With the above said, we should establish some ground rules. If we’re going to go outside, it’s important to call a spade a spade to keep ourselves safe.
Keep these tips in mind before you head to your backyard or area park for your next workout. Once you’re done learning the basics, check out some of our most popular bodyweight workouts here.
Lee Boyce is a personal trainer, speaker, fitness writer, and college professor based in Toronto, Canada. He is the owner and operator of leeboycetraining.com and works with clients and athletes for strength, conditioning, and sport performance. With a background as a varsity level sprinter and long jumper in university amid his kinesiology studies, he now brings plenty of that experience and anecdote to the lectures and workshops he delivers around North America to help make trainers and fitness professionals more effective at their jobs. Follow him on all social media @coachleeboyce .
As a track athlete, my group’s warmup phase took around 20 minutes. And that was during the summer season. In spring and fall, it meant making sure we were sweating. Remember the purposes of a warm up:
Increase core/muscle temperature
Elevate heart rate
Improve CNS sharpness
Prepare the movement patterns in question
Doing what you can to promote the above will go a long way in helping your cause – and in preventing an injury.
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GaudiLab
Layer Up
You need to respect the game if you’re going to be taking your fitness outside. If you live in a place with seasons, then that means it’s probably pretty nippy outside. Don’t try to be a hero and brace the elements by doing your entire workout in a wifebeater and shorts.
You may “feel” warm because you’re moving vigorously, but that’s not condition for an adult body (or any body) to be functional and perform best in.
It’s better to feel too warm than to feel too cold – especially depending on the nature of the workout. Respect the weather, and layer up. Later on in the workout is the time to start removing layers, and only then.
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GaudiLab
Save the best for last
When it comes to typical gym workouts, it’s a common rule of thumb to think about the largest, and most demanding movements to be at or very near the front of the order. This is so that the nervous system remains the most primed, and the correct amount of energy is allotted to the most demanding tasks at hand.
This is all fine and good, but when things are taken to an outdoor setting, possibly involving sprinting, med ball work, or other ballistic, explosive, or plyometric training, it becomes less demanding on the CNS, external loading and motor patterns, and more demanding on the muscular system itself and its physical preparedness.
As a 20 year old on the track, if we had a practice that involved near-max sprinting for, say, 5 rounds, despite it being the most physically extolling part of the workout, we wouldn’t actually perform them until close to 90 minutes in.
These kinds of bouts require explosiveness from your whole body – not just kinetic chains or certain regions of it. When you add the factor of locomotion into the picture, you get a very different ballgame compared to gym training.
Save the biggest, toughest aspects of the workout for the end. Not the beginning. Even more so if the weather isn’t on your side.
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Video Image Guy / Shutterstock
Switch it up
If you’re training outside because of COVID-19, then treat this as a chance to work on stuff you normally don’t get to. As mentioned above, locomotive exercises and drills may not be something that’s commonplace in your routine – but some reading this may already be making sprint or cardio days outside a habit each week.
With that said, using this as an opportunity to focus on some agility work, plyometrics, or bodyweight calisthenics. One or all of these methods are sorely underutilized in many training programs, and to round out your health and fitness, it’s in your best interests to apply them.
Don’t get stuck in barbell strength and hypertrophy mode. Beyond a certain point, it kills your athleticism.
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novak.elcic
Run for your life
Running is the American Idol of training methods.
With all things equal, technically speaking, everyone can do it, but few realize that there’s formal coaching and practice involved in actually doing it well. The result can often be an embarrassing showing when it comes time to get to business.
Because running and sprinting are free of weights and a natural procedure, people don’t think there’s much to it. But learning the fundamentals of foot strike, arm swing, and posture are key components to reducing knee, hip and back pain and impact. Since what most people default to the second they’re faced with the idea of an “outdoor workout” is running, it’s imperative that your body is in the right starting point to have running (or sprinting) work for you and not against you.
As far as running fast goes, there’s plenty of room for technical coaching (just like distance running), but get your start here by focusing on these two drills.
A Skips
Running A
In both cases, the focus is on a straight torso, good posture, and a full arm swing that’s still relaxed. The lower body stays under the upper body – not out in front of it, nor falling behind it. The knee lift is nice and high, and the toes are raised up. Understand these basics, and you’ll set a decent foundation for the next step – moving faster. But that’s for another article.
