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All Around Great Circuit Workout

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This is a great workout that targets all the major muscle groups while not over-stressing any one muscle group. It combines both arm, leg, and core work into a tough circuit routine.

Just like always, do each exercise as many times as you can in 1 minute. Do all 8 exercises with minimal rest in between and then take a min or two break. Do 3 sets of the exercises.

1. Deadlifts (these are a typical Crossfit exercise… basically lifting a weight from the floor)

2. Burpees

3. Dumbell chest press

4. Squat press (you can help push the dumbells up using the momentum as you come up from your squat)

5. Pull ups

6. Plank push ups

7. Single leg wall sits (30 sec each side)

8. Sit ups (with a medicine ball. make sure the ball comes all the way over your head and touches the floor)

Good Luck!

T Minus 4 Days Until Tryouts

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There are 4 days left until the East Coast tryout for the U.S. Worlds Team. The tryouts are being held in Washington D.C. where it promises to be a chilly weekend.

For those interested… USA Ultimate posted a great article in anticipation of their West Coast Tryout which was held this past weekend in San Francisco. It details some of the expectations for the tryouts, what the coaches are trying to achieve in terms of team balance, and the adjustment abilities of the athletes to playing co-ed. One of the subjects stressed in the article was the importance of what the athletes have been doing in the off-season. Those that come into the tryouts in good shape will certainly have a leg up on those that have been relaxing for the last 4 months.

That being said, my husband is excited about the coming weekend and looking forward to playing ultimate with some other great athletes.

We’ll keep you posted when they figure out the final roster!

It’s Been A While

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The reason I’ve been absent for so long is a simple one. I’ve been busy.

Also, my husband and I joined a local gym and got roped into personal training. It was much easier than I thought it was going to be and the price was right. We have a deal for group training (both of us at the same time) twice a week. So we set some goals and jumped right in.

Because of that I am no longer designing workouts, but have decided that I still want to share what we are doing. That way, those of you that don’t have the benefit of a personal trainer or have trouble designing effective workouts can benefit from our experiences.

I’m just going to jump right in because it seems ridiculous to catch you up on 6 weeks worth of workouts. The only thing I will say pertains to our goals…

My goals were fairly simple. Train to run a marathon in the fall without getting injured.

My husbands goals were to build some power and strength and work on agility and flexibility for his upcoming Team USA ultimate tryouts (which are in 2 weeks).

Anyway we have been doing circuit work for a couple weeks to work on strength, explosive power, endurance, and flexibility. Today’s workout was particularly tough.

7 stations, start wherever you want, 1 min at each station, 4x with 1 min rest in between:
1. step ups with 50-80 lbs (women-men weight)
2. hang cleans (these are a type of olympic lift and I recommend asking a trainer to show you how to do these properly before trying them. check out this video to get an idea.)
3. yoga ball crunches
4. kettlebell squats (touch the kettlebell to the ground each time
5. walking planks (I have called these plank pushups in the past)
6. side lunges with a 10 lb medicine ball
7. quarter mile sprint

Ultimate Training: Intervals and Circuits

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This workout combines long interval training with short circuit work.

Running interval work:
30 minute run – 2 minutes jog/ 2 minutes of running at a good clip (it should be effort levels of 3 for the jog and 7 for the run portions)

Ladder work:
Long ladders – set up 3 cones 15 m apart. Run to the first cone, back to the start, run to the second cone, back to the start, run to the third cone, back to the start. Rest. Do the first set running forward both directions. The second set is side shuffles, and the third set is forward on the way out and backpedal on the way back. Rest 1 min between each set. Repeat the three sets.

Circuit work:
Set up a box with sides of 30 m. The goal is to sprint around the box, stopping at each corner to complete a task. The task at corner 1 is 10 pushups, corner 2 is 10 squat jumps, corner 3 is 5 lunges on each leg, and corner 4 is 10 burpees. Do not rest between tasks or sprints until you get back to the beginning. Rest for 3 minutes and repeat.

Strength Workout # 6

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The workout:

10 lunges each leg
10 squats
20 calf raises each leg
20 supermans
10 bird-dogs each side
20 spiderman pushups
plank for 30 sec (during that time raise each leg 5 times during the 30 sec)
10 inchworms with a twist pushup at the bottom
side plank for 30 sec each side (during that time raise your upper leg about 6 inches, do that 5 times during the 30 sec)
10 yoga pushups
20 bridges (hold the last one for 30 seconds)
20 pikes on a yoga ball
10 circles with a medicine ball each side
wall sit for 45 sec (make sure that your knees are at 90 degrees)
20 side to sides with a medicine ball
10 pushups with a twist

Ultimate Training: Pyramid Workout

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In addition to two strength workouts and a mid-week running workout, I have designed ultimate frisbee-specific workouts for the weekend. They usually last approximately 2 hours and can be done on grass or on the beach. There is a lot of footwork in the workouts, so I strongly discourage doing these on pavement. These workouts are designed to be hard both physically and mentally, mimicking the focus and stamina needed during tournaments.

The goals for these workouts are three-fold:
1) To increase sprint endurance and general endurance for ultimate specific activity
2) To improve footwork and agility
3) To maintain and improve form for running, cutting, and lateral movement to enhance efficiency

The Pyramid Workout:

* Long Pyramid: Run intervals of 2, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 2 min (in that order) at a perceived exertion level of 8 (for my husband this meant between 6 and 7 min/mi pace). Take 3 min of rest between each interval.

* W’s: Set up 5 markers in the shape of a W, with about 5 m between the markers at the top and bottom of the W. Run forwards through the W and return to the start, also running forward. Rest for 30 sec. Side shuffle through the W and return to the start; on the way back side shuffle facing the same direction. Rest for 30 sec. Side shuffle facing the opposite direction as your first side shuffle. Rest for 30 sec. Run forwards to the first marker and back-pedal to the second marker, forwards to the third marker and back-pedal to the fourth marker, forwards to the last marker. Return to the start in the opposite pattern. Rest for 30 sec and repeat the set of 4 with the same rests.

* Bottle Jumps: Set up a nalgene bottle (or frisbee). Complete the following jumps (10 jumps per type): forward-backward, side to side, forward-backward right leg only, forward-backward left leg only, side to side right leg only, side to side left leg only.

* Burpees: 3 sets of 5 with 30 sec rest between sets.

* Small Pyramid: Set up markers 40 m apart. Run sets of 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 sprints between the markers (i.e., the first sprint is 40 m, the second sprint is 80 m with one change of direction, the third is 120 m with two changes of direction, etc.). Rest 30 sec between sets.

** A note about changing direction: During any drill that involves a change of direction focus on decelerating by taking a number of small steps (i.e., chop your feet) and keep your head over your feet. This will allow you to turn more quickly while keeping your center of balance over your feet and will let you immediately accelerate after your turn.

Strength Workout #5: Power Pushups

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This workout contains a variety of pushups so make sure to warm up your arms, shoulders, and chest muscles. Also, don’t forget to stretch these same muscles after your workout.

The workout – “Power Pushups”
** take at least 1 min rest between pushup sets
** the number of pushups are designed for a male. As a female, half the number of pushups is a good challenge for me.

plank (45 sec)
side plank (45 sec each side)
20 pikes on a yoga ball
20 pushups with a twist
20 plank pushups (10 pushups leading with each hand)
20 spiderman pushups
10 stationary inchworms with a pushup and a twist at the bottom (instead of the normal plank position at the bottom of the inchworm, do a pushup with a twist before walking your hands back toward your feet)
20 bird-dogs
20 pikes on a yoga ball
10 leaning planks on a bosu ball (invert the bosu so the flat side is facing upward. Grab the sides and assume a straight-arm plank position. Lean to the left so that your weight is primarily on your left side, roll back to center and then roll to the right and back to center. Repeat 10 times slowly.)
20 side tricep pushups (10 each side)
20 triangle/diamond pushups
20 pushups with an arm raise (10 with each hand)
6 min abs (pick 6 ab exercises and do each one for one minute with no rest in between)

** Pushup challenge: Regular pushups to exhaustion. Remember to keep track of your progress!

Mid-Week Running Workouts

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Part of training for any endurance event is actually building endurance. So we have added some mid-week running workouts to enhance endurance. This should help the ultimate frisbee player perform at a high level on Sunday afternoon. These are mainly running distances of 3 miles or longer and sometimes include long intervals.

A couple of the mid-week running workouts we have done are below.

Workout #1:
3 mile run at a quick pace (effort level of 7; for my husband that meant about a 7:30 min/mi pace)

Workout #2:
3 mile run at a moderately quick pace (effort level of 7; for my husband that meant about a 7:30 pace)
3 ~ 200 m sprints at 85-90% sprinting speed
2 sets of 10 burpees

Workout #3:
3 x 1 mile repeats at a fast pace (effort level of 8; for my husband that meant about a 6:30 pace), 1 min rest between repeats

** A note on pace: I often tell people to gauge their pace based on their perceived effort, but this does take some practice. For all mid-week running workouts your perceived effort level should never exceed an 8 on a scale from 0 to 10. Also, these effort levels are for running, not sprinting.

Strength Workout #4: Bosu Challenge

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Again, all these exercises can be done without the use of a Bosu ball so don’t fret!

Active Warmup. Focus on warming up your hip flexors with some leg swings and hip rotations (among other things)!

The Workout – Bosu Challenge:
20 regular pushups
20 regular crunches with your heels raised
20 leg lifts
boat pose (30 sec)
20 shoulder dips
20 shoulder shrugs
20 leg lifts from a shoulder shrug position (i.e., with your butt hanging off a chair and all your weight supported by your arms, raise each leg in sequence. You only need to lift your leg a couple inches to get the benefit. This will target your hip flexors!)
20 chops with a medicine ball
20 chops with a medicine ball while standing on a bosu ball
20 pikes on a yoga ball
20 supermans
20 bird-dogs
20 pushups with a twist (Watch the video… but bring your knee to your opposite elbow while you are lowering into the pushup – instead of while in the plank position. Keep your twisted knee off the ground and raise back up. Switch legs. We’ll make our own video of this at some point.)
side planks (each side, hold for 45 sec and do 10 leg lifts during that time)

20 side crunches on a bosu ball (each side)
10 single leg squats on a bosu ball (each leg; with opposite leg balanced behind, i.e., not a pistol squat)
10 lunges on a bosu ball (each leg)
10 side lunges on a bosu ball (each leg)
**Challenge**:
Balance on one foot on a bosu ball for as long as you can. Record the amount of time for each foot so that you can compare when you get stronger!
Do as many regular pushups as you can. This means to exhaustion (i.e., you fall on the floor because you can’t push up or lower yourself down, you absolutely can’t do anything else, and after you collapse you have to roll over to get yourself up to a sitting position because your arms are too tired to help push you up). Keep a record for later comparisons.
Cool down. Stretch with focus on your hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, and also on your pecs. If you have a foam roller, pay that baby a visit!