening rotations and shoulder rolls. These movements will increase overall blood flow and minimize muscle and joint stiffness, which can during exercise.

But dynamic stretching can also help you move more easily through everyday tasks like running errands or doing household chores. “Dynamic stretching should be done every morning, not just because you’re going to work out and not just because you’re athletic, but because you’re a human,” says Marnie Adler, a Pilates instructor based in Toronto, Ontario. For the last decade her work has focused on helping clients move with greater mobility and stability, beginning workouts with purposeful dynamic stretching before progressing into more difficult moves. “It’s about getting your body moving, no matter what your plan is for the day,” she adds.

Static vs. Dynamic Stretching: Which Is Better?

Most studies on the impact of different types of stretching have small sample sizes. But the available research indicates that dynamic stretching and increases your , which better prepares your muscles for action. By decreasing muscle stiffness and increasing joint flexibility, dynamic stretching also helps .

Analyzing more than two decades of research on the topic, the authors of a published in the European Journal of Applied Psychology suggest that an optimal warm-up should include low-intensity aerobic work, followed by both dynamic stretching and sport-specific dynamic movements.

Static stretching, on the other hand, involves “stretching out a muscle and joint and then simply relaxing into the hold,” Wickham says.

Although many of us were taught to hold these positions before exercising, a growing body of research suggests that this style of warm-up can force production, endurance, speed, . A 2012 study in the found that static stretching reduced cyclists’ mechanical efficiency and caused them to tire out faster.

“From a physiologic perspective, static stretching is just passively elongating your connective tissues,” Wickham says. “After static stretching you now have a more flexible, floppy joint that lacks end range of motion stability, muscle activation, and joint control. This is a great recipe for injury as you now have even poorer joint control while performing an exercise or athletic movement.”

Wickham doesn’t consider static stretching a critical part of post-workout recovery, either, but he notes that it can be added during a rest day as a relaxation strategy.

The Moves

Adler suggests performing this set of dynamic moves before any workout or choosing the ones that best support your activity. You can also do them upon waking and before bed to mitigate muscle stiffness from sleeping or spending time sitting. The static moves can be done on a rest day or after your workout is complete.

Quads

Dynamic: Lunge with Rotation

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Take a big step forward with one foot, and bend both knees as you drop into a lunge. Your knees should both be at 90-degree angles and your back knee should be hovering just slightly above the ground. Bend your elbows at your sides and twist your torso across your front leg, then across your back leg, then back to center. That’s one rep. Come back to standing and repeat on the opposite leg. Perform 10 reps on each side.

You should feel this movement primarily in the quad of your front leg. If not, hinge your torso just slightly forward to bring more weight into your front leg.

Static: Standing Quad Stretch

You can do this move free-standing or with one hand gently pressed against a wall or lightly holding a chair for balance. Standing with feet parallel, bend your right leg, bringing your foot behind you. Reach back with your right hand and grab hold of the top of your foot. Gently pull upwards on your foot, feeling the stretch in your quad. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds before switching sides.

Hamstrings

Dynamic: Hamstring Stretch

Stand with feet hip-width apart and a slight bend in the knees. Hinge at the hips and lower your arms and torso towards the floor, keeping your legs straight enough to feel a good stretch in your hamstrings. Once your hands touch the ground, lower your hips into a deep squat. From there, raise the hips without lifting the torso (try to keep your fingertips in contact with the floor). Lower right back down into the deep squat. Continue this motion of raising and lowering the hips for ten reps.

Static: Elevated Leg Stretch

Standing with feet parallel in front of a chair, couch, or bench, lift one leg and place your heel on the elevated surface. Keeping a soft bend in your standing leg and your lifted leg straight, reach your hands towards the foot of your lifted leg and hold for 30 to 60 seconds. You should feel a gentle stretch in the back of the lifted leg.

Hips

Dynamic: Hip CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations)

Begin on all fours. Keeping your torso centered and stable and without collapsing to one side, lift your bent right leg and draw the knee in towards your right elbow, then out to the side, then back, ending with your leg behind you, knee bent and heel pointed towards the ceiling. Bring the knee back to the ground to complete the motion. Then reverse it. You should feel this movement in your hip flexors and glutes, and it should feel like you’re rotating your leg through the entire range of motion of your hip joint. That’s one rep. Complete ten reps.

Note: You can also do this move standing if being on your knees is uncomfortable. You can gently hold onto a static object to help with balance.

Static: Wall V-Stretch

Lying on your back with your butt and legs pressed up against a wall, open your legs into a wide V position. You can gently press out on your inner thighs with your hands to deepen the stretch. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.

You should feel a stretch in your inner thighs and hip flexors.

Shoulders

Dynamic: Shoulder Rolls

With your arms by your sides or outstretched, draw your shoulders up towards your ears, then down your back, feeling your shoulder blades rise and lower. After doing 10 reps backward, switch directions for 10 reps forward. Lastly, raise your arms overhead and draw your shoulders up, then release them back down. You should feel this in the front and back of your shoulders (anterior and rear delts) and your lats. Perform 10 reps overhead.

Static: Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch

Begin with your arms hanging by your sides. Raise and reach your right arm across your chest. Grasp your upper right arm just above the elbow with your left hand and gently pull your arm to deepen the stretch. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.

You should feel this in the back of your shoulders and lats.

Core and Spine

Dynamic: Roll-Down and Roll-Up

Begin in a seated position with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Your legs should be hip-width apart. Extend your arms in front of you. Begin to slowly roll your torso down towards the mat, keeping your core braced as you go, controlling through the entire range of motion. Once you reach the mat, inhale, exhale, and begin to slowly roll back up. That’s one rep. Complete ten reps.

This move should gently challenge your core stability and warm up the muscles that surround your spine. If you feel a strain or discomfort in your lower back, shorten your range of motion; instead of lowering all the way to the mat, stop about halfway down and then roll back up.

Static: Child’s Pose and Shell Stretch

Begin on the floor in a kneeling position. Bring your knees wide and your toes together, and sit your butt back on your heels. Walk your hands out in front of you until you’re folded forward at the hips. Maintain a neutral neck position, with your eyes looking at the floor directly beneath your head. Tilt your tailbone back towards your heels. Hold that stretch. Then reach your hands forward and let your tailbone rock forward. Hold that position. Repeat, shifting your tailbone back and forth with a hold at each end range, for 30 to 60 seconds.

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Learning to ride a bike can be your first taste of freedom. Suddenly, the world beyond your front door opens up, ready to be explored on two wheels.

But for Marley Blonsky it wasn’t that simple. Back when she was eight years old, trying to ride with her older sister and her friends, she was told she was too slow. “I always wanted to be part of the club,” she says. “It felt like something I was constantly striving for and not really accomplishing.”

As an adult, Blonsky, 38, faced similar barriers—and some new ones she hadn’t anticipated. She found that the weight limits on most road bikes were too low for her; her rides were hampered by broken spokes and cracked saddle rails. Most cycling-apparel brands had limited sizing, so she struggled to find comfortable jerseys and bibs. On group rides, she felt that familiar sensation of being left behind.

So she did something about it. In 2021, along with Kailey Kornhauser, Blonsky founded , a club that welcomes riders regardless of their size, gender, race, or ability. Over the past three years, the group has expanded to ten chapters, with plans to add nearly 30 more by 2027. Each chapter is encouraged to organize rides, collaborate with other bike-advocacy organizations in its area, and host events like gear swaps and fix-a-flat clinics. “We don’t care why you’re riding a bike,” she says. “We just want to empower you to do it joyfully.”

In 2024, All Bodies on Bikes led several bike-camping trips (the one hosted by the Kansas City chapter had 50 riders) and cohosted the biggest finish-line party in gravel cycling: the DFL party (for Dead Fucking Last) at MidSouth Gravel. Looking forward, the organization’s strategic plan includes establishing industry standards for weight limits on bikes and components, pushing brands to represent a greater range of sizes in their advertising, and creating a retail certification for bike shops to let would-be clients know that “this shop is knowledgeable in working with customers of size and will treat you with dignity and respect,” Blonsky says.

By creating a cycling community that embraces people of all shapes and sizes, Blonsky has made what can be an intimidating sport more approachable for new riders. She regularly receives messages from people about how meaningful it is to see a diversity of bodies represented in cycling. After years of feeling excluded, the self-identified fat cyclist has found power in throwing open the gates.

“It doesn’t feel like what we’re doing is that radical,” she says. “To slow down a little bit, to see folks and meet them where they’re at, it shouldn’t be that incredible of a thing. But it is.”

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When it comes to fitness trends, few have as low of a barrier to entry as rucking. The popular exercise (which has millions of posts using #rucking on TikTok and Instagram) requires only that you have a backpack, some things to stash in it, and a place to walk. In fact, if you have ever gone on a backpacking trip, taken the long way home from the store with your groceries on your back, or slung your child’s book bag over your shoulders while walking them to and from school, you’ve already rucked.

Like many fitness movements (boot camp classes, CrossFit), this one has its origins in the military. Army recruits embark on long marches with heavy rucksacks as part of their training regimen.

For the rest of us, weighted walking is a low-impact way to build strength and endurance, explains Sean Blinch, a Toronto-based CrossFit coach and gym owner who has been rucking for five years. Both beginner-friendly and scalable for advanced athletes, the combination of cardio and resistance training will primarily work your legs, core, and back.

It’s also something you can do with limited time. “We can find so many reasons not to move,” Blinch says. “Everyone’s time-poor. Nobody has enough time for anything.” With rucking, “you don’t have to warm up or cool down—just put on the backpack and go out,” he adds.

Many people suffer from posture-related issues, too, especially individuals who spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. Rucking may help to correct some of those concerns. The weighted pack can help pull your shoulders back, mitigating some of the effects of , a condition characterized by tightness and weakness in the muscles of the neck, upper back, and shoulders, Blinch says.

Being sedentary takes a toll on our lower body as well. When we are seated for long periods of time, our body begins to adapt to that position, tightening the hip flexors. That can over time, making exercise and daily movements uncomfortable or painful, and this can get worse as we age. When you walk, however, “you have your hip in a very natural, open position,” Blinch says.

What You Need to Ruck

Picking up rucking is as easy as lacing up a pair of shoes, putting on a weighted backpack, and heading out the door. Brands like GORUCK sell special packs just for rucking, but any daypack with durable, padded straps will also work. To add weight, you can use household items like dumbbells, canned goods, and books. Wrap your items in a towel to avoid any hard edges digging into your back as you walk. A weight plate will distribute the load more evenly across your back.

Weighted vests—which distribute weight equally around your torso—are also an option. As šú˛úłÔšĎşÚÁĎ columnist Alex Hutchinson has written, it’s easier to maintain a normal posture and gait with a vest than a backpack, since you don’t need to lean forward to resist the weight behind you. You will also likely (that is to say, calories) with a vest.

Whether you choose a vest or a backpack, make sure that your footwear gives you enough support and stability. Blinch recommends lacing up a pair of shoes that you would use for distance running.

Finally, while rucking on a trail can offer an added challenge to your stability and core strength, as well as the of being in nature, you can ruck on city or suburban streets too. It’s less about getting it “right” and more about getting time outdoors, on your feet, away from a screen or desk. Ideally, you’ll enjoy it, too.

“Rucking should fit into your life in the ‘I get to do this’ area,” Blinch says.

Choosing a Weight

For your first time, Blinch recommends going easy. In terms of weight, that might look like loading either five or ten percent of your body weight into a pack. For a 160-pound person, that would be between eight and 16 pounds. If you’re already active and experienced with both strength and cardio, you can start with 15 to 25 percent of your body weight (between 25 and 40 pounds, for that 160-pound athlete).

Choosing a Distance

Beginners or less active individuals should start with one mile, or about 15 to 20 minutes of walking if you’re going by time rather than distance. Active individuals can start with about 30 minutes. Blinch recommends adding distance to your rucks before increasing weight.

When in doubt, determine your distance or weight by your rate of perceived exertion. In general, aim for a pace that’s somewhere between a stroll and a brisk walk. “If it feels punishing, you’re either going too far or too heavy,” Blinch says. “It should almost always feel like this is leaning on the side of easy.”

How Often Should You Ruck?

You can fit rucks into your existing schedule in a way that feels natural and low-pressure. Blinch suggests two or three rucks a week, but notes that they can also be part of your daily routine rather than a separate workout you need to carve out time to accomplish. You can turn a series of errands into a ruck by bringing an empty pack, loading your purchases into it, and walking back home.

How Heavy Is Too Heavy?

If you don’t have a rucking race or event in mind, determining when to max out can be confusing. One popular rule of thumb is to stick to a weight that allows you to cover a mile in under 20 minutes (army standard is 15 minutes). If it’s taking you longer than that, consider dropping weight. Another general suggestion is to stick to loads that do not exceed one-third of your body weight.

Keep It Casual

Though it can be tempting to go as hard and as far as possible, Blinch recommends increasing the demand on your body slowly, bumping up your weight or distance by about ten percent each week.

“With rucking, less is more,” Blinch says. “So you should be thinking about taking the intensity out. The benefits really come without all the intense stuff added into it.”

Try These Rucking Workouts

To add variety to your rucks, here are two workouts Blinch recommends:

Strength and Interval Training

Warm-up: Five to ten minutes of walking with no weight to get the blood flowing.
Workout: Walk for five minutes with a weighted pack. Stop and perform ten lunges or squats with the pack on your back. Repeat for four rounds.
Cool Down: A few minutes of walking without weight, followed by some light stretching that focuses on your calves, hamstrings, and lower back.

A Hill Workout

Warm-up: Start with a brisk five-minute walk, no weight, and do a few dynamic stretches.
Workout: Ruck for a total of 20 to 30 minutes, choosing a route with hills. On uphill sections, shorten your stride length and maintain a slightly forward-leaning posture for balance. Alternate between a faster pace for two minutes and a slower, steady pace for one minute.
Cool Down: End with five minutes of walking, without the pack, and stretch out your calves, quads, and hips.

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