Do you stick to a daily workout routine? Whether you’re currently training for a triathlon or are in the off-season, it’s important to make exercise a regular part of your lifestyle.
Not only will it keep you looking and feeling your best, but cross-training with other exercises and types of workouts can also help you to become a better triathlete.
Not sure which kinds of exercises you ought to be trying?
Read on to learn about ten great exercises you ought to consider adding to your daily workout routine.
1. Box Jumps
Box jumps are a plyometric exercise that will help you improve your running speed and reaction time.
They’re also great for strengthening the muscles in the lower body and improving your bone density, which minimizes your risk of experiencing fractures and other injuries.
Try adding 5-10 box jumps to the beginning of your workout. You’ll find that you generate more power and feel your lower body muscles working harder for the rest of the training session.
2. Superman
When many people make an effort to strengthen their core, they focus only on the muscles that make up the front of the core, like the rectus abdominis and obliques. They totally neglect the back muscles.
If you’re guilty of this, you could be increasing your injury risk and negatively impacting your stability.
Try adding an exercise like the Superman (or Superwoman) into your routine. This exercise strengthens the back of the body and can help improve your posture.
3. Calf Raises
Without strong calves, you may be more susceptible to shin splints and ankle injuries.
Calf raises help to strengthen and stabilize the ankles and reduce your injury risk. Try adding a few sets to your lower body workouts.
If you want to make them more challenging, alternating between traditional calf raises and single-leg calf raises. You can also add weights as well.
4. Kettlebell Swings
Kettlebell swings are great for increasing your power output and strengthening the muscles in the back of the body.
In order to experience the greatest benefits from your kettlebell swings (and avoid injuries), make sure you’re treating them as a hip hinging exercise.
Your hips should go back toward the wall and then shoot forward to bring the kettlebell forward. Keep your spine neutral, too.
5. Inverted Rows
Inverted rows strengthen the back, shoulders, and arms and help to improve your posture. You can use a Smith machine to do inverted rows or you can use a special device like a TRX. Remember, when you’re doing this exercise, the closer your torso is to being parallel to the floor, the harder it’ll be.
6. Hip Thrusts
Hip thrusts help to strengthen the glutes. If you have weak glutes, you may be more prone to hip, knee, and back pain and injuries while you’re training. You can do hip thrusts with just your bodyweight or with a heavy dumbbell or barbell.
7. Deadlifts
Deadlifts strengthen all the muscles in the posterior chain (back of the body). They’re especially good for the hamstrings, glutes, and back. Adding deadlifts to your routine will help to improve your posture and speed and reduce your injury risk.
8. Planks
Planks are an essential core exercise. They strengthen all the muscles of the core, front and back.
Do them on your hands or forearms as part of every workout. You can make them more challenging by placing a weighted plate on your back.
9. Clamshells
Clamshells are another great glute strengthening exercise. Try doing them before you do a more challenging glute exercise like a hip thrust. They’ll help you improve your connection to the glute muscles and you may feel the hip thrust more than if you hadn’t done anything beforehand.
10. Reverse Crunches
Reverse crunches are another good core exercise to work the abdominals. The great thing about reverse crunches is that they strengthen the abs without requiring you to also engage the hip flexors. Many people these days have overactive hip flexors since they sit for extended periods of time on a regular basis.
More Ways to Shake Up Your Daily Workout Routine
These exercises are all great options that can help you get more out of your workouts. Sometimes, it’s not enough just to add new exercises, though. You might also need to make adjustments to other training variables, including the following:
Intensity
If you’ve been training with the same weight for a long time, you’re eventually going to adapt and stop seeing results. Try increasing the weight you’re lifting and decreasing the number of reps you’re performing.
Frequency
If you’re only working out a couple of times per week, try adding an extra workout to your regimen. The inverse could also help. If you’re working out six days per week, try decreasing the frequency of your workouts to give your body more of a chance to recover.
Workout Style
Do you always do circuit workouts? Straight sets with long rest periods? Maybe you should mix things up.
If you’re used to doing longer workouts with heavier weights, try doing one of these workouts that involve lighter weights (or no weight at all) and a faster pace. Simple changes like this can make a big difference.
Rest Periods
Finally, try lengthening or shortening your rest periods. If you always take short breaks, try lengthening them and lifting heavier weights during each set. If you always take long breaks, try shortening them and lifting lighter weights during each set.
Try These Exercises Today
As you can see, there are tons of different ways that you can mix up your daily workout routine to see results.
Whether you add in some different exercises or try a different type of workout altogether, you’ll be amazed at how much better you can feel by making some simple changes to your routine.
Are you looking for more exercises to try? Do you want to learn about ways that you can become a more competitive triathlete?
Check out the training section of our site today for more helpful articles on everything from working on your cycling to building your own home gym.