Hate the gym? Add exercise stops into your run

A lot of runners struggle with motivation to go to the gym. After all, we picked the sport because we like to be outside, not in a poorly ventilated room with a bunch of sweaty strangers (sweaty strangers outside at a road race is totally fine, though). On top of that, many of us struggle to find the time to fit a gym workout into our busy schedules that are already taken up by running. If this resonates with you, then why not incorporate your strength training into your runs? Planning exercise stops throughout your easy run is a great way to squeeze in some strength training while still enjoying the outdoors.

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To get the most out of your run, you’ll want to do a bit of planning in advance. The first step is to take a look at your route and choose a few places that are suitable for you to stop. Parks, empty parking lots or any open spaces that are out of the way of other pedestrians are what you’re looking for. Ideally, each stop is about one or two kilometres apart.

Next, you should plan which exercises you’re going to do and when. If you try to think about them on the fly, you’ll likely end up wasting a lot of time standing around at each stop trying to come up with an exercise. When you’re planning, try to incorporate a variety of exercises that target different muscle groups, like your legs, glutes, core, back and shoulders. Plyometrics work really well in this setting because they don’t require any weights, but if you know there are useful tools along your route, like benches, picnic tables or high curbs, get creative and incorporate them into your run (think step-ups, triceps dips, etc.). You can choose to do a certain number of reps per exercise, or do them Tabata-style, with eight rounds of 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest. Here’s a sample run/workout:

Run 2 kilometres
Stop 1: Tabata: pushups and deadbugs, alternate between each move every round, for eight rounds.
Run 2 kilometres
Stop 2: Tabata: Triceps dips and step-ups
Run 2 kilometres
Stop 3: Tabata squats (or jump squats) and reverse crunches
Run 2 kilometres
Stop 4: Jumping lunges and calf raises
Run 2 kilometres

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