The Bring-It-To-The-Gym Workout Program

 1. Warm Up.
Ten minutes of easy movement to get your muscles ready for intense exercise: cycling on a stationary bike, walking on a treadmill or stair-stepping. Always begin a weight workout with a light warm-up to get your muscles ready for the work to come.
2. Upper Body Exercises.
Choose one exercise for each major body part. Suggested exercises:

·         Chest: Dumbbell bench press OR Barbell bench press

·         Back: Wide-grip pull-ups OR assisted pull-ups (with a friend supporting your legs, or with a Gravitron machine) OR lat pull-downs

·         Shoulders: Dumbbell presses OR machine shoulder presses

·         Triceps: Dumbbell kickbacks OR pulley kickbacks

·         Biceps: Seated dumbbell curls OR standing barbell curls

3. Lower Body Exercises
Choose one exercise for each major body part. Suggested Exercises - Legs:

·         Quadriceps: Leg press OR Leg extensions

·         Hamstrings: Lying leg curls OR seated leg curls OR standing leg curls (on machine or with ankle weights)

·         Calves: Calf raises OR weighted calf raises OR single-leg calf raises

·         Shins: Toe tap (Stand up and tap your toe for 45 seconds as quickly as you can, making sure to isolate the movement between the knee and the ankle - a great shin strengthener)

·         OR pulley pulls (Attach a pulley handle to a weight stack and place it over your foot. Contract the shin by pulling your toe towards your knee.)

4. Running-Specific Exercises:
Choose one exercise for each major body part. Suggested Exercises - Running-Specific:

·         Arm Pull-Push: Attach a high pulley to one weight stack on a cable crossover machine, and a low pulley to the opposite weight stack. Stand facing the end of the machine with the high pulley attachment. Hold the high pulley in one hand and the low pulley in the other. Simulate the pumping arm motions of running by pulling the high pulley down while simultaneously pushing the low pulley up. Keep your arms aligned with the pulley cables, and keep your elbows from extending behind your body.

·         Leg Sit-ups: Place a small step in the middle of a cable crossover machine. Using a leg attachment on the low pulley of one weight stack, attach the weight to your ankle. Step up onto the step with the unweighted leg, and then bring the weighted leg up, raising your knee to waist level. Step down and repeat.

5. Core Stability Exercises

	lots and lots of abs...try all different sorts of crunches with short (as in 1 minute) running in between sets
	try pilates, too!

6. Stretch / Cool-Down

·         Always stretch for ten minutes following your workouts. Many people believe that weight training causes a reduction in flexibility. This isn't the case; it's simply that weight training, by its very nature, shortens muscle fibers in order to strengthen them. As long as you stretch after a workout while your muscles are still warm, you'll not only preserve your flexibility but may even increase.

A Sample Weekly Running Workout

Monday:
6  miles at 90%. With in this 6 mile workout start getting some interval workouts: 6X800 with a 400 stride rest between each 800; 8X400 with a 200 stride rest between each 400; 10XHills that are at least 100 meters in length with no more than 1 minute rest between each hill.
Tuesday:           
4 miles at 60% Weight Room
Wednesday:      
3 to 4 miles at race pace
Thursday:         
4 to 6 miles at 70% Strength run Weight Room
Friday:             
4 to 6 miles at 80% Endurance run
Saturday:          
3 to 4 miles at race pace
Sunday Day Off
(or whatever workout you want--swimming, dancing, etc)