With gyms opening up again this week it's a great time to start implementing some gym work into your training programs. Strength training will have a huge benefit for reducing your chance of injury and will have a great impact on your performance. You want to build up your muscular endurance prior to building on your maximal strength. This will provide you with a solid level of strength and greatly impact your stability and movement patterns which will give you a huge advantage when you look to build your strength levels.

This session is best suited prior to an interval or tempo session as you will activate the stretch-shortening cycle and become more efficient at absorbing and utilising the elastic energy.

Previous research has backed this up, showing improved running economy during tempo sessions where plyometrics have been completed beforehand.

.This week's workout is another simple and efficient full body session to give a go. Sessions like this are great to include in a general preparation phase where you're looking to build a solid base for more intense phases of the training and competitive seasons.

Here is another workout that looks at strengthening your overall core, including your abdominals, obliques, lower back and your hips. Including exercises that target the hips and glutes are essential for injury prevention as weak glutes and hips are the cause of a myriad of running and cycling related injuries.

Hey guys, here's another workout for you to give a go at home.

We are starting off again with some mobility work to increase your efficiency and improve your range of motion. Preparing your muscles, tendons and joint prior to resistance training will massively improve your performance as you will be able to actively move through a greater range of motion and improve your proprioception.

Caffeine is is a powerful performance booster in sport. It can be beneficial when used before, during and after training. Read this article for a detailed guide on when to use it and how much to use.

Whole body sessions are a very efficient method to train as you can target a wide range of muscles and are ideal for home workouts.

Whole body sessions may not have the same stimulus on the central nervous system as very heavy or maximal power workout; however, they can allow you to incorporate strength sessions without overloading the body too much. This will allow you to build a stronger base and progress much faster than initially overloading each muscle group too heavy during individual sessions.

Here's another general lower body session to give a go.

With gyms hopefully reopening soon it's a great time to build on your general strength with bodyweight exercises to ready yourself for more functional/heavier exercises at the gym.

Trying to get back to where you were prior to lockdown will take some time, and patience is key as not to train to heavy too soon and pick up an injury.

Here's another core session to give a go at home.

Improving the strength around your core has a great benefit to your sporting performance, allowing you to generate and produce force to enhance your control and stability.

This session also places a lot of emphasis on the glutes as these are often neglected by athletes.

This week is another 'complex' session, including resistance and plyometric exercises.

These types of sessions are a great option to add to your training if you want productive, time-efficient sessions as these sessions are great for developing your reactive strength alongside your general strength.

They are great to compliment with your speed and power sessions as the jumping/plyometric exercises will enhance the reactiveness of the fast-twitch muscle fibres. 

Here's another great session to try at home.

Enhancing your upper body strength not only improves your posture and balance but it makes you a more efficient runner, cyclist or swimmer. Including pull ups and chin ups are great exercises as they work a multitude of muscles in the upper body and core.

Additionally, kettlebell swings are a great exercise for all athletes. They put stress through the whole posterior chain and heavily activate the hips and glutes, which some athletes fail to train correctly.

This session puts quite a lot of stress on the shoulders, which is great for runners. This transfers to a more efficient arm swing and an improved tempo when running.