Lesson video

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Hi there, I'm Mr. Swaithes and I'm gonna be working with you today.

So we're looking at training intensity, and can you combine a core workout with sprint work?

For this lesson, you're gonna need a clear space to perform body weight exercises and ideally an outside space measuring about 10 meters in length, but you can modify it to suit the environment that you have access to.

And you're gonna need a stopwatch.

By the end of today's lesson, you're gonna be able to complete a core workout program, followed by a sprint training session to improve muscular endurance and power.

Three of the keywords that we'll talk about a lot today are work-rest ratios.

So that's a comparison of the duration of a work period, or active exercise, to the duration of a rest period, or recovery between efforts, within a training session.

We're gonna talk about core muscles.

So this is the group of muscles that support the trunk and the pelvis for stability of the body and maintain balance and also provide a foundation for movement.

They're also really important for posture actually as I'm sitting here in my chair.

And then we're gonna hear the keyword of contraindicating.

Now, contraindicating is a situation that makes an exercise inadvisable or potentially harmful and I want to help you avoid contraindicating movements.

It's essential that we warm up before this lesson in particular.

So show me what you know about core muscle activation.

Can you begin with a suitable warmup with a pulse raiser and some dynamic stretches?

And then can you focus in on your core muscles?

So, for example, performing some sit-ups and other exercises that isolate that core region.

And then also some hamstring preparation because we're gonna be doing some sprinting later in today's lesson too.

If you can think of those things for yourself, get on and do it.

Pause the video now whilst you do that or maybe you want to watch this quick video with some ideas first and then pause the video before continuing.

Okay, great.

So I'm hoping that you've increased your pulse and your breathing rate, that your muscles feel warm and ready for exercise and that you can maintain that rhythmical breathing to maximize oxygen supply to your working muscles whilst you listen for a bit.

And also remember, you need to make sure you're in a safe space in order to do the exercise.

So we're gonna be combining a core workout with some sprint work and in the first part of today's lesson, we're gonna be looking at core strength before we combine core strength with sprint work in the second part of the lesson.

So let's get going then.

Well, Aisha here is asking us a question.

"Which are your main core muscles and why is it important to keep them strong and flexible?

" Can you identify the abdominals, the obliques, your pelvic floor, the erector spinae group?

Maybe you've not come across that word before and your gluteals or gluteus maximus, which is one of those gluteal muscles.

Hopefully you've identified what we often call the six pack is your abs or your abdominals.

The obliques are the muscles around the side there.

Then we've got the pelvic floor.

They're the muscles that sit behind your abdominals and are really important for lots of things.

Your erector spinae group are those muscles in your lower back and often we have problems where people focus so much on their six pack, on their abdominals that they end up crunched over and with poor posture and back pain.

So it's really important that you also exercise those muscles on the back of your body or posterior side of your body and that includes your gluteals as well and even into your hamstrings.

Let's do a quick check for understanding.

Which of the following muscles is often referred to as your six pack?

Is it A, your pelvic floor, B, your obliques, C, your abdominals, or D, your gluteals?

That's right, it's your abdominals or your abs.

And here we've got someone performing the plank position.

So it's a hold in that front support or the beginning of a press up position.

And in order to do that, you need to draw your belly button in and contract all of those core muscles to hold the position.

When training, it's really important to target the right muscles, but also at the right intensity.

You can do that by varying the exercises used, so targeting different muscles with different exercises, the reps and sets that you do, so the number of exercises.

Let's imagine rather than doing a plank, this person's doing some sit-ups.

They might do 10 sit-ups, so 10 repetitions of the sit-up, then have a rest for 30 seconds and perform another bout of 10 repetitions.

In that instance, they've performed two sets of 10 repetitions of sit-ups.

And then we also need to think about that work-rest ratio.

So the time exercising followed by recovery before repeating or rotating exercises.

And depending on your level of fitness and the exercises that you're doing, you will want to vary that work-rest ratio.

So Laura is saying, "Often core exercises require an isometric muscular hold for time, rather than reps.

And this plank position is an example of that.

So when doing the plank, the challenge is actually holding that muscular contraction for a long period of time.

So an isometric contraction, whereas something like a sit-up or a press up uses an isotonic muscular contraction.

So a moving contraction and we can do more reps.

Which of the following of these is not an isometric contraction?

Is it A, a wall sit, B, a star jump, or C, a side plank?

Which one is not isometric or static contraction?

That's right, B, isn't it?

The star jump.

There's some movement there.

So that's an isotonic muscular contraction, not an isometric one.

So to improve strength whilst maintaining flexibility, alignment and good posture, it's really important that you focus on correct technique.

That's first and foremost the most important thing to do.

You need to perform the full range of motion.

So not reduce to, I've seen people, you know, saying, "I can do 20 press-ups," but they're on this tiny range of movement and it's far more important that you use the full range of movement to get the full benefit and work your muscles at the extremities of that movement, which is where they work the hardest.

You also need to avoid contraindicating movement, so any movement that might cause damage elsewhere.

And a good example of this is in that press up actually.

If you let your back arch, that position is really bad for the back, for your spine and particularly for the layers of cartilage or the cartilaginous disc in between each vertebrae.

So we've gotta avoid contraindicating movements by making sure the body is well aligned and we have good posture during exercise, otherwise we might end up doing more harm than good and causing injury, particularly to the lower back.

It's also really important that we strengthen antagonistic pairs.

So antagonistic pairs are basically one muscle causes one movement.

Here we've got the biceps causing flexion at the elbow joint and at the same time, the triceps is relaxing in opposition.

And if I was to straighten my arm back out again, it's my triceps that contracts whilst my biceps can relax.

Similarly, we've got that in the core of the body, which is today's focus.

So if you're working your abdominal muscles to sit up, your erector spinae muscles are relaxing and stretching during that time.

And then we need to move them back the other way and contract the erector spinae muscles whilst our abdominals relax with an equal and opposite focus on both.

Jacob is saying, "So does that mean contraindicating means a situation that makes an exercise inadvisable or potentially harmful, such as holding a plank in the wrong position, which could hurt your back?

" Absolutely, Jacob.

You'd be better off not doing the exercise at all if it's gonna hurt your back.

And I sometimes find, if I've not done the plank for a while, I'm better off performing the plank from my knees with a good extension in the right posture than trying to do it from my feet.

Maybe that's the same for you.

Here we've got a few different exercises.

We've got sit-ups.

Important there that your knees are bent and your hands are to your temples, not gripping onto your neck, pulling your head up because that would be contraindicating.

Then we've got the Superman exercise next.

So lying on your front and lifting your arms and your feet off the floor, that really works that erector spinae group.

We've got the V sit.

We're lifting the legs and arms up at the same time, so almost folding yourself in half.

Really works the abdominals but also the pelvic floor and the obliques at the same time.

We've got mountain climbers, so hands on the floor and legs skating backwards and forwards.

And then we've got these upper body twists that are really opening up the chest and working those muscles.

There are hundreds of different exercises that can help strengthen your core muscle.

Here are just five examples, and you need to pair them up to alternate antagonistic muscle pairs if you really want to work out both sides of your body.

So think about which muscles are on the posterior side, so the back side of your body, which ones are on the anterior or front side of your body and always work in equal number of both of them.

That's often achieved, as I say, by working the anterior or front and then the posterior or back side of your body, one after the other.

Here we've got some more exercises.

So we've got almost like a plank position with a single leg lift.

We've got some hip thrusts, we've got some bicycle movements where there's that alternate knee and elbow elbow coming in together.

We've got holding that full arm plank position.

Often sometimes we can also do it rotating down onto elbows, then back up onto hands.

So a slight dynamic movement to that hold position.

And then a low squat position also works those core muscles.

So whether you're performing an isometric or hold contraction, like the plank, for 30 seconds or an isotonic exercise with movement, for example, 30 sit-ups, you will put stress on your cardiovascular and particularly on your muscular system, you'll use oxygen at the muscle site and that will build lactic acid up if you're working at a high intensity, and it's that lactic acid that causes that feeling of discomfort or fatigue that causes you to need to slow down or perhaps even stop.

You also release endorphins, which improve your mood and help you feel good.

Sometimes we talk about the the runner's high so that whether you're running or doing some fitness exercises or for me, playing sport, you get that high from it, that buzz from it because of the endorphins that are being released.

Okay, that brings us into the first practice task for today's lesson.

So I want you to have a go at this.

I want you to perform a 10-minute core workout, rotating around the following exercises and adjusting your work-rest ratio to suit your current level of fitness.

So you've got the plank hold and then rotate and reach.

We've got the full sit-up, the Superman reaches from a plank position, the bridge with alternate leg extension, the 90 degrees raised leg hold and crunch, and then mountain climbers.

So before we see those six exercises in action, and then you need to repeat them yourself for 10 whole minutes, Izzy's saying, "Remember isometric hold or repeat each exercise until fatigue and then rotate to the next exercise.

Either take a short rest between each exercise or complete a full set before you rest," depending on that fitness level that you are starting with.

So let's take a quick look at a video so you can see what it might look like.

Welcome back.

Let's just review the learning in that.

So Laura says that she's going to challenge her sister to complete these exercises.

And, I mean, I wonder, did you keep your knees bent for the sit-up?

Did you manage to maintain good body posture and alignment throughout all of the exercises?

How did you feel during and straight after the exercises?

Did you feel exhausted?

Did you feel exhilarated?

Did you feel that buzz, that runner's high, that eagerness to go again?

And then connecting back in with Laura's point at the top there, could you challenge someone else to complete the workout with you?

Well, maybe you just need to challenge yourself to complete it again, but harder.

Okay, let's take this into the second part of today's lesson where we're gonna bring core strength with some sprint work.

Well, sporting performance requires the ability to accelerate, to decelerate, to change direction at pace, so agility and action, to produce power for efficient, high-speed running, and sprint drills that work on these skills are also important for general health and wellbeing.

So you might wanna do these things not for sporting performance reasons, but for general health and wellbeing because they'll strengthen your muscles, your bones and your joints, and also reduce the risk of injury, as long as you're doing them properly so you're not having that contraindicating effect, that damaging or adverse effect of the exercises.

Let's do a quick check.

Which of the following does not result from sprint training?

Is it A, increased joint strength?

Is it B, increased muscle mass?

Is it C, reduced cardiovascular endurance or is it D, reduced risk of injury?

What do you think?

That's right.

Reduced cardiovascular endurance is the wrong answer.

You'll have an increased cardiovascular endurance, won't you, if you do this sprint training.

So some example sprint drills that you might want to consider.

We've got pyramid shuttle runs where you might sprint out one meter and back, two meters and back, three meters and back, five meters and back, then three meters and back, two meters and back, one meter and back.

So working at that shuttle of distances.

Maybe sprint and side shuffle.

So you sprint out, side shuffle back, sprint out, side shuffle back.

Falling starts.

So you start with a jog and then accelerate into that sprint.

Backpedal to forward sprint.

So jogging backwards and sprint forwards.

T-drills where you're changing direction, so you forward and then to the side making that T shape.

And these can all be performed over 5 to 10 meters, maybe even less than five meters.

With the addition of equipment or an incline, you could also consider, and when I say an incline, I mean a hill, you could also consider ladder drills if you've got some equipment, or hill sprints if you've got that incline.

Remember, when sprinting, it's really important that you stay tall, that you lean forwards to maximize forward momentum, that you drive your knee and opposite arm forward and up, and you use a hips to lips arm action.

Strike down with the foot under your hip, not out in front, otherwise it will be a breaking force.

So think about your foot placement if you want to accelerate fast.

And land on the forefront before pushing off again immediately.

Here we've got someone performing horizontal squat jumps.

And good core strength is required for all sorts of activities, but especially sprinting to transfer force into the ground and also in these horizontal squat jumps.

Plyometrics, or plyos as we sometimes call it, is jump training where you build on that explosive power, you use the stretch-shortening cycle, so the SSC.

So because your muscles are contracting, then landing, they're lengthening, and then you're contracting again.

That's that stretch-shortening cycle in action and it really overloads your muscles.

And Sam's wondering, well, "Remember to always warm up fully beforehand and always allow sufficient recovery days" before you do another bout of especially these plyos or eccentric muscular contractions.

Quick check for understanding then.

True or false?

Plyometrics are good to include in a warmup.

Is that true or false?

That's right.

It's false, isn't it?

And can you tell me why?

Well, it's because plyometric exercises put a lot of strain on your muscles and your joints.

So it's essential that you thoroughly warm up before performing them and allow full recovery between training sessions.

Plyometrics are one of the most, I guess, potentially damaging exercises out there, but also with the biggest benefits that can come from them.

Some examples of some of these plyometric exercises include horizontal squat jumps.

So you do a squat and then jump horizontally.

Continuous squat jumps, up in the air.

Box jumps or depth jumps, so box jumps where you jump up onto a box and back down or depth jumps where you're jumping down.

Bounding, so those high knee bounds, one leg after the other up into the air.

Tuck jumps.

I find these really hard, so that on the spot, jump into a tuck position, then legs back down and repeat.

Alternating lunge jumps.

Skater jumps, which are side to side lateral jumps and single leg pogo hops.

So on one leg, can you hop and keep hopping as high as you can.

By combining plyos, sprints and core strength, you could perhaps perform crunches followed by horizontal squat jumps.

You could perform broad jump burpees.

These are really hard work.

You could perform a backpedal into a forward sprint and then perform a plank hold.

You could perform clap press-ups, followed by a five-meter sprint, walk back and repeat.

And these can all be performed over 5 to 10 meters and we'll see some of them in action in a minute.

Andeep is saying, "Well, can you complete 10 continuous squat jumps whilst maintaining good technique?

" So have a go at that.

You'd lower yourself down into a squat and then jump up high into the air, and as you land, go straight back into a squat.

Can you do that 10 times in a row, reaching high and maintaining good technique?

And what about alternating lunge jumps?

So one leg forward, one leg back, jump to the other foot forwards, jump to the other foot forwards.

And what about skater jumps?

So side to side jumps, almost imagine there's a line in between your legs and you're jumping both feet backwards and forwards, either side of it.

Sofia's got a few more examples.

So can you do 10 single leg pogo jumps?

So stand on your right leg first, do 10 jumps just on that one leg as high as you can.

Drive your opposite elbow and knee up as you go.

And then 10 on your other leg, so your left leg.

And maybe you want to challenge someone else to have a go at those pogo jumps.

Okay, that's hopefully kept you warm and now leads nicely into the second practice task of today's lesson.

So I want you to perform 60 seconds on and then 60 seconds off with three sets of each of the following.

10 mountain climbers, followed by pyramid sprints.

10 crunches followed by horizontal squat jumps.

Broad jump burpees.

Now you get to see what they look like.

Backpedal to forward sprint, then a plank hold.

And remember, you can adjust your work-rest ratio to place more overload on your body if you want.

So take a look at this video example to see each of those four exercises and then pause the video whilst you have a go at them yourself.

And really try to stress your body.

Welcome back.

So how did you do?

Let's reflect on this together.

Did you land with your forefoot and push off immediately to speed up your sprinting performance?

I hope so.

Did you maintain good posture throughout and that alignment of your back?

Did you feel the burn of lactic acid build up in your muscles?

I certainly would've done.

And could you challenge someone else to complete this program with you?

Okay, we've just got time to cool down before we wrap up this lesson.

So as I'm talking, I'd like you to perform a sequence of walking around the space slowly to reduce your heart and breathing rate.

Then 10 lunges with alternate legs.

So step forward with your left foot, bend your right knee down to the floor and then stand up, step forward with your right foot, bend your left knee down to the floor and stand up.

Then eight cat-cows.

So you get on all fours on the floor and you're flexing that back in and out.

Six big arm circles.

Four forward fold walk outs.

So chin to neck.

Fold it all the way down.

Walk your hands down your body till you touch the floor.

Walk out in front, come back and back up again.

Two deep breaths.

And let's reflect on how you feel now in comparison to when the lesson started.

Are you fatigued but also more energized?

I hope so.

And can you make a commitment before your next lesson?

Are you gonna repeat this sequence of exercises?

And how could you overload your body slightly more?

Just time to summarize the lesson then.

So we've got you bending your knees whilst performing sit-ups to improve the performance by utilizing abdominals and hip flexors and avoiding that contraindicating movement.

You've been landing on the forefoot and pushing off the ground immediately to speed up your sprinting performance.

Core strength improves posture, reduces back pain, and help prevent injuries and improves your functional movements.

Lactic acid builds up and that causes fatigue and discomfort.

But also, we have endorphin release during exercise, which improves our mood.

And I hope you've also been able to challenge others to complete a workout to help with your own motivation and your energy levels.

So they're the bits of learning that you will have taken from today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed that today and to see you again soon.