Tuesday, July 10

Dipped into the Vault Today...

And chilled out to the sounds of the 7/10/99 Phish show in Camden, NJ.

I like to go back and listen to stuff from the archives on the corresponding dates. It just seems so appropriate. Back then, I thought this show stunk. I have since been proven wrong by relistening. It aged like a fine wine. Trey was wearing a Mia Hamm jersey, if I remember correctly. That was weird but cool.

Did a plyo/upper body max strength workout today:

3x
50 Richochet Jumps
5 Pushups
45 sec throwing

2x
10 Side-Side Box Jump
5 Divebombers
45 sec throwing

2x
8 On Box Jump
5 Pike Pushups
45 sec throwing

3x
5 per leg Low Squat Jump into Jump Lunge
6 one-hand pushups (x3 each arm)
45 sec throwing

3x
5 High Skips per leg
60 sec throwing

4x
30 yard accelerations
60 sec throwing

3x
8 Consecutive Broad Jumps
10 pushups
45 seconds throwing

Except that we didn't throw because no one remembered a disc. Goddamn ultimate players. I pushed through and felt explosive with the leg work, but I'm sure I will pay a hefty energy bill tomorrow. The upper body stuff was a great addition and I'll be doing more workouts that break down into both components after a bit of lower-body plyo-focused workouts for a bit there. Time to push the body harder again...

I'm feeling great in terms of the arc of my physical preparation for the 07 campaign. I know where I've been and I know where I'm going in terms of plyo/track/strength work. I'm very excited and I know that I'm nowhere near my peak as of yet. This is on its way to top the 06 season in which I was in the best shape of my life. That is, with the possible exception of junior year in high school and playing/practicing 3 different sports year round and in a extremely competitive marching band. Stop laughing. Really. Well, actually, laugh away. If you didn't do it or see it, you'll never understand. In any case, I'm definitely well on my way to the best ultimate frisbee shape/peak of my life. I can't wait.
--
Workout Total:
30 min explosive lower body/max upper body

6 comments:

gapoole said...

How are you determining that you are in the best shape yet? I find it somewhat difficult to say, for myself. Hard data is hard to come by, and my impressions of how in shape I am for Ultimate change with each game.

dusty.rhodes said...

Hard Data isn't necessary here.

I know my strengths (endurance) and my weaknesses (explosiveness).

Right now, I'm miles ahead in explosiveness and haven't worked on iota on endurance. I'm aware of how the workouts I've got planned affect my performance based on past experience.

Since endurance comes very naturally to me, and historically I have been able to make *huge* strides in that arena over 6-8 weeks (and I've got a longer term, better plan than that), I know that when the next couple of phases kick in that my athletic peak will be both high and nigh.

Also, the level of full-body functional strength that I've worked on since December is paying more and bigger dividends than the weight-lifting that I used to do (and haven't done at all for 2 years or so).

Make sense?

gapoole said...

It does. Over the winter and spring, I came up with a long-term, progressive workout plan, with peaking for Regionals in mind. Breaking my wrist shot my plan to hell, though, and I've gone back and forth since then.

I've noticed you do a lot of plyometric, interval, and body-weight exercises, great for explosiveness as you say...but do you lift more in the offseason, to build a strength base, prevent injuries, etc? While you're nearing the late phases, the summer/fall is preseason for college. So I'm curious.

dusty.rhodes said...

You're right. Even the strength exercises I do are bodyweight at this point. I don't have a particular need to get bigger or even build the type of strength that weight-training is great for. This is, in part, because I lifted a lot in college and for a year or two afterward and in part because I've got pretty good genes. I also find that if I focus in on bodyweight exercises, I can train everything I need in a progressively challenging way without a gym and without adding significant mass. I'm a pretty sturdy guy to begin with.

What I do focus on is mixing in more max-strength work from Nov-Mar and more explosive work after that. Then I move into more track/agility work after that while still working low-level strength work and low-volume explosive work.

Intervals are vital, if you ask me. They teach you to exert maximum force repeatedly. honestly, they're part of the reason I feel so positive about this season. The tabata protocol (8 times 20 sec on 10 sec off) is just phenomenal, if you ask me. Not that it should be the only type of interval used, but I feel this just pushes your body in ways that others do-- 20 seconds feels like infinity and 10 seconds passes in the blink of an eye.

The way that different bodies respond to training is fascinating to me as well. Some teammates swear by the results of long-distance work and others will not budge from their weight-lifting. You've got to experiment and research (since we don't all have expert trainers working for our teams) to find what works. I'm pretty sure I've finally got a formula that works for me and I'm very happy about it.

gapoole said...

Oh, that we someday WILL have professional trainers on staff for Ultimate teams. I understand the Bryan Doo played with DoG for a while, and I imagine his expertise did not go unnoticed.

I'm pretty excited about trying tabata intervals, but I'm a little wary--I hope to ramp up to them, lest they kill me.

dusty.rhodes said...

Pike was planning on hiring a trainer... then he moved away...

As for tabatas, here are the key points: Do the most explosive version of the exercise as quickly and for as many reps as possible (if you're doing pushups, do clap pushups or something) and then move to the lower intensity one and do them as quickly as possible. After that, do whatever you can. If you can't do shit (not surprising) just make sure you engage those same muscles as much as you can. Balance "fight through like you're battling for life" with "DO NOT push yourself to injury." Convince yourself that it is life or death but realize that you don't want to do lasting damage to your body, only short-term damage to induce a corrective response.