Moving your bike indoors for the winter can feel uninspiring. There’s no scenery to gaze at, no cycling crew to keep you company, and no changes in terrain to keep things interesting. But there’s also less time spent layering up, fewer frozen fingers, and no junk miles commuting from home to your starting point.

Instead of thinking of as a necessary evil during the winter months, consider the benefits: You don’t have to worry about slipping on ice or navigating around cars, pedestrians, and pets. You can adjust the temperature indoors, making it warmer to mimic summer races or turning on a fan if you need to cool off. With fewer distractions and more control over your environment, you can get really dialed in with your training.

While outdoor cycling allows you to practice bike handling and climbing and descending hills, indoor training is great for honing your pedaling efficiency and cadence.

How to Choose Indoor Cycling Equipment

There’s no match for your own bike, especially if it’s been fitted to your body and has a seat you can comfortably sit on for hours. If you want to keep riding the same bike indoors, you can mount it on a bike trainer or rollers.

Bike trainers fall into two main categories: and . A wheel-on trainer attaches to your bike’s rear wheel and uses a metal roller pressed against the tire to add resistance. With a direct-drive trainer, you remove your rear wheel and set your bike on the trainer’s cassette. Wheel-on trainers can quickly wear out your back tire, but they also tend to be more affordable; direct-drive trainers, which are larger and heavier, provide a smoother ride.

Rollers sit flat on the floor and include three long cylinders attached to a metal frame. While you ride, your wheels spin the cylinders, offering a realistic road-feel. This apparatus requires more balance and skill to stay upright than other indoor cycling options.

While it won’t replicate your outdoor riding experience as closely, , a coach and training specialist with Peloton, says a stationary bike can also help you build your overall endurance. “When you’re focusing on general fitness, just getting on a bike and pedaling is like 90 percent of the battle,” he says.

Unlike devices that attach to your normal bike, a stationary bike is a separate piece of equipment specifically meant for cycling indoors. Your pedal strokes spin a flywheel at the front of the machine. Depending on the model you’re using, you can turn a knob or pull a lever to adjust your level of resistance. There are a few different types of stationary bikes, including upright (which most closely resembles a regular bike), recumbent (with a reclined seat), and dual-action (the handlebars move back and forth, offering an additional upper body workout). Upright and dual-action bikes will feel most similar to your outdoor bike, but if you have back pain, the reclined seat of a recumbent bike offers more comfort and support.

Set a Goal

When your outdoor cycling season ends, Wilpers says that’s the time to set your goals for the coming year. “It puts a flag in the ground to say, ‘OK I need to be ready for this,’” he says. “It gives purpose to your workouts.”

If there’s a bike race on your calendar, plan your training program around your main race (your “A” race). Think about where you want your fitness to be by that race, and work backwards to where you are now. You’ll want to start your first phase of training about six months before race day. If your aim is to simply ride more, or be able to ride a certain distance, there’s still value in sticking to a structured training program to stay motivated.

“The difference between training and exercising is simply having a goal, and I think you need to have your goal in mind to really start getting the most out of your training,” says Wilpers. “That makes you less likely to miss a training day and more likely to have a higher quality session.”

Focus on Technique

While training indoors, pay attention to where you’re feeling the work of pedaling. You should primarily be using the big muscles of your glutes, quads, and hamstrings, rather than smaller muscles like your calves. If you’re feeling it in your knees, that could be a sign that you’re “just mashing the pedals,” Wilpers says.

While your legs power your pedals, your core is responsible for keeping the other half of your body upright and balanced on two wheels. Activate your core to control your hips in the saddle and avoid bouncing or rocking when you’re riding at a higher speed, Wilpers says. You should also be drawing on your core strength and stability to initiate your pedal stroke and take some of your upper body weight off of your handlebars.

Warm Up

Regardless of your training phase, Wilpers recommends a five-minute warmup that starts with an easy pedal for about a minute. Follow that with three to four minutes of spin-ups for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off of building to a higher and higher cadence, then slowly backing down. “Being able to quickly turn over the pedals and apply force to the pedals is what makes a cyclist fast,” says Wilpers.

You can also add in some single-leg pedaling drills, which can help identify and correct power imbalances. Unclip one foot from your pedal and pedal with one leg, paying attention to any spots where you lose power. Start with one minute on each leg.

Indoor Training Phases

To best prepare for spring and summer rides, your training cycle should have two phases: base (which begins about six months before a goal race) and build (which starts about 12 to 16 weeks before your goal race). During base training, your focus will be on increasing your aerobic fitness and endurance as well as pedal stroke efficiency. The build phase “relies on a strong aerobic engine and foundation built in the base phase,” says Wilpers. In this phase, the volume and intensity will increase.

Base Training

During base training, which should last about six to 12 weeks, you’ll focus on upping your fitness and overall cardiovascular capacity. Wilpers suggests aiming for three��workouts a week. You can sub out one ride a week with other endurance exercises, like running or swimming.

“If you’re in base training, everything needs to be endurance,” says Wilpers. That doesn’t mean purely long, slow distance rides though. While one ride a week should be your long ride, the others should include high-intensity interval training. Those rides, which can be kept to about an hour, should include several intervals around eight minutes long (you can build up to 15-minute intervals) which feel like a seven on the one-to-ten scale of rate of perceived exertion (RPE).

You can throw in some sweet-spot training as well, which helps increase your aerobic capacity. This entails riding at about 88 to 94 percent of your functional threshold power (FTP), or the maximum amount of power you can sustain for an hour at a time. Start with four eight-minute intervals or two 15-minute intervals, resting four minutes or seven minutes between each interval. These intervals should also feel like about a seven in terms of your rate of perceived exertion.

“Sweet-spot training is considered one of the most beneficial intensities to train at to start bumping up your FTP,” says Wilpers. “I like using sweet-spot training at the tail end of base training because you are starting to get hungry for more intensity…but it’s not yet time to make that jump into the build phase.”

During the base phase, recovery is particularly important to ensure you don’t get injured or burn out before your training can really begin. As you get older, Wilpers says, it becomes more challenging for your body to absorb the work you’re doing and adapt to training intensity.

Build Training

Your build phase should start about 12 to 16 weeks before your goal race and last around six to eight weeks. Aim for two to three 60- to 90-minute long high-intensity workouts per week, in addition to your longer endurance ride. During this phase, you’re bumping up the volume and intensity. VO2 Max intervals—riding in a zone five level of intensity, where your heart rate is at about 90 to 100 percent of your max—should be around five minutes. Threshold intervals—in which you’re riding at the highest level of power you can sustain on an hour-long ride—should be about eight to ten minutes with recovery between intervals at about half the time spent working. Aim for an RPE between seven and eight.

Training should start getting more race-specific as well. Consider the elevation of the course and add hills accordingly, and increase long rides to get closer to the amount of time you anticipate riding during your peak race.

The Pillars of Off-Season Training

Frequency: Find a schedule you can stick to. How much time can you realistically devote to training? “If you over-schedule yourself and you can’t stay consistent, nothing is going to happen,” Wilpers says. “You’re just going to get frustrated.” Three sessions a week is ideal, but during your base phase, you can swap one of those for another kind of cardio you enjoy.

Duration: Start with easy endurance work and gradually increase the length of your workouts as you progress. Even if your goal race will have you in the saddle for several hours, don’t spend your entire off-season just pedaling slowly for hours at a time. “You want to show up on race day ready to race and excited,” says Wilpers. “But if you’re just doing endurance rides for 24 weeks, you’re going to get to the race and be like ‘I’m already over it.’” Instead, schedule two of your weekly sessions to be around an hour long and use that time to work on interval training, which will increase your pedaling power and endurance.

Intensity: Unlike frequency and duration, intensity is a bit subjective. How hard does your workout feel? If you plan for one ride per week to be low intensity, the other two (or three) should incorporate intervals at a higher intensity, which can include increasing your speed, shifting your cadence, and adding hill work.

Strength Training

You can build strength both on and off the bike.

On the bike, you can build strength with muscle tension or high-force intervals. Add an incline on the bike (or get into a higher gear) and take your cadence into the 50s or 60s, pedaling slowly “so you’re getting lots of muscle fiber activation,” says Wilpers. Try to hold that cadence and power for five to six minutes, building up to about 20 minutes. Muscle tension riding is great for building glute strength, something cyclists often neglect in favor of their quads and hamstrings. When you head back to higher cadence rides and sprints, this should make your pedal stroke even more efficient.

Off the bike, Wilpers suggests focusing on the “main movers”—the glutes, quads, and hamstrings—to increase force production on your pedals. Think: squats and deadlifts and cleans. Unilateral (single-leg) work will help ensure you’re building strength in both legs, rather than allowing one side to handle the bulk of the work. It can also help correct any muscular imbalances you may have developed during the racing season. For upper body work, add in bench presses, overhead presses, lat pull-downs, and rows.

Wilpers recommends at least two or three total-body strength sessions per week, depending on your training phase. During early base training, the addition of a third session can “help enhance strength improvements while your cycling training is just getting started,” he says. As your cycling training gets more demanding, decrease the volume and intensity of your strength workouts and switch to just two sessions per week to maintain the muscle you’ve built.

“A good indication that it’s time to dial back the strength training to strength maintenance is when you feel that residual fatigue and/or soreness from strength sessions is starting to interfere with your cycling training,” Wilpers says.

Rest and Recovery

Wilpers recommends at least one rest day a week, adding more based on how hard you’ve pushed yourself and your overall health and stress levels.

“Every athlete has a different rate of adaptation or absorption, and that will change as your life changes,” says Wilpers.

Rest doesn’t have to mean melting into the couch, though. You can use that time to focus on mobility work or do a low-impact workout you enjoy like yoga.

It’s tempting to assume that only professional athletes need dedicated rest days. But shifting your thinking about why and how you train may be the key to getting the most from your time on the bike and avoiding burnout.

“People say ‘I’m not an athlete.’ Well if you’re training, you’re an athlete,” says Wilpers.

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If your lower back or knees ache at the end of a long day on the slopes, you may have limited hip mobility.

Compromised range of motion in the hips can be “a silent culprit” for pain elsewhere in the body, says Mandie Majerus, a physical therapist with in Kirkland, Washington, and co-founder of the , an online ski and snowboard training program designed by physical therapists to improve performance and reduce injuries. If you lack mobility in your hips, “your body is going to find it somewhere else,” Majerus says.

Majerus has been working on the medical team for World Cup ski races and training camps for 14 years. During that time, she has noticed a consistent trait in the athletes who top the podiums: “They wake up, do their hip mobility work, go ski, and then come right back to the gym to do their cooldown.”

For the rest of us, dedicating even a few minutes a week to improving our hips’ range of motion and stability can have a meaningful impact on ski performance, longevity in the sport, and overall health.

How Do Your Hips Move When You Ski?

Think of your hips as “the steering wheel of your lower body,” says Majerus. Each turn is initiated from the hips. As you carve, your hips alternate between abduction (the movement of the leg away from the body) and adduction (the movement of the leg towards the body), or external and internal rotation.

If your hip mobility is compromised and you can’t rotate well, you’ll be less effective at turning your skis, Majerus says. As a result, you’ll start relying on your back to power these movements, which can lead to aches and pains.

Similarly, if you’re lacking mobility and stability in your hip muscles (including the glutes, adductors, hamstrings, and hip flexors), “that load all goes into your quads and therefore your knees,” explains Majerus.

About one third of all alpine ski injuries occur in the knee, with the majority impacting the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), according to published in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. These injuries often occur when we catch or lose an edge in a turn, or fall backwards. But there’s evidence that strong hip muscles can lower your risk of knee injury. A 2015 study published in the found that lower preseason hip abduction and external rotation strength increased the risk of suffering a non-contact ACL injury during the competitive season.

Even if you stick to groomers, you’re likely to encounter some uneven terrain. Your hips are responsible for absorbing the shock of those bumps, maintaining your center of gravity, and helping you adjust quickly to ice and bare patches.

When Can You Work Through Discomfort and When Should You Seek Help?

If you experience a nagging ache while skiing or develop a new acute pain when you stand up at the end of après, you may need professional help, Majerus says.

She suggests following a traffic light scale to determine if you can keep skiing or if it’s better to take a break. Green would be “no pain.” Yellow should register at about a four out of ten on the pain scale, when you can ski through a small amount of discomfort that doesn’t seem to be increasing. Red is when your gut tells you not to keep pushing, or when there is localized swelling, pain, or warmth; that’s when it’s time to rest and seek care from an orthopedist or physical therapist.

The Moves

Majerus suggests starting to work on hip mobility and stability at least two to four weeks before your ski season begins with two to three sessions a week, then repeating your exercises two to three times a week throughout the season. (The couch stretch can be done daily). You can do this routine—which promotes mobility, flexibility, and stability—in the morning or evening. Just be sure to do it at a time of day when you’re able to pay close attention to how your body feels as you move.

Before you head out for a powder day, be sure to do a dynamic warmup. Once you’re off the slopes, give your hips some extra care and attention.

“Instead of coming home from a day of skiing and then just grabbing a beer and sitting on the couch, do a couple of hip stretches and maybe some foam rolling,” says Majerus.

Hip Hinge

How it helps: Ensures your hips are hinging correctly before you load them with your body-weight while skiing

Begin by standing with your back to a wall or other vertical surface, like the side of a box. Step a few inches away from the wall (about the length of one of your feet). Your feet should be hip-width apart and your arms can be crossed over your chest or held straight out in front of you. Maintaining a straight back, bend slightly at your knees and hinge at your hips to push your rear back until it taps the wall, then return to standing. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings throughout the movement. If you are unable to tap the wall, try moving a little closer. Perform two sets of ten reps.

You can progress this movement by stepping farther away from the wall, or by holding a kettlebell at your chest.

Supine Hip Internal Rotation Stretch

How it helps: Improves internal hip rotation

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Your feet should be about two feet apart (if you’re on a yoga mat, they should be just outside the edges of your mat). Let both knees drop towards the same side until you feel a stretch on the outside of your hip. Repeat on the other side. Hold about five seconds for each rep, repeating ten times on each side.

Side Lying Hip Abduction with Wall Support

How it helps: Strengthens hip abductors

Lie on your side with your back pressed against a wall. You can either rest your head on your bottom arm or cradle it in your hand to support your neck. Straighten your top leg and allow a slight bend in your bottom leg. Raise your top leg up, sliding your heel along the wall, and stop before your upper leg rotates or pulls away from the wall. Then, lower it back down. You should feel this movement primarily in your glutes. Complete ten reps on one side before switching sides. Perform two or three sets.

To make this exercise more challenging, move your upper body slightly away from the wall but keep the heel of the top leg in contact with the wall as you raise and lower. When you’re ready to progress from there, you can try this move without wall support.

Airplane��

How it helps: Improves hip rotation

Stand on one leg with a slight bend in your knee, hinge forward at your hips, and raise your opposite leg slightly so your foot hovers over the floor. Maintain tension through the raised leg. With your arms outstretched to the sides like airplane wings, twist your torso towards the standing leg, aiming for about a 45-degree angle, allowing the opposite hip to drop slightly. (If balancing in this position is challenging, try performing it next to a couch, chair, or countertop and holding on for added stability). Return to center, then twist and open your torso towards the opposite side, aiming for about a 10-degree angle only. You should feel this movement primarily in the glute, hamstring, and quad of the standing leg. Perform one set of ten reps, completing all reps on one side before switching sides.

Bulgarian Split Squat����

How it helps: Teaches you to properly engage your glute muscles during movement

Stand about two feet in front of a bench or a chair, facing away from it, with your feet hip-width apart. Lift one leg, bend at the knee, and place the top of that foot on the flat surface behind you. You can cross your arms at your chest or extend them in front of you. Engage your core and begin to lower your butt towards the ground, bending the knee of your standing leg,��and allowing a slight hinge at your hips. Your opposite leg should bend as well, but most of your weight should be in your front leg as you lower into the squat. Continue to lower, making sure the knee of your front leg stays in line with your ankle, until your front thigh is parallel with the floor. Press the foot of your standing leg into the floor to return to standing. Keep your back leg elevated on the bench throughout the entire set. You should feel this movement primarily in the quads, hamstrings, and glutes of your front leg. Complete ten reps on one side before switching sides. Perform two sets on each side.

You can make this movement more challenging by adding an isometric hold at the bottom of the last rep of each set for about 20 seconds.

Couch Stretch

How it helps: Opens up the hips and helps relieve tight hip flexors

Begin in a kneeling position facing away from a couch or chair. Bend one leg and rest the top of that foot on the couch or chair. Step your opposite leg forward to form a 90-degree angle, with your foot flat on the floor. Engage your core and glutes, keep an upright torso with your shoulders over your hips, and push your hips forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your hip and thigh. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds for two sets on each side. You can do this movement daily to maintain flexibility in your hip flexors.

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If you’re used to following a fitness program, the prospect of taking a break over the holidays can feel daunting. Will all that time spent sitting in airport terminals or melting into the couch set you back in your training? Will you return from vacation a slower, weaker athlete?

Let’s start with the good news: A short break from working out can actually be helpful. “As long as you’re staying consistent before then, taking a three- or four-day rest is actually going to be a net positive because you’re giving your body that time to recover,” says Grayson Wickham, a doctor of physical therapy��and the founder of , a stretching app and website.

During a break from exercise, cardiovascular capacity typically declines faster than strength, but even that reduction in aerobic fitness takes longer than you may think. A 2024 meta-analysis published in the journal suggests that it takes at least 12 days of not training before your VO2 max starts to decrease. You have even more leeway when it comes to strength training. The researchers behind a 2024 study published in the say that people who lift regularly “should not be too concerned” about taking up to ten weeks off once a year.

But this doesn’t mean you should be sedentary for the duration of your vacation either, as prolonged sitting may lead to muscle and joint , which can make everyday tasks difficult or uncomfortable. A little movement can go a long way.

Yes, Body-Weight Workouts Still Count

Body-weight exercises might sound easy for experienced athletes. But there are three levers you can pull to make an on-the-road workout harder: eccentrics, isometrics, and plyometrics. “Varying your exercise choice, as well as tempo and speed, can make your workout more challenging and lead to increased strength, power, and hypertrophy,” Wickham says. ��

Eccentric training involves controlling a weight (including your body-weight) as it moves downward (think: lowering into a squat or a pushup, or bringing a weight back down after an overhead press). Focusing on the eccentric portion of an exercise can also lead to greater “as there is typically more muscle damage elicited during the exercise” rather than at a typical speed, Wickham explains.

Isometric holds involve while keeping its length constant. When performed at a joint’s end range of motion—like the bottom of a squat or the top of an overhead press—isometric holds “are very effective for improving mobility and range of motion,” Wickham says. This will then lead to increased joint stability and injury prevention potential, he adds.

—jumping movements that challenge you to quickly exert force and target your fast-twitch muscle fibers—“are great at improving power as you are now taking a movement and then increasing the speed at which you are performing it,” Wickham says. During this type of training, your muscles need to control the descent back to the ground, he adds. Plyometrics particularly benefit athletes whose sports rely on fast, forceful movements (think: tennis, martial arts, sprinting).

If you’re primarily focused on training for one sport, you can structure your body-weight workouts in service of that goal. Cyclists, for example, can focus on leg exercises and may want to do higher rep sets to improve muscular endurance.

If you’re a higher level athlete or otherwise concerned about straying from your usual schedule, plan ahead by building in a de-load or taper week to coincide with the holiday break.

The Moves

These exercises cover five fundamental movement patterns typically used while training and performing everyday tasks: squat, lunge, hinge, push, and pull.

Build your own workout(s) by choosing one or two moves from each category. Each basic exercise can be enhanced by slowing down the eccentric movement, holding an isometric pause, or adding a plyometric component.

Any amount of time spent working out is great, but try to fit in a session that’s 20 minutes or longer if possible.

For each exercise, complete three or four sets of eight to twelve repetitions with about 60 seconds between sets.

Squat

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and hands by your sides. Engaging your core, hinge at the hips and bend your knees at the same time. As you lower into the squat, keep your arms straight and raise them to chest height. Keep your gaze straight ahead as you maintain a flat back and proud chest. When you’re ready to rise back to standing, press your feet into the floor and imagine that you’re trying to pull the floor beneath your feet apart. This will help keep your knees from caving in as you stand back up.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Try lowering for a count of three.

Isometric

Hold a two-second pause at the bottom.

Plyometric

At the bottom of the squat, bring your straight arms slightly behind you, then quickly bring them forward and use them to help you drive your body up from the floor. Extend your legs as you rise so your ankles, knees, and hips are at full extension in the air. Land with control and then repeat.

Reverse Lunge

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and arms by your sides. Take a big step back with your right leg and bend both knees so your legs form 90-degree angles, bringing your arms to 90-degree angles by your sides. Your right knee should hover an inch above the floor, and the majority of your weight should be in your left leg (if you’re feeling this more in your right leg, try leaning your torso slightly forward). Press through your left foot and straighten both legs as you return your right leg to standing and let your arms hang by your sides. Complete all reps on one side before switching sides.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Lower into each lunge to a count of three.

Isometric

Hold at two-second pause at the bottom of the lunge, keeping your back leg hovering just above the ground.

Plyometric

For this one, you’ll switch legs after each rep. At the bottom of the lunge, press into both feet and jump up, coming to full extension of the ankle, knee, and hip in the air. Land with the opposite leg in front and lower into a lunge on that side. Keep switching back and forth.

Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and a soft bend in both knees. Shift your weight to your left leg and hover your right foot off the ground. Engage your core and hinge at your hips as you kick your right leg back behind you. Lower until your torso and leg are in a straight line and parallel with the floor. You can keep your hands clasped at your chest for the duration of this movement. To make this move more challenging, hold a weight or another household item, like a water bottle or book, in each hand. Alternatively, you could hold a single weight in the hand on the same side as the elevated leg. Maintain a flat back throughout the movement. Switch sides.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Lower to parallel to a count of three.

Isometric

Pause for two seconds at the bottom of the hinge.

Plyometric

Romanian deadlifts should be slow and controlled but you can similarly challenge your hip hinge with a box jump or broad jump. For a box jump, use a sturdy platform like a stair or bench. Stand with your feet parallel in front of the platform, bend your knees, and jump up, landing with your hips and knees in flexion. Stand up and step back down. For a broad jump, choose a spot on the floor in front of you, and bounding off both feet at the same time, jump toward that spot. Land with your hips and knees in flexion, then stand up, turn around, and jump the other way.

Push-Up

To do a standard push-up, begin on the floor on all fours, your hands shoulder-width apart. Step one leg back at a time so you’re in a plank position. Bending your elbows out to the sides, slowly lower your body in a straight line without arching your lower back or raising your hips. When your torso is just above the floor, press your palms into the floor and rise back up to plank position.

In addition to doing traditional modified push-ups on your knees, there are several other ways that you can make the basic push-up easier.

• Elevated push-up: Place your hands on a chair (as long as that chair is pressed against a wall) or similar elevated surface. To make this even easier, stand with your hands pressed into a wall.
• Banded push-up: If you have a resistance band, place it around both arms, just above your elbows (a long loop band may need to be wrapped around twice). As you lower into the push-up, the band will help you press back up to the top.
• : Begin by sitting on the floor on your knees. Walk your hands out in front of you until your back is flat, keeping your knees and toes planted on the floor. Bend your elbows and lower your body all the way to the floor. When your chest touches the floor, pause, lift your hands one inch off the floor, place them back down, and push yourself back up.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Lower for a count of three (you can do this as a hand-release push-up as well).

Isometric

Hover just above the floor for two seconds before pressing back to the start position.

Plyometric

Plyometric push-ups are a particularly advanced move when done on the floor. Try this move first by beginning in an elevated push-up stance as explained above. Lower your chest towards the bench or other sturdy elevated surface, keeping your elbows pressed into the sides of your torso. Press your hands into the bench and try to explosively push your body away from the bench, extending your arms straight as you rise; your hands should be off the bench for a brief second before landing back into push-up position. That’s one rep.

Resistance Band Rows

Pulling pattern movements are going to be most effective with something to pull onto. If you can slip a long resistance band (loop- or handle-style) into your bag, there’s a lot you can add to your workouts.

You can do these two ways: horizontal row and vertical row.

For the horizontal row, attach one end of a resistance band to a sturdy anchor point at about chest height (this might mean kneeling to use a door knob or table leg, or standing and closing a door on the band). Grip the opposite end of the band in both hands, keeping your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width. Drawing your shoulder blades together and engaging your lats, pull your elbows back. Hold, then return to the starting position.

For the vertical row, stand with your feet hip-width apart, one end of the looped band under your feet. Grip the opposite end with both hands about shoulder-width apart. Keeping an upright torso, draw your elbows high, pulling the band up towards your chin. Hold, then slowly return.

How to Make This Move More Challenging

Eccentric

Resist the band for a count of three as you return to your starting position.

Isometric

Hold for a count of two at the highest point of your row.

Plyometric

Making a banded row plyometric is challenging (especially when it’s attached to the doorframe of someone else’s home). For a plyometric pulling exercise, try attaching one end of your band to the top of a door or, if possible, a tree branch outside. Hold the opposite end of the band with two hands, shoulder-width apart. As you would on a Ski Erg machine, in one quick motion, hinge at the hips and pull the band down with force, drawing your hands towards the outsides of your hips, as you might with a pair of ski poles.

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Touching your toes. The standing quad hold. The overhead tricep stretch. These are the static positions our high school gym teachers taught us to warm up with before engaging in any physical activity. But to adequately prime your body for movement—whether you’re biking to work or trekking up a mountain—you have to actually get moving.

“Why would you do something passive to improve something active?” says Grayson Wickham, a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of , a mobility and stretching app. Dynamic stretching, he explains, “happens when you are moving your muscles from a shortened to a lengthened position by moving your joint in a specific direction.”

Dynamic stretches are best for warming up. These controlled movements mimic the exercises you’re about to perform in your workout, with a slower, more deliberate pace. For example, before a run, you might do a few walking high knees and arm swings. If you’re climbing, you may spend more time practicing hip-opening rotations and shoulder rolls. These movements will increase overall blood flow and minimize muscle and joint stiffness, which can during exercise.

But dynamic stretching can also help you move more easily through everyday tasks like running errands or doing household chores. “Dynamic stretching should be done every morning, not just because you’re going to work out and not just because you’re athletic, but because you’re a human,” says Marnie Adler, a Pilates instructor based in Toronto, Ontario. For the last decade her work has focused on helping clients move with greater mobility and stability, beginning workouts with purposeful dynamic stretching before progressing into more difficult moves. “It’s about getting your body moving, no matter what your plan is for the day,” she adds.

Static vs. Dynamic Stretching: Which Is Better?

Most studies on the impact of different types of stretching have small sample sizes. But the available research indicates that dynamic stretching and increases your , which better prepares your muscles for action. By decreasing muscle stiffness and increasing joint flexibility, dynamic stretching also helps .

Analyzing more than two decades of research on the topic, the authors of a published in the European Journal of Applied Psychology suggest that an optimal warm-up should include low-intensity aerobic work, followed by both dynamic stretching and sport-specific dynamic movements.

Static stretching, on the other hand, involves “stretching out a muscle and joint and then simply relaxing into the hold,” Wickham says.

Although many of us were taught to hold these positions before exercising, a growing body of research suggests that this style of warm-up can force production, endurance, speed, . A 2012 study in the found that static stretching reduced cyclists’ mechanical efficiency and caused them to tire out faster.

“From a physiologic perspective, static stretching is just passively elongating your connective tissues,” Wickham says. “After static stretching you now have a more flexible, floppy joint that lacks end range of motion stability, muscle activation, and joint control. This is a great recipe for injury as you now have even poorer joint control while performing an exercise or athletic movement.”

Wickham doesn’t consider static stretching a critical part of post-workout recovery, either, but he notes that it can be added during a rest day as a relaxation strategy.

The Moves

Adler suggests performing this set of dynamic moves before any workout or choosing the ones that best support your activity. You can also do them upon waking and before bed to mitigate muscle stiffness from sleeping or spending time sitting. The static moves can be done on a rest day or after your workout is complete.

Quads

Dynamic: Lunge with Rotation

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Take a big step forward with one foot, and bend both knees as you drop into a lunge. Your knees should both be at 90-degree angles and your back knee should be hovering just slightly above the ground. Bend your elbows at your sides and twist your torso across your front leg, then across your back leg, then back to center. That’s one rep. Come back to standing and repeat on the opposite leg. Perform 10 reps on each side.

You should feel this movement primarily in the quad of your front leg. If not, hinge your torso just slightly forward to bring more weight into your front leg.

Static: Standing Quad Stretch

You can do this move free-standing or with one hand gently pressed against a wall or lightly holding a chair for balance. Standing with feet parallel, bend your right leg, bringing your foot behind you. Reach back with your right hand and grab hold of the top of your foot. Gently pull upwards on your foot, feeling the stretch in your quad. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds before switching sides.

Hamstrings

Dynamic: Hamstring Stretch

Stand with feet hip-width apart and a slight bend in the knees. Hinge at the hips and lower your arms and torso towards the floor, keeping your legs straight enough to feel a good stretch in your hamstrings. Once your hands touch the ground, lower your hips into a deep squat. From there, raise the hips without lifting the torso (try to keep your fingertips in contact with the floor). Lower right back down into the deep squat. Continue this motion of raising and lowering the hips for ten reps.

Static: Elevated Leg Stretch

Standing with feet parallel in front of a chair, couch, or bench, lift one leg and place your heel on the elevated surface. Keeping a soft bend in your standing leg and your lifted leg straight, reach your hands towards the foot of your lifted leg and hold for 30 to 60 seconds. You should feel a gentle stretch in the back of the lifted leg.

Hips

Dynamic: Hip CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations)

Begin on all fours. Keeping your torso centered and stable and without collapsing to one side, lift your bent right leg and draw the knee in towards your right elbow, then out to the side, then back, ending with your leg behind you, knee bent and heel pointed towards the ceiling. Bring the knee back to the ground to complete the motion. Then reverse it. You should feel this movement in your hip flexors and glutes, and it should feel like you’re rotating your leg through the entire range of motion of your hip joint. That’s one rep. Complete ten reps.

Note: You can also do this move standing if being on your knees is uncomfortable. You can gently hold onto a static object to help with balance.

Static: Wall V-Stretch

Lying on your back with your butt and legs pressed up against a wall, open your legs into a wide V position. You can gently press out on your inner thighs with your hands to deepen the stretch. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.

You should feel a stretch in your inner thighs and hip flexors.

Shoulders

Dynamic: Shoulder Rolls

With your arms by your sides or outstretched, draw your shoulders up towards your ears, then down your back, feeling your shoulder blades rise and lower. After doing 10 reps backward, switch directions for 10 reps forward. Lastly, raise your arms overhead and draw your shoulders up, then release them back down. You should feel this in the front and back of your shoulders (anterior and rear delts) and your lats. Perform 10 reps overhead.

Static: Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch

Begin with your arms hanging by your sides. Raise and reach your right arm across your chest. Grasp your upper right arm just above the elbow with your left hand and gently pull your arm to deepen the stretch. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.

You should feel this in the back of your shoulders and lats.

Core and Spine

Dynamic: Roll-Down and Roll-Up

Begin in a seated position with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Your legs should be hip-width apart. Extend your arms in front of you. Begin to slowly roll your torso down towards the mat, keeping your core braced as you go, controlling through the entire range of motion. Once you reach the mat, inhale, exhale, and begin to slowly roll back up. That’s one rep. Complete ten reps.

This move should gently challenge your core stability and warm up the muscles that surround your spine. If you feel a strain or discomfort in your lower back, shorten your range of motion; instead of lowering all the way to the mat, stop about halfway down and then roll back up.

Static: Child’s Pose and Shell Stretch

Begin on the floor in a kneeling position. Bring your knees wide and your toes together, and sit your butt back on your heels. Walk your hands out in front of you until you’re folded forward at the hips. Maintain a neutral neck position, with your eyes looking at the floor directly beneath your head. Tilt your tailbone back towards your heels. Hold that stretch. Then reach your hands forward and let your tailbone rock forward. Hold that position. Repeat, shifting your tailbone back and forth with a hold at each end range, for 30 to 60 seconds.

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Learning to ride a bike can be your first taste of freedom. Suddenly, the world beyond your front door opens up, ready to be explored on two wheels.

But for Marley Blonsky it wasn’t that simple. Back when she was eight years old, trying to ride with her older sister and her friends, she was told she was too slow. “I always wanted to be part of the club,” she says. “It felt like something I was constantly striving for and not really accomplishing.”

As an adult, Blonsky, 38, faced similar barriers—and some new ones she hadn’t anticipated. She found that the weight limits on most road bikes were too low for her; her rides were hampered by broken spokes and cracked saddle rails. Most cycling-apparel brands had limited sizing, so she struggled to find comfortable jerseys and bibs. On group rides, she felt that familiar sensation of being left behind.

So she did something about it. In 2021, along with Kailey Kornhauser, Blonsky founded , a club that welcomes riders regardless of their size, gender, race, or ability. Over the past three years, the group has expanded to ten chapters, with plans to add nearly 30 more by 2027. Each chapter is encouraged to organize rides, collaborate with other bike-advocacy organizations in its area, and host events like gear swaps and fix-a-flat clinics. “We don’t care why you’re riding a bike,” she says. “We just want to empower you to do it joyfully.”

In 2024, All Bodies on Bikes led several bike-camping trips (the one hosted by the Kansas City chapter had 50 riders) and cohosted the biggest finish-line party in gravel cycling: the DFL party (for Dead Fucking Last) at MidSouth Gravel. Looking forward, the organization’s strategic plan includes establishing industry standards for weight limits on bikes and components, pushing brands to represent a greater range of sizes in their advertising, and creating a retail certification for bike shops to let would-be clients know that “this shop is knowledgeable in working with customers of size and will treat you with dignity and respect,” Blonsky says.

By creating a cycling community that embraces people of all shapes and sizes, Blonsky has made what can be an intimidating sport more approachable for new riders. She regularly receives messages from people about how meaningful it is to see a diversity of bodies represented in cycling. After years of feeling excluded, the self-identified fat cyclist has found power in throwing open the gates.

“It doesn’t feel like what we’re doing is that radical,” she says. “To slow down a little bit, to see folks and meet them where they’re at, it shouldn’t be that incredible of a thing. But it is.”

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When it comes to fitness trends, few have as low of a barrier to entry as rucking. The popular exercise (which has millions of posts using #rucking on TikTok and Instagram) requires only that you have a backpack, some things to stash in it, and a place to walk. In fact, if you have ever gone on a backpacking trip, taken the long way home from the store with your groceries on your back, or slung your child’s book bag over your shoulders while walking them to and from school, you’ve already rucked.

Like many fitness movements (boot camp classes, CrossFit), this one has its origins in the military. Army recruits embark on long marches with heavy rucksacks as part of their training regimen.

For the rest of us, weighted walking is a low-impact way to build strength and endurance, explains Sean Blinch, a Toronto-based CrossFit coach and gym owner who has been rucking for five years. Both beginner-friendly and scalable for advanced athletes, the combination of cardio and resistance training will primarily work your legs, core, and back.

It’s also something you can do with limited time. “We can find so many reasons not to move,” Blinch says. “Everyone’s time-poor. Nobody has enough time for anything.” With rucking, “you don’t have to warm up or cool down—just put on the backpack and go out,” he adds.

Many people suffer from posture-related issues, too, especially individuals who spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. Rucking may help to correct some of those concerns. The weighted pack can help pull your shoulders back, mitigating some of the effects of , a condition characterized by tightness and weakness in the muscles of the neck, upper back, and shoulders, Blinch says.

Being sedentary takes a toll on our lower body as well. When we are seated for long periods of time, our body begins to adapt to that position, tightening the hip flexors. That can over time, making exercise and daily movements uncomfortable or painful, and this can get worse as we age. When you walk, however, “you have your hip in a very natural, open position,” Blinch says.

What You Need to Ruck

Picking up rucking is as easy as lacing up a pair of shoes, putting on a weighted backpack, and heading out the door. Brands like GORUCK sell special packs just for rucking, but any daypack with durable, padded straps will also work. To add weight, you can use household items like dumbbells, canned goods, and books. Wrap your items in a towel to avoid any hard edges digging into your back as you walk. A weight plate will distribute the load more evenly across your back.

Weighted vests—which distribute weight equally around your torso—are also an option. As ���ϳԹ��� columnist Alex Hutchinson has written, it’s easier to maintain a normal posture and gait with a vest than a backpack, since you don’t need to lean forward to resist the weight behind you. You will also likely (that is to say, calories) with a vest.

Whether you choose a vest or a backpack, make sure that your footwear gives you enough support and stability. Blinch recommends lacing up a pair of shoes that you would use for distance running.

Finally, while rucking on a trail can offer an added challenge to your stability and core strength, as well as the of being in nature, you can ruck on city or suburban streets too. It’s less about getting it “right” and more about getting time outdoors, on your feet, away from a screen or desk. Ideally, you’ll enjoy it, too.

“Rucking should fit into your life in the ‘I get to do this’ area,” Blinch says.

Choosing a Weight

For your first time, Blinch recommends going easy. In terms of weight, that might look like loading either five or ten percent of your body weight into a pack. For a 160-pound person, that would be between eight and 16 pounds. If you’re already active and experienced with both strength and cardio, you can start with 15 to 25 percent of your body weight (between 25 and 40 pounds, for that 160-pound athlete).

Choosing a Distance

Beginners or less active individuals should start with one mile, or about 15 to 20 minutes of walking if you’re going by time rather than distance. Active individuals can start with about 30 minutes. Blinch recommends adding distance to your rucks before increasing weight.

When in doubt, determine your distance or weight by your rate of perceived exertion. In general, aim for a pace that’s somewhere between a stroll and a brisk walk. “If it feels punishing, you’re either going too far or too heavy,” Blinch says. “It should almost always feel like this is leaning on the side of easy.”

How Often Should You Ruck?

You can fit rucks into your existing schedule in a way that feels natural and low-pressure. Blinch suggests two or three rucks a week, but notes that they can also be part of your daily routine rather than a separate workout you need to carve out time to accomplish. You can turn a series of errands into a ruck by bringing an empty pack, loading your purchases into it, and walking back home.

How Heavy Is Too Heavy?

If you don’t have a rucking race or event in mind, determining when to max out can be confusing. One popular rule of thumb is to stick to a weight that allows you to cover a mile in under 20 minutes (army standard is 15 minutes). If it’s taking you longer than that, consider dropping weight. Another general suggestion is to stick to loads that do not exceed one-third of your body weight.

Keep It Casual

Though it can be tempting to go as hard and as far as possible, Blinch recommends increasing the demand on your body slowly, bumping up your weight or distance by about ten percent each week.

“With rucking, less is more,” Blinch says. “So you should be thinking about taking the intensity out. The benefits really come without all the intense stuff added into it.”

Try These Rucking Workouts

To add variety to your rucks, here are two workouts Blinch recommends:

Strength and Interval Training

Warm-up: Five to ten minutes of walking with no weight to get the blood flowing.
Workout: Walk for five minutes with a weighted pack. Stop and perform ten lunges or squats with the pack on your back. Repeat for four rounds.
Cool Down: A few minutes of walking without weight, followed by some light stretching that focuses on your calves, hamstrings, and lower back.

A Hill Workout

Warm-up: Start with a brisk five-minute walk, no weight, and do a few dynamic stretches.
Workout: Ruck for a total of 20 to 30 minutes, choosing a route with hills. On uphill sections, shorten your stride length and maintain a slightly forward-leaning posture for balance. Alternate between a faster pace for two minutes and a slower, steady pace for one minute.
Cool Down: End with five minutes of walking, without the pack, and stretch out your calves, quads, and hips.

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Your core is, quite literally, at the center of everything you do. It’s what powers your paddle strokes, allows you to reach for a climbing hold, and makes hoisting a heavy pack and carrying it over miles of technical terrain possible. It also helps you avoid injury during all those pursuits. But to make it work for you, you have to incorporate core exercises into your training plan.

What Exactly Is Your Core?

Often, core work focuses on building the vanity muscles of the six-pack (also known as the rectus abdominis) through crunches, which can and lead to neck and lower back discomfort. A well-rounded core routine will target the entire core musculature, which also includes your diaphragm, pelvic floor, transverse abdominis (the deep core layer which provides postural stability), obliques, and some of your back muscles (erector spinae, multifidus).

While much of traditional core training involves exercises like planks (a static movement), you also need to train for dynamic stability. “Being in the outdoors is sometimes very unpredictable,” says , a San Diego-based strength coach.��Being able to engage your core during movement better prepares you to prevent falls or to catch yourself if you do fall.

That’s particularly important as you age and balance and stability become more challenging. Gaudreau notes that core strength training “can give you the confidence that you don’t have to start living a smaller life because you’re afraid of feeling less quick, less reactive, less strong.”

Building muscle memory through core strength training allows you to act faster in a potential injury situation. “The body is going to do what the body does,��but the more practice we give it, the more it’s going to adapt,” says Gaudreau.

The Moves

Core work can be part of a warm-up, cool-down, or an active recovery day. Including it in a dynamic mobility warm-up can prepare your body for your workout. Single-leg Romanian deadlifts, for example, are great before a hike because they can “wake up your balance,” says Gaudreau. Suitcase carries can prime climbers for unilateral movements.

Instead of doing all these movements at once, choose three or four to group together, mixing different types of movements. A Pallof press, dumbbell windmill, and Russian twist will allow you to train your rotation and anti-rotation patterns while also working in multiple planes of motion.

Since your priority is likely your outdoor sport, start off slow with core training and add more reps or sets as you become more comfortable with these moves. “Anytime you start anything new, the thing that makes you sore is novelty,” says Gaudreau.

1. Side Plank with Rotation

What this move does: Improves balance; works the muscles in your hips, core, and shoulders; protects your spine

How to do it: Begin by lying on your right side, legs extended and stacked on top of one another. Prop your torso up on your right elbow, with your arm stacked directly under your shoulder, and palm flat on the mat. Inhale and engage your core, squeeze your glutes, and raise your hips and knees from the floor until your body is in a straight line.

Raise your left arm and exhale as you reach your left hand under your torso. Pause before bringing your left arm back to the starting position, keeping your hips elevated until you have completed all the repetitions. Move through a straight-arm plank to switch sides.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, with one minute of rest in between. As you progress, you can advance this movement and increase the following exercises to three sets.

2. Bird Dog

What this move does: Works the core, shoulders, and glutes; challenges balance and stability; improves hip and shoulder mobility

How to do it: Begin on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Maintain a neutral spine. Inhale to engage your core and exhale as you raise your right arm in front of you and left leg behind you until they are parallel to the floor, keeping both limbs straight. Slowly return to the starting position.

Keep your body from tilting or collapsing to one side to engage your core more efficiently. Repeat this movement for all repetitions on one side before switching sides.

Modified version:��If being on your knees is challenging, you can put a mat under your knees or perform a Dead Bug, which flips this movement upside-down. Lie on your back and raise your arms straight into the air, directly over your shoulders. Raise your legs with bent knees, keeping your knees directly above your hips. Engage your core and slowly lower your right arm toward the floor behind you and extend and lower your left leg toward the floor in front of you, hovering both limbs for a moment just above the floor. Return to the starting position and repeat this movement for all repetitions before switching sides.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, with one minute of rest in between.

3. Pallof Press

What this move does: Works your deep stabilizer core muscles; challenges you to limit rotation of the spine while building core stability

How to do it: Attach a light resistance band to an anchor point (e.g., a rig at your gym or a door frame at home). Grip the other end of the band with a hand-over-hand grip and step away from the anchor point until there is no slack in the band. Standing with the right side of your body in line with the anchor point, hold the band at chest height with bent elbows. Exhale as you slowly press your arms out straight in front of you. Pause, then slowly return.

Repeat this movement for all repetitions before turning around so your left side is in line with the anchor point. The goal is to avoid any twisting in your torso. If you find your body twisting, step a little closer to the anchor point to lighten the load.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, with one minute of rest in between.

4. Resistance Band Roll-Down/Roll-Up

What this move does: Strengthens back and transverse abdominis muscles; helps you stabilize through a full range of motion

How to do it: Sit on a mat and loop a light-to-medium resistance band around the soles of your feet. Extend your legs in front of you and grip the other end of the band with elbows bent and shoulders drawn back. Inhale to engage your core and exhale as you slowly lower your torso back toward the mat, hovering slightly above the floor for a moment before slowly rising back to a seated position. If you start to lose core engagement or stability on the way down, that’s a good stopping point, and you can start to rise back up from there.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps, with one minute of rest in between.

5. Dumbbell Windmill

What this move does: Challenges your body through all planes of motion for greater mobility and flexibility; challenges rotational stability; works core (with an emphasis on obliques) and shoulder muscles

How to do it: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in your left hand. Bring the dumbbell to your left shoulder and then extend your left arm up to raise it directly overhead. Turn your gaze toward the weight and exhale as you slowly slide your right hand down your right leg until you reach your ankle. Then, slowly rise to a standing position. Repeat this movement for all repetitions before switching sides.

Note: You can also do this with a light kettlebell, soup can, or a��bottle of water.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, with one minute of rest in between.��

6. Kettlebell Good Morning

What this move does: Challenges the muscles of the lower back as well as hamstrings and glutes; trains the hip-hinge pattern,��which is crucial for lifting heavy things off the ground

How to do it: Grip the handle of a kettlebell with both hands and bring it to chest height. Stand with feet hip-width apart, with a soft bend in the knees. Inhale to engage your core. Keeping a flat back and neck in line with your spine, exhale as you hinge at the hips and send your butt back. Lower your torso as close as you can to parallel with the floor. Pause, then inhale as you slowly rise back up.

Note: You can also use a dumbbell held horizontally or even a jug of water.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps, with one minute of rest in between.

7. Kettlebell Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

What this move does: Works one limb at a time,��which can help identify and correct muscle imbalances; challenges the core as well as the glutes and hamstrings; promotes stability in the standing position

How to do it: Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding a kettlebell in your left hand. Pull your left shoulder back and inhale to brace your core. Allow a slight bend in your right knee and exhale as you slowly hinge at the hips, sending your left leg back behind you with your foot flexed. Your left hand holding the kettlebell lowers toward the floor. Maintain a flat back and neutral neck throughout the movement. Rise back to standing and lightly tap your toes to the ground before repeating the movement. Finish all reps on this side before switching.

Note: You can also do this movement with a dumbbell.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, with one minute of rest in between.

8. Dumbbell Russian Twist

What this move does: Works rotation and anti-rotation patterns; challenges obliques and transverse abdominis

How to do it: Sit on a mat with bent knees and hold a dumbbell at your torso with bent elbows. Inhale to engage your core and hover your feet slightly above the floor. Twist your torso to the right, then back to center, then to the left. That’s one rep.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps, with one minute of rest in between.

9. Dumbbell Suitcase Carry

What this move does: Challenges dynamic stability to prepare for carrying uneven loads; works entire core musculature; helps with anti-rotation pattern

How to do it: Hold a heavy dumbbell in one hand and slowly walk the length of the room or gym, trying to avoid leaning or rotating toward the side with the dumbbell. Before turning back, switch the dumbbell to the opposite hand.

Volume: Two sets of 8 to 12 reps per side, with one minute of rest in between.

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If you’ve ever tripped while trail running, crashed onto the mat below a bouldering wall, or taken a tumble off your bike, you know that how you land can mean the difference between standing up and continuing your workout or heading to the ER. To give yourself the best chance of getting off the ground in one piece, consider spending more time there.

Once we learn how to walk, we spend most of our waking hours��sitting or standing. Growing suggests that we should get back on all fours for at least a few minutes a day through a practice called quadrupedal movement training (QMT), which can improve core strength, coordination, balance, mobility, and range of motion. For athletes, it can also mitigate some of the risks associated with falls and crashes.

How to Prevent Falls (and Fall Safely) with Animal Flow����������

The ground is “where we first learned how to move and control ourselves through space,” says Freyja Spence, a health and movement coach and the Head of Standards for , a QMT-based training program. Once we begin spending most of our time upright, we tend to rely heavily on our visual systems to maintain balance, rather than our body’s understanding of where it is in space (also known as proprioception).

Visual cues are harder to rely on while on all fours, but QMT has been shown to deepen our , or our ability to perceive the position of a joint. This leads to greater stability and control and can help athletes avoid falls. Still, some tumbles are less preventable. In those cases, avoiding injury is the priority.

“You want your body to already know where it is in space so that you don’t have to use time-consuming cognitive centers to figure it out,” says Spence. “Bodyweight skills help connect your brain to your body.”

When practiced regularly, Spence explains, QMT can help shift the body’s ability to disperse force, thanks in part to the strength and power developed through these movements, but also due to our body’s familiarity with landing and moving on the ground.

The Moves

Perform the first three moves in this series before your workout to prep your muscles, joints, and nervous system for the task ahead. The post-workout moves will support recovery and can help correct muscle asymmetries.

If you’re new to QMT, do these moves slowly and deliberately, ensuring proper hand and foot placement, breathing, and bracing. The slower you go, the more you’ll feel the impact.

Before Your Workout

Beast Activation

What it does: Stabilizes the trunk and core, hips, and shoulders; increases wrist and toe mobility; builds endurance.

How to do it: On all fours, place your hands shoulder-width apart and knees and feet hip-width apart, with the tops of your feet pressing into the ground. Shift your knees a bit in front of the hip line. Tuck your toes under and rotate your shoulders outward. Draw your bellybutton in, engage your glutes, and lift your knees one inch off of the ground. This is called Beast position.

To begin the activation, lift your right foot just high enough that you could slip a piece of paper underneath, keeping the rest of your body still. Lower your right foot and try the same lift on your left. Then try each hand (with feet remaining on the ground). Finally, try lifting your opposite hand and foot at the same time.

Volume: Perform two to three sets of 20- to 40-second activations, with a two- to three-second hold for each lift.

Side Kick Through

What it does: Increases shoulder and hip strength in rotation and coordination.

How to do it: Begin in Beast. Lift your right foot (keeping your right knee at the same height as your left knee) and left hand at the same time. Begin to draw your right knee under your body toward the left side, keeping your left heel elevated until your right knee is in line with your left foot. Drop your left heel and lower your hip toward the ground as you extend your right leg fully, pointing your right toe. At the same time, bend your left arm and draw your elbow back, bringing the back of your hand in line with your left ear. To return, lift your left heel, bend your left leg and pull it back under the body, bringing your right hand back to the floor and keeping your knees elevated. Repeat on the opposite side.

Volume: Two to three sets of 40- to 60-second slow, controlled repetitions.

Lateral Traveling Ape

What it does: Increases lower body mobility, upper body strength, and wrist mobility.

How to do it: Begin in a deep squat with your gaze facing forward. Raise your heels and place the hands on the ground about six to eight inches in front of your body, shoulder-width apart, with your left arm outside your left knee and your right hand directly in front of your left foot. With straight arms, press your hands into the ground, lean your weight into your hands, exhale and lift your hips to kick both feet off the ground, leaping to the left. Your right foot should land first and in line with your left hand. Once your left foot lands as well, drop back into the heels, returning to the deep squat position. Repeat this movement in the same direction one more time before switching directions.

Volume: Two reps one way, two the other way, then stand up between sets. Do two to three sets.

After Your Workout

Crab

What it does: Increases shoulder mobility and stability, and improves posture.

How to do it: From a seated position, bend your knees and place your feet on the floor shoulder-width apart about one foot in front of your hips. Place your hands behind you, shoulder-width apart, with fingertips pointing away from your body. Eyes should be looking just above the horizon. Pull your shoulders back, brace your core, engage your glutes, and lift your hips one inch off the ground.

Volume: Two 20- to 40-second sets.

Crab Reach

What it does: Increases strength and stability along the back of the��body.

How to do it: From Crab, lift your right hand off of the ground without shifting weight toward the left side. Bend your elbow and raise your arm above the chest, drawing your fingertips about six inches from your face. Press your feet into the ground and raise your hips slowly into a bridge position, keeping your left shoulder open and ensuring your knees haven’t collapsed inward. Reach your right arm overhead and toward your left shoulder, following that hand with your gaze. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds. To return to Crab, pull your top hand back in front of your face, gaze toward the ceiling, and lower the hips with control. Return your right hand to the ground.

Volume: Two sets per side.

Ape Reach

What it does: Promotes mobility and stability in the hip, shoulder, and spine.

How to do it: Begin in a deep squat. Drop your chin and stretch your arms in front of you, rotating them internally, so the backs of your hands are touching and your thumbs are pointing as close to the ground as possible without touching the ground. Heels are planted, hips pulled back. Shift your weight from your heels to your toes, raising your heels off the ground. Your glutes should be touching your heels, if possible. Raise your arms and begin to open them outward to shoulder height, rotating your hands so your palms are facing up. Hold for five seconds. To return, rotate the arms back inward, look toward the ground, and draw your arms back to the starting position, heels lowering to the ground. Hold for five seconds.

Volume: Two reps with a five-second isometric hold at the bottom and at the top. After two reps, stand up. Then, back down for two more.

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