New off-season, New Ideas.

As I'm entering my second week of training I find myself coming up with plenty of new position specific exercises which seem to maintain explosive power as well as improve my flexibility while all at the same time activating my core and stabilizer muscles...

I'm not going to pretend that I'm revolutionizing the side lunge or even squats per say, but I am coming up with some great new alternatives. I've found that with a little creativity you can make these exercises more challenging, more sport specific, and most importantly more fun.

As I am unable to find anything close to them on the internet I will be adding some demonstration videos within the next week. So keep an eye out you wont want to miss them.

Some other ideas I've found myself coming up with include the use of super sets to activate both slow twitch and fast twitch muscles within a short amount of time. It's great to be strong and be able to lift a lot but the last thing you want to do in my opinion, is be slowed by your training. So what I'll do for example is:

Medium Weight Front Squats 135 lbs) followed directly by box jumps as high as you can. Hip height for jumps would be a good starting point. And if you work at it, you should eventually be able to jump as high as your nipple line and even higher. ;-)

Front Squat low explode on the way up:


Follow that up with some high (higher than the following video) box jumps or some penta jumps as shown in the second video:



Or these depending on if you'd like to work for height or length:



In the case of upper body and along the same lines controlled and slow-er to fast and equally controlled...

Swiss ball bench press is a variation on traditional bench press which uses free weights and more core to keep yourself balanced:



Followed directly by Plyo or Clap push ups (no video for now sorry guys)...

Basically follow the above exercise with push ups that are slow on the way down and then a fast explosive push up where you leave the ground and either clap then go back down or push your hands to a slightly higher platform then drop back down and do it again.

Do these super sets with little to no rest between exercises then take a solid break before you begin the next set

In the next few days I will be creating individual sample workouts for specific days of the week and although most of the workouts I've been doing involve the whole body and always the core, they will be divided in to days where lower body, and upper body are focused on.

They will be a good start or addition for anyone looking for a complete summer regimen, as they will be rather basic, and will provide a solid foundation for anyone looking to build with me as the summer progresses.

Keep your eye on the (blog) puck!

Dupes

First workout back! First workout back...

After a 3 week break where I simply relaxed and finished up school, while doing some stretching, and occasionally playing racquetball/golf with my team and housemates. I was put (and pushed through) my first workout by my long time friend and high performance trainer Raffi Pirjanian yesterday, at a soccer field near my house.

As looking forward to it as I was, my excitement was quickly dampened by how hard I was breathing and how much my lungs felt like they were burning... I was reminded of how much temporary misery the first day or week back can bring. Although I felt quick, and like I had a lot of "pop" in my legs, they definitely weren't able to go for as long as months prior when I was in the peak of my conditioning due to my teammates and super motivator/conditioner Dean Blais.

My workout was as follows:

Warm up:
2 laps around the field

Ten minutes of dynamic warm ups such as (videos in days to follow):
Butt kicks
Quad stretch
High knees
Knee to chest
Shuffles
Elbow pushing the thigh alternating squats
Elbow to instep back on the heel (a UNO maverick hockey specialty)
Lunges
Lateral lunges
Inchworm with push ups
Skips
Arm circles to big
Standing Twists

To get started:

15 yards sprints alternating starting foot

25 yard shuttles there and back 4 times. x 2

Using a line on the field or an agility latter:
Quick feet drills followed by 5 yard sprint

Change of direction drills with cones every ten yards for a total 30:

Sprint-shuffle-sprint
Backpedal-sprint
Karaoke-sprint-Karaoke

Using a 10 lbs medicine ball a circuit done x 3:

20 squats with extended arms holding ball in front of eyes
5 long jumps for length out and 5 back
16 scissor jumps for height
12 Reverse wood chops from low to high (for core, power, and extension through hips)

Using a bench 2 feet high:

3 sets:
8 continuous sideways jumps over the bench

Lastly... the killer... 20s

30 yards cones at each end... all I was told was to do it as fast as I could and that I was going to get through it no matter what...

Killer 20's:

20 push ups
Sprint to cone
19 sit ups
Sprint back to cone
18 push ups
Sprint to cone
17 sit ups
...

You get the point.

I did get through it, and it was definitely unpleasant at the time, but when I was done, I felt like I had taken a big step towards my goal for this summer:

To get stronger and more flexible while remaining fast, explosive and quick like I've always been.


Thanks for checking in, keep having fun and working hard.

Jeremie