A confession of sorts: I'm a part time Personal Trainer; I run my own boot camp/boxing fitness group see my Zen Fitness facebook page for more detail.
So the truth is along with that and my ever shortening rugby career, strength plays a big part in my training methods. Its a great place to find that bit extra or perfect a weakness.
I know that there will be some part-time and amateur runners and triathletes who will argue that having a choice over running/cycle/ swim session in an already busy life of feeding/lunch packing/work/wife finding a 4th Session in the gym is difficult.
And it is!
I don't lift and shift nearly as much as I did as a Rugby player but it compliments the disciplines so well that a 30-40min session at the end of the day, or to kick start your morning will make a difference. I promise!
"But Olly I hate the gym, that's why I run"
"My kid just painted my walls with ice cream, when am I meant to go to the gym?"
And I too love the new found freedom of getting out of the gym and in the outdoors; and having ditched my membership the financial savings were great. You don't need much to pack a punch with some simple weights you can perform some great exercises.
Kettlebells - we've heard of them, maybe seen them, some us may of bought them to hold the door open on a breezy afternoon.
Invest in a couple of standard weighted KB's I own 4 weights 8kg, 12kg, 16kg and a 20kg (the cannon ball) With these weights and a exercise mat I've been able to keep up regular strength work which has been great to get my fitness fix on a rainy afternoon, baby watching requirements or generally when I'm home late from work and bored.
"I don't need bulk in my routine"
I used to need it when playing rugby and my program back then reflected that, low repetitions coupled with heavy loads on large muscle group areas such Back, Chest & Legs (Nobody Skips Leg Day) This will create strength gains - but with limited equipment available it is going to be hard to maintain a program such as this without a squat rack, bench press and large weight tossing arena.
This is where a powerful, strength v heart rate session will benefit your running/cycling/swimming programs on the off days. With a simple movement workout we want to get what they call in gymland "superset" or exercises putting them back to back, or perform a "giant set" of 3 exercises.
I like to couple in multiple movements, attacking key areas such as legs, upper body and core where I can. The exercises shown in the video below can be set out either timed - 1min per exercise or in a rep range of 10-15. Ideally you'd like to repeat them at least 3-4 times with a rest at the end of no more than 2mins.
You could take this in another direction down the HIIT path and perform blasting sets of explosiveness by doing each exercise in a 10sec burst perform moving onto the next one.
TRY IT - mix it up for something different, put the baby in its swing chair and workout within eye distance or maybe wait till the little cabbage has knocked off for a moment. Baby monitor instead of iPod attached to your hip and get in a quick few sets.
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