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