Cycle 3, Day 1: Hypertrophy

Back to our hypertrophy phase. Gonna mix this up a little, introduce some fun new exercises.

2 sets of 15 reps (light weight)

Sumo squat (135)

DB chest fly on swiss ball (35)

Deadlift (135)

Seated Row (150)

Overhead lunge (25) (10 steps each leg)

floor wipers (25)

Lateral raise (10)

High pull (95)

Bowling night for me! should be fun. Make sure you always have fun, everything is better that way.

Day 8: Rest

Day 8, if you are following along, is always a rest day. I am going to do some active recovery with 20 min. of cardio and a stretch. I got the hanging boots out and hung upside down for a while. Felt awesome. New cycle tomorrow!

Day 7 - Active recovery

Today is an active recovery day. Between 20 and 30 minutes of cardio is appropriate. Also, we are going to do:

scapular stabilization series 2 X 10
one-legged shoulder ab/ad duction 2 X 10 (50)
internal/external shoulder rotation 2 X 10 (30)
Woodchoppers 2 X 10 at 45 degree angles (all 4 directions) 2 X 10 (50)

I apologize for not having vids up yet. I am working on a project at home this weekend and I will get it to you. Holla!

Day 5 and 6: Rest and Strength

Day 5: Rest day

Take your time in the early days of getting back going. You can do active rest with some cardio, but you are well off to hold off. I was sore, so I was resting.

Day 6: Strength Day

If this one looks like the last one, then you are not only perceptive but right on. The only change we have made is to add a set. We want to extend our workload and be able to handle longer days. Use the exact same weight as last week. Here it is...

3 sets of 5 with full recovery

Back squat (275)

Incline Bench Press (185)

Deadlift (185)

Front Pulldown (255)

Power Clean (135)

Push Press (95)

Days 3 and 4: Rest and Dynamic

Day 3 should be a rest day. In fact, if you are following this protocol specifically, it would be best to take it off completely. Active recovery is acceptable, but it needs to stay at a minimum. Nothing big.

Day 4 is our dynamic day. I will be using a kettlebell for this workout, but for the most part it can be adapted to a dumbbell as well. I will have to post the Dynamic pitching core workout for you, as no one really has that anywhere, but you will need some extra equipment (Bands, eye hooks) but if you have access to a Free Motion machine, it can be done there. Light weight is appropriate.

Workout: 2 sets of 10

Dynamic Pitching core workout 1 set of 10
Clean to front squat to push press with KB (35)
One-legged Romanian Deadlift with KB in opposite hand (35)
Lunge with a one-arm row in lunge position with KB (35)
Incline Pushup

A couple people asked me about P90X, a heavily marketed workout program promoting overall fitness using at home weights, etc. P90X is designed for overall fitness and it does come with a nutrition plan, video, etc. It is a good program, but is definitely designed for general fitness. The drawback is that it isn't specified to anything, particularly athletes. It is not going to hurt anything, and in fact, it's a tough workout. However, since it doesn't specifically target weight loss, softball related exercises, and power activities, it will not do a great job of preparing anyone for a season. Just like anything, it is better than doing nothing. But, it will not be as good a workout as our for softball. Don't be afraid to add it into our program on hyper days if you like. Variety is the spice of life. Check you later.

Cycle 2, Day 1 and 2: Pain Management

So we have a nice mixture for success, and we also found a nice mixture for pain. Yesterday, my day off, I checked out a new crossfit gym in Tallahassee. I was put through the ringer! Here was my workout:

200m sprint

1 min. rest

Max. pushups 1 min.

1 min. rest

Max pull-ups 1 min.

1 min. rest

Max sit-ups 1 min.

1 min. rest

Max air squats 1 min.

1 min. rest

200m sprint

Then I played flag football...short-handed. Fair to say that after a big strength day on Sunday, I am toast today. But exercise is about adaptation. So I am adapting my regime a little bit. Today was active recovery: 20 min. on the bike.

Tomorrow, back on the horse. Here is the workout for tomorrow:

5 minute warm-up

2 sets of 12:

Bulgarian squats with DB (25)

One-arm DB push press (35)

One-leg romanian deadlift with DB (35)

Pushups on medball (one arm at a time, 12 each side)

Step-ups with DB (20)

Light hang clean (95)

Glute-ham sit ups

Long stretch

Good luck. Keep up with the nutrition too!

Day 8: Rest

If you have done 7 straight days of workouts....rest. Rest is as important as the workout, because the body only grows when it's resting. So tomorrow I am not officially training, although I am checking out the new crossfit gym in town and I have a flag football game. However.... sometimes insanity isn't a crazy idea.

Day 6 and 7: Stength and Rest

So, for some reason, yesterday, I woke up and my wrist was killing me. No idea why, but it was very stiff this morning as well. So I am going to write two workouts today. Ideally, we would do a strength day today and then an active recovery tomorrow. However, I am going to have to switch my own workout for my wrist.

Day 6: Strength (2 sets X 5 reps @ 80%, 3 min. rest)

Squat (225)

Incline Bench (185)

Deadlift (185)

Lat Pulldown (250)

Power Clean (135)

Push Press (95)

Day 7: Recovery

20 min. of cardio (you pick)

Scapular stabalization 2 X 10

One-leg one-arm cable crossover and cable fly 2 X 10

Hanging Leg raises 2 X 15

Do work!

Day 5: Recovery

Today is another rest day, with active recovery. We are going to do some cardio and some ansillary stuff as well. I, personally, cannot figure out why, but my wrist hurts bad, so I am going to stick to the planks only.

30 minutes on Bike

5 minutes of running

Planks 2 sets all four sides, 30s on 15s off

Have fun. Tomorrow I am checking out a new crossfit gym in town. Wish me luck.

Day 4: Dynamic workout

A dynamic workout focuses on light lifts that require extreme attention to balance and core stability. Early on, these workouts are going to involve more high intensity, high rep, low weight, NO rest workouts. It should be fun. Today, we are doing the 10's workout that a friend showed me. Enjoy!

All exercises, 2 sets of 10. No rest between exercises. This workout should flow through quickly. Rest in between sets. If you are advanced, we will do this on a Bosu Ball, flipped over. Ask someone if you are confused as to what that is.

(With a barbell, I am doing 55 lbs.)

Squat

Bent over row

Reverse curl

Push Press

Romanian Deadlift

Side lunge (bosu ball flipped)

Bench press on bosu

Upright row

Front squat

Overhead tricep extension

Calf raise

Deadlift

Crunch

Ps. I got the baseline results on my body composition. 21% body fat at 222 lbs. Therefore, I am setting a pre-Christmas goal of 15% and maybe by season I can get to 10%. In honor of that awful number, I cheated and ran for 5 minutes before I did my 20 minutes of elliptical. Enjoy yourself!

Day #3 - Recovery

Today is a recovery day, which means that we will step away from doing resistance work all together. However, active recovery will be the name of our game over the next few months.

**Understand this, if you are just starting your workouts, passive recovery will be the way to go here, or you will work yourself into the ground, or worse yet, an injury if you aren't smart. So take the day off.

If you have been active to this point, or are just a glutton for punishment, we are going to do a short cardio workout. 20 min. on an eliptical along with stretching afterward. If you are in really good shape, go further.

Also, today I am getting body composition tested for my baseline. You should all do the same soon. at the beginning of each off-season, it is important to get a weight and body comp. baseline so that you can make a goal. I am scared, but I need to know so I can make a goal for Orlando.

Have fun!

Day #2 - Cardio

At this point in the off-season, taking off that bad exterior and replacing it with good, solid, lean muscle is the primary goal. Therefore, there will be a big cardio component. Also, on these days we will do what I like to call ancillary exercises. These are exercises that help prevent injury and promote softball performance. Some may also call this prehab. We also want to work out our core. In softball, the core is mostly stabilizing for all the moving parts. So we are going to work it in that fashion as much as possible.

• 30 min. on bike
• Scapular stabilization series (pushup, bodyweight row, dip, pull-up without bending the elbows) 1 X 15
• internal/external shoulder rotation on one leg
• Planks 2 X 20 s. on each side, 10 s. rest between

*I will try to either find videos or make my own for the scap series

Day #1 - Hypertrophy

We are going to follow an 8 day cycle. Throw out your traditional calenders because proper conditioning does not always have a perfect 7 days to work. Day 1 in the 8-day cycle is always hypertrophy. We will do 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps with 1 to 1:30 rest. I will put the weight that I am doing for you as a reference/point of competition.

Today 2 sets of 12 reps with 1:30 rest

5 minute warm-up on bike
Front squat (135) and Bent over row (70) Superset
Deadlift (135) and DB bench on swiss ball (60) Superset
Snatch (95) and Floor wipers (95) Superset
Stretching cool-down

Keep it simple! less than 45 min. and you are out. Also, I do supersets to save time. You may find that handy if you have to work, etc. If you are unsure what a certain exercise is, check out the vids on www.crossfit.com. Or you can also go to http://www.wesleyan.edu/athletics/strength/videos for more exercise vids.

Introduction

Hey everyone,

This blog will be set up so that everyone can see the proper way to get in great softball shape. Any critiques, comments, suggestions, and words in general are welcome. I am going to post the softball workout of the day, along with some other things that might help you out. I hope it goes well. Speaking of, you may already be a day behind! So do work!