The week before sectionals

This week we are going to be concentrating on footwork and hip placement. The exercises we are doing are not to be at 100% but at an increase so you have time to concentrate on you movement during the drill, and the intensity has also been lowered so you will be rested and ready to go for this weekend. So for each exercise you are going to do 4 of each and increasing the speed a little at a time. The first rep will be at 50%, then 75%, then 90%, and the last rep will be 100%.

Hard S & Soft S-Concentrate on getting the outside foot planted when you turn and drop the hips as you are turning. The term push you ass down has been used to describe this hip movement. This movement does a couple of things, lowers your center of gravity (helps you to turn sharper), and the downward force helps your cleats to grip the ground better (less slipping).

30 yard run,stop,turn, & backs- the important thing here is to use small choppy steps to slow down to a stop. The more steps you can get in there quickly the faster you will stop. Also pump your arms while you stop, since your arms are pumping with every step, faster arm pumps = more steps. On the turn same as above you are dropping you hips to turn around.


Warm-up
3xStrides
4xHard S walk back to the start-1 min rest (after all 4)
4xSoft S walk back to the start-1 min rest (after all 4)
4x30 yard run stop turn and 10 yards back.

Stretching routine from a couple of weeks ago. I really like doing this, i felt it helped out in getting my loose. You could also do some kind of yoga for stretching but I would not do this any later then Thursday afternoon.

This week In track (Sectionals)

Just a reminder, run extra hard this week the results will show up to sectionals with you.

It's the eye of the tiger, it's
the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger

Endurance

Warm up

This week is a circuit. You are going to be jogging around the track at as fast a pace as you can handle. It is okay to start out fast then have to slow down if necessary. Or you can speed up if you feel like you have recovered some. At the beginning and end of each turn is a "station". At each station you will do one of the exercises below then move on to the next exercise at each turn. Start with a jog then the first exercise. Then a 70 yard sprint at the end. So try to plan on finishing at a straight away. These can be really great if you do them with people and race them. Bring WATER to this track workout, you are going to need it. Work your tail off so you dont get your tail worked off. So at "station 1" you will start with 10 scissor jumps and then jog to station 2 for pushups.

Split squat jumps- start from a forward lunge position ( you want you knee to touch the ground) and jump. While in the air you are going to switch which foot was forward and land in the forward lunge position and jump switching your foward foot again. This is one rep.

Warm up
3 sets of stirdes 50-70 yards

Track and core are included together.

2-4 sets of the following circuit

1·10 each leg -Split squat jumps (scissor jumps)
2· 15 push ups
3· 10 lunges each leg
4· 1 Shuttle cones 10 yards apart from the middle
5· 10 burpees
6· 30 crunches
7·10 squat jumps
8· Forward planks 30sec
finish ·70yard sprint
3 mintues rest

First week in september

With the exception of this weekend the next few weeks are going to involve some sort of rival on the weekends. So if you are not playing in Shawn Adams I recommend doing something wed fri sun. For example Wed-this track workout, Fri-3 mile jog. Sunday do a previous weeks workout.

This week is core first:

Warm up
3 strides



Core 30s Work 15s Rest 2-3 sets 3 minutes rest between sets

1. Canoes with or without weight
2. Squat Hops with reach
3. Mermaids/Mermens
4. Push-ups
5. Front Planks
6. Jumping jacks or Jumping rope
7. Pelvic twists

Track
8x20/10's 20 sec sprint as fast as you can 10 secs walk for a total of 30 seconds per rep 8 reps only 1 set required.



--

Non-Training Week

Warm-up
Stretching workout (below)
One mile jog



Phase 1: General Warm-up (5 minutes)
Light aerobic activity. Any thing can be performed here as long as you are gradually increasing your heart rate and body temperature. Jog, jump rope,get on a piece or stationary equipment at the gym, do pushups,sit-ups, or lift light weights. Any or all of these activities may be performed for 5 minutes to increase your body temperature until you break a light sweat.


Remember: Hold stretches for 15 to 20 seconds. Do NOT bounce. Stretch to the point of discomfort, NOT pain.

Phase 2: Stretching (25 - 30 minutes)
Static Stretch (Pause 5 seconds in between stretches and repeat)
1. Neck stretch. Forward,back and side

• To stretch the neck, lower your chin to your chest and gently pull on the back of your head to stretch the back of your neck.
• Lift your chin to the sky to stretch the front of your neck.
• To stretch the sides of your neck, lower your chin to your chest and gently pull your head to each side


2. Open shoulder blades

• Place your hands in front of you, chest height; interlock fingers with palms facing you.
• Lower chin to chest and open shoulder blades.
• Feel this stretch across your entire back.


3. Chest (Arm on wall)

• Place your right hand on the wall shoulder height.
• Keep your right arm straight.
• Gently twist your body away from the wall stretching the chest muscle.
• Switch and stretch other side.


4. Tricep (Hand behind head )

• Point your right elbow to the sky above your head.
• Place your left hand on your right elbow and gently push.
• Try and reach your right hand down your back.


5. Arm Across Body

• With your left hand, gently pull your right arm across your body.
• Keep you right shoulder down.
• Right arm remains straight.

6. Hands on Wall Lat Stretch

• Place both hands on wall, shoulder height.
• Walk back while lowering head between arms.
• Do not move your hands.
• This stretches your sides (lats.)


7. Forearm/Wrist Stretch

• Place your right hand down to your side.
• With your left hand, pull back on your right hand fingers,keeping your right palm pointed towards the ground.
• To stretch the wrist, place your left hand on top of your right hand and gently bend your right hand towards your forearm.


8. Humped Back , Arched Back

• While standing, bend at the waist and hump your back as far as possible.
• Round your back and shoulders.
• Arched back is the same as above, just opposite.
• Arch your back as far as possible.
• Open chest and squeeze shoulder blades together.


9. Standing Quads

• While standing,place your right foot in your right hand.
• While keeping your legs together and right knee pointed at the ground, gently try and move your right leg forward while resisting with your right hand.


10. Standing Hamstrings

• Use your bike for this one. While standing, place your right foot on the seat of your bike (or a chair or table).
• Rotate your torso forward by pivoting at the hips and reaching for your toes.
• Keep your right knee soft (do NOT lock it out).
• Do not hump your back to try and extend the stretch. Again, pivot at your hips keeping your head up and back straight.
• Imagine trying to lower your chest to your thigh.


11. Calf Stretch

• Place both hands on wall for support.
• Place one or both feet about 5 feet from wall and force your heel to the ground.
• You should be able to draw a straight line from your heel to you head.
• To help increase this stretch, flex your quad and then relax.


12. Inner Thigh and Hip Stretch

• Place feet much wider than shoulders width.
• Place both hands on the right knee and slowly move to the right.
• Keep your left knee straight, and NEVER let your right knee go past 90 degrees.


13. Standing Aerobic Style Hamstrings

• This one is hard to explain so look at the picture.
• Keep your back straight and pivot at your hips.
• Imagine moving your chest towards your thigh.
• Place both hands on the leg you are NOT stretching.
• Keep you knee soft (do NOT lock out).


14. Runners Stretch (Right leg forward then Left leg forward)

• While facing to the side, move one leg as far back as possible.
• Lower your hips toward the ground.
• Rear leg remains straight, front leg goes to 90 degrees.
• NEVER go past 90 degrees on front leg.


15. One knee hamstring stretch (Left foot forward)

• From the advanced runner's position, drop your rear knee to the ground.
• Front foot should have heel on ground with toes pointed up (the farther the better).
• Pivot at the hips keeping your back as straight as possible.
• Again try and lower your chest to your thigh.


16. Side Splits

• From the "One Knee Hamstring" stretch position, move the leg that you were sitting on as far back as possible.
• Use your hands for support, and assume the side split position.
• This is an extremely advanced position and should be used with caution.
• Remember, you should only feel slight discomfort, NOT pain!


17. One knee hamstring stretch (Right foot forward)

• See above


18. Side Splits

• See above


19. Ankle to Knee Hip Flexor (Right then Left)

• While lying on your back, place your right ankle on your left knee.
• Place both hands on the back of your left leg and gently pull, rolling your hips off the ground.
• Head can either be lifted or resting on the floor.


20. Leg Overs

• Lay flat on back with arms out to each side.
• Take one leg and cross it over your body stretching the lower and middle back.
• Keep shoulder blades pressed to floor.
• If you feel ANY discomfort in your lower back, STOP.


21. Back Roles

• While lying on your back, tuck your knees to your chest, wrap your arms around your knees and rock yourself back-and-forth messaging your back.
• You can also rock side-to-side.
• When complete, rock yourself to a sitting position.


22. Sitting Legs forward,Hamstring/Hip Flexor Stretch

• Place both legs straight out in front of you.
• With your knees slightly bent and back straight, pivot at your hips and move your chest towards your thighs.
• Do NOT round your back to increase the stretch.
• Look straight ahead and reach for your toes.

week after glazed days

Now that summer league is over I want to encourage people to have at least one other extra activity outside of track/practice the goal is to be doing some kind of physical activity 4-5 days out of the week. So that you are not only maintaining thing strength developed, but building on top of that. You can workout at a gym, go for a run, or ride a bike. Do something that gets a good sweat going.

On another note, this is a slightly more strenuous workout, if you are not healthy this may not be the best workout for you. Don’t overdo it, get healthy it sucks nursing and injury all season do what needs to be done to get back to 100%.

Last the workout is more of an explosive workout so keep that in mind when you are doing the exercises and accelerating explode like a stick of dynamite.

Depth Jumps- You are going to need something that is about 18-30 inches off the ground that you can stand on.

Plyo-pushups- do a push up to lift your hands of the ground clap while in the air. If you have to regular pushups are fine.

Side plank with leg raise-do a side plank and continually raise and lower your top leg while staying balanced.


Single Leg Romanian Dead lift (bodyweight) if you have weight and feel comfortable using it feel free

Warm-up (either one is fine)-I do want to add one thing for the new warm-up do the hip-flexor stretch where you go on one knee and lean away from your back leg.

3 strides
10 Depth jumps 2 sets 1-2 minutes rest
5 Soft S 2 sets 2 minutes rest
4 suicides 0-10-20-30-40



Core (The main idea here is to be explosive with the exercises except the Romanian Dead Lifts) 20 work 10 rest. 3 minutes rest 2-3 sets
Squat jumps for height
Jack-knife sit ups
Plyo-pushups
Side-plank with leg raises left
Side plank with leg raises right
One leg ankle hops left
One leg ankle hops right
One leg Romanian dead lifts right
One leg Romanian dead lifts left

WEEK OF GLAZED DAYS!

New Warm-up (the following stuff is the warm up)
Lunge walk with body twist towards front leg
high knee walk pull your knee to your chest with your hands
Toe walk
heel walk
Ballerina walk
Sideways skip (both sides)
Backward skip
Power skips for height
Arm Circles
Butt kicks
3 strides

Shuttle runs -have 3 cones in a line ten yards between cones start in the middle facing so that you have a cone on each side. You are going to turn and sprint to one cone stop at that cone and sprint to the other end cone then stop and sprint back to the middle cone. When you are turning at the end cones make sure you turn to the left for one and the right for the other.

Series Stops- place cones at 0-10-25-40 yards you are going to sprint each cone and stopping completely at each cone they are just like the regular stops just more of them.

5xW's 2 sets 1 minute rest
3xShuttle runs 10 yards runs 3 sets 1-2 minutes rest
3xSeries Stops 3 sets 2-3 mins rest


Core (Enter Tabata)

Pick one of the following 3 exercises depending on what equipment you have available. The core is very short but effective this week you are going to repeat the exercise for 20 secs then you get 10 seconds rest you will repeat this cycle 8 times totaling 4 minutes. You will need a stop watch or a clock with a second hand. For this there are some watches you can program and i have even seen some computer programs that do this. Google "wod timer"

Thrusters (you will need two dumbbells of the same weight 8,10, or 15 lbs. for the women and 15,20, or 25 for men) this is mostly a guess with the weight I may be a little on the lite side. These are great so if you can give them a shot.

kettle bell high pull (you probably can use a dumbbell I just wanted to get options probably something in the 45 lb wight for men and 30 for women)


burpees Imagine most people are going to have to do these they are a tough great workout.

week 6

The important thing to remember in this workout is that this is the workout that is going to show up at glazed days. What I mean by that is that it takes about 10 days for the effects of a track workout to show up. So doing a hard workout this weeks means that the results will be there at glazed days with you when you are taring up the field. See you guys on the Field.


30 yard sprints w/ 10 yard backpedal- start by slowly accelerating so that you are at about 90 percent of your top speed when you get to the 30 yard cone and instead of stopping you are going to backpedal for ten yards instead of stopping.


Warm -up
3 Strides & extra streching
3x Hard "S" 3 sets 1-2 min rest
5x30 yard stops w/ back pedal 10 yards 3 sets 1-2 min rest
3x70 yard sprints 3 sets 2 min rest

Core Circuit 30 sec Work 15 sec Rest 2-3 sets w/ 2 mins rest between sets
1. Left Plank
2. Right Plank
3. Squat Hops
4. Pushups
5. Bicycles
6. jumping jacks or Jumping rope
7. Front Planks
8. Pelvic twists

Track Week 5

Fox says it's a light week, to go for a 2 mile run. If you've missed one of the previous weeks, you can make it up this week.

Track Week 4

Hey team we have a really good track workout this week that I am really excited to get into. Every workout I do consistently I know that I am a better player afterward!

Here is a cool article for those of you who want to learn stuff about sprinting. Keep in mind this is a track article and cant always be used on the field. Cause they dont have to change direction or stop suddenly.

http://www.criticalbench.com/sprint-technique.htm

The exercises

Split Squat Jump-Start from a forward lunge position chest upright and tall shoulders back slightly you are going to repeatedly jump from this position for the required time.

Jack-knife Sit ups- this one is thanks to the wii lay on your back legs straight and arms on the floor above your head your are going to do a sit up bringing your arms and your legs ups the goal is to tough your toes with your hands but if the best you can do is a V thats okay also.

Floor Wipers- Watch this video and ignore the bar bell and the 90 lbs sitting on it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQLtfH9clx4

Back planks- lay on the floor facing up you are going to raise your body while resting on the back of your shoulders and heels.

Tuck Jumps- Jump while driving your knees to your chest and then back down to the floor. Jump agains as soon as your toes hit the ground. you are aimming for speed here not height.


Warm-up
3x40 yard strides 1 set 1-5 minutes rest for stretching if necessary
5xW's 2 sets do all 5 reps starting from the same cone, on the second set start from the other side 1 minute rest
3x Soft S's 3 sets 1-2 minutes rest
4x40 yard sprints 3 sets walk back to the start cone (use this time for a short rest between reps)2-3 minutes rest


Core workout 30 s work 15 secs rest 2-3 sets
1. Split Squat Jump Left leg front
2. Push-ups
3. Jack Knife sit-ups
4. Split Squat jump right leg front
5. Floor Wipers
6. Back Planks
7. Tuck Jumps

Track week of 7/13

Week 3
This week we are going to do things a little different. We are going to do the core workout first then the track workout.

Front planks with moving object- on your forearms and toes like a regular front plank, have a water bottle in front of you. You are going to pick up and move the object 1 foot or so to the right with your right hand put it down then pick it back up with your right hand and put in back in front of you. Then do the same with your left hand. While you are moving the object you should have 3 points of contact with the ground, One forearm and 2 feet.

Wall pushups- are to be done with one hand at what ever angle you can handle, other hand behind your back or at your side.


hour glasses-place 4 cones in a 10 yard square and run the following pattern
















Burpees-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_Dq_NCzj8M

Reverse lunges- like a regular lunge but your stepping backwards.

10 yard starts- just like the first week except you will do one set at the start facing forward, backward, facing left, and facing right. You turn to foward then sprint on the sets you are not facing forward. (These have gotten me in trouble so be careful where you do these, people might think you are attacking them.


Warm-up (I am going to put together an new one for workouts for those of you tired of oatmeal)

Core circuit2-3 sets w/ 3 minutes rest
1. Tricept Bench Dip
2. Body weight squats
3. Front planks with moving object
4. Reverse lunges
5. Burpees w/o push-up
6. Pelvic Twist
7. Left arm wall pushups
8.Right arm wall pushups

3x 40 yard strides
5x10 yard starts 4 sets (one facing each direction at the start) 1 min rest
3x10 yard hour glasses 3 sets 1-2 min rest
8x20/10's 1 set

Track Workouts7/5-11

Many of us have AFDC mid-season this weekend so I recommend doing the workout Tuesday or Wednesday, if you have to Thursday at the latest. To give you time to rest and get ready for this weekend, and for those of you who were wondering T.O. does show up to AFDC tournaments.

AT- Training for this week, for the people not going to league, is to run 400's. A little different though, warm up like normal. Then you are going to sprint the first 100 and jog, not walk, the 300 at your recovery speed. Not sure of you recovery speed? Jog the 300 as fast as your body will let you, if you have to slow down, do so. Do this for about 6-8 400's.

30 yard sprint and backs with push-up starts, you will need to cones one at 0 yards and one at 30 yards. start as if you were in the bottom of a push-up then do a push up and begin sprinting from that position. Sprint to 30 yards and stop quickly at the cone and sprint back to the start, just like a cut hmmmm...... when you get back to the start decelerate at a moderate pace (after the cone) and walk to the cone then, repeat.

canoes- sit with you legs bent and in the air and back as straight as possible, the only thing that should be touching the floor is your butt. Either put your hands together or hold a weight and twist your body placing the weight/hands by your hips in a semicircular motion. You will preform the side to side motion by twisting your core side to side (more body movement than arm movement).

Squat Hops with reach feet shoulder width apart, quickly bend knees to 90 degrees and jump as high as you can, be sure to use your arms when you jump. Arms should be at 90 degrees and swing them backward as you are squatting down then froward and up while you are jumping. While in the air reach one hand up (alternate between jumps) as if to catch a disc hmmmm again....... When you land quickly squat down again and repeat.

mermaids- lay on your back with you feet 6 inches off the ground raise them to like 12 from there (18" from the ground) like you are a dolphin swimming in a sea of pain which you will project on to your opponents.

Warm up (The usual Rival warm-up plus what ever stretching you want to do)

3- 40 yard strides-1 set
5-10 yard starts-2 sets w/ 1 min rest between sets
5-Stops- 3 sets w/ 1 min rest
3-30 yard "sprint and backs" with push-up starts -3 sets 2-3 mins rest between sets
Core Circuit 30 sec Work 15 sec Rest 2-3 sets w/ 2 mins rest between sets
1. Canoes with or without weight
2. Squat Hops with reach
3. Mermaids/Mermens
4. Push-ups
5. Front Planks
6. Jumping jacks or Jumping rope
7. Pelvic twists
--

NOOOOOOOO!

It can't be! It . . . just . . . can't!



Infringement! Make it stoooooop!

What's Your Cardio?

I am convinced that half to two-thirds of the getting in shape battle is disciplining oneself to get up off the couch and go do something. We can probably all come up with various reasons for why this seemingly simple act is so difficult for us sometimes. But if you can get in the habit of incorporating exercise in your day, I believe the other pieces (basically whatever you need to be exercising the "right" way and maximizing your time/energy spent) will fall into place much more easily.

With that in mind, I'm finding that my cardio workouts have sort of taken a back seat to weight training. This trend is actually sort of surprising to me- I usually hate weight training. But I guess now I'm paying more attention to it and realizing that, suddenly, I've spent an hour on legs and hips and I'm hungry and my cat is getting very lonely at home alone and I should probably go now.

I think my weight training time will start to go down a little as I get more comfortable with the levers and pulleys and incline benches and the meatheads perpetually attached to them, so maybe I'll be able to squeeze in some more cardio in the near future. Also, once the weather warms up, I can definitely do some morning track workouts like I did with Quisty last year.

BUT- all this to say that I'm still having trouble planning weekly cardio. I have access to everything I could possibly need at this point, but I'm just not sure how to make efficient use of my time. So I'm curious as to what others are doing/would recommend in terms of what to do, how often to do it, for how long, etc. I know Erin was sort of looking at the following after meeting with her trainer:

Do cardio 3-4 times a week – 2-3 times do intervals before or after strength, plus 1 long run/other cross-training activity such as running, jump ropes (3 sets of 100, 1-leg 2 sets of 50), spin class, racquetball. Make sure that you have at least 4-7 intervals of whatever intensity/speed you are doing.

What do you guys consider "long"? Longer than 30 minutes? Longer than an hour? Do you really think the jumping program is enough cardio (whatever that means)? I have questions! Who has answers?

VB Alert Week 3?

Just after finishing week 2 of VB Alert, I sprained my big toe (Note: big toes are surprising important for jumping/running) so I had to take some time off. The toe still hurts some, but I've been able to play and resume working out. One of the week 1-2 exercises (square jumping) aggravates the toe and may be why I injured it to begin with. Luckily, there are several exercises to choose from, so I've avoided that one.

I started over with VB Alert, and yesterday finally got to move on to week 3 which has new exercises. For weeks 3 and 4, you continue doing 2 exercises from weeks 1 and 2, and you add 2 new exercises. Yesterday, Fox and I did jump rope and jump and reach from week 1-2 and added no arm jumps and laundry jumps. According to VB Alert, no arm jumps will make you puke, but we didn't find them to be that bad, I wonder if we're doing them wrong. The laundry jumps (jump back and forth over object, perhaps a laundry basket) hurt my toe a little, but overall the workout was not as bad as I feared, though my hams and calves are quite sore today. For the laundry jumps, VB Alert suggests using a "very collapsible" object to jump over. We didn't have a laundry basket, so we stacked up some of those blue yoga bricks. Fox completely wiped out on the first set and almost took me out with him (even though we set up about 6 feet apart). It was hilarious, I don't know how the 4 other random people in the room kept a straight face.

We've also gotten several other Rivalers doing VB Alert at the Saturday track workouts. The jumping rope is a big hit. One thing I like about the program is that it is very easy to do anywhere really, you just need a jump rope and enough room to jump up. That, and it doesn't take very long, so there is really no excuse for not doing it 3 times a week. Unless you have a bad toe. Seriously, it's debilitating, who da thunk?

Last thing, I re-measured my vertical prior to my second week 2. I've gained about 1-1.5 inches. However, I had done nothing for about a month before the first time I measured, so doing any workout probably would have shown some improvement.

Speed

I know several players have already talked to me about wanting to be faster. I followed a link from Lean and Hungry to this article about sprinting form. Strengthening is important, but improving your sprinting form will probably show more improvement in overall speed.

VB Alert Week 1

After hurting myself doing Air Alert, I decided to try the Volley Ball Alert (not it's real name). I started on Sunday doing the jumping rope and square jumping exercises. Jumping rope sucks, it's very hard, the square jumping was fairly easy, I wonder about doing it one-legged. I was a little sore the next day, mostly butt, groin, and hamstring. All Air Alert ever did was make my calves sore. Jumping rope and square jumping both seem pretty calf intensive, but the one-legged jumping rope definitely works the whole leg.

I did the same exercises on Tuesday, when Fox joined me, giving up on Air Alert as well. He looks like Vanilla Ice when he does the one legged jumping rope. On Thursday, we went to the gym and did the jump and reach and pool jumps. The jump and reaches are fairly tough, and I think they worked my abs. Weird. The pool jumps make you look like a complete idiot. They're fun though. For the first set of exercises, I would rank their difficulty from hardest to easiest as: Jumping rope, jump and reach, pool jumping, square jumping.

Again, I like that the total reps are lower, and that the intensity is higher (particularly for the one legged jumping rope). There is still a fair amount of endurance involved, 5x15 jump and reaches will make you tired.

Well, I Did It

And I did it in December, thanks, NOT January, so you can stop with your "let's see where you are in March" jokes right now, thanks.

I joined a gym. I actually used to be a member of a gym, but it was close to my house. After a while, I realized part of the reason I rarely went was because I felt most inclined to work out in the middle of the day. Thus, I need to join a gym close to work. As it turns out, LA Fitness (gah!) is close to work. AND close to home (you can go to multiple locations, yo!).

I'm actually excited about the one near me because it has a lap pool, so I've already been a-swimmin' in it. I'm not sure swimming is really going to improve my Ultimate game, but it sure does wear me out.

I also tried out the StairMaster Stair Mill (that's just an awful name, isn't it?) today. EQC and Wood were talking about this recently- it really is brutal! It's not the traditional StairMaster but the moving staircase one. HARD. I'm pretty psyched to try this out for intervals and possibly even for working on speed. Wood (or anyone else), what do you think? Could that be an adequate substitute for running stadiums/hills as fast as possible?

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...).