STS Oct. 8th

"Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything"- Vince Lombardi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdgXgjCaus4

Floyd's rope is moving so damn fast it's hard to tell if it's even there. Awesome. So that's one of the reasons he can bounce on his toes and throw lightning-fast punches for 15 rounds straight. Huh.

This weekend was a local workout with the LAdors. Took advantage of another 75 and sunny Santa Monica Saturday and did a beach workout. (suck it rest of the country) There were six of us so we threw first to warm up and did some standard plyos on the sand, shortening the distance to 10 or 20 yards (depending on the specific plyo) and focused on just moving explosively and anerobically for the entire shortened distance. Great thing about sand is that it warms you up REAL quick. From there we moved into Lateral Movement and went through marches, highknees, explosive karaoke, shuffles, lateral bounds, and tons of shuffles-to-sprint. Threw again, then moved onto Forward Movement: marches, high knees, skips, 2 inch skips, bounds, a grip of backpedal-to-sprints and did some backpedal 10 yards to sprint forward 10 yards. Backpedaling in the sand is f'ing comedy, especially when you specifically tell the group to make sure they stay low and keep the feet moving or else they'll bail and then 5 seconds later 2 of the 6 are face-down in the sand. Threw again then broke into 2 groups for some agility work. One group did quick change-of-direction drills while the other group did sprint-progression work: One guy would start holding a 6lb medicine ball over his head, he'd sprint with the ball for 10 yards, then throw it to the side as he accelerated through to top speed for 15 more yards, then immediately had to jog and retrieve the ball for the next guy waiting. Mad fatigue and an awesome drill for disassociation and core work. Finished with 3-man mark for a long time and did some medicine ball throws for pillar and core strength. I showed up early for a mini-hat tourney fundraiser to support the US womens beach team in Brazil, so I got two easy games of beach in, plus the 1 1/2+ hour workout, then strolled back over to my team that was now playing in the finals and were down 9-6. I came back in, decided to run my already-fatigued self silly and played the rest of the game as we cleaned house 15-10. It was great to get back to fun no-stress ultimate for a day, and I forgot how much I love beach ultimate. A ridiculously fun sport in the best environment (could it be the most offensive sport ever??) . Throw in beer, good peeps, and bodysurfing (things that were all in high supply) and you've got a recipe for awesomeness. Needless to say that after 5 hours of running on the beach I was a tad bit tuckered out, but nothing that a meatball sandwich the size of my head and some college football couldn't fix.

Today Workout:

Movement Prep:

Jump-rope TF
Handstand pushups TF
Walking lunges w/weight overhead forwards n' backwards
Overhead squats w/weight
Jump-rope TF

Did 2 sets w/no rest then switched lunges for side-lunges and squats for quick-drops. Also added 25 burpees and 2-inch runs.

Functional Lift:

The Bear. Ugh. I keep waiting for it to be easier, but no luck yet. Hang clean to front-squat to push-press immediately back down into another front-squat to push-press. That's 1 rep. 6 sets of 6 reps. Here's it broken down:

Hang Clean:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/HangClean.html

Front-Squat:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/FrontSquat.html

Push-Press:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/PushPress.html

36 hang cleans and 72 front-squats to push-press. Just typing it makes my core want to start crying like a little girl.

Finished with jump-punches w/a squat (check previous post for description) and overhead jump punches.

Overhead jump-punches: Starting with the cable up top and my arm in an 90 degree L (like I was doing a shoulder press) I squat then explode up switching my feet in the air so that I'm landing with both feet pointed to the left but still underneath me at the same time punching explosively straight down to the ground on my left side. So my legs are moving up while my upper-body is moving down, which obviously means that my core must stay locked n' active to keep me balanced and stable. Note: when I explode up it isn't necessarily about how far up in the air I can jump, but about how explosively I can leave the ground, change direction in air, and land with my feet underneath me ready for the next explosive movement. Make sense?

Did 12 box-jumps in between each set of jump-punches. 3 sets of 8 reps both regular punches and overhead punches.

Two weeks before The Show so this is really the last week to make any significant improvements. This weeks workout schedule:

Monday: Weights
Tuesday: Core & Explosive work in the morning, throwing and agility work in the evening
Wednesday: Weights
Thursday: Speed training, medicine ball work, and throwing.
Friday: light weight, core work, and light explosive work.
Saturday & Sunday: Practice

Side note: went to The Shins concert last night at the Greek with Paymaster, Corey, and some other great friends. If you're a fan do yourself a favor and see them in concert. One of the best shows I've ever been to, they legitimately sound better live than on CD and their musicmanship was solid. They just looked like they were having so much fun and their vocals were even more phenomenal live. We officially decided that they are our generation's Beach Boys.

I wish they all could be California girls...

#40