This is the first post I wrote for the blog last year, and I think it will be useful for workouts this year too. There is a lot of good basic information everyone should know followed by a whole body strength workout almost anybody should be able to do without equipment.
Hope this is helpful!
p*killah
First and foremost:
If you are injured or rehabbing an injury, that is your most important job over break. Disregard everything else and listen to your body, your doctor, and your grandma. Additionally, please exercise good judgment while working out. It is 100% better to take it slow at first than be injured when we come back to school.
Here are a few general thoughts about what you should keep in mind when you workout:
- Do cardio intervals instead of going straight through
- This means that whatever your chosen cardio activity is (running, biking, jump rope, etc.), alternate going easy for two minutes and then as hard as you can for one minute for a total of 30 minutes. This is a general guideline for where to start, but if you need to tweak those times to be safe or effectively push yourself, do it, guuuurl! Before starting interval training, make sure to warm up and stretch because jumping into going as hard as you can with only a two minute warmup sounds silly. You can do this training up to six days a week, but make sure to give yourself a rest day, and don't start too quickly. If you need more rest days, add them.
- Strength training starts with your core, and, fortunately, it is one of the easiest parts of your body to work out in your living room with your grandma. A great way to start is by doing a core circuit. Reasonable progress is adding 5 seconds or 2 reps per week, so strive for that. This is a workout sent to me by Melissa at Ultimate Results and is designed specifically for ultimate. You can safely do core workouts pretty often, and striving to do this 2-5 times per week would be awesome. Please post feedback about this workout so I can share it with her.
- Plank -- 15 seconds
- Side Plank -- 15 seconds each side
- Supine Bridge -- 15 seconds and make sure to squeeze your butt
- Single Leg Lifts -- 6 reps each leg; this is hard to do correctly, but watch the video. If you can manage to legitimately engage your abs to lift your leg, this is a great exercise. If you really are struggling, post a comment, and you can just skip it. Do give it a try, though.
- Side Crunch -- 15 reps each side
- Hip Thrusts -- 10 reps
- V-ups -- 10 reps
- The following are meant to be done with a medicine ball, but you can do them with anything. Start with something that weighs about 4 pounds (puppy?) but make sure to adjust it to push yourself or, more importantly, ensure you have proper body positioning.
- Russian Twists -- 10 each side
- Figure 8's -- 20
- Single leg chop -- 10 each side
- All 3 of these are explained on this page
- Twist pass -- 10 each side; you'll need grandma for this one
- It is also important to strength train your legs so you can increase your explosive power and also sky the crap out of opponents. Give yourself at least one day in between strength training your legs so you don't overtrain. Here are just a couple to get you started:
- Wall Sits
- Squats
- Split Squats
- Calf raises -- You can do these on a raised surface, like stairs, to make them more difficult
- Working on arm and back strength is also important. This is one aspect that is made significantly easier if you have access to a gym, and people who can do that should post. I'm going to highlight a few things you can do for arm strength without a gym. Like leg strength, you should give yourself a rest day in between working these muscle groups.
- Pushups -- a veteran favorite. Almost as old as Brett Favre.
- Tricep Dips
- The following are demonstrated with fancy weights, but you can use anything to provide weight, like a couple of soup cans or your baby cousin.
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