Five Important Lower-Body Exercises for Runners

When you think of lower-body exercises, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves are the top-of-mind muscle groups to work, right? Well, yes and no. Each of these muscle groups are important and depending on the runner one group may need to be worked more than another. But, there's an entirely different group of muscles that often get overlooked by most runners. These muscles (abductors and adductors) are found laterally on the outside and inside of the legs. There is not one abductor and one adductor muscle, rather they are a collection of different muscles that work to pull the legs away from or toward the body or to create internal or external rotation of the leg. They also work to provide stability and balance in the lower body. The glute medius muscle is a hip-abductor muscle that provides stability in the whole pelvic region when walking and running. It's when this muscle is tight or weak that often results in runners knee. Adductors running down the inside of the leg help provide stability as well as help with acceleration when running. Adductors are the only muslces in the lower-body that are continuously firing throughout the entire running stride cycle. Keeping these muscle groups well conditioned will not only help make you a more efficient runner, it will help decrease the chance of  injury and falling. The video below shows five simple exercises that are very effective in working your abductor and adductor muscles. Check it out!

RunnerDude's Weekly Exercise: Side-Lying Double Leg Lift

Runners get plenty of movement in the sagittal plane of movement (forward movement). Quads and hammies tend to be worked pretty well. However, if a runner finds himself stepping out of that forward plane of motion (maybe while trail running or maybe to make a sudden lateral movement to avoid a pothole or to dodge an automobile) then he may find that his muscles don't react as quickly or maybe not even at all causing him to fall and possibly become injured.

Adding lateral movement exercises into your weekly fitness routine is a great way to bolster those stabilizer muscles and muscles responsible for side-to-side movement. This week's exercise is great for increasing strength in your hip abductors and hip adductors. Improving strength in these muscles can often help prevent runner's knee and groin injuries.

To complete the exercise, lie on your right side with your head resting on your extended right arm. Lift your left leg up, keeping the knee extended (Fig. 1). This movement will activate the left glute medius (hip abductor). While keeping the left leg in the air, raise the right leg up toward the left leg (Fig. 2). This movement will activate the adductor muscles along the inner thigh of your right leg. Then lower both legs to the floor. That's one rep. Do 10-12 reps on one side. Then flip over and repeat the exercise lying on your left side.