Thoughts.

Ironside vs. Chain, Semifinals, '09 Club Nationals. Photo taken by Keegan Uhl.

While the college season is picking up steam, a lot of club players are just getting in gear for the coming tryouts and season.

Ballometrics has been maintaining a fitness list for the past few months (tryouts start soon, if you’re interested in playing competitive mixed out of Boston, drop a line); people are starting to do track workouts now that the land is thawing.

I sent the following to the list about doing pre-season track workouts, which segued into a lot of thoughts on running form. As we still have the luxury of training without the constant performance demand of weekend tournaments and practices, it’s a great time to focus on technique and go into the season not only with a good base of strength and conditioning, but efficient form, as well.
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Continued from the last post:

The pain has only been debilitating once: back in December on day 2 of a hat tourney. I basically couldn’t run, strong limp when walking.

By march (Dream Cup) it was fine, basically no irritation.

But then i kind of tweaked it training for Jeju, and it got worse over the tourney weekend. I played all the way through, but was maybe 70% in our last game. That was five weeks ago, been resting since.

The pain has now subsided significantly. Normal activity is fine, I feel a slight twinge on stairs sometimes, and when I have to run (to catch the train, etc.) it will sometimes hurt a bit. But not debilitating.

I’m determined to heal it properly this time. Would much rather miss a few summer tourneys than risk further damage and chronic pain.

I’ll give the Samson stretch and the other similar one a try — pictures would be great.

Yeah, the “reprogramming” concept makes sense. Think I’ll give it at least another week or two before starting squats/lunges, but I will definitely add that to the regiment before attempting a comeback. I do have pretty skinny and relatively weak legs, and have tended to focus on upper body lifting in the past — it’s time I gave my legs more attention.

Nope, never heard of foam rolling — any resources you have on that would be appreciated.  I’m open to trying anything, as long as it’s not too much too early.

Many thanks for the help.

What about your knee history? Did you get a doc or specialist to diagnose, or did you figure it out yourself? How long did it take to recover? How does it feel now?

I‘ll send you more info, etc when I’m at home and on my computer with its links.

As for my knee, I had troubles that dated back to my sophomore year of high school–as a long/triple jumper I wound up doing a number on them, in terms of high-impact stuff and the like…this resulted in what I’m pretty sure was a strain of my achilles, and compensating for that left me with knee issues–dull, aching pain, generally, usually cropping up after workouts but slowly cropping up during runs too–during the cross-country season fall of my junior year (which would be fall of…’03?). Coach figured it was chondromalacia patella, I got a cho-pat strap (it’s the band that goes under your knee, maybe you’re familiar with it?) and persevered. I didn’t have troubles with it swimming that winter, but then when track season rolled around again it gave me a lot of trouble with my jumping on and off. As I recall I had a solid season, didn’t need to use the strap all that much, but had the occasional week or two where I needed it.

Enter college (I graduated from high school a year early). Freshman year it again bugged me on and off–generally speaking, when I was careless and didn’t warm down properly, etc it would catch up to me. Playing troubles were on and off–I got in the habit of playing with the knee strap, though sometimes it didn’t seem to make much of a difference, but almost every post-tournament/practice ride that involved my knee being still for more than 20 minutes or so would result in a dull ache. I had the occasional bout of tendinitis too, with swelling underneath the kneecap…this all continued through my sophomore year as well, though by this time I had started reading up on it and trying to train to prevent it, and, as I recall, got it under control enough that by Regionals time that year I felt great and could play at 100%, no reservations (and had one of my best/most memorable games there).

Junior year I made some real progress. Or rather, sophomore summer I made a lot of progress–I was on-campus for classes, like most of my classmates (a unique perk of the Dartmouth calendar leaves sophomores more or less in charge of the campus during the summer), but had a lax schedule and a lot of motivation, so I was hitting the gym routinely. Crossfit entered the picture, and combined with a LOT of fitness reading before and during (and after) the summer, and some good nutrition, I made some really great athletic prowess. I discovered deadlifting, started getting into squatting properly, and incorporated things like the samson stretch into my routine, as well as some other stuff specifically for my knee (and ankles, both of which I’d rolled that year, I think), including the other stretch I recommended to you and the shoulder bridges.

Junior year (’06-’07) I had a lot less trouble with the knee–I think there were a couple brief instances where I got lazy with stretching and the like and it bugged me, but I was really proactive about icing and resting at those points. I took ibu at every tourney I played in, a habit I still maintain (though I usually don’t when training anymore, as my workouts aren’t so long as to have inflammation crop up and be an issue). As I recall (and I may be mis-recalling) my real litmus test was playing in Vegas that winter, and after three days of ultimate it was doing pretty darn well as I recall (I started wearing the strap on the third day as I was starting to feel something, but it never got so bad as to make me consider not playing)…it wasn’t 100% but it generally gave me a lot less grief. The strap was still a mainstay, though more as a precaution at that point.

Senior year (’07-’08) I don’t think I ever had any trouble with my knee. Nothing leaps to mind, at least–I played a lot, and played well, and without injury. Really just a spectacular year.

So I’d say a few months of dedicated, hard work got me to the point where I was playing competitively without too much worry about relapse, and another year on top of that put me in the clear. Lately though I’ve been really lazy with my fitness, and I’m starting to see some of the old symptoms crop back up–it’s mostly a flexibility issue for me, with my quads being too tight, though I think my hamstrings are also too weak/tight now too. Planning to keep foam rolling / stretching and bring back some lifting to help with all that–really need to get my ass back in gear, both for playing these last months here and hopefully for latching on with a halfway decent club team when I get back to the states in August.

And my follow-up, later:

Sorry for the delay getting back to you.

You might give this blog a look for information on foam rolling. There’s a crapton of information there (and linked from it–the links can give you some good in-depth stuff): The short is to get a foam roller and start using it on your quads, hips, and hamstrings and calves, focusing on kneading out knotted-up issues and, if you’re up to the task, applying extended pressure to the tight spots until the muscles loosen up a bit.

Regular foam rolling will do wonders for your muscle health and flexibility.

For pictures of the Samson stretch, a quick google image search gives you a good idea there (keep in mind you don’t need to go out THAT far, especially when you’re just starting), but a better idea can be had in this PDF. I <3 Crossfit. The other stretch I mentioned to you is a little more intense; it basically involves using SOMETHING to put your foot up on–whether that’s a bench, or back against a wall, etc–to force your leg into flexion: this emphasizes a different part of your quadriceps when you stretch, and it’s one that tends to be chronically tight in most (it was and, now again, is in me). You might find this helpful for assessing the state of your hips–everything is connected. If you’re going to take the stress off the knees, it needs to be taken in somewhere else–the hips are that place.

Lastly, you might be especially interested in this bit on bulletproof knees.

I think that article might describe the stretch I mentioned above–I’d check it right now, but I’m still at work and the site is full of bodybuilder pics. Can’t start a rumor like THAT.

There’s plenty to sift through there; feel free to hit me with impressions and I can try and give my experience in some more detail.

Hope that’s all helpful! There’s a bit on the “mobility” topic in the bulletproof knees article, but I owe you a better resource than that–unfortunately, a lot of what I’ve learned about that has been in-person, or with DVD’s I’ve bought, so your luck is probably as good as mine trying to dig that info up.

Any readers have good recommendations for resources on mobility work? I know there are bits and pieces scattered about the internets, but anybody know some nice compiled (free) resources? I’m talking mobility drills and the like, not foam rolling.

I thought I’d post up the e-mail transcript of an exchange between myself and a reader–as a former JET, we got talking about ultimate and life in Japan, and eventually about his knee troubles, a topic I’ve a done a lot of reading, experimenting, and self-diagnosis/treatment in. (UPDATE: Part 2, with links to some resources, is here).

Hopefully it proves useful/instructive for those of you out there with knee pain or similar trouble. Without further ado:

…It all started on a long jog back in December. Next day there was a little discomfort above the right kneecap. Tried to play through it at a hat tourney in Vietnam–bad idea. Rested for two months, pain/discomfort basically went away just in time for DC in March. Whew.

But the pain returned a month ago at a tourney in Jeju (Korea). Same process: niggle at first, then progressively gets worse. I’ve rested since, and it’s better, but this time the pain is more diffuse: sometimes above the kneecap, sometimes medial, sometimes… everywhere.

X-ray and MRI say no structural damage; two docs say just rest. One mumbled something about jumper’s knee, but I doubt it because the pain is mildest below the kneecap. Symptoms are soreness in the morning, and dull to acute pain when standing from a sitting position, or sometimes going up/down stairs. I also experienced sudden bouts of severe pain when sitting for long periods on a recent flight to Atlanta. Strange, and scary.

I can accept resting for as long as it takes to heal properly. But I’m 31, and can’t help but worry that this is serious and might not just go away. I’m looking for a knee specialist around Tokyo, but no luck so far. Not really knowing is the worse part, know what I mean?

That bites. Ultimate’s a terrible sport for that sort of thing too, with all the high impact combined with the weekend-long duration…I assume you already use it, but ibuprofen is mandatory when you play–from the sound of it, if you don’t have any structural damage you’re likely feeling the pain from inflammation and swelling. The aching when you fly has to do with the pressure differences, as well as just the lack of movement from the tight confines; I’ve gotten that sometimes too, with ankles (rolled both at one point or another) and the knee (a few years ago when it was still an issue)…though not the “sharp pain” you describe. Weird indeed. They’ve definitively ruled out meniscal tears?

It certainly sounds like there’s some tendinitis/tendonosis, even if it’s not jumper’s knee. How are you flexibility/strength wise? I always had knee issues when my legs were so tight that it affected my footstrike and kept my hips from taking the brunt of the impact. I’d wager you’ve got tight hips and (perhaps) quads, tight/weak hamstrings, and perhaps tight calves too (the latter is more of a personal thing for me rather than what I’ve read/seen, but it might apply to you). Especially if you’re sitting all day and don’t do a lot of training with mobility in mind (ie, if you run lots but don’t do much in the way of squatting or lunging or the like).

Are you familiar with the Samson stretch? (I can probably get you a .pdf with more details if you want). Great for loosening up the hips/quads, good for daily stretching and highly recommended for pre- and post-workout/play. If you don’t do squats or lunges or the like I’d definitely recommend getting into them–I can get you LOTS more information to that end. Docs in the states might tell you to avoid squatting but with the right technique (going to the right depth, and engaging the right muscles), it’s far more protective than destructive.

Here’s the rehab menu from the last doc:

1. Sit with legs dangling, massage quad vigorously (like meading).

2. Sit with legs stretched out in front and knee slightly bent, massage calf.

3. Sit with legs stretched out in front and small pillow directly under knee, engage quad by pushing down on pillow. Hold quad, especially inner quad muscles tight for 3 secs, slowly release.

4. Sit with legs stretched out in front and gently massage kneecap forward (towards toes). He says my kneecap is likely being pulled up (towards head) by tight quad and calf muscles, and this off-centering is causing irritation.

5. A new exercise is lying down face-up and with knees bent, and lifting butt off the ground until the body is straight (knees still bent). Focusing on core, butt and hamstring muscles.

I’ve been following this regimen pretty consistently over the last month, and there is improvement. But something is def still off. The last few days, for example, I’ve been feeling pain in the inner knee area. But other times its medial, or above. Strange, and frustrating.

Not sure if I’m ready for the Samson stretch — seems like a fairly intense exercise, want to make sure I don’t aggravate the knee. But will give it a try. Any other advice for low-impact strengthening exercises for the quads and hammies?

How bad is the pain?  Is it debilitating?

I’d imagine you could step up the vigor a bit if this stuff isn’t pushing you too hard. For instance, on that last one you do (I know them as “shoulder bridges”), you could try doing them on a single leg with the other extended straight–I’d also recommend keeping your hands on your butt cheeks while you do it, and really focus on contracting those muscles (the extra tactile sense from the touch can help you body figure out what muscles to activate). 

Based on the other stuff, it sounds like you’ve probably got chronic tightness and weakness in the quads…the Samson stretch might sound intense, but you can definitely ease into it and I think it’d do you a lot of good. A similar stretch that’d probably hit the areas you need to stretch really well is pretty similar–the same lunge position, but you put the foot of your back leg up on a bench or other raised surface such that the back leg is bent–this will focus the stretch on a deeper part of the quad, that I think tends to contribute a bit more to the knee pain.  I can dig up pictures or the like if you need a better explanation than that.

In terms of strengthening, my knee troubles coincided with an inner quad strength/mobility deficit–specifically, my right Vastus Medialis (VMO–the “teardrop” shape) was a lot smaller and activated (contracted) a lot less easily than my left, and I had right knee troubles.  Again, doing some stuff single-leg can likely help with this (holding the top position on single-leg shoulder bridges, for instance).  If you’re able to find a trainer and able to bear some weight/range of motion, getting somebody knowledgeable to coach you in doing lunges or Bulgarian squats or other single-leg types of exercises can help a lot.

The one issue I’d raise with all the rehab stuff you’re doing–all of which makes sense and is reasonable to prescribe–is that, while it addresses the muscular deficits (strength and flexibility), it’s not doing much to reinforce good movement habits–in other words, it might fix the symptom, but your body is at this point probably so used to, for instance, running whilst compensating for the deficiencies that without some kind of re-programming you’re probably going to continually struggle.

That’s why I think it’d be a good idea to incorporate good lunges and perhaps some squatting or even deadlifting into the mix eventually.  Doing those exercises with decent form and the right sort of flexibility/strength will help reinforce good habits, and if, for instance, you do mobility drills (again, something I can send you more info on) as part of your warm-ups, it’ll help continue to reinforce good habits.

One last thing–are you familiar with foam rolling at all?  This email is long enough, but it’d probably go a LONG way towards helping you improve your mobility if you haven’t been doing it yet.

Yeah.  So, let me know if you want me to dig up some resources for that stuff.  I’m not surprised if your rehab specialists haven’t been aware of this sort of stuff, as thinking in terms of mobility, foam rolling, and the like is still more…hm, cutting-edge, and has only recently started getting enough data and support that it’s becoming popular, accepted, and therefore, taught to aspiring therapy professionals.

More to come in a later post, including some resource references.  Anyone out there have advice or insight to offer that I’m missing?  Especially if you think I’m talking out of my ass at any point I’d love to be corrected–I’m basing this largely off my own history, along with some advising of teammates, so I’m hardly a professional.

It’s been a good long while since I’ve written about training, but here’s a peek at the sort of stuff I’m doing for training this month and have been doing, albeit more sparsely, over the previous couple months. I have a tourney to look forward to again (end of the month)!, and the prospect of playing competitively! at a few more thereafter too, so it’s high time I got my ass back in gear!

Conditioning: Tabata hill sprints. Started off with more generous intervals (10 seconds on/20 seconds off) earlier in the winter, finally got to the actual 20/10 interval today for only 4 reps, which was a struggle (it was–brace for it–an uphill battle). Lots of room for progress to be made there still; I might downgrade to flat running to shoot for a full set, but I like the extra intensity the hill offers.

General Physical Preparedness (conditioning pt. 2): Burpees. Simple and damn effective, bang ‘em out and then bang ‘em out some more.

Strength: Circuits, using my weight set at home (no convenient gym in rural Japan). Don’t have a ton of weight to load, so this usually means deadlift to bent-over rows to hang power clean to front squat to push press/OH press (to back squat) circuits until I get a burn (usually 8-10 reps, depending on how much weight I’m using), and usually a bit more focus on the squats/deadlifts to work the legs a bit more. I’m in poor shape strength-wise so it doesn’t take much right now.

Power: One-arm DB snatches and/or swings (when I want to work a bit more conditioning). My de facto workout of choice, as I keep the DBs in my bedroom–easy to grab and bang out a set or two in the mornings or evenings before/after work.

Speed: Hill sprints–both going up (there’s a less-steep stretch on the nearby mountain–I go for about 8-10 seconds hard, rest for a couple minutes, repeat) and down (occasionally overspeed work going downhill on the same stretch, with similar rest interval).

Flexibility: Goblet squats, Samson stretch, and recently more dedicated stretching and yoga (just your typical sun salutation, plus a warrior pose or two).

Game-readiness: Don’t get much in terms of disc practice (occasional tossing with a buddy in town and occasional pickup in nearby prefectures for something like two days a month), but I do visualization with the disc in my hand and fakes to go with, play around with flat objects in my idle time/in front of students while I tell them to “repeat after me.” Generally, I’ve practiced enough in my college crucible that my disc skills (outside of flick hucks) haven’t gotten too rusty to jump back in and handle (at least, not at the level of ultimate I’ve seen around me so far). Having spent a lot of time debugging my throws and developing a checklist to sort them out helps a lot too.

I’ve also been practicing what I preach–been paying a lot of attention to my footwork going down stairs at school, and especially running down the mountain (not as hardcore as it sounds–it’s a paved road); lots of hard turns that I accelerate, chop-step into and explode out of. (A thought on footwork: Always aim for 2 steps to turn [facing and moving in your new direction] on <90 degree turns, and 3 steps for >90 degrees–you might need to chop step more to slow down, but one step to stop your momentum [or at least control it] and one inside step to redirect for short turns or one inside turn with an outside plant for big turns is ideal. Focus on limiting the step number and your body will likely sort out the rest).

Lacking: Pullups (you might recall, one of my favorite exercises). Not doing a whole lot for my back lately, but I’m not doing too much pushing (I’m not, for instance, benching) so it’s an acceptable imbalance for now.

Plyos. I’m a pretty explosive guy already; my ups will be fine with sufficient strength/power work and all the hill running. I’m not at a level of fitness currently where I can or need to do dedicated plyos. Injury risk and all that.

Also, foam rolling (Self-Myofascial Release)–don’t have a roller here. I think I might order one though, amazon.co.jp is ludicrously quick (case in point: ordered two books night before last–they came in this morning. That’s standard shipping in something like 36 hours; I love this country!). The utility of foam rolling increases as your training frequency and volume does–recovery becomes even more important.

Schedule: I don’t have a regimented one right now–things like running hinge on the weather. Generally speaking, I’m of the opinion for now that as long as I’m getting a good, hard workout in at least 1-2 times a week, I’m at the very least maintaining my fitness. I’ll be ramping up my workout intensity and frequency over the coming months, but I value recovery a ton and am happy to back off when my body requests such from me.

Note that after a few years of more or less planning and regimenting my own training (including lots of reading), I’m pretty comfortable doing my programming on the fly, including scheduling (granted, if I had more serious training goals, I’d have a more serious approach to programming). If you don’t have a ton of experience with the matter and are interested in going into it with more gusto, check out the guide to program creation I wrote a while back.

So much for “peek.” Hopefully this gives a nice snapshot of where I’m at in terms of my own understanding of fitness and training–I went through and linked some stuff I’ve already written and stuff others have written (along with some videos for exercises).

(Part 1 | Part 2)

Supplemental work, in my mind, refers to work or mini-workouts that you do in addition to your normal routine(s).

This can refer to grip training, for instance–not enough to be called a “workout” in its own right, really, but it goes great as a finisher after a lifting session. Other things you might consider supplemental work:

• Forearm work. Slightly different from grip, but also very important for putting good snap on your throws. Think forearm curls, with the palm facing towards or away from you. Think wrist rolls, and bar twists (with extra leverage as you improve–hold the bar further and further off-center). A good ultimate player, more often than not, has well-developed forearms, or at least one on his throwing arm.
• Core work (but see here for a discussion of what core training really is, and give some thought to the work you’re doing)
• Single-leg work (this can make its own workout as well, but things like stability ball squats, while good for balance/proprioception/etc, generally tend to be followed with heavier/more intense work)
• Working on your weaknesses, for instance your posture–lot of fun reading to be had there, if you’re interested…otherwise, short version–you probably need to do more external rotation work for your shoulders and develop range of motion in your hips and thoracic spine so you can stabilize your lumbar (core) more. The latter range of motion comes from practicing proper squat form (I opt for olympic style squats more often than not–the extra range of motion and getting more strength from less weight both mean fewer injuries in the long term). If you’ve been benching for years and years and your back is lacking as a result, you might consider doing pull-ups or rows to try and deal with it as supplemental work (ie, a little every day) rather than as a part of your regular workout.
• Practicing lifting technique. Seriously. If you haven’t squatted or deadlifted before, practicing the form should precede any lift, and you should start light–and even after you’ve gotten a good hand on either/both, a bit of extra work on the range of motion will only help. Similarly, if you’re looking to get into olympic lifting (check snatches and the clean & press on the crossfit exercises page), practicing the form before you get into working out proper will go a long ways towards keeping you healthy.
• This also refers to recovery work…foam rolling, yoga, whatever suits your fancy. I call it “supplemental” but really it’s pretty essential stuff to do if you’re at all serious about your performance and health. Stretch before bed.

As for overtraining…this ties in to doing recovery work. Keep in mind that “overtraining” has become something of a buzzword to be avoided in fitness these days, but that overtraining (or, rather, over-reaching) can and should be part of any good exercise plan–you have to push your body beyond what it’s used to if you want to see good results. The trick is not to over-reach for too long–that’s when the physical symptoms appear, your testosterone level drops, and you start to see symptoms like mild depression, a loss of motivation, and a decrease in training returns, all of which can take weeks or months to adequately recover from. Again, the occasional period of under-reaching–intentionally doing less than you are capable of to give your body room to recover and grow–will go a long way toward ensuring you aren’t taken down for the count by overtraining. PLAN on under-reaching and recovering. And be willing to be flexible if your body tells you to back off sooner.

Again, when I talk about over-training I really mean over-reaching, a temporary plateau. If you’re curious about physiological overtraining, which is a treatable medical condition (requiring more than just rest and recovery, though that is also a big part of it), the NYT has a nice article on it you might find interesting.

Finally, applying training more specifically to ultimate. When you condition, seek to incorporate more game-specific work–you’ve surely done drills that involve lots of running along with catching and throwing. That’s the sort of thing I mean.

Outside of conditioning, or outside of using a disc, you can incorporate visualization–seeing game situations; for instance, when you do speed work envision running down on the pull or chasing a huck; when you do plyos, see yourself covering a defender and having to keep quick feet to respond to her, or leaping to sky for the disc. When you do track workouts, consider starting your reps with a quick one-two in the direction opposite your sprint, to emulate the stop-and-go of actual cutting. Practice accelerating from the dynamic positions you will be in in-game rather than the same old starting stance you take every time on the track.

In the gym lifting, you can gear your training more towards ultimate–this flows as a consequence of your goal setting. If your goals include catching or throwing, it would probably behoove you to work some grip work in to your training (stability for your head while running will also help with catching, as I recently posted about).

(Part 1 | Part 3)

Next Saturday, look for a third and final post touching a bit on supplemental work, overtraining, and ways to apply your training more specifically to ultimate.

This is far too deep to be covered in a single post.

(Part 2 | Part 3)

But perhaps you’re interested in training and have been looking through some materials. There’s an absolute shitton of resources out there. Some of it’s crap, some of it’s useful–you can learn by doing and you can also cull wisdom from that which is repeated throughout many sources (usually–sometimes bad advice gets repeated. Use your discretion).

The big question, however, is how exactly do you go about structuring your training? I’ve already touched upon the essentials of this when I wrote about goal setting. If you haven’t set your goals, stop reading right now and figure them out. Honestly, if you don’t know what you’re working towards you’re just going to waste your time more often than not, unless you have somebody like a coach or a team to make goals for you. However, even those are not guaranteed to be in line with what you want, however, so take some time and think about it for yourself, too.

Structuring your training is like building a house. Your goals are the foundation upon which your progress will eventually be built. You can try building with a shitty foundation, but it’s likely to look pretty shitty when it’s done and be nothing close to what you expected, and will fall apart as easily. Get ‘em right–you can always refine later, but do it as well as you can from the get-go. Don’t be afraid to set ambitious goals; know that they can serve to motivate you more than setting no goals will.

Once you have your goals, you’re ready to plan. Where do you start from here?

Look at your goals. Let’s take a look at mine from two summers ago and use that as a framework:

1. Eliminate Ankle/Knee woes.
If you have pressing injury concerns, this should be at the forefront of your planning. For me, my ankle and knee issues were enough to limit how hard I could train in more general terms, limiting my range on squats for instance. I added a lot of single-leg work geared toward strengthening both, and TOOK CARE OF MY BODY. Get enough rest. Ice when it swells. Take ibuprofen if necessary. Braces are a question that depends on your needs–if you really need it or really need to perform now, go for it. Otherwise, aim to wean yourself off of it–even if you still feel compared to wear a brace, say, when playing, if you can get comfortable training without it you’re that much less likely to have the brace fail you as a sole support.

Injury prevention work means doing (pre)habilitation work before every workout. Even 5 or 10 minutes will help keep you from overdoing it and setting yourself back. It also means flexibility work. More on that later.

2. Get into “Better Shape.

These are covered in more detail in the actual blog, but whatever your general fitness goals are will determine what direction your training should go in. Of course, a balanced program is best–one that doesn’t focus on strength to the point of sacrificing conditioning, etc. But keep in mind what your current needs are as well–sometimes a bit of sacrifice to shore up your weaknesses (or further augment your strengths) will ultimately lead to better results.

If your goals tend towards the explosive (ie, improving your vertical), you should focus on plyos. HOWEVER, focusing on the plyos alone won’t do it unless you’re out of shape–your absolute potential for being explosive is limited by your strength, so you should also include strength work. If you can’t squat your bodyweight, you shouldn’t be doing plyos. If you can’t squat at least 1.5 times your bodyweight, you shouldn’t be doing exclusively plyos. If you can’t squat 2x your bodyweight, you should not be doing too much of the really high-impact plyos (one-legged depth jumps and the like). Just trust me on this one, unless you want to shell out $40 for the VJDB to get the same info.

If your goals are more grounded in strength (this is often in addition to other goals), hit the weights. It’s a little beyond the scope of this entry to go into that in too much detail–but if you’ve never lifted before (and I mean on a regular basis–if you’re trying to structure your own program without knowing how and are reading this, you probably haven’t lifted in the way I mean), start with a focus on the basics–squat. Deadlift. Bench (if you’re inclined–and balance it out with some rows). Work in one-legged versions of the first two and a one-armed version of the last one. Train your core. I touch upon a bit more detail here as far as rep schemes go…if you’re in doubt, try 5×5. If you’re still learning the motions, go lighter and try for 3×8 or 3×10. Shoot for a total of between 20-30 reps (not counting warm-ups if you start light) on a given exercise in a given workout.

If you’re going for GPP (known by most as “conditioning,”) you have a lot of options. Crossfit is a great source of workouts (and workout resources–check out their exercises page!). You know what a conditioning workout is like–work hard, rest little, get better. The key is to make sure you can either time your workout or do it with a time limit for number of reps/distance covered/etc–in this way you can track your progress.

So, your goals are the foundation. The exercises are your tools. When you know generally what kind of exercises/workouts you want to do (finding them is where the research comes in–check out the exercises page of Crossfit, and give T-nation a scouring (search for squat, deadlift, bench press, and dig a little) if you need help with coaching–or better yet, find somebody who knows what’s what and learn from them. I’m talking somebody you pay, or somebody who shows the results of their own work–your roomate probably thinks he knows how to squat, but just dips his butt a few inches), how you combine your exercises into workouts and place them throughout the weeks and months provides the framework for your improvement. This is perhaps the trickiest part to master.

Anybody can go in to the gym and dick around for an hour or two every now and then. The reason why you set goals in the first place is because it is from this foundation that you can draw your motivation, and motivation is absolutely essential if you’re going to consistently work on the house that is your body and your athletic potential and make progress.

Next Saturday I’ll finish by talking more about specifics to how each component of training should be incorporated into a larger structure.

In the meantime, allow me to insert a plug for Ross Enamait. Quite frankly, my experience with program design is driven in large part by information I’ve gotten from his Infinite Intensity program. I recently purchased Never Gymless to guide my training here in Japan, and it has been equally helpful. Ross gives very broad guidelines and a number of specific exercises for you to pick and choose from (and a sample 50-day program if you’re a sheep and don’t want to bother to think for yourself–I’m not judging you, I swear), all of which are likely to do far more to enhance your training than my ramblings. The dude doesn’t pay me to give him shoutouts (Hah! Like I get enough traffic to warrant such a thing), this is just me speaking from my own experience.

Just about everybody should supplement.

Why? Because our diets are inadequate. Quite honestly, unless you are the most diligent of connoisseurs of natural foods, getting food that is full of natural nutrients in balanced fashion (even the veggies you get from the supermarket can be dumbed-down, cheaper versions of what you’d get growing it yourself), you’re probably deficient somewhere or could at least stand to benefit from some extra nutrients.

I take three supplements with regularity. As far as I can tell, I don’t need much else–but feel free to chime in.

Fish Oil

Tons and tons of purported health benefits here.

It’s all about getting the omega-3 fatty acids to balance out your fat intake profile. To get into it a little bit without getting too technical, having a variety of fatty acids is especially beneficial for your cell membranes (which are made primarily of fats)–health membranes means healthier cells, which means a healthier body. There is some hooplah out there about the quality of various fish oils…I’ve done a fair bit of reading, and the best (and simplest) advice I’ve heard is if it isn’t rancid in the bottle, you’re probably ok in terms of getting the O-3 fatty acids. Depending on how much you’re willing to shell out you can get additional assurances of quality, but I go for some of the fairly cheap stuff in bulk and have noticed the benefits. It’s particularly apparent in my skin quality, actually–I find my skin dries and peels a lot more easily when I haven’t been getting enough fish oil in my diet.

It’s also a potent anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is that thing that happens to your body with repeated stress (like ultimate practice, or hitting the gym) or acute stress (like twisting your ankle–ibuprofen is also an anti-inflammatory!). Instead of taking ibu all the time, try fish oil to keep your swelling under control outside of practice. I’m not saying replace ibuprofen with this–if you swell up in practice or at tourneys, go for the more powerful stuff–but it’s better to get adequate fish oil as an extra aid.

DOSAGE–I take anywhere from 2-6 capsules in a day, which equates to 1200-3600 mg/day (I take more when I’m being more active). You can trend higher than that and likely see more benefits, but I’m cheap and this has worked decently well for me.

Keep in mind that, though I’m talking about O-3 Fatty acids here, getting O-3′s from, say, flaxseed oil, is actually a different (incomplete) set of fatty acids. Go for the right stuff, go for the fish oil.

Multivitamins

Your mom or your grandma might have hounded you to take your vitamins every morning when you were growing up. You may have heard it’s a good idea for expecting mothers to take a multivitamin to ensure their child gets adequate nutrition. Seems like getting your vitamins and minerals is pretty important for growth and development.

Why, then, is it so common to stop taking vitamins when we’re grown? Our body is still functioning. Just because we’re not growing in size doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for these vitamins, as our body constantly regenerates itself. Balance out your nutrition. Get a multivitamin that you can stomach (or take it with water to try and avoid tasting it) and take it every day. Make sure you get zinc here, too–if you fancy yourself an athlete, a zinc deficiency (as well as an HCl deficiency, but that’s above and beyond in my book of supplements) is fairly common and will hinder your digestion (read: absorption of nutrients). Ladies and vegetarians, make sure you get some iron here too, lest you suffer from the effects of anemia.

DOSAGE: one a day unless you get two a days, etc. Really don’t worry about getting “too much” of any particular vitamin–this is very rare, USDA recommendations are WELL below any kind of dangerously high amount, and being an athlete means you probably need more anyways.

This is actually a doubly good vitamin pictured above: more on that in the final supplement.

Probiotics

Last, but certainly not least.

The multivitamin above was doubly good because it had a probiotic included in each tablet–if you’re not familiar with the term, a probiotic is typically a bacteria (often acidophilus) that, when ingested, will act synergystically in your gut. If you didn’t know, your gut has its own ecology–things live there–some of them are good, some of them are not. This ups the good guys, helping to combat the bad and keep you healthier. If you’re the type that gets sick frequently, you might see a big difference with some probiotics in your diet (it also apparently helps with constipation, if that sounds like something you might benefit from, too).

You can get them in a supplement or (my preferred method) through yogurt. There are probably other options to get probiotics naturally, but I don’t know of them. Mind your health here.

DOSAGE: I eat (or rather, ate–harder now to get the steady supply I got in college) a lot of yogurt, probably a couple servings a day. I doubt you need that much to see benefits, a single serving a day (or maybe less frequently than that, even) will probably do you. Alternatively, get a physical supplement and take the recommended dosage of that.

I might recommend refrigerating the probiotics–I’ve heard it can help keep the bacteria count high in the tablets–but I don’t know that it’s explicitly necessary.

Keep in mind that I’m going more for general health than fitness here (though improved fitness is an obvious benefit)–while I could spring for supplements like BCAAs, and while I may occasionally indulge in protein supplementation (typically powerbars or the like) post-workout, I don’t have the kind of income nor the kind of training schedule (currently) where I feel such things are necessary. Cover your bases for general health and wellness, but for fitness’ sake, keep in mind that the supplements aren’t putting in the work for you–anybody who works and sweats will improve appreciably, with our without supplements.