Simple exercises such as sitting one glute on a tennis ball and whilst putting pressure on it or rolling it around to cover the surface area of your glute is a great way of mobilising muscles. You can also do this on your calf muscles to help loosen them before running.
Run with frozen water to increase your stamina
Simply holding a bottle of water when you go for a run can make exercise easier. A study in the US discovered that holding a bottle of cold water during exercise helped people maintain a low core temperature, increasing endurance. This meant that they ran faster and burned more fat.
As high core temperature is a significant factor for reducing endurance in athletes, there is no reason why everyone can't use this simple trick to counteract it.
Wearing red can give a great energy boost
Research has found that wearing red to exercise can give you a serious surge of energy during your workout. It's a simple psychological trick but can be just what you need to give you an extra boost when you're training.
Sip water rather than downing it
During exercise so many people fear being out of breath and reach for the water and guzzle it down. It's so important that you only sip your water throughout the session when really necessary.
Too much water in your tummy can be uncomfortable, make you feel sick or mean you need to go to the toilet. Stay hydrated through out the day and after the session but just try and hold off gulping water throughout.
If you want summer abs forget sit ups and focus on your plank
By swapping the traditional sit up for a plank, you are strengthening your core muscles, which lie a lot deeper than just the ab muscles on the surface. Strengthening your core muscles is crucial to overall stability, balance and full body strength. It's something people don't work on enough, a strong core is a great way to help prevent some back injuries too.
Rest, recovery and repair are far too often forgotten but incredibly important
As a nation we are great at work and play, but we aren't making time for one of the most important factors in that mix - rest. That rest can be the chance to repair from a small niggle or injury, or to see a physio to help get me back on track. It's really important because not making time to rest means we run the risk of missing out on training for much longer. Would you rather take a day to rest or miss three weeks with injury? That's the question I ask myself.
Count the seconds not the reps
Once you master the technique of an exercise I would advise performing it for 40 seconds with 20 seconds rest. By timing how long you perform an exercise over how many reps can often push you to work harder and therefore you increase your heart rate and burn more calories. Counting reps can be quite boring and feels quite slow. Nobody wants to feel like they've been in the gym all night counting.
GET IN THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE WITH THESE SIX SCIENCE-BACKED HACKS
• Sitting on a tennis ball before you go could be the key to a faster run
• Run with frozen water to increase your stamina
• Wearing red can give a great energy boost
• Sip water rather than downing it
• If you want summer abs forget sit ups and focus on your plank
• Count the seconds not the reps
