Air Alert done

Last Wednesday, I did my final Air Alert workout. I will no longer be doing Air Alert. On the very last jump of the day, the full jump on the last set of squat hops, I hurt my back. I think I was tired from all the reps, and my form slipped and for the next 3 days I was pretty much confined to bed. I'm much better now, though I'm taking this whole week off to try and get back to 100%. Next week, I plan on starting the volleyball program I talked about in the last post. It's a 3 day a week program, I'll keep doing my upper body workout, and I'll add in some cardio, probably just 15 min of running on days I'm not doing plyos.

I had added about an inch after just one week to my vertical, but I'm pretty sure that was just because I had done nothing for the previous month. I guess we'll see how Fox does with it. Has anyone started the volleyball workout yet?

Alternate vertical leap program

Week one of Air Alert is done. Not too bad, certainly not as bad as week one last year. I've had some people asking me about the other jump program I found. It's a volleyball program. It doesn't have near as many reps, and has a progression in intensity of exercise-type, which I think is a better way to approach a vertical leap program. It still doesn't have any lifting involved though. I hope to get some info on other vertical leap programs up here soon. As I said, I'm giving Air Alert six weeks to see how it does. If it's not showing me some improvement, I'm going to try the volleyball program. Even if I am happy with Air Alert and go all the way through, I may do the volleyball program after a bit of a break, I think they'll be complimentary.

Also, I moved the blog to the beta blogger. Not sure what that means yet...

Pre-Season Workouts

The off-season is over. The pre-season starts today. I'm asking Rivalers to post their workouts and questions here. I'll get the ball rolling.

Fox and I started Air Alert yesterday. I'm not really sold on Air Alert, too many reps if you ask me, but I'm going to give it 6 weeks. If I don't see any improvement in my vertical by then, I'm going to switch to a different program. Because Air Alert is so hard on the legs (3 days a week and literally hundreds to thousands of reps), Fox and I aren't doing any other leg work, or even any cardio (I may sneak in some light cardio now and then). To supplement, I'm doing some upper body work and core work.

Twice a week I do a core workout. It consists of:

• Bridges - Front (plank with elbows and toes only on the ground), side (forearm and side of foot), and back (on back, shoulders/head and heels). I do 3 sets of 30 seconds for the front, and 3 sets of 20 seconds for the (each)side and back.
• Upper abs - 2 sets of 15 of an upper ab exercise - swiss ball crunches, incline bench crunches, cable pulldown crunches.
• Lower abs - 2 sets of 15 of a lower ab exercise - leg lifts, hanging knee lifts
• Obliques - 2 sets of 15 of an oblique exercise - medicine ball twists (sit with knees bent, feet off the ground, hold the medicine ball above stomach then move it from side to side), side bends, various oblique machines.

Make sure when you are doing your ab work that you try to keep your belly button pulled in the whole time. This well help with your form, posture, and make it so that your muscular abs don't make you look fat. Note: Lots of ab work is not good if you are trying to get a thinner stomach/waist area.

For my upper body routine, I split it up into two days. I'm trying to develop strength to prevent injury (my shoulders are in bad shape). I also don't want to add much size (I'm so big already), so I do high weight and low reps. I also do some rotator cuff exercises twice a week.

Day 1

• 5x5 Pullups
• 4x5 Bent over rows
• 2x5 Dips
  
• 2x5 Bicep curls
• 3x10 external shoulder rotation
• 3x10 45 degree one straight-armed rows

Day 2

• 5x5 bench press
• 4x5 military press
• 2x5 wrist curls
• 2x5 reverse wrist curls
• 3x10 external shoulder rotation
• 3x10 45 degree one straight-armed rows

If anyone is interested in doing this workout, let me know, there are some details that I don't want to have to get into right now.

Other than that, get out and play. Try and throw at least once a week. Work on your weak throws. If possible, get a couple of people to join you so that you can throw against a mark. Once a week I plan on running and throwing (throw, run away 5 yards, cut back, catch, throw...).

Caffiene - Yes. Alcohol - No

Due to the recent conversations on the Rival mailing list concerning giving up caffiene (specifically soda) and alcohol, I wanted to pass along an article I read recently.

The article discusses caffiene and alcohol, specifically their diuretic effects and implications for atheletes. Interestingly, caffiene provides several ergogenic effects. It enhances endurance performance, and stimulates the release of adrenaline and dopamine. Adrenaline allows for stronger muscle contraction, and dopamine increases alertness.

What about the hydration issues though? Well, several studies have shown that caffienated beverages do not have a significant impact on hydration, particularly in atheletes. The one study that did suggest problems was when participants were required to not have caffiene for an extended period, then take caffiene. In this situation there was a mild diuretic effect. So, if you plan on drinking caffiene at Nationals, you might want to reconsider abstaining beforehand.

That said, soda is very sugary, and not good for you in general. As per my previous post on the glycemic index, you should avoid sugary drinks. So if you want to cut out sodas, it's a good thing.

As for alcohol, the news is bad. Alcohol can reduce the body's ability to recover from exercise for up to 22 hours. It does act as a diuretic (at least anything over 4% alcohol), and because it stays in your body for a while, you shouldn't drink alcohol for at least 48 hours before playing. So that's 48 hours before, and long enough after that you're able to rehydrate, say, 24 hours. Alcohol is also calorie high, so it has the same problems as sugary soda drinks.

Great Nutritional article

I came across a great nutritional article discussing glycemic index and load.

Enjoy.

Crazy Cores

Hey Everyone,

So I've always been a strong believer that if you core/abs are strong then your body benefits greatly!
So, because I have a fat tummy now, I have started doing my ab work-outs after track and in my limited free time...
This workout is what I used to do when I was swimming and sparing for martial arts.

I. Single Bikes-
*There are two very effective ways to do these. Hands on the floor and hands off. Both will create a different work out so I usually do both. (If you know about these, forgive me for the explanation)
1. With your hands on the floor (not elbows, but palms flat, usually a little bit behind you) pull your legs up with your knees bent to your chest. This is considered a starting position. With single bikes you are going to extend one leg at a time pointing your toes as straight as possible. Follow then with your other leg while pulling the other one back to your chest. Like riding a bike. To really get your sides involved with this, swing your shoulders, opposite shoulder to opposite knee. (Does this make sense? I'm bad at explanations sometimes)
2. Hands off the floor. Usually its good to cross your arms close to your chest. Again, swinging motion helps sides.
So the work out:
Single Bikes- Repeat two times
1. Hands on the floor: 40 seconds
2. Hands off: 20 seconds
3. Hands on floor: 30 seconds
4. Hands off: 15 seconds

(Obviously you can change the times needed for these...)

2. Double Bikes-
1. Same as single but your are keeping your legs together. Be careful because this one can hurt your back. If your back starts to hurt, stop =)
1. Hands on the floor - 30 seconds
2. Off the Floor- 20 seconds
3. Hands on the floor - 25 seconds
4. Off the floor-15 seconds
Repeat if desired

Crunches-
Its good to do crunches, but I usually do mine differently.
I do 90 degree crunches and pikes.
90 degree- While laying down, make yourself look like you are sitting in a chair. Your legs should be bent, but your knees should be at a 90 degree angle. Don't let your feet fall down, keep them straight, too. (Putting your feet on a living room table is usually good).
Then there is the pike position. All the divers make the pretty pike dives, where there legs are straight in the air. So in these crunches- your legs are together and straight in the air. Point your toes and you are going to try and push your body to make your finger tips go up past your knees. (Eventually, you want to be able to touch your toes. Crazy hard, but not impossible. I can't do it anymore, but it should be fun to try!) Be careful with these, they can hurt your back, too.
1. 90 degree- 2 x 40
2. Pikes - 2 x 15
3. 90 degree - 2 x 20
4. Pikes 2 x 10

Finally, the famous 6 inches! Or Leg Raises =)

Lay flat on your back and raise your legs 6 inches
Be sure to do these properly!
Hold for 40; 30; 25; 20; 10
between each, rest for 5-8 seconds


Feel free to change the times, but those are what Im going to really start doing as often as possible!!!

Hope this helps. If anyone wants to see exactly what they look like, find me at the fields or something!

Outtie!
Sam

Improving top speed

K.Russ writes,

"My workout buddy is looking for a program to work more on top speed and less on endurance. Any ideas?"

First, here is an article with some basics from bodybuilding.com.

Second, our track workouts are really geared more towards develloping speed and quickness than they are towards endurance. The intervals we'll end up doing, the 20/10s are much better than most endurance running for speed because the intervals are recruiting your fast twitch fibers as well as your slow twitch fibers, while most long distance endurance running just uses your slow twitch fibers. Because the intervals don't take very long, and work equally well (perhaps better) if you are a little fatigued, I'm scheduling speed and quickness drills in addition to the intervals.

As pointed out in the article above, speed is about form and strength. Form can be tough to work on by yourself (or without someone who knows how you should be running to begin with), but there are some things you can do. The falling starts we're doing work on form. For more info on falling starts and some discussion on form, check this post out. The swinging arm drills can be helpful, though they'll make you feel goofy. Also, running hills can help with form and strength, not big hills, just 15 degrees or so. And don't run down hill. The bodybuilding.com article talks about jogging down the hill to increase stride length, but I read recently (somewhere on this site) that downhill running can cause hamstring injuries.

The plyos we're doing will increase strength, you can do them 2-3 times a week. Running stadiums is a great way to increase strength and may help increase your stride length as well. If you're interested in lifting weights at all, that can obviously help with strength as well. The consensus seems to be that more weight, lower reps, lots of rest is better for develloping power. I go back and forth on what I think is good for ultimate. Currently I'm leaning towards 3 sets of 8 reps with 30 seconds rest between sets. I keep planning on posting my workout but I keep tweaking it. I also do a longer plyo routine, which I also keep tweaking.

If you'd like me to expand on a particular point, let me know.

Daddy D'z - A Good Reason To Do Your Track Workout At Phoenix Park

I don't have too much to report here, other than 1) Amy runs with her elbows out, 2) Fox looks better from the back when he's doing groin stretches, 3) Wood has excellently executed frog jumps, and 4) you should allow extra time when doing the "dot drill" using puddles of water to try to interpret the Rorschach-esque final product. Mine looked like North America with a giant tumor coming out of Canada!

Anyhow- falling starts were started, with extra attention paid to arms (90 degree angles people), plus the above mentioned drills. We finished off with intervals which have not gotten any easier thanks to my 5 week break. Ha!

And, yes, we did reward ourselves with a nice helping of Daddy D'z afterwards. Mmmm . . . BBQ.

Lactic Acid good for you? A non-story.

I read this a few weeks ago, and basically pushed it aside as a non-story. Then I came across another story about it, so I figured I'd post. Basically, scientists have realized that lactic acid isn't really bad for your muscles. Lactic acid is actually a very potent fuel for muscles. On the surface, it seems pretty crazy and very much a story. We thought lactic acid buildup is what made you hit the wall, now it turns out it's one of the most efficient fuel sources for muscles?

Here's why it doesn't matter. It won't change how we train. You still want to increase the lactic acid threshold, only it doesn't mean you aren't producing lactic acid, it means your muscles are better able to use lactic acid. Endurance training increases mitochondria in muscle cells. Mitochondria burn lactic acid to produce energy for your muscles.

The scientists don't seem to know yet why you hit the wall, and why it coincides with that burning sensation in your muscles. And why, if you increase your lactic acid threshold (by increasing mitochondria), your muscles take longer to burn and you hit the wall later. My suspicion is that lactic acid is good, so long as you've got the mitochondria to burn it. Once you get too much you start getting the negative side-effects. I've got nothing to back that up but a hunch though.

FYI, the first story, by way of Lean & Hungry Fitness does mention that interval training is a good way of building up mitochondria.

Track Sunday

Unfortunately, I won't be there Sunday for the workout probably. Nursing a sore left hamstring and going to Div III Nationals next weekend so I'm resting. For those that go, here is the plan, it's basically the same as last week.

Warmup
3x15 ankle hops
2x20 1 or 2 leg side-to-side jumps
10 falling starts (10 yards)
Stadiums
Intervals

For the stadiums - Last week we did 10 big, walking down, then 10 small, walking down. This was enough to wear us out so well that we decided to skip intervals. I'd suggest maybe 5 big and 5 small + intervals. Or, if you're more concerned with strengthening, you can do the 10/10 (or 2-3 sets of the 5/5s).

Good luck.

Laying Off the Quads

So the saying goes (Michael Wood, you are the stuff of LEGENDS, I tell you!): No one in Atlanta Ultimate is in danger of overtraining.

I'm sure we could find a few exceptions, but this is probably true (assuming that we are doing exercises correctly and all that stuff).

However, I have heard and read a lot over the years about general over training of the quads. I'm not sure if this is primarily a female issue, but I think it has less to do with straining the quads and more with underdevelopment of other leg muscles.

In that spirit, I decided that while none of my muscles are currenlty being overused, I should probably take care to focus specifically on other muscle groups. Thus, I dipped back into the Ozone library for some hammy, glute, and posterior chain exercises.

The result? My quads still felt the most sore at the end of the day!

However, I do know that my glutes and hammies did get a workout cause I can feel it. But I think I must still be relying heavily on my quads to get through some of these exercises. Anyone else having this problem? Anyone have any ideas on how to really isolate these muscle groups- that don't involve machines not mentioned below (since that's about all I have!)?

For anyone who is interested, here's what I tried:

Hip Ab/Adductor machine - 3 x 12 each way

I love these, although the range of the machine in my condo workout room is awful. And somewhat off center. I have long legs, dammit!

Hamstring leg curl machine - 3 x 10 on each leg

This machine is also sort of craptacular and especially wobbly because it doubles as a leg extension machine as well, but hell- it gets the job done.

Romanian (stiff-legged) dead lifts - 1 x 10 (3 sec lower; 2 sec hold; 3 sec return)
This is performed with barbell in hand, legs greater than hip width apart. The first movement is initiation of anterior pelvic tilt. This is performed by thinking about ‘sticking your butt out’ and then sitting back. Keeping a straight back and the knees flexed to 10-30 degrees, the weight is lowered to knee level. The lifter will feel a sensation of the hamstrings stretching. The position is held and then the body position is returned to the start.

I did these incorrectly last time, so I'm looking forward to doing them again now that I understand the motion (it only took reading through it 8 times).

Reverse dumbbell lunge - 2 x 12 per leg
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with arms at sides, palms facing in. Step your right foot back 2 to 3 feet, keeping your weight on your left foot. Lower right knee until it’s just above the floor; press up with left leg to return to starting position.

I had a really hard time doing these without feeling like all of the work was being done by my quads. Anyone have any suggestions?

Ball leg curl - 2 x 10
Lie face up on the floor with heels centered on a stability ball, arms out to sides with palms down. Lift your pelvis up until your body forms a straight line from hells to shoulders. Use your heels to pull the ball toward you as you bend knees toward chest. When you can’t bring the ball any closer to your butt, return to starting position.

I have no idea how this is working lower rear muscles, at least the way I was doing it, but I may keep doing it just because it's so hard to stay balanced (maybe that's how it works? Hell if I know). I love a challenge!

Bi-planar lunge with overhead press - 2 x 6 per leg
Stand erect holding a pair of dumbbells at your sides. Lunge forward with your right leg, then curl the dumbbells to your shoulders. From there, flip your wrists and press the weights overhead. While still in the lunge position, lower the dumbbells down to your sides (reversing the press and curl along the same path). Push through your right leg to return to the start. Then perform a lateral lunge with your right leg and reach over to touch the dumbbells to the floor, one on either side of your foot. Return to the start position, then alternate legs.

These were awesome. But again- I feel like I'm doing too much work with my quads when I'm supposed to be working the stuff in the back.

Sprint Training

I came across an article in the NSCA's Perfromance Training Journal about taking the first few steps explosively. It's where I got the falling starts drill and a few other things we're going to be doing this year. It's on page 19 and has descriptions of the different drills.

Edelman Has Too Many Blogs

Someone else post- I'm starting to feel like I'm on the AFDC forum. :)

Edelman linked this article on his other blog, and although I guess most of it is pretty common sense, I found it very interesting. It's about the Glycogen Window and what and when to consume after a workout.

Sorry if this is posted somewhere on this site. Maybe it warrants reposting anyway!

Eileen's Abs Workout

Eileen posted this on the women's league forum a million years ago. It's quick and . . . well, quick. I don't know if this needs to be modified for men, so if you do it and it's too easy guys- increase the reps or something.

Also, for the push-ups, you can alternate in some tricep pushups (where your hands are closer together) or whatever sort of torture you prefer in the push-up family.

One quick note- from my limited pilates experience, I would say that it is probably a good idea to observe the following posture (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) when doing these:

a) When flat on your back, keep your neck long (out of the top of your head, as they say) and your shoulders on the ground. In other words, don't scrunch your shoulders up or sway from side to side.

b) When your abs are engaged (so, generally speaking, your head is off the ground), make sure that your lower back is pressing into the ground. Moreover, you want to "hollow out" so that you are holding your abs in, not pushing them out- so your shoulders are down, your rib cage is lifted, your tummy sucked in (I think my instructor always said to pull it "under your rib cage"), and again- long back and neck. You sort of want to be a C shape in your core.

c) Don't roll from one hip to the other when you're doing side to side exercises. This is really hard sometimes, too. I'm pretty sure it's ok and even necessary to shift weight a bit (especially on toe touches), but if you're rolling around, you're losing the benefit of the exercise. Thinking about keeping your lower back pressed down can help with this, though.

Ok, so this is the workout:


Lie on your back, knees bent. Raise your head off the floor until your trunk is at about a 45-degree angle. Twist from side to side rapidly 100 times. (KQ Note- arms crossed over chest is the way I've been doing these and seen them done)

Flip right over and do 5 push-ups.

Next, do 25 crunches.

6 push-ups.

Then do 30 toe-touches. Lift your legs in the air at a 90-degree angle to your body, raise your torso, and reach with one hand for the opposite leg. Do 15 each leg.

7 push-ups.

Do 50 “Rocky Balboas”, or twist crunches. One knee bent, other straight, hands behind your head. Reach one elbow towards the opposite knee. Alternate sides. (KQ Note- I prefer hands to ears so you don't pull on your neck. And really try to keep your shoulders down, away from your ears)

8 push-ups.

Next, do 50 high-speed bicycles. (KQ Note- on back, arms at side. Lift legs up at 90 degree angle, then lift pelvis up off the ground. Arms can help balance. Move legs in a bicycle-y way!)

9 push-ups.

50 crunches.

10 push-ups.

UPDATE: See some great additional notes on these exercises from Jim over on Lean and Hungry Fitness. Awesome!

Pre-Season, Voluntary Track Workouts

Don't worry Teddy, the workouts aren't mandatory...yet. I had just gotten a few requests from people who wanted to start getting in shape for the in-season track workouts. Some people are hoping to lose some weight, others just want to get their endurance up. We'll also be working on strengthening so that we've got a good base for the track workouts later and to avoid injury. I like the intervals for endurance, and they take very little time and can be done after other work, so we will be doing those all year probably (although we will probably shift towards speedwork as we get close to regionals). We'll be doing plyos and stadiums for strengthening. I also want to do a little speedwork, so that we can be working on our form all year long. It sounds like a lot but it moves pretty quickly, should keep you from getting bored, and doesn't take too long overall.

Here's the plan for Sunday at Grady at 3pm. Should take around 30-45 minutes I'd guess.

Warmup
3x15 ankle hops
2x20 1 or 2 leg side-to-side jumps
10 falling starts (10 yards)
Stadiums
Intervals

Stadiums

I ran stadiums this morning with Quistypants at Grady. The workout we did was specific to Grady since, as many of you know, the top steps are bigger than the bottom ones. We did four sets, intending to jog half the track in between each set so that we ended up doing two sets on the home side and two sets on the away side.

In the end, we ended up doing one set, jogging a 200 to the other side, doing the second set, jogging another 200 back to the other side, doing the third set, and then just resting for about 30-60 seconds before completing the 4th set (we were a little pressed for time).

Anyway, in case anyone is interested, this was the format for each set:

1 full stadium
walk all the way down
1 full stadium
walk halfway down to where the little steps end (that people would use to get down during an event)
1 half stadium on the little steps
walk halfway down to where the little steps end
1 half stadium on the little steps
walk all the way down

Quisty McCoker says you should walk down because it's bad for your knees. She also says when taking the big stairs at the bottom (and even on the little stairs at the top) down, you should switch feet. For optimal knee health.

We started with a 1/2 mile jog warmup, followed by some agility exercises (with the ladder dealie- Wood, is this what you're talking about with the "running form stuff" for the Rival track practices? If not, what are you talking about?). We finished off with Eileen's infamous ab/push-up workout. I can post that if people want, but I'd have to go back and find my list from a long time ago.

Intervals in the Park

JJ and I headed to Grady yesterday to run the 4x90/90s. Unfortunately, and somewhat suprisingly, it turns out that Grady High School sometimes actually uses their field for school athletic events. Is it normal to have women's soccer in the spring?

Not wanting to pay to get in and then have people watch me loafing pitifully, I suggested we move across the street to Piedmont Park.

We did a 10 minute warm up jog, followed by stretching, followed by Really Ugly Running (Sometimes Uphill), by Kathleen Quinlen. And Jenn ran intervals.

Just kidding- we both ran them, but I couldn't believe a) how slow I was actually running by the third interval and b) how looooong 90 seconds became by the third interval. We found a pretty flat area to run them on, but it was a little hilly, so I am looking forward to running these on an actual track.

Needless to say, I did succeed in being totally exhausted by the end, so I guess that counts for something.

On that note- Ned? Can you post directions to Phoenix Park here?

I am one step closer to awesomeness!

Air Alert Update: 2 months later

Yesterday I played basketball at the gym for 3 hours. My jumping height is still at the same point it was 1 week after finishing the program (where they say you will achieve your maximum height).

I have not done week 8 as a maintenance program. Not once. However, every once in a while, usually about once or twice a day or so (and sometimes at work in my office), i will do a full-out jump. I guess it's working, because I can still touch the same spot on the rim that I could 2 months ago.

Still at 27" (+10" increase)

My notes on Intervals

This past college season, with SPSU, we had only 13 players, 6 of which were wet-behind-the-ears rookies. I knew endurance was going to be a huge factor for us this year, so I decided our track workouts were going to consist mainly of high intensity intervals. We started out doing 4 sets of 90/90s, 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking. The goal is to run as fast as you are able to maintain for 90 seconds (I've talked about it here before, but hopefully we've got some new Rival eyes coming who want to get in shape for the season). After a few weeks of 4x90/90s, we moved to 5x60/50s, then 6x45/30s, 7x30/20s, 8x20/10s and finally 10x20/10s. We did these 2-3 times a week, usually running them after practice.

I can safely say, I'm in the best shape of my life. At Sectionals I played almost every point (all but one point on Sunday), and still felt fairly fresh afterwards. I would be dog tired by the end of a point, but I easily recovered in time for the next point. Hopefully Fox will reply with how effective he thought the program was. (Also, Edelman is on the 60/50s and has been happy, hopefully he won't post though).

For Rival, I'd like to continue the intervals. Maybe let people work at their own pace moving through the different intervals, so Fox and I could keep running 20/10s while everyone else would be able to start the 90/90s whenever and move along every couple of weeks. The nice thing is that the intervals don't take very long, about 5 minutes of actual running. It's also ok to be tired when you start, so you can do other stuff before hand. My basic plan for our track workouts is going to be:

warmup
running form stuff
plyos/speedwork
intervals

We'll probably substitute some conventional long distance running (400s, 800s, etc.) for the intervals now and then. I'm also hopeful that Rivalers will be able to run intervals once a week outside of the track workouts (after summer league games maybe, or at the weekend practices).

Lastly, thanks to Lean and Hungry Fitness for finding this article that talks about interval training. Some quotes:

In the overall scheme of training for athletes participating in stop and go power sports (e.g., football, basketball, ice hockey and gymnastics) short-intense interval work has a major role to play in maximizing performance.

By maintaining the high level of training over a 5 or 6 week period one would expect a significant increase in the ratio of lean body mass to fat.

Getting back on the horse

Ned and I are going to start having track workouts for anyone who is interested. If you wanna try to get into shape before tryouts or the season, or before track workouts start for real, you should come out. We're meeting at a track near Ned's this Sunday at 11am (I'll post directions later). We'll be working on a variety of things besides endurance. If there is something specific you would like to work on, just lemme know.

I'm meeting Fox and Sando for a workout at the Cobb County Civic Center Thursday at 6pm. I know that's not too close for most of you, but you're welcome to join us. Here is what we're going to be doing (Sunday's workout will be similar).

Warmup
2x15 knee tuck jump
10 falling starts (10 yards)
60 second arm swings
5 starts (15 yards)
2x5 Standing Broad Jump
2x5 Toss-Squat-Jump-Throw
10x20/10 intervals

Fatty McFatterton

So since I'm the only girl posting (but certainly not reading, right ladies?), I won't bore all the men with my sob story about how I don't fit into my clothes and yet nice people insist that I shouldn't be dieting because we now give skinny people are harder time than we do morbidly obese people. Or that I've never even been within 10 pounds of the weight I'm currently carrying in my entire life until very recently. Cause that's girl talk.

What I am trying to find are the following:

1) Good core strengthening exercises. This would be a lot of ab work, but more than just situps. I know some pilates, and that's good stuff, but I'm wondering what else people have found that works best. I have access to a medicine ball, free weights, and one a' them big fitness ball things.

2) Good quad/hammy/and glute strengthening . . . plyos, I guess. I quit my gym membership, so I'm working out of my condo fitness room now, and we have a dearth of leg machines. I'm not too torn up about it, but I don't want to waste my time on lunges if they're not really worth the time. Etc.

Even book recommendations would be welcome. I know Evil mentioned the Verstegen book- what was the final verdict? Is there something folks would recommend more highly?

And just so we're clear- my current BMI is 23.6. Underweight? Not even close.

AA Problems

I haven't posted in a few weeks because I've been having some problems with the Air Alert program, and I wanted to get as many details as possible before posting about it. First, I measured at week 7 and had gained only 2 inches. 2 inches is nice and all, but considering all the time and effort it takes, I was hoping for something more. Still, if that had been the only problem I would still be doing Air Alert now (more later).

There are a few reasons why I may not have experienced the same results that Edelman did. I've also been doing intervals after the air alert, about 3 times a week, not always on the same day as AA (especially t,w,th weeks). I wish AA gave more info about how to schedule your other workouts. I did basically no lifting, but my legs always felt tired. Perhaps they weren't getting the recovery time necessary to build back up. My other explanation is maybe the huge number of reps means AA will work better for an individual with more slow twitch muscles (ie better natural endurance). I've always had horrible endurance. There are probably other reasons as well. Ultimately, I would suggest trying the program and make sure you measure your improvements. If it's working, continue, if not, it's probably not worth it, especially if you are noticing other drawbacks...

More worrisome than my lack of gains was that I as having extreme pain in my calves, and tingling and numbness in my feet when I tried to play. This would last for about the first 30 minutes of play. I would try to play through it at first, but eventually it'd be too painful, and I'd have to stop for a few minutes and hobble around/take more ibu. After it eventually went away, I could resume playing with no problems for the rest of the day. Still, it had me a bit worried. I developed "Chronic Compartment Syndrome". Basically, the calf muscle has a sheath that is inflexible, during activity, blood flows into the muscle making it bigger. If the muscles gets too big for the sheath, it cuts off the bloodflow, causing pain and numbness. Chronic Compartment Syndrome isn't too severe, but unpleasant enough for me to want to make it stop. I believe that because AA is so calf-intensive, it aggravated my CCS (which I have had before a couple of times, usually when I started playing again after extended time off). I stopped AA over a week ago, and was able to play this past weekend with no symptoms. Fox also had problems, he got shin splints. I think the step-ups are particularly tough on shin splints.

I have not given up my pursuit for an increased vertical, however. I'm currently developing my own program, that's not so calf intensive. It focuses less on reps, and more on intensity. There are some AA concepts that I really like and plan on implementing. AA does a good job of varying the workouts, even though the exercises are almost all the same. It does this by changing the number of sets and reps each week. This helps keep you from plateauing. I plan on switching between 1 and 2 sets (or 2 and 3 sets) each workout. AA also really ramps up the reps, so that your always pushing yourself. I'm going to use this as well, adding reps/weight to my exercises every other workout. I'll post the workout here after I get a few weeks under my belt.

Training Results

It appears that I must be doing something right.

I point blocked Josh "Bestest Thrower in Atlanta" Marquette no less than thrice in a recent goaltimate match.

That'll show him to be born on the same day as me.

Core Performance overview

Core Performance by Mark Verstegen is one of the better total workout programs I've ever seen. Being a total workout program (which according to the book will transform your body and life) means that it has many facets, too many to cover in depth in one post. So, I'm going to hit the highlights here, then go into detail on the specific parts I'm going to use myself in later posts. First though, I'm skipping all the life changing crap. He talks a bit about using the workout lessons and applying them to your life decisions etc. Whatever...

The actual workouts are broken down into 7 sections.

Movement prep, which is basically an active warmup, similar to things we've done on Rival before. It's supposed to warm your muscles, tendons, and ligaments, preparing them for exercise. This section could be a little deeper in my opinion (there is no upper body stuff), but there are some quality stretches in there.


Prehab is an interesting section which is supposed to build up your weaknesses, helping prevent injury. It's also supposed to help fix posture problems. It works on core strength a bit as well. It's important to note, however, that this is "Prehab", not rehab. If you have a specific injury you are trying to recover from, simply doing these exercises is not enough. Rehab is a requirement if you've had an injury, because it makes you strengthen (and stretch) the particular areas that are weak (tight). This keeps you from compensating with other muscles, which can lead to greater muscle imbalance, prolonging pain and possibly causing further injury.

Physioball Routine is what I really came to the book looking for. It works your core exclusively. Again, I wouldn't have minded a few more exercises though.

Elasticity is basically plyometrics. There is also some basic agility stuff in there. These exercises are pretty basic in my opinion, the kind of stuff we would do in the first couple of weeks in Rival's plyo program. Certainly not as taxing as Air Alert, which I am substituting for Elasticity right now.

Strength is a weight training program that focuses on exercises that work multiple muscles groups, and puts them into supersets. I like how the program varies tempo and uses the supersets to keep the workouts fresh and helps keep you from plateauing. The workouts hit most of the key muscle groups. I'll probably add some of the exercises to my current workout, and one day maybe I'll add the supersets and tempo stuff.

Energy System Development is the endurance section. It seems like a reasonable endurance program, rarely working you for more than 20 minutes. I prefer the high intensity interval training over it, but I don't think you'll lose much with this program.

Regeneration is the last section, and focuses on stretching mainly. It's supposed to aid workout recovery, getting your muscles ready for the next workout more quickly, avoiding injury, etc. It looks pretty solid, but I don't know how much of a gain you'll get over normal static stretching (although the author has some anecdotes that show amazing flexibility gains with the program).

You're supposed to workout 6 days a week, the book lists workout plans for you that are very well laid out. You'll average probably 40 minutes a day working out. That's a good bit for most people, but not unreasonable for a complete workout program like this. You should see gains in many different areas (strength, flexibility, explosiveness, weightloss, endurance, etc.)

The thing I like about the book best, though, is the nutrition section. It's got the best, most logical 'diet' plan I've seen. Basically, it stresses smaller, more frequent meals, 'good' carbs, and moderation. It's a lot more in depth than that, but those are the most important points I think. The great thing about smaller, more frequent meals is that it makes it so much easier to actually eat healthier (I'm eating lots of fruit now).

Overall, I plan on using the Prehab and Physioball stuff on a regular basis. I like the movement prep stuff, I'll probably add some of the exercises to my normal warmup. Aside from that, I'll probably use my own exercises to replace the Core Performance sections. I definitely plan on posting something on the nutrition plan down the road.

Pre-Tournament Week

Last week went ok. Did intervals only twice, but did all the Air Alerts. The burnouts are hurting but overall I wasn't too sore. I have a tournament this weekend, and am supposed to do Air Alert on MWF, trying to decide if I want to move Friday's Air Alert to Thursday. Any thoughts Edelman?

At practice Thursday, we ran intervals. I always rely on Fox to set the pace, but afterwards, he mentioned that he was able to hit the same spot every time when we started running again. I had to explain that you're not supposed to run each interval at the same pace. The first one should probably be considerably faster than the second. It doesn't matter how fast your legs are moving, it's all about how fast the heart is beating. If you run the first couple slower than you can, you're wasting those runs, you don't get the full benefit unless you're running all out. You should NOT be able to recover completely in the rest periods. On Saturday, I went out to the track and ran the intervals myself, really pushing myself on the first runs. I was very slow by the end (and very, very tired), but I made it through. Next week is 7x30/20s.

For Rival this summer, I'm thinking of just having people start witht he 8x20/10s so everyone is doing the same thing. The people who haven't been running will be a lot slower initially, but I think that's ok.

Last thing, I'm reading this Core Performance book. It's very good, very balanced. Has the best nutrition/diet system I've seen. I hope to give a full review later this week (or next week), but then again I'm still hoping to get my philosophy post up sometime...

Trying not to be a pansy

I'm still hoping to get my philosophic post up, until then, an update. Savage 7 this weekend went pretty well. The wind/weather Saturday was horrible, but Sunday was reasonable and I had a good time and never really felt tired. My hamstrings were a bit sore Monday, and my knee was a little sore (no idea what from), but other than that I feel good. Oh, I did get elbowed in the nose, but I don't think it did any real damage.

I took Monday off (boo) to rest the knee and nose, but got back at it today. Already did Air Alert week 2/day 1. Didn't seem too bad except the 200 burnouts were rough. Also, I gave myself whiplash on the thrustups, got my head a little too involved. Again, I'm hoping it's not too bad. A little stiff and sore right now, but I plan on pushing through (I'm a fucking soldier).

Intervals tonight with the SPSU, 6 sets of 45 sec running, 30 sec walking. This will be my first time doing this set of intervals, I'm expecting them to be pretty tough since I haven't run intervals for about a month.

Other than that, I'm still trying to put together a core workout, I'll post it here when I get it done. It's good to be working out/playing again.

Air Alert Week 15 Mid Week Update

Ow.

Getting back into the swing of things

Did my first physical activity in almost 3 weeks last night (although I'm still not really supposed to be exercising yet). Southern Poly started the Air Alert program. We did our base measurements (my 21.5" wasn't good enough to beat Fox's 24") , and the first exercises. The 2x20 leapups were tough, on week 15 we've gotta do 4x100. That seems beyond reason to me right now. My quads are a little sore today, but nothing too bad. I'm taking it easy this week, hope to be completely healed by this weekend for Savage 7. The doc gave me the ok, but keep your fingers crossed for me anyway.

I've got another post I'm gonna try and put up this week. It's going to be boring, I'm calling it The Philosophy of Fast-twitch muscle fiber recruitment during extending inactivity. You guys have got to start posting more often...