Muddy Plimsolls interviewed by Men’s Health

This month, we were asked by Men’s Health magazine to reveal one of the ways we achieve fitness conditioning results for our clients.

Introducing Arm-drives

We were happy to show the best-selling magazine the Arm Drive: a speed training exercise that has implications for overall fitness conditioning and fat loss. Under the ’10 Ways to Train Better’ section, we describe how Arm Drives are used in our sessions to improve running form and increase efficiency. By increasing strength and control in the upper body, clients can run faster and longer and burn more calories as they do so. Arm Drives are a great way to develop a conditioned upper body that stabilises your torso and transfers power through the hips and legs. To perform them, you stand with your elbows by your sides, arms bent to 45-degrees. Drive alternating arms forward and backwards as fast as possible for 30 seconds.

How Mo Farah got better

We can see the effect of a stronger upper body training in Mo Farah’s amazing performance at this year’s Olympics. His coach, Alberto Salazar, has said that “He was the weakest athlete I’d ever trained — in terms of core strength and being able to do push-ups, sit-ups and single-leg squats. He was a 90lb weakling.” He subsequently went on about improving Farah’s strength and control in the upper body.

The arm drives described above are one of a number of speed training exercises we use at Muddy Plimsolls to prepare a client for improved performance in fast running and sprinting at their next workout. To experience our speed training exercises for yourself, try one of our personal training plans.