This 18-Minute Pilates Routine Helps Prevent Injury and Improve Performance for Runners

When you’re someone who loves running, it can be difficult to stray from that routine given how little time most of us have to dedicate to our workouts. But cross-training is of the utmost importance, and in the latest episode of Good Moves, Chloe De Winter of Go Chlo Pilates attempts to motivate those who prefer to pound the pavement to slow down and tone up with an 18-minute Pilates-for-runners routine.

“If you are a runner, Pilates can be so beneficial for you, not only for your speed and for your running technique but also to help reduce your risk of injury when you are running,” she says. “This is a great workout to do on your non-running days, or you can do it before a run to get the all the right muscles firing.”

As she works her way through the routine, de Winter explains how the various moves she demonstrates can specifically benefit your running game. Take the clam, for example, which she calls one of the all-time great Pilates exercises. “It’s so important for running because it helps to build out your side-glute strength, called your gluteus medius and your gluteus minimus, and also some of the back fibers of your gluteus maximus, i.e. your butt,” she explains. “And that really helps with that landing and push up as you are running. So it’s important—who doesn’t want strong glutes, right?”

Strong glute muscles play another role that can be mission critical for runners, says de Winter—they help with the alignment of the knees. “The side glute muscle is actually what impacts whether or not your knee rolls in,” she says. And as any runner knows, knee health is extremely important for those wanting to go the distance (literally and figuratively) as runners.

Want to know what other muscle groups you should be specifically toning and stretching to improve your performance as a runner and prevent injury? Press play on the video above.

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