Tuesday, September 29, 2015

National Coffee Day.. Just kidding, Tuesday.

Haha! National Coffee Day has to be my favorite made up holiday.. right next to National Donut day of course!
Well after my third coffee (I decided to try that new toasted gram at Starbucks, nom nom) I am ready to tell you what I was up to today!

I never ate that donut by the way... I was too worried about today's sprints workout. And it was almost as bad as I expected. 3's and X's which consist of running around a soccer field, then once at the original corner sprint across, walk to the next corner and sprint back to the other side... hence the X's. That may not make much sense, its hard to explain but its a lot... What I explained is just ONE. We did FOUR, which isn't absolute death but it was definitely not a fun time.

Today was upper body, yay. Well not actually yay because I have been so tight in my shoulders, especially my right side. That's okay because I caved and called my favorite pain reliever/ pain enforcer/ muscle destroyer/ magic worker to fix me tomorrow. Its mind boggling how sports massages can hurt so much but feel so good.. they put me out of commission for a good day or two.

Any way back to today.. sorry... coffee....

Arm circles 3 sets of
20 forwards
20 backwards 

I skipped bench... yea no thank you. So I traded for some core (of course) because what else would I do? When in doubt do... core?
3 sets of 20 reverse rolling crunches

4 way pull ups- 3 sets of 4 each way

Kettle bell Bosu 1 arm press 3 sets of 8 
I am still figuring out that drill but probably just need to use a heavier KB.

DB 1 arm row- 3 sets of 6 at 65lbs 

DB runners 3 sets of 20 seconds with 10 lb DB

And lastlyyyyy ABS! MoneyMakers to be more specific 3 sets of 20. Those are another one I have trouble with.. It is hard to get into the right position. Its pretty terrible when I can get it right but its a love hate thing.

I added a few more side planks and twists because I didn't feel like I worked hard enough..

I haven't quite figured out how to know when to push harder and when to back off. Its difficult with my sport because I wont compete till March/ April and its only September..But then I tell myself this is the time to be pushing myself but I also don't want to burn out or get hurt...Back and forth back and forth, you see my dilemma? So I am learning, its a process. Ok I am done. Too much coffee.
Quest Banana hazelnut coffee....magically deliciousness

Monday, September 28, 2015

Heyyy Monday

I have to admit I was extremely worried about todays workout.. I heard this week would be a rough one. I pictured myself laying face first in the turf and the barbell stuck to the ground during deadlifts.. which absolutely sucks. I always dread that first deadlift, you know... the one that always takes forever to get off the damn ground.


A always forget to add that I do a 15-30 minute warmup before I do anything. Its super important to be warmed up!!

Sprints kicked off practice today with timed 40's.
We started back about 30 more yards so we were at full acceleration through the 40's.
I didn't expect these to be too bad but boy was I wrong, I only made it through 4 before I moved on to 6 backward sprints. Once your times get worse you stop.. I declined by .1 every attempt so like I said I ended it at 4. I just was not feeling it... definitely the monday blues.

Lifts

Deadlifts were only 3x6 today so I should have pushed it but because of the way I felt during the sprints I kept it "doable". My sets were 295, 305 and 315. I thought I might die during these but was pleasantly surprised and kind of wished I went a little heavier.

Depth jump 3x6

Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats 3x6 where I got to 40 lbs. I may or may not have been able to go a little heavier, those are always hard to tell because I want to push it but I also want to be able to finish practice and most importantly be able to walk tomorrow.

Next was some manual quad and hamstring work, each at 3x8 which took FOREVERRRR and burn but are always fun -_-
Oh and also 3x8 reverse raises

We ended with 3 sets of some hip work each at 20 reps. These include several lovely leg raises!

Practice took quite a while but I made it out alive and hopeeeeee that I wont be sore tomorrow (figures crossed).

P.S I have a Strawberry frosted donut waiting for meeeeee! What.. It's Monday 😏 and I did Deadlifts 🍩🍩 donut judge me 😝

Friday, September 25, 2015

Whats up Fridayyyy

Last day of deload week was lovely!! I have to say I took it pretty easy this week seeing as thought the next month may be absolute hellπŸ’€ I took yesterday off and was so miserable and sore for some reason.. But it was a much needed break. You have to remember to listen to your body.. I did.

Started with 20 yard sprints
- 3 with a bungee
- 2 without

20 yard side shuffle
- 1 with a bungee
- 1 wihtout

20 yard backwards
- 1 with bungee
- 1 without

Light squatting for 3 sets of 8

Depth box jumps for 3 sets of 8 too

Bench press 3 sets of 8 but i stayed on the lighter side as I've been irritating my shoulder. I used 95 lbs.

Pull ups 3 sets of 5 (phewwwwww)

I did 1 set of curls with a 20 lb dumbell
And 1 set of band pull downs

AND FINALLY ABS but only 1 set of my favorite ab twists!! (I actually added some reverse crunches bc why not) 

Have a wonderful weekenddddd!!
Anyone else see what Quest didddddd πŸ˜πŸŽƒ I'm pump-kined 😍

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Deloading week!

A quick recap of Tuesday

Sprints and core.
I worked on 20y sprints- forwards backwards and side shuffles.. Alternating with a bungee.
4 sets of 10 squat jumps and jump tucks
Core involved my favorite.. the TRX (its a lot of fun) as well as reverse crunches and planks. I did 5 different exercises 2x20

It was a rough day for me, I should of lifted but I was surprised I made it that far honestly.

Today I was feeling a lot better.. I went early to get in a lot of shoulder work, to make sure I am really loosening my back/shoulders/ arm up. I make sure to do this before because I am always so tired at the end of practice I dread doing it if I even do it at all. Its a good tip!

We started today with 100's and abs!!! 16 this time..thankfully, although it still sucked.


Our lifts went like this..

2 way band touches - 3 sets of 15 
Dumbbell step ups - 3 sets of 6 I used 40 lbs
DB 1 arm row - 3 sets of 6 at 65lbs
Bulgarian split squat with the bar 3 sets of 6 I did 65 lbs, 85 lbs, 105 lbs
Step downs/ SL holds 1 set of 30
Back extension 2 sets of 10
I worked on some hip movement drills
And finished with some abs!!!

Its nice to be able to come home and not feel like I cant interact with the rest of the world because I am so exhausted I just want to have a no plants party with Khaleesi on the couch with a box of donuts and a strong iced coffee #BecauseNoPantsAreTheBestPants and Coffee&Donuts solve all problems.

Happy Hump Day.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Monday

Monday morning I went down to Anaheim with USATF Southern California to teach track and field to some of the local elementary schools. It is always so much fun to work with kids at this age because they really are clueless on the events...nothing like working with a clean slate! On the other hand it is pretty sad to see the lack of knowledge most of these kids have towards the sport. Good or bad they always seem to fall in love with the Turbojav, my favorite eventtttt!

We spend about a half hour with each and rotated them between stations... They learned to sprint, jump and throw. We teach them the Turbojav (of course) and the shot put. Depending on the number of people we have teaching at each station determines the amount of stations (events) we have... The amount of time also determines a lot.  I could honestly work with the kids all day.. They have so much fun learning track and field and it does so much for our sport. If we could only do this for every school/organization imagine what our sport could turn into!

I added a tidbit into my #MakeAChamp campaign about trying to put together more of these "Track and Field Days" to help the younger generations learn our sport. The amazing thing about Track and field is that it teaches the fundamentals to every sport; Track events are the building blocks of most other sports..
Ill say it here again.. to please help spread the word! Being able to collaborate with local schools and organizations can do WONDERS for our sport! Hopefully one day it can create jobs for athletes like me trying to make it to the Olympics but take the stress of constantly searching for jobs to keep us on our feet.

As for training I went home and did some killer rehab and core, my tight shoulder/back needs some major TLC. Whenever I decide to do core I pick 5-10 exercises and do 10 to 20 depending on the difficulty. Because I missed out on a normal practice I ended up doing a harder core workout.
Does this ever happen to anyone trying to workout at home?

Some of my favorite go-to abs are..
Reverse crunch
Side planks
Lemon Squeezers (with and without a twist)
Mountain climbers
Side twists
V ups

Saturday, September 19, 2015

TGIF

Somehow these workouts keeps getting longer... πŸ’€ or at least feel like it.

Friday started out like any other day.
Sprints.
4x40yard bungee sprints 
Then we worked on normal sprints still running the 40+ yards but we only timed the last 10 yards. I believe my best was 1.15 s.
Those were 5x50y sprints
6x40y backwards sprints ended the running section of the workout.

The day looked like this..

Deadlift 3x6 295 305 315 325
(315 absolutely sucked let alone 325.. Outer body experience πŸ‘½ I should thank my supporters here because they definitely helped push me with all the amazing donations to my MakeAChamp) 
Depth bounding 3 each leg 3x2

DB step ups 4x6 40lb
Lunge jumps 4x12

Hip thrusts 4x6 155lb
2 way toe touch/step up 3x20

Lastlyyyyy ended with some hip work!

I immediately got a very large very strong pumpkin iced coffee then went home and took a nap πŸ‘€ 

Should of made this decision 😳 anyone else agree???

Friday, September 18, 2015

Helllooooo Friday

Morninggggggg. I am a day behind, I'm sorry.. its been a rough couple weeks of training.

Thursday was rough.

We started out with 22 100m sprints!!! with abs. I honestly didn't think I would make it through all 22. I was so drained from Tuesdays practice and taking Wednesday off was genius.. although I was still a zombie when I got to the park to run.



The rest of the workout looked like this..
 IYTL 3x15

DB bench 4x6 I worked my way up to 50lb  DB but I am still battling a sore shoulder/arm/scapula so I am taking it easy and really pushing myself to roll it out.

DB 1 arm row 4x6 Got up to 70 lbs on this one

Next was some glute work (3x15) which I am growing to love, I never did much of it before but I think I like it a lot! ( I hope I don't regret saying that)

A curl mix was next.. this unfortunately bothered my arm so I used 15 lbs and took it easy. I have to say my arms look pretty diesel.............don't know how I feel about that.

And FINALLY some band work and coreeeee
Band pull downs 3x15
Ab twists 3x8 e

I wonder what today brings ( monkey covering his eyes emoji here)
Im pretty sure its Leg day again.
If I don't post again.. you know the drill.


Thursday, September 17, 2015

I am Alive!!!!

If you read my last post I was expecting dreadful 300s on Tuesday........ Luckily it poured and we worked on speed and form. #LifeSaved  Little did I know I would still be absolutely destroyed, not be able to post my blog on time and have to take Wednesday off.
Yea. Leg day.

Sprint work itself took about an hour..... How? No clue.
8x 40y alternating with bungees where I focused a lot on form
3x 40y shuffles (alternating with bungee)
3x 40y backwards (alternating with bungee)

I can feel the sprints are getting easier the more I do, it has been such a great learning experience. Running "correctly" and getting into the right positions has tremendously helped increase my speed. I say this even though I was ready to pack up and go home after my speed work. But nooooo its leg day.

You guessed it, Deadlifts.
4x6 sets
So I started out at 295 and thought "what a piece of cakeeee" so I jumped to 315. Never again. Don't do that. I only made 4 reps, it was ugly. I dropped down to 305 which I did for 2 sets. My last set I decided to try 315 again.. I got all 6 this time but didn't have any fun doing it.
I mixed in some Plyos too!
4x4 lunge to squat jumps

Bulgarian split squats 4x6 at 30lbs
Band toe touches 3x25

Possibly the worst drill of the day had to be the weighted single leg squats.
These bad boys make you question life. 3x6 quickly turned to 2x6.. When you start to question quality sometimes its best to ease up. It could of also been that the 3 and a half hour practice time was cutting into lunch time aka Donut time [: Finishing off the day we did some glut ham raises and leg rehab.

Always have to do some recovery no matter how tired you are.... I am really working on this, its too important not to.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Monday

This weekend I had my very first real hike at Three sisters......After leg day. Awesome.

I was terrified of Monday's practice but here I am, I made it out okay.

We started with 100 meter sprints, my favorite part was the walking back rest part (:
Today I also decided to do arms after a week off from it seeing as though my shoulder felt better.

Started off with some light weight shoulder work. Dumbbell bench was the main lift, I worked my way up to 45's for 4 sets of 8 reps. Next was TRX but I was already feeling the tightness in my shoulder so I backed off a little. Before I called it quits I did dumbbell incline row with 35's and my favorite...... core! I needed to spend some time doing some shoulder recovery so today was a bit boring.

Tomorrow is 300's If you don't hear from me I may have died.

First week of September

I missed last week! After a long Labor Day weekend I started back on Tuesday with a 3 hour leg day... it was a very long day!
Sprints were 40 yards alternating with bungees. We also did shuffles and backwards sprints.  
Lifts included dead lifting, lunge jumps, Bulgarian split squats and a mix of hip/leg recovery. I got up to 275 in dead lifts for reps of 8 and only did 30 lbs for reps of 8 in the Bulgarian split squats. The rest was mixed in between the lifts.. 3 hours later.....

I also seemed to be having some shoulder tightness so you know what that means.. Legs and core and legs and core and running, of course.

I promised myself after a terrible season I would focus on recovery and rehab, especially in my shoulders. I already broke that promise -_- and its only been one month. This just goes to show how important it is to recover properly. I have always found my downfall to be training too much and not taking the time to stretch and roll out. So any guesses to what I added this week?? Meet my new best friend, my pink lacrosse ball!

Wednesday and Thursday were recovery days with a lot of rolling and stretching! Wednesdays running was brutal, it was 300's of pure torture in 100 degree weather!!! I also did core when I came back to life. Thursday I did 13 100's and some lovely coreeeee. 

Friday was even more bungee sprints! They sort of really suck but the more I do them the easier it is for me to get into the right positions. And again we had dead lifts -_- Some how I managed to get to 305lbs for 6 reps.. The rest of the day included bounding, dumbbell step ups, hip thrusts and split jumps. It was another long lovely day.



Friday, September 4, 2015

Deadlifts and Donuts

That's a thing right, deadlifts and donuts? I mean it should be..


Leg day is exactly what everyone proclaims it to be... so you understand why donuts should be apart of this fantastic day.......

Thursday was legs on legs on legs starting with sprints! I have been working out with a new secret weapon at Prolific and love every training session with Ryan and Tyler. They have really helped transform me in such a short amount of time and I cant thank them enough. My sprint work was followed by some pretty serious dead lifts. I ended up at 4 sets of 6 at 275 pounds alternating with some bounding. The rest of the day consisted of step ups, split squats, core and some hip drills.  It may not sound like a lot but lets just say I was in bed at 9. Yes, 9.

The only thing worse than leg day is the day after leg day.......

Leg day got us like.....
Starting off this wonderful Friday was 600 medicine ball. I split it up into two sets of 300 each and did sets of 15 to 50 (depending on the drill). I tend to favor the double hand drills and the drills that utilize my core like side to side twists.  Extension abs 4 sets of 15 (5 each way) helped me break up the 600 medball.

Next was my absolute favorite drill..............HOSE DRAGS (that's sarcasm.. I actually very much dislike them) but I ended up doing two sets of 4 at 40 yards. I am breaking those in and will end up adding more and more as the training picks up.

To break up the hose drags I added in some sledge swings to help loosen up my sore back and shoulders.. that are stilllll sore from Tuesday! As the weeks go on I plan to add more drills like sit up snatches that I did today. I only did 3 sets of 10 with just the bar. Those are tiring especially since I have stayed away from most lifts up until now. Hopefully sneaking in some of those will help me better transition into the next phase of training.

Lastly I ended with some 60 yard sprints.
TGIF

Happy Fridayyyyyy and cheers to a long weekend!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

#WorkoutWednesday

Today was bring your puppy to work day!! #WorkoutWithYourPuppyWednesday

Today was an easy day at the office especially with this little big nutball.
Especially after a heavy upper body workout yesterday it was nice to play around today.
I have found that adding sprints to my workouts every day is helping me feel a lot better. Over the years I never did much running and i regret it every year.

Today started off with 30m sprints with Khaleesi for 20 minutes. Most of the time I ended up just chasing her around but that counts right? She is actually really good at racing!!! We taught her as a little pup "ready, set, go!" and she is getting really good at it off leash (most of the time...)

Sprints were followed by 500 medball reps. Medicine ball was on the lighter side.. which consisted of variations of over, under, forward, chest pass, side to side, double and single hand. Its fun to mix it up and make up new drills that way it doesn't get too repetitive and you can make sure each one is really worth it. Its definitely important to keep it interesting, nothing is worse than just "getting through" the workout.. each drill has to be done with the same intensity.


Walking plate twists and pullovers were next. The walking plate twists were only with a 25 lb plate but I did 3 sets of 30 meter walks with a twist. I need to increase the weight next time because they are starting to get too easy. Pullovers were a pain in the butt after a heavy arm day yesterday so I went easy 3 sets of 20 with a 25 lb dumbbell.

Finished up with 3 sets of 10 box jumps and core!
Core is my jam.. I keep trying to increase my core exercises in the hopes I can really strengthen it and maybe just maybeeee get some abssss!!

Tomorrow is leg day -_-