What off-season?

No, seriously. What off-season?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtOPgv8ZxYg

With Nationals over most Ultimate players enter some sort of off-season. I refuse to call it that, as it suggest that you're taking this time off. (just like I hate it when people call split-squats/lunges, they're split-squats. There's no lunging involved.) There's NO off-season 'round here, just a time to get back to other sports and to make gains in the weightroom. Off-season is for chumps.

Now is the time to accomplish two goals:

1. Get healthy. Give yourself time to fix all those nagging injuries. Note: this isn't taking time off, this is recovery.
2. Further increase your strength base for next year.

The most effective way to accomplish Goal 2 is through functional full-body strength-training 3 times a week. As I've said before, if your body is a car, then sprint training gives you more miles to the gallon, while strength training gives you a bigger gas tank. Neither one is nearly as effective without the other.

As for me, I'm looking forward to changing my workouts up and focusing on moving up in weight on my functional lifts and spending this time playing Flag Football with my team (8 years running and still league champs every year...perks of having the best QB in the league. Ah football...so nice to only have to work 6 seconds and then get a 30 second break), spending more time on boxing workouts and in the pool with sprint-swim training, snowboarding, more advanced medicine ball work, and winning beach league again. Only in LA can I play beach ultimate and snowboard in the same month, even if they are lame Mtn's with sucky man-made snow. But like my dad says "a bad day skiing still beats any day at work."

Today's Boxing Workout:

1 round:

-2 minutes of heavy-bag work. I usually break up it up into 1 minute of cardio boxing (rhythm-based combos for speed n' agility) and 1 minute of power-punch combos. (as fast and as hard as possible). Mad cathartic.
-2 minutes of jump-rope. Different variations all the way through.
-1 minute rest

I usually do 10-12 rounds then run do hill sprints 10x10 seconds, no rest.

Hill Sprints: Find a hill and measure out a distance that'll take 10 seconds to run (over-estimate the first one). Focus on sprinting the hill at maximum intensity for 10 seconds anaerobically (no breathing), then walk directly back down the hill backwards taking large steps so that you're further putting extra stabilization efforts on your posterior chain, once you reach your starting point, repeat. No rest until you've done 10 in a row.

Yesterday's STS:

Movement Prep

Functional lifts:

-Hang Cleans 4 sets @ 6,6, 4,4 w/increasing weight

-Front-Squats Supersets:
4 sets @ 8 reps w/increasing weight
Pullups TF
Hand-stand pushups TF
1 set= Front-squat to pullup TF to handstand pushup TF, no rest between exercises

-Overhead backward split-squats w/bar & weight
3 sets @ 8 reps, then 2 more sets of split-squats with heavy weight on back instead of overhead.

-Deadlift Supersets:
3 sets of deadlifts @ 10 reps
Box-jumps
1 set= deadlift to 12 box jumps w/no rest inbetween. SO crushing.

-Push-Press Supersets:
3 sets of push-press @ 8 reps
Box-jumps
1 set= push-press to 12 box jumps w/no rest inbetween.

Finished with jump-punches (2 sets each arm) and 2 sets of 1-arm snatches.

Hope your non-competitive part of the season goes well. Hit. Those. Weights. If you do, and you hit it right, I won't have to tell what it'll do for your movement ability...you'll already know.

Train hard, train smart.
-Chris