Thoughts.

Step 1 in my planning process is always to think about my goals for training.

Some of these goals are more implicit, such as “Become a better ultimate player.” As I’ve alluded to before, these sorts of non-specific goals don’t really do a lot to inform my planning, so it needs to be broken down further.

These are my current general goals:
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I’ve been following Eric Cressey‘s Maximum Strength program since my season ended; tested my maxes a few days after regionals in October and went from there following the 4-month program (wound up stretching it to 5, with Christmas, Thanksgiving, and a couple other minor breaks due to illness/travel to Presday, etc).

PR’s of Past and Present

Man-oh-man, does it feel good to have some hard numbers on one’s progress.

The jumps (weights in lbs):

• Broad Jump: 96″ to 106.5″
• Box Squat: 220 to 260
• Bench Press: 145 to 190, with a 165 1RM at 2mo
• Deadlift: 265 to 325
• 3RM Chin-Up: BW+45 to BW+55
• Bodyweight: 136 to 140 (both taken at gym)

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I’m a big stickler for sleep, for various reasons – general health and well-being being a big one.

However, there are more tangible, concrete reasons to value your sleep, too – and the Harvard Business Review does a great job of touching on some of those needs.

As an ultimate player, you should know that throwing is a dynamic motor skill – in much the same way that professional violinists need their sleep to continue to progress, we as athletes likewise need to give ourselves appropriate time to consolidate the motor learning we do by taking the time necessary to sleep. (PS – It can help with controlling your weight, too).

Make 8 hours the minimum, not the ideal. Consider napping. Reap the benefits!

For those of you who don’t already read her blog, Melissa recently dropped a post I wrote on in-season peaking from both an endurance (tapering) and strength (deloading) perspective.

It’s the fullest bit of writing I’ve done in a while outside of the Huddle articles I’m working on (my first there should come with issue #32), and I’m pretty happy with the article, so check it out.

• Foam rolling and mobility work are pillars of athletic (and general) health.  Do them to warm-up, (and/) or include them as part of your workout itself.
• Follow your “big lifts” with related assistance work (2-4 “extra” lifts after the big one(s)) – for lower body, this means single-leg work and/or higher-rep work; for upper body, this means an appropriate balance of pulling exercises (thin pull-ups/chin-ups and rowing), grip and single-arm work.  If you’re doing full-body days rather than upper/lower split, it’s ok to mix upper-lower assistance work.
• Core work counts as assistance.  Focus on core stability (planks, holds) and rotation for ultimate; situps have less functional carryover.  Recognize that a lot of single-limb work emphasizes core strength/stability too – there are many ways to work “core work” into other exercises and save time and see (perhaps better) carryover.
• Make sure you’re pulling!  This applies to lower-body lifting (deadlifts, RDLs, cable pull-throughs – all technically “pushes” through the feet) but ESPECIALLY to the upper body.  The mirror muscles may look nice, but true power and injury prevention is rooted in the posterior chain.  Balance any upper-body pushing you do with equivalent pulling, if not with extra pulling work for the majority of us who are imbalanced (those with shoulder woes, I’m looking at you).
• Set & Rep ranges: Very much dependent on one’s goals and Training Age.  Some generalities:
  • “Big Lifts” – squat/deadlift/bench should be at relatively high loads/low rep ranges (~5 or less reps/set).  Strength first, here!
  • Novice: Focus on quality technique at relatively low set/rep ranges (3×5 for working sets, perhaps 3×8 if you’re not getting heavy).  Recovery and progress can be made on a workout-to-workout basis, so less variation in exercise selection and intensity is needed for progress – you can do the same routine over and over and still make progress.
  • Intermediate: Technique is less of a concern now, so higher-intensity and higher-volume work can be done (heavy x1,x2,x3 sets – this should be preceded by good fitness base development for any intermediates coming off of some down time).  Total reps generally need to be higher than for novices at similar % loads to generate progress – where a novice would do 3×5, an intermediate is more likely to need 5×5, at a higher % of their 1RM.  Variation in volume should occur on a weekly level (e.g., 5×5 in wk 1, 4×5 wk 2, 6×5 wk 3, and 2×5 in wk 4 to deload).  With greater training stress needed to stimulate progress, greater recovery is needed and this is enabled in part through weekly variation; broader exercise selection is usually necessary as well (even subtle shifts, e.g. from flat bench to incline bench, front to back to box squats, can stimulate new gains).
  • True advanced lifters are competitive powerlifters and the like; they’re beyond the scope of what you need for ultimate and what I’m comfortable commenting on, but adaptation occurs over even longer timeframes than weekly to volume due to the massive loads they can wield (monthly or even annually for the most elite lifters) and rather rapidly to specific exercises (necessitating rapid variation).
  • Assistance work generally operates in higher rep ranges (8-15); this is where you stimulate metabolic changes (ie, muscle growth) – the lower-rep big lifts are for cultivating strength proper.  Novices don’t need assistance work to stimulate progress as much as intermediates do.  If your goals include packing on a lot of weight, doing extra volume here (an extra set or two) can be sufficient to stimulate the extra growth – but keep in mind that most are held back not by work, but by recovery here – eat and sleep more!

There you have some of my current thinking on strength training for ultimate.  I think all of these points apply regardless of where you are in your season, but are easier to not compromise in your off-season.

When in season, keep your big goals in mind – is adding weight to this lift the most important thing?  What do you need to do in order to really thrash this coming weekend?  Keep the big picture in mind – lifting is a means to an end (strength) which is in turns another means to the more relevant end (on-field success).  It is one component.  It is not the only component, and is not the most important one. Set your goals, evaluate the tools that can help you achieve your goals, and never lose sight of that forest for the iron-bound trees you travel within.

• Emphasize the big-money lifts; put them first in your training day.  You’re asking for trouble if you fatigue yourself before you lift heavy. (Yes, you can end with squats and the like – but if you’re going heavy, best to lead with it)
• Work the bigger muscles first, end with smaller (squats before calf raises – though I’m not keen on calf raises at the moment).
• Try to limit workouts to a max of 6 exercises or so – much more and you’re working too long, or not devoting enough time (sets/rep wise) to each one.
• Time-wise, aim for less than one hour working out (longer with warm-up and cool-down is fine).  Extended stress pushes up cortisol release, which has deleterious effects on muscle growth/recovery and immune function, among other things – get in, do work, and get out.  If it’s not enough to do it within an hour, you might want to split the workout into two or pare down to the essentials.
• Leave adequate time for recovery!  At least one full “off” day a week, ideally 48 hours between working muscle groups, work in low-intensity/change of pace recovery days, take deload weeks every 4th week or so (less often for novices).
• Sleep, incidentally, is a form of recovery too – don’t underestimate the value of a good night’s sleep for both your energy level and muscle growth.  Sleep is when growth hormone levels spike; do yourself a favor and get more rest – your brain and body will both be grateful.
• Nutrition goes right along with this – try to eat your best on your pre-training days and before workout on the day of.  If you’re going to indulge the sugars or leave your body short-handed on refueling calories, best to do so immediately post workout for the former and before an off day for the latter (not that I really recommend either for serious athletes).
• 3-4 days lifting a week is both necessary and sufficient for an off-season program; this may be worth scaling back (either in days or workout length/intensity) when in-season/playing a lot depending on how well you recover between days.  For ultimate anything more than 3-4 days lifting is excessive, will hinder your recovery, and generally be an inefficient use of time (spend it throwing or reading blogs instead ).
• Generally speaking, our sport is lower-body explosive dominant – emphasize lower body strength first (squats, deadlifts, and when you’re ready, consider learning how to do cleans properly).
• Upper body strength of course has its use too – look at Olympic sprinters.  Throwing the disc has more to do with lower body and core strength than big biceps, but arm stability (especially at the shoulder) and grip strength are both key players too – don’t leave it out.
• Other relatively ultimate-specific training considerations:
  • Rotational power and stability.  Cables and bands are good ways to progressively load rotation (and stabilizing against it – try Pallof Presses); medicine ball throws are an excellent option for developing power. You don’t have to do exact frisbee throws here – in fact, it’s better to leave that specific work for just the disc lest you train to throw slow.  Develop power independent of the specific motion and then learn to incorporate it into your game.
  • Lunging – doubly a consideration in that it’s useful for throwing and that we heavily favor one leg for this;  the off-season is a key chance to assess your range of motion and strength disparities between legs. Gray Cook advocates working the “deficient” side an extra 2 sets or 2-3x as much for improving mobility (ie, during your warm-up – you ARE doing mobility work to warm up, aren’t you?); strength-wise, make sure that the weak side determines maximum loading on exercises like lunges (don’t reinforce the difference by doing extra reps or weight on your strong side) – you may want to add an extra set to the weak side if you’re really deficient.
• Generally speaking, athletes see more functional carryover to sport from unilateral loading – ie, single arm, single leg…use the bilateral big loads (squats, deads etc) to stimulate growth, but, especially as you get closer to pre-season and in-season, recognize that the unilateral work is what’s going to keep you healthy.  More on this in the next post.

(Two posts in two days, I know – but don’t get too excited; I’ll settle in to a lower rate soon enough.)

There’s some good new stuff springing up around the ultimate blogosphere and beyond lately – check it out:

• If you haven’t seen it yet, Skyd Magazine looks to be off to a promising start (they’re looking for writers, for any of you aspiring contributors out there).  There’s a heavy US ultimate tilt for the international readers out there, but you do see some gems coming like a series on training for ultimate, and another on building a championship team.
• Speaking of training for ultimate, check out Melissa’s training blog and Ultimate Results for some great information and ultimate application. I Like the post on holiday gifts for the ultimate player – the books are gems (I’ve added a few more recommendations in the comments as well).
• Skyd links up a Breakmark post on off-season training; as the title alludes, it’s a simplistic model and in my opinion focusing just on GPP is missing out on an opportunity to develop along several other modalities as well (I’m thinking primarily of strength here – GPP workouts are a great adjunct for recovery days after a good lift. That said, interval training and speed work can fit in at this point too, depending on your goals).
• Parinella and others have linked up Lou Burruss’ series on Cheating to Win (Without Cheating).  Codifies a lot of the unspoken agreements that teams make at the highest levels – his point about how it’s ironically a bigger issue in college because of the disparity in what teams expect (whereas in club everyone anticipates their opponent employing such strategies) rings very true to me, and is an issue any rising college squad needs to address.
• Speaking of the Huddle authors, other news includes the Huddle being absorbed into USA Ultimate‘s infrastructure.  This is a huge boost for USAU and a great opportunity for them to continue to make steps forward from being an amorphous and anonymous governing body to one more actively involved in and contributing to the ultimate community in meaningful ways beyond running the Series’.  I’ve hopped on board the writing staff officially now along with some 40 others who’ve contributed to the Huddle in the past; looking forward to helping continue the site’s massive contribution to developing the sport.

Been a while; let’s get back to it, with some of my thoughts on strength training for ultimate these days (which are always subject to change and revision as I learn and experience more).

I’m trying to build back up to doing more extensive posts by baby steps, keeping it short here; leave a comment if you’d like me to expand on anything.

General Considerations

• As with all strength training, the three big lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press) are king for developing both size and strength (which, in turn, lay the foundation for developing power and speed).  Don’t talk to me about getting faster by doing plyos if you can’t do a full squat with at least bodyweight (and preferably 1.5x if not more), if you don’t know what a deadlift is.
• Technique is of paramount importance.  Use a full range of motion, lift under control.  For the novice (and often for the not-perfect intermediate – which is to say, essentially all ultimate players), just getting “good” at doing the lift through a full range of motion is enough to still make progress and add useful strength, while cutting injury risk.
• Use loads that you can handle, but know that staying just shy of your limits without going over will enable better recovery and progress than going overboard.  That is to say, it’s important to operate in a range of intensity that is challenging but manageable to induce an appropriate training effect.
• PLEASE don’t train to failure – you’ll set yourself back for days, if not longer (failure really stresses out your nervous system).  Much better to stop 1 rep short or cut 5 or 10 pounds from the next set than to push it and fail…the nervous system doesn’t recover well from such insults.
• That said, continually pushing your limits is the key to real progress so don’t be gun shy about progressing in your loading. However, it’s deleterious to do so if you can’t keep good form.  If you’re stalling in your gains, drop weight a bit and get back to the basics of lifting Perfectly.  Expand the range you can do with less weight.  Poor form compensates for weak links and holds you back; strive for excellence.

More to come on programming in the next post.  Feel free to comment if you have questions, etc.