You’re probably familiar with the term conditioning – it’s the stuff you do to get your body in shape. But what does pre-conditioning mean? It’s got nothing to do with the time you spend getting changed. Instead, it’s the exercises that give you a stable foundation on which to build fitness.

This workout, created by sports therapist Simon Harrison, is a great all-round pre-conditioning routine. There are no grunt-inducing moves, just exercises that will, he says, ‘increase your power while reducing your risk of injury. If you’re looking at this and thinking that they’re not very challenging, I’d say to you, “Do you want to get faster? Do you want to get better?” That’s what these do.’

Doing spine curls, for example, will improve the flexibility and stability of your spinal column. Familiar exercises such as the plank have been modified to add a corrective element. ‘Doing the plank back raise is a good way to gain equal control [on your left and right sides] and to teach the muscles to work in synch,’ says Harrison. ‘Your body is the weight so you can feel if you’re off-balance much more then you can if you’ve got two weights in your hand.’

How to do this workout
Do the exercises in order, taking minimal rest between the first three. Then do three minutes of skipping before doing exercises four to six, taking 30 seconds’ rest between each. Tempo figures, such as 525, should be read as five seconds moving, two pausing and five returning. Do the workout twice a week to complement a sport-specific plan, such as a running routine.