March 10

6 burpees with my workout partner.  He did a few extras and I caught them on video.

March 9

30 minutes on the bike, and another solid 30 stretching.

1 set of 5 burpees....followed by another set after Jayden got really excited about it.

Did this week's leg strength workout as a warmup for East Windsor Winter League...and felt pretty good.

Leg Strength and Endurance: Week 1

This year I'm planning on posting three different sets of workouts over the course of the year.  The first two slightly overlap and are targeted at leg strength and endurance and will carry us from March through June.  You should be working to strengthen your core and big muscles at this point, preparing the base of fitness that will be the foundation for you throughout the season.  Feel free to substitute, remove, add or change things however you'd like...you're responsible for your own body.  These workouts are meant to provide a structured suggestion.  The third will transition into agility and much shorter explosive actions. We'll begin that transition in early July.

In all cases, feel free to post your times, comments, etc in the comments.

The Leg Strength and Endurance structure is simple, and should be sandwiched between adequate warm-up and stretching.

There are four exercises, which you perform in a circuit:
(a) Body-weight squat 
(b) Lunge 
(c) Step-up
(d) Squat jump

Performing (a)-(d) is one set.  What changes over the course of the workout is how long you rest between exercises/sets and how many sets you perform.  Technique notes: it's important to perform every rep quickly (as close to 1/sec as possible).  Hands are behind the head for every exercise except the squat jump, where they're on the hips.  Make sure to take a nice long step in the lunge.  The step-up is on about a 14-inch step. 

If you don't have a good strength base, the circuit is: 10 squats, 5 lunges/leg, 5 step-ups/leg, 5 squat jumps.  If you have a good strength base, the circuit is: 20 squats, 10 lunges/leg, 10 step-ups/leg, 10 squat jumps. 

The workout for Week 1 is 3 circuits with 45 seconds between exercises and 3 minutes between circuits.

March 5 and 6

One burpee Saturday.  Two on Sunday while JJ tried to figure out how to do them with me.  IOP and some stretching.  Workout for this week to come...

Burpee Challenge

**** If you don't know what a burpee is, go here. ****

Jake and I are embarking on a burpee-a-day challenge between now and Mixed Easterns.  The deal is this.  Starting tomorrow you do one more burpee than you did the day before.  So tomorrow is 1.  Sunday is 2. Monday is 3, and so on.  The Friday before Mixed Easterns will be the 90th day.

You should get on board.

Converting Strength to Power - One Easy Tip

Wow. Has it already been 4 months since the end of last season?! By now, you have probably built up a good base of strength. But it is time to start slowly converting that strength to usable power: power that will make you faster and quicker, and not just win a bench press competition.

One easy way to make this transition gradually (we are still two months from tryouts, after all) is to supplement your current workout routine with explosive movements that mimic the lifting you are already doing. This is particularly useful for the exercises you are doing that work a whole group of muscles. For example, after every set of:

-Bench presses ... do 3 "clapper" push-ups
-Squats or leg-presses ... do 3 squat jumps for height
-Lunges ... do 3 alternating lunge-jumps
-Rows or Lat pulldowns ... do 3 fast pull-ups
-Dead-Lifts ... do 3 granny throws with a light medicine ball (4-5 lbs). If you don't have easy outdoor access, do the same explosive motion upward but don't let go of the ball.

Lifting increases the length of your muscle fibers. Adding these zero-weight, explosive motions immediately after doing the strength exercises will train your muscle fibers to contract quickly, which is key to generating usable power."

-Rafe

March....real posted workouts to come...but its time to go.