Your Fitness Homework

You know that 15 minutes you spend sitting on the sofa, flipping between social media accounts and asking yourself why there is nothing good on TV? Why not use that time pro actively and do your “fitness homework”?

By fitness homework I mean doing the little things that are going to keep you your body feeling fresh and injury free, which in turn is going to make your training more consistent and sustainable. It really doesn’t take that long; all you need is 15 minutes a day. Lets say you skip Sunday. That still accumulates 90 minutes of work or, another entire training session.

Doing all of this doesn’t mean you don’t have to warm up when you come to the gym, it does however mean you can spend a bit more time on the areas of priority for you.

I know 15 minutes doesn’t sound like much, but with some focused attention and the correct selection of drills it is absolutely ample. The odd hip flexor, standing quad stretch and cross body shoulder stretch in front of the TV really isn’t going to achieve much.

The 3 main areas we are going to look at are:

Mobility
Core Activation
Glute Activation

Mobility

Specifically looking at the Ankle, Knee, Hip, Shoulder and T-Spine mobilisation.

This very simple flow drill that will address just about all of the above. Once you know the sequence by heart, you can complete 3 full reps in about 2 minutes. Complete the full drill 5 times.

Core Activation

Getting the core switched on is always a winner as it plays such a vital role in stabilising your spine. Plus, a functioning core goes a long way towards improving posture and efficiently performing most movements.

Here is a great core activation drill called the dish hold. Shoot for 3 holds of 45 seconds each.

Glute Activation

Glutes are key in terms of activation, but because we are sitting down so much our hip flexors tend to inhibit our glute function. We need our glutes to stabilise our pelvis and take some load off our quads which in turn our knees will thank us for.

These side bridge clams are a great option for some glute activation shoot for 2 sets of 20 each side.

Another great option is the crab grab, not only will this wake up the glutes it will also help improve the mobility of the upper back. 2x 10 each side on these.

There we go:

Flow drill x5

3x 45 seconds dish hold

2x 20 each side, side bridge clams

2x 10 each side, crab grabs

That’s 15 minutes of work, tops! Get that done every day and you will see marked improvements in the way you feel and move.

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