When it comes to competing in an obstacle course race, there’s no such thing as being “over prepared”. That goes for the quality and condition of your gear, but it goes double for your physical fitness. Make no mistake, there’s a serious risk of injury in even lower-key OCRs, and you need to ensure that your body is able to handle the obstacles you’ll have to tackle in order to minimize your risk of injury. Enrolling in a boot camp is the ideal way to prepare for what you’ll face during the race, but there are some specific boot camp exercises that every OCR racer needs to do.
Body Weight Exercises
There are several body weight exercises that you should do. These use your own body weight, rather than focusing on the use of free weights or machines. Pushups, burpies, squats and leapfrogs are all vital exercises, and will help you push and pull yourself up and over, around and through the obstacles you and your team members will face.
Balance/Core Exercises
In addition to the body weight exercises listed above, you’ll need to work on several balance/core exercises. These help enhance your balance, by building the muscles in your core. Bosu ball exercises, walking lunges, storks, and squats with front kicks can all help you build the solid, strong core necessary to compete effectively.
Storks work the lower body one leg at a time. Essentially, you start with one knee raised and both arms extended. At the count of one, you bend and touch the toes of the supporting foot, then come back up to the arms extended upright position on the count of two. A squat with front kicks is really just a squat with alternating kicks. Squat as normal, but when rising, snap one leg out in a kick, and bring it back in. Move back down into a squat and then repeat the kick with your other leg on the rise.
Pulling Up
Arm, shoulder and upper body strength will play a vital role in your success during an OCR. There are several important exercises that can help here, including lat pull downs and lat pull downs with iso pushups. Lat pull downs rely on the use of bands. You begin bent over with your knees bent, elbows in line with your back, and thumbs touching the top of your shoulder. Straighten your arms, than then pull back again. Adding isometric pushups requires the use of just one band. You combine a lat pull down with the pushup exercise, supporting your body weight on just one arm.
Jumping/Climbing Exercises
Make no mistake – you’ll need explosive jumping power, and significant climbing ability to handle the obstacles on the course. From netting to walls to boulders and almost anything else you can imagine, you need to build your abilities. To help, you should use suicides, ladder drills, and leapfrogs. Suicides are the classic basketball exercise, and can be done with or without a ball.
Ladder drills are similar to jumping jacks without the arm motion, but you move backward or forward within a ladder placed on the floor. Leapfrogs are cardio exercises. You begin in the squat position, then lean forward and jump, going directly back into a squat position. Burpies with reverse lunges can also help a great deal. This takes the standard burpie and adds a lunge at the end of the standard burpie.
Each of these is a vital boot camp exercise for every ORC racer – mastering these moves will build muscle, stamina, endurance and strength.
Want to learn more about OCR training? Call Custom Fitness Concepts today to discover how to make the most of your training through boot camp workouts, 877.598.0530.
