Workout for March 27th, 2009

Complete as many rounds of the following workout as you can in 20 minutes....

-Run 1 lap (400m)
-5 Push-Ups
-10 Burpees
-15 Step Lunges
-20 Ab Crickets


Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes, and record the number of rounds in your workout log. Repeat this exercise again (next week), and try to complete the same amount of rounds or more.

Workout for March 26th, 2009

This workout is timed, complete the following workout to the best of your ability.

Reps of:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

of each of the following exercises:

-Burpees
-Push-Ups
-Med. Ball Sit-Ups/Woodchoppers
-Air Squats

Record your time in your workout log and repeat this exercise(next week)trying to better your time.

Workout for March 16th, 2009

endline to endline on a basketball court
45 sec with a 45 sec break
1min 30 sec with a 1min 30 sec break
3 mins with a 3 min break
1min 30 sec with a 1min 30 sec break
45 sec with a 45 sec break

50 flutter kicks
25 pull-ups
50 side lunges
25 interval push-ups
50 ab crickets
25 single leg squats

The ABC's of Fitness

While following through with your workout plan trying to reach the goals you have set in place, you should always remember the ABC's of fitness. Agility, Balance, and Coordination. Whether you are working out for a sport or to enhance everyday living these will carry over to either area. Let us start with the A, Agility is a person's ability to change their body's position (lateral, forward, or backward). A good way to increase you agility is working with a speed and agility ladder. Here are a few speed and agility ladder exercises you can begin with.

-Buzz Saw (lateral)
-Muhammad Ali (lateral)
-One foot in each box
-One foot in every other box
-Two feet in each box
-Three feet in each box
-Icky Shuffle
-Trail Whip
-Single Leg Hop-each box
-Hop both feet each box
-Hopscotch
-Slalom
-180 degree hop each box
-High Knees (forward-lateral)
-Hip Poppers

Moving on to the B, balance is the ability to distribute your weight, these exercises will also help work with your stabilizing muscles. (BODY CONTROL)

-Flamingos - Single leg RDL Combo



-Single Leg Hurdle Jumps
-Side Plank
-Split Leg Squat
-Backhand/Forehand Med. Ball Drill



Following Balance, comes C, Coordination- coordination can work in many various aspects, hand eye- hand feet- left leg right arm- coordination is the body working together to produce effective results. The following exercises are some sport specific coordination exercises.

Basketball:
-Get Backs
-2 Ball Dance
-1 Ball Roll Out
-2 Ball Roll Out
-Tennis Ball Reaction

Baseball:
-Med. Ball Forehand/Backhand Drill
-Tennis Ball Reaction
-2 Ball Skill Ball work

Form Running:
-T-Drill
-Sprint "X" (Forward-Backward-Laterally)

Mini Hurdles:
-2 Hurdle Shuffle




-Lateral Shuffle



These exercises will all overlap each other somehow and you will see improvement in all areas whether you are working on agility which will carry over to balance, and in turn will carry over to coordination. In the end they will all help improve performance (with speed, body control, and coordination) and everyday living (with posture-stronger core and body control).

Beginning a New Training Program -- Setting Goals

This article is a great place to start for any training program. Don't let the title of the article fool ya... The article talks about some key points to any good work out program, not only for pitchers. The keys begin with goals, stabilization, and a main focus. What is it that you want to do or accomplish in your training program?

The Hidden SECRET Behind a Faster FASTBALL

Dana Cavalea, CSCS

Every baseball player wants to throw harder. After all, isn’t that what the scouts look for?
Yes and No. A scout will always be impressed by a blazing heater, but there are several other characteristics a scout looks for prior to drafting a player. Physical development and stature are very important indicators of how well a pitcher will hold up through the duration of a long season. Physical development and stature will also show if a player has reached their full potential.
The point I am trying to make here is that scouts look to draft athletes that have strong durable bodies. There are currently enough contracts in the Big Leagues held by guys that have a history of breakdown. You could throw 150 mph, but if you are hurt, what good are you?
The secret to a faster FASTBALL is simply building a body that is strong, STABLE, and powerful. The first goal to any good lifting program is to build stability around the joints while at the same time stabilizing the core. If your body as a whole is stable, you are less susceptible to injury and therefore become a more valued asset to your team.
Many athletes these days go to the gym and lift Heavy as possible, sweat as much as they can, and then leave. This is far from a good program. A good lifting program should not be based on how many times you could bench a certain weight or how wet your shirt is at the end of you training session.
A good lifting program needs to have a FOCUS. By focus I mean are you trying to gain stability, strength, or power. In addition, that focus should always be changing depending on the season and on the goals that you have exceeded.
So let’s assume everybody reading this article is a true beginner. One question you might be asking is, “How do I become more stable?”
The answer to that question is simple, practice being more stable. Still sound tough? As a rule of thumb, overall stability is directly influenced by the stability of the core, and by core I don’t mean the superficial abdominal muscles. Our core consists of deep stabilizing muscles that sit below the abdominals. These muscles positively affect our posture when we demonstrate adequate strength and control of these muscles. Whenever we move our arms or legs, the first muscle group to engage is our core. If our core is weak, so will all subsequent movements. Its like swinging a bat with a slight crack in the handle. Your power on contact has been limited because of a weakness in the core of the bat.
Some sample exercises that will focus on stability are:

1. Balancing on one leg while keeping the torso erect.

2. Balancing on one leg and then going into a single leg squat

3. While at the top of a pushup position, pull the stomach in tight, and hold that posture

4. Supermans; While laying on your stomach with your arms extended out front, lift your chest and arms off the floor, while lifting your thighs off the floor simultaneously.

5. Hand Walks; From a pushup position, keeping your hand planted, walk your feet up to your hands using small steps. Once your legs have reached full extension, then begin to walk your hands out so you back in a pushup position.

Adding a few simple exercises such as these to your daily routine will enhance overall stability dramatically. As you become more stable, you will begin to feel new found strength that will allow you to have better control of your body, and therefore everything you do from the pitchers mound.
Many strength coaches will tell pitchers in order to throw harder you need to lift more weight or use kettlebells or buy some other trendy pieces of equipment. The fundamental and underlying principle that needs to be addressed FIRST is the development of stability. Once stability is achieved, the sky is the limit. Stability is like the foundation of the house or building, without a secure foundation you will always have cracks in your walls and breakdown during a storm. Think of your body the same way. If you never achieve stability, the storm of high forces and torques involved with the game of baseball will put cracks in your walls and you will breakdown!
Dana Cavalea CSCS is a speed and strength consultant specializing in baseball performance enhancement, and owner of www.mlstrength.com, an online speed and strength training site for baseball.

Feel free to contact Dana with any questions or comments.
http://www.mlstrength.com/articles.php#

After reading this article you have a good start o setting your goals and focus... Now lets move on to a sample speed and agility program to set you in the right direction.


Warm-Up and Speed Training:



Dynamic Warm-Ups:



Speed/Agility Training:











Core:





Posterior Chain:





These exercises will help get you started and headed in the right direction with your training program. Remember to set realistic goals and align them with your SMART goals (below). Check your progress weekly rather than daily and don't be discouraged or satisfied with your results, keep pushing yourself to reach that goal. (Focus)

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely

Good luck and keep working hard.

Lifting for your Sport: Free Weights vs. Machines

The following article is a great article that talks about using free weights vs. machines for lifting in your sport. The article answers the on going debate, which one is more beneficial towards you and your sport. The following article will make many key points to answer that question, and also give you insight towards ways that you may want to begin training in the near future.

Machine Training vs. Free Weight Training.. Train to Move!
Dana Cavalea CSCS


Many people that I come across always ask me about this so called "debate" on machine training vs. free weight training, which one is better? In my mind there really is no reason for debate. If you carefully analyze sport, and compare and contrast it to the training methods in which you are using, you will be able to answer your own questions to this non-debatable subject.
Whenever I get the opportunity to speak with Coaches and Athletes alike, I always encourage them to become analyzers, not just programmed robots that listen to everything their Coach or a so-called Professional tells them to do.
So let's stop for a moment and think logically about sport. As far as I know, a majority of sports are played in the upright standing position, yet, when we walk around a weight room, most of our training is done either seated of laying down.
Are we getting it yet? The whole idea behind training is #1 to reduce the risk of injury, and #2 to increase performance on the field. If we are spending so much time on our butt and back, how are we possibly going to maximize our performance on the field if we are not preparing our body to maintain the positions it will so frequently be placed in on the field. Going through this analysis of sport, we are able to see that if an athlete is spending excessive time on his back or on the ground, he definitely is limiting his production and quality of play during competition.
The point I am trying to make here is that training needs to have a direct carryover to the sport we play. If your sport is played standing, then your training should be also.
For those of you that have read some of my previous articles, you will see that I place a huge emphasis on creating stability throughout the body. This increased level of overall stability will allow the body maximize force transfer, limit unnecessary motion, and therefore provide us with a decreased risk of injury and overall greater power output. If we are able to increase power output, that will translate into greater throwing velocity, bodily economy, and increased bat speed.
So how does stability tie into the machine vs. free weights debate? Machines allow us to stabilize our spine by using a pad on our back, or having our shoulders locked into a machine to provide this "false stability."
Stability is achieved when the spinal column is in a position that creates freedom to move, but this movement is restricted/controlled by the deep abdominal muscles and core stabilizers preventing movement of the column itself, but creates a strong base for the appendages to move. This is the whole idea behind Core Training, which teaches us to stabilize the spinal column to again aid in force transfer and decrease injury risk.
If we are using machines, we are able to strengthen a muscle most likely in isolation, and are limiting the amount of stabilizer activity that would be necessary if we were using free weights. As an example, a leg press requires very little stabilization because the back pad works to lock in our spinal column, whereas during a standing squat, we are forced to activate our core musculature or else our upper body will collapse. With the free weight exercises we are getting more "bang for the buck" and strengthening the body in positions it will be placed in on the field.
In regards to this pseudo debate, here are some tips:
1. Make your training ground based rather than seated
2. Analyze the movements that take place in your sport then compare your program to these movements and see if you are incorporating these planes of movement in your program
3. Ask yourself am I challenging my body's ability to balance and move in my program?
4. MACHINE TRAINING is much EASIER than lifting free weights during ground based activity. This point in itself should make you think WHY? The reason is during ground based activity there is an extremely high neural demand and your body is using more muscle, joint stabilizers, and therefore expending more calories.
In summary, this debate in my mind really doesn't exist because when we analyze overall performance gains in athletes, those that train in a ground based fashion have a much greater carryover in success from the weight room to the field. This is the whole reason we train; to translate weight room success into on-field success. In essence, if you are training in a ground based fashion, you are training your body to MOVE.

http://www.qcbaseball.com/skills/conditioning_weight_training1.aspx


Now that we answered the on going debate of free weights vs. machines to better benefit the athlete, here are a few ground based exercies that you can begin with. (I incorporated baseball as the sport for theses exercises)








The above exercises are ground based exercises that will benefit an athlete in many different ways. All the exercises work various muscle groups, challenge the body's ability to balance/stability, and are ground based rather than seated. I focused on training for baseball with these exercises, but one can think of ways that they move in their sport and try to take that seated exercise to a ground based exercise if possible. For example trade the leg press for a squat or take a seated shoulder press and turn it into a thruster. As stated in the article... Get up and MOVE!

Exercise for January 21st, 2009

Today's exercise is done for time...
We are working for sub 20 minute times

Run 1 lap
20 push-ups
Run 1 lap
20 ab crickets
Run 1 lap
20 pull-ups
Run 1 lap
20 sit-ups
Run 1 lap
20 box jumps
Run 1 lap
20 burpees
Run 1 lap
20 air squats

Cool Down:

Walk a lap
Full Body Stretch

Keep up the hard work!!!

Baseball Exercises and Exercise Tips

Spring is around the corner and now is the time to start that pre-season workout. Here are a few ideas for a baseball pre-season workout.

Pitchers Push-Up Workout
(www.baseballtips.com)

5-10 reps of each

Dive bomber pushup
Start in a downward dog position, almost like an upside down V. Roll your face about an inch from the the ground, swoop it up so that your chest is forward and your eyes are facing the ceiling, and then come back to the starting position.

Hand over hand pushups
Have both hands in front of your face at face level. Reach down, touch your lips to your hands and come back.

Hands back pushups
Keep your hands tucked tight into your ribs and, with your fingers facing back, extend your elbows and lower your body down and return using just your arms

The side to side pushups
Start in regular pushup position. Slide your body to the left so that more weight is on the left (almost leaning). Do a pushup. Slide your body to the right. Do a pushup. Keep sliding back and forth and reversing after every repetition.

Arms extended pushup
Extend your arms as far out as you can comfortably. Bend with your elbows going towards the ground. Do not let your elbows fly out. You should actually feel this more in your chest and abdomen.

Walking pushups
Start in a normal push up position. Step out with your left foot and left hand. Do the pushup. Step out with your right foot and right hand and do a pushup. This forces you to use ab muscles and do more stabilizing as you are working the shoulders.

Explosive pushups
Actually pushing yourself and your entire body off the ground and coming back to the ground absorbing the impact. Hands and feet should come a few inches off the ground. Move your body as one unit. As soon as you absorb impact spring right back up.

Wide pushups
As far as you can get wide, extend your arms to shoulder height and go up and down, bending at your elbows. It is more important that your elbows go out than in or down.

Here are a few Cal State Baseball Workouts:

Plate Hold



Lateral Lunges



Single Leg Bridge



Here is an article from, www.baseballtrainingsecrets.com, the article talks about the do's and don'ts of baseball exercises. The article gives 5 good tips about what to look for in a good baseball training exercise (ground-based, no machines, explode, posture, similar joint movement).

Baseball Exercises
By Jon Doyle, MA, CSCS

While you search around the Internet for baseball exercises, you no doubt come across some odd and strange looking exercises. The problem is a great deal of these "exercises" is not only worthless, but potentially dangerous. So I figured I'd write up a quick article so you can determine if an exercise you come across is worthy of you adding to your program.

1. Ground-based Exercises - Not all baseball drills need to be "ground-based" or standing up with your feet in contact with the ground, but 99% of the good ones are. Baseball is played standing up. So you should workout that way. Nuff said.

2. No Machines - If an exercise is done on a machine you can kiss it goodbye like an Adam Dunn bomb. You should focus on free weights, body weight and medicine ball -related exercises. Cables are ok, but if it's a machine it won't help your baseball performance and may even hinder it due to lack of stabilizer muscle working and improper execution of range of motion.

3. Explode - Baseball happens at lightning speeds and so should your training. Now, this does not mean exercising out of control, what it means it learning how to properly execute each exercise in a very explosive and controlled manner, just like you do with a bat and ball.

4. Posture - As soon as you lose posture, whether it's in your swing, your throw or when you run, you lose the majority of your strength and power. Same goes in the weight room. Make sure all of your baseball exercises not only maintain proper posture, but they should help build it as well.

5. Similar Joint Movements, Not Exact - This may be the biggest rule broken when it comes to baseball exercises. Don't try and replicate a throwing motion or swinging motion with an object a lot heavier than your game-used equipment. For example, if you use a 30 ounce bat, don't swing a 45-60 ounce bat thinking it will make you a better hitter.

In fact, it will make you worse. Studies prove that any implement over 15% heavier or lighter than your normal piece of equipment will alter your mechanics significantly. If you swing a heavy bat you're practicing a different swing! Same goes with throwing a ball. Drop the weighted balls. It's too much of an injury risk and virtually impossible to maintain your mechanics when you use them.


These exercises and tips should have you headed in the right direction to start your baseball pre-season training. Remember to focus on proper form while performing these workouts, start with low weight and higher reps. Good luck and Train Hard....

Happy Holidays -- Now Back to Work --

Here's a good cross fit exercise for you to try... It's called the 12 days of cross fit. I figure with the holidays over and everyone starting their new year's resolutions. Let's all share one more holiday song together. Enjoy!

12 Days of Cross Fit:

1 - Knee to Elbow
2 - Push-Ups
3 - Plate Dips
4 - Lunges (each le)
5 - Pull-Ups
6 - Box Jumps
7 - Medicine Ball Sit-Ups w/ a twist (each side = 1)
8 - Burpees
9 - Ab Crickets (Each Leg)
10 - Air Squats
11 - Medicine Ball Good Mornings
12 - Thrusters (75#)

Complete the reps just like the song...

Work Out for January 7th, 2009

Exercise of the Day:

Plyo Box Hip Raises



- Upper Body and Thigh at a 90 degree angle
- Shin and Thigh at a 90 degree angle
- Maintain good posture/position throughout the raise

2x8 each leg

Cross Fit:

You choose:

"Jeremy"
-Three rounds of 21-15-9 reps for time
Overhead Squats
Burpees




"G.I. Gran"
-21-15-9 rep rounds of:
Clean and Jerk
Burpee Pull-Ups



"The Chief"
3 Cleans
6 Push-Ups
9 Air Squats

As many rounds as possible in 3 minutes
Rest 1 minute
Then Repeat Completing 5 Cycles



Cool Down:

8 Minutes on Stationary Bike
Full Body Stretch

January 5th, 2009 -- Happy New Year --

Let's Start the New Year off right...


Exercise of the Day:

Plyo Push-Ups



-Get off the ground as quickly as possible
-Start with hands coming off the ground and work you way to whole body coming off the ground
-4x12 with a 2 minute rest between sets

January 5th, 2009 Workout:

21-15-9
Keep the same weight as you cycle through the sets of 21-15-9...

- Bicep Curls (dumbbell or barbell)
- Thrusters (barbell - 65lbs to 95 lbs)
- Plyo Push-ups
- Ab Crickets

Finish the exercise with 8 minutes on the bike.