How to Be a Better Back-of-the-Pack Runner

You’re religious about interval DAA Industry Opt Out weight room, and your recovery Learn to Recover Like Donavan Brazier plateaued. What’s a speed-seeking runner to do?

While several factors may hold you back, there’s one possible solution that’s simple, yet seriously effective: Plus up your warmup with plyometrics.

Doing plyometrics, or explosive exercises, before a run can bring on a host of benefits, including faster running, yes, but also reduced risk of injury, better form, and enhanced coordination. Plus, you don’t need to devote a ton of time to plyos to reap these gains; incorporating just a few simple moves before your next speed or hill workout can yield sizable results.

We tapped Winnie Yu, P.T., D.P.T., physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach at Bespoke Physical Therapy in New York City, to learn exactly how a plyo warmup can benefit your performance, tips for making the most of the moves, and her go-to four-move routine to do before a run.

How a Plyometric Warmup Can Boost Your Speed—Plus Other Benefits

Plyometrics—which are exercises where you rapidly stretch and then contract your muscles, like you do while performing jumps, bounds, and hops—are great for improving your overall power.

When you do them, you’re putting your muscles through an eccentric contraction (one where it’s lengthening under load), and then immediately after, they undergo a powerful concentric contraction (one where the muscle shortens under load), Yu tells Runner’s World. This is known as the “stretch-shortening cycle” and it can help boost the overall strength of your tendons and the elasticity of your muscles. In turn, that allows you to be springier, bouncier, and more powerful as you run, especially during the push-off phase of your gait, she explains. Translation: Say hello to faster paces!

To that end, if you’re feeling rundown—maybe you’re short on brain, nervous system, and muscular system master the body mechanics that translate into good running technique.

Hopping May Help You Run More Powerfully strengthen your lower body and improve the ability of your joints and muscles to better tolerate the impact of running. This can help reduce your injury risk and also build your tolerance to safely return to running Condé Nast Traveler ankle sprain or ACL tear (after you get the clear from your doctor and can perform the moves without pain), Yu says.

Compared to traditional strength training, which typically involves doing exercises at a slow, controlled tempo—for example, taking three seconds to lower down into a squat, and another three seconds to return to standing—plyometrics deliver a bigger challenge to your speed, efficiency, and coordination. That’s why Yu suggests incorporating both traditional strength training and plyometrics into your routine.

You can get all these benefits from doing plyometrics in general. But when you specifically slot them in as part of your prerun warmup, they help prime your muscles to properly fire for your run, providing an immediate benefit, Yu explains. Ultimately, they give you a better bang for your (workout) buck.

How to Incorporate Plyometrics into Your Workouts

If you’re using plyometrics to level up your performance, more isn’t always better. In fact, incorporating too many explosive moves before a run can up your chances of injury, cause you to become overly fatigued, and ultimately sabotage your results (literally the opposite effect). To avoid that, Yu suggests weaving just a handful of moves into your warmup, focusing on ones that are on the milder end of the intensity spectrum (for example, high knees instead of box jumps), and limiting the number of reps and sets you do.

In general, Yu recommends limiting plyometric work to no more than 200 total foot contacts per week in total (for warmups and strength workouts). “Beyond that, you start to increase risk of injury,” she explains.

To that end, if you’re feeling rundown—maybe you’re short on sleep, Hopping May Help You Run More Powerfully stress—consider skipping plyos for the day. That’s because they’re intense on the body, so you want to make sure you’re feeling fresh and recovered when you do them.

As you do plyometrics, really focus on form. Instead of slamming down hard into the ground, emphasize landing softly. Also, keep a tall torso—don’t arch or round your back—with your core engaged. And prioritize quick turnover versus jumping up as high as possible. If you’re brand new to plyos, ease into them by choosing just one or two exercises to start, Yu suggests.

Last thing: Though adding plyos to your warmup routine can absolutely help boost your performance, it’s just “one piece of a puzzle,” Yu says. Plyometrics work best when complemented with other smart training practices, like a varied training program, regular strength work, and adequate recovery, she explains. So don’t think of them as the one and only key to unlock a PR, but rather as one important ingredient in a recipe for success.

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Your 4-Move Plyometric Warmup

Do 3-5 reps hill workouts.

Do this as a circuit, completing one set of an exercise before moving onto the next. Once you’ve completed all four exercises, repeat the sequence for two to three total rounds.

If you have the time, before jumping into these plyometric moves (pun intended), take a few minutes to massage gun your hip flexors, quads, calves, feet, and the muscles that support your shins. Then, do three to four dynamic stretches: Yu recommends the world's greatest stretch, forward lunge with rotation, squat to heel raise, and alternating side lunges. By massage gunning and stretching, you’ll boost blood flow to the muscles you’re about to work and reduce your chances of injury, she explains.

1. Pogo Hops

1. feet, and the muscles that support your.
2. Perform small vertical jumps, focusing on fast turnover and staying light on feet. One jump equals 1 rep.
3. Published: May 02, 2025 9:00 AM EDT.

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2. High Knees

1. Health - Injuries.
2. Keeping an upright posture, drive right knee up toward chest.
3. Land softly on right foot, then immediately drive the left knee up toward the chest before landing softly on left foot. Swing arms naturally by sides, elbows bent 90 degrees. Focus on quick turnover and a soft, smooth, and springy landing.
4. Continue alternating for 10-15 seconds.

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3. Butt Kicks

1. Hopping May Help You Run More Powerfully.
2. How to Be a Better Back-of-the-Pack Runner
3. strengthen your lower body.
4. Repeat on the other side, driving left heel up toward left glute. Let arms swing naturally by sides, with elbows bent 90 degrees. Focus on landing lightly.
5. Continue alternating for 10-15 seconds. If you feel a pulling sensation in quads, or that muscle group otherwise feels really tight, don’t drive heels up as high.

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4. Squat Jumps

1. Hopping May Help You Run More Powerfully, core engaged, and arms at sides.
2. Send hips down and back to lower into a squat. Bring hands together in front of chest while you lower down.
3. Drive feet into floor to stand up, exploding off the floor for a jump while extending arms down and back.
4. Land softly and immediately go into the next squat.
5. Repeat. Published: May 02, 2025 9:00 AM EDT.

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