Thoughts. » links http://www.ultimatethoughts.com Ultimate Ramblings Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:56:16 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Strength Training Without Weights – General Concepts http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2012/01/strength-training-without-weights-general-concepts.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2012/01/strength-training-without-weights-general-concepts.html#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:00:11 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=869 My Situation

I’m presently doing rotations in San Francisco for a couple months (working at California-Pacific Medical Center‘s Pacific Campus); as such, I am a long ways away from Dartmouth’s free-for-student gym access and the resources it offers. Unfortunately, my current finances and location are such that I have no close, cheap gym options to get my iron fix on. At this point, it’s a bona fide jonesing to lift heavy; there is something deeply satisfying to me about a heavy pull or nailing that last squat in a set  that is hard to recreate elsewhere, but necessity is the mother of invention, and here I am needing to gear up for another season without my old, comfortable training allies.

So, what’s the alternative? There are a range of options for the aspiring trainee without a power rack:

KB Swing

  • Acquiring a decently-weighted kettlebell enables a lot of strength and power work without a lot of expense or equipment
  • Likewise, a TRX setup allows for several motions (I’m thinking of inverted rows and other pulling movements, but also unstable pushups, ab “rollouts” and bulgarian squats with an unstable rear foot) that broaden the palate of strength training options.
  • Finally, the best implement to master is the one that you carry with you every day – your own bodyweight. Many challenging movements exist that push not only your strength, but your balance and aid in the development of athleticism.

In the interest of not paying excessive baggage fees, I opted against bringing my kettlebells out here – I have put together a homemade TRX setup for under $30 that I highly recommend (though they just came out with some elastically-rigged “Rip Trainer” that I’m dying to emulate as well). I’ve been using it mostly for inverted rows but there are many, many options to incorporate this into one’s training.TRX Inverted Row

General Concepts in Strength Training

But enough about that – the meat of this post is about bodyweight strength training. A general review of the notions of how to improve strength includes a few options:

  1. Moving a heavy load. This engages the nervous and (depending on how heavy and how long) muscular system to both improve the capability to express the strength you have, as well as stimulate muscle growth with enough volume.
  2. Moving a less-heavy load, at high speed. This method focuses more on engaging the nervous system – with an intent to move at full speed, you recruit more muscle units and therefore train more of your muscle mass on a movement. This is generally the case when doing olympic lifts or dynamic effort work on the basic lifts.
  3. Moving a less-heavy or light load to the point of fatigue or failure. This method, often used by bodybuilders, is intended both to maximize time under tension for a given muscle group (believed to be a prime variable for stimulating muscle growth); additionally it’s thought that the last few reps of each set occur at a point where the smaller, weaker muscle units are so fatigued that you cannot help but recruit the larger, more powerful units, allowing you to stimulate a large percentage of the muscle to adapt, grow and improve overall strength capacity.

My personal bias has always been more for methods 1 and 2 – with method 3 you lose some of the nervous system training component (typically one ends up “training slow” doing bodybuilding work and not developing athletic qualities such as speed and explosiveness; there’s also the notion that this encourages adding less-functional muscle mass.  If you’re training for speed, every pound of excess weight, be it fat or muscle, that isn’t making you faster is slowing you down; I’m also not fond of training to failure on a regular basis, as it tends to promote more lasting fatigue and injury risk). With bodyweight work one ends up necessarily trending more toward the low-load, high-rep end of the spectrum, but there are ways to keep efforts challenging enough to develop real strength.

Increasing the Degree of Difficulty

This is something I plan to focus on – if our sweet spot is somewhere less than 15 reps/set to maintain at least some strength development, it’s important to progress in the type of movement being done to keep it challenging. Examples of this are progressing from a split squat to a Bulgarian (rear foot-elevated) split squat, or adding range to reverse lunges by doing them off of a step, or elevating one’s feet while doing pushups. One does not need weight to make such progressions.

Another way to go about this is to regularly change the exercises done. If after a few weeks pushups are feeling too easy or taking too long to get the effect you want, experiment with handstand pushups against a wall. Return to pushups again later, try a different progression, and see if allowing your body to “forget” the movement doesn’t allow it to become useful again.

High-speed Work

An additional way to go about this is to add a high-velocity component to the exercise. Again, time under tension and doing slower movements can be good for stimulating growth, but it fails to develop explosive athleticism; rather than (or ideally, in addition to) doing slow, controlled reps of your split squats, try an explosive variant like split squat jumps or scissor kicks (or work the absorptive rather than generative side of explosivity with some jumps to lunge position landings). One could even combine methods and start with an explosive variant and transition to a more controlled version once fatigue makes the explosive version too hard to sustain.

Diminishing Rest Intervals

Finally, if there’s anything I’ve learned from Crossfit it’s the magic of incorporating a time element. Sure, you might be able to do 50 pushups at one go, but how long does it take? What if every 10 pushups you alternate with some lunges or air squats? What if these pushups are at the bottom position of a burpee? If you’ll pardon this coming from a scientist, there’s something magical about what happens when you take routine exercises and integrate them into a larger circuit, when you track time and incentivize doing more work with less rest – this probably also relates to the time under tension concept, where it’s not only the overall volume, but the density, that stimulates the hormonal responses that encourage growth.

More to Come

Those are the general considerations. I’ve decided to follow more of a set program for my bodyweight training rather than wing it entirely (based off of the Vertical Jump Development Bible‘s bodyweight strength program – incidentally, the whole thing is a great read for some grounding in basic concepts of athletic training), but I’m hoping to actually lay it out more specifically along with the rest of my training plan in a future post.

Related posts:

  1. Summer Workouts: Bodyweight Strength Training
  2. Strength Training For Ultimate – General Considerations
  3. Strength Training for Ultimate – Program Structure Considerations

]]> http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2012/01/strength-training-without-weights-general-concepts.html/feed 3 Melissa Witmer: Priorities For Her Speed Block http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/05/melissa-witmer-priorities-for-her-speed-block.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/05/melissa-witmer-priorities-for-her-speed-block.html#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 13:11:58 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=856 With all the plans I’ve been laying out and the busyness of school lately (I just wrapped up my second year at Dartmouth Medical School), Melissa was kind enough to write a guest post on how she’s been incorporating some ultimate-specific speed work into her training.  Hopefully it serves as a good framework of inspiration, as I hope my prior posts on training have.

Any training self-planner, whether fledgling or veteran, would do well to heed her words on priorities and flexibility – both are keys to success for we amateur (yet comitted) athletes for whom life can get in the way of what’s ideal.

Thanks, Melissa!

Six Weeks of Speed Training

Like Mackey I’ve been shifting from a strength training emphasis mode to more sport-specific training.  I just finished a training block in which my main emphasis was speed and acceleration.  Next I’ll be focusing on agility and vertical jumping.  I’m placing less emphasis on my work capacity (endurance), strength, and core work.  I need to maintain those qualities but am not going to worry a lot about improving them for the moment.

So how am I fitting in everything I need to do?  It is challenging, no doubt.

Here is my ideal weekly plan:

How often does the ideal weekly plan happen?  Well… not as often as I’d like.  The main problem for me is getting to the weight room when my other activities (sprints, throwing, tempo intervals) occur at places other than the gym.  We are also getting to the point in the year when weekends involve tournaments and tryouts.  This eliminates Saturday as a training day and rearranges my rest day.

I imagine I’m not the only one who has trouble keeping on an ideal schedule.  If you’re having trouble sticking to a strict plan, your plan is probably unrealistic.  Knowing your priorities and having a flexible plan is the key to staying on track with your training goals.

Know Your Priorities and Stick to Them

My main priorities are the speed and plyometric work.  I have two sessions of linear plyos, two sessions of lateral plyos, and two sessions of speed/accelleration work.  All of my other training is subordinate to these modules.  I never miss them and I plan my other sessions to make sure my plyos and speed work are high quality.  This means in the planning of my other sessions, I won’t overdo the general conditioning the day before a speed session so that I am fresh and ready to go for my speed sessions.

Be Flexible With the Other Stuff

Ideally I want to maintain my upper body/lower body split.  That would put me in the weight room four days per week.  I’ll be honest, that almost never happens anymore.  But strength training is not my main priority.  If I know I’m only going to make it into the weight room 2 days I’ll just do a full body workout instead of splits.  No big deal.

My plan also gives me the flexibility to take advantage of nice weather and a throwing partner.  I have no qualms about skipping the weight room for a high quality throwing practice.

A Little More About my Training Modules

Speed
When you are ready to create your training program the first thing you need to know your main priority.  My main priority was to try to increase my top speed a bit.  So I knew I wanted two days of high quality top speed sprints with full recovery.  I decided these would be Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday depending on if the previous weekend included a tournament.

Plyos
I’ve started plyometrics in order to improve my quickness and my vertical.  Right now I’m in the intro phases of plyos.  And they don’t take much time so I can put them at the beginning of any workout.  I have plyo modules 4 days per week and alternate between linear and lateral plyos.  The linear plyo days are the same as my sprint days.  The lateral plyos are the day after and often coincide with lateral conditioning days.

Strength
This is becoming more difficult to incorporate in a timely manner.  All of my other work takes place on a field or a track.  It’s becoming more onerous to make the trip to the gym.

Some of my strength training is now occurring on the field via medicine ball throws and my found barbell.  I can count this as a full body power emphasis strength day.

2-3 days per week I’m still in the weight room doing more traditional strength training.  I still do upper/lower body splits when I can.

Skills
I will alter my plan if/when beautiful weather and a throwing partner become available.  Skills before fitness.

Conditioning
I fit this in when I can.  My cardio and recovery are excellent.  I’m just doing enough not to lose it.  I’m trying to have at least one day of lateral movement conditioning and one day of tempo intervals or shuttle runs.

So What’s Next?

As I said, I’m done with speed training and moving on to agility.  I will take a few weeks to do more general conditioning and then focus on agility during the month of June.  My basic schedule will be the same as above except that I’ll be replacing speed days with agility days.

How are your plans looking?  What are your current priorities, and how are you managing your schedule to meet them?  Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out more on Melissa’s training at her blog!

Related posts:

  1. Summer Workouts: Speed Work
  2. Starting to Put it Together: Structuring the Week/Day
  3. Structuring Your Own Training Program, Part 2

]]> http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/05/melissa-witmer-priorities-for-her-speed-block.html/feed 2 Sleep, Motor Learning and Consolidation http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/03/sleep-motor-learning-and-consolidation.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/03/sleep-motor-learning-and-consolidation.html#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:18:54 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=784 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!

]]> http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/03/sleep-motor-learning-and-consolidation.html/feed 0 Guest Post on Melissa’s Blog http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/01/guest-post-on-melissas-blog.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/01/guest-post-on-melissas-blog.html#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:56:55 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=776 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.

Related posts:

  1. Melissa Witmer: Priorities For Her Speed Block
  2. Bonus double post: A reaction to the Huddle’s Issue No. 6: "Footwork"
  3. Happy New Year.

]]> http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/01/guest-post-on-melissas-blog.html/feed 1 Strength Training for Ultimate – Program Specifics http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/01/strength-training-for-ultimate-program-specifics.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/01/strength-training-for-ultimate-program-specifics.html#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:35:07 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=754
  • 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.

    Related posts:

    1. Strength Training for Ultimate – Program Structure Considerations
    2. Planning My Training – Gathering Tools
    3. Strength Training For Ultimate – General Considerations

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2011/01/strength-training-for-ultimate-program-specifics.html/feed 1     Links All Over http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/12/links-all-over.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/12/links-all-over.html#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:39:11 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=763 (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.

    Related posts:

    1. Links: More Food For Thought
    2. Pickup in Himeji (plus links)
    3. More Zone O skills, and a few more links

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/12/links-all-over.html/feed 0     Track Workouts and Running Form http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/03/track-workouts-and-running-form.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/03/track-workouts-and-running-form.html#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:10:14 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=671

    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.

    It all depends on where you are athletically right now. It’s pretty early in pre-season right now, so I’d encourage you to focus on form at a brisk pace and short distance–”tempo runs” if you’ve heard the term–rather than doing either long slow distance (though that can have a similar place in getting ready to sprint, and if that’s your thing, that’s fine) or especially full-on sprints at this point if your body isn’t ready for it.

    At the very least, I’d encourage pretty full recovery between runs for the first couple workouts. There are other ways to condition, doing circuits in the gym, etc, that have the side benefit of making you better fit without the risk of overdoing it that can come with sprinting full-on before you’re ready.

    Again, this depends on what kind of shape you’re in. I know that for myself, for instance, I can’t really do more than a couple full-on sprints right now before my form starts breaking down and I’m liable to hurt myself without a good long break. I’m also working back from injury end of last season that had me hobbling around for a couple weeks, so you normal people might be ready to do more. Regardless, with the luxury of time it’s definitely worth focusing on running form–pretty much all of us can benefit from more work here.

    I’d encourage everybody to work some running form drills into the warm-up, generally but especially before running workouts. Check out here for some of the classics (it’s for tennis, but the same drills carry over across sport), and here for ideas for more high-impact stuff that you can make part of your workout.

    Doing some drills like the above to prime the nervous system before you run, and then focusing on various aspects of form (I’d say no more than 2 things at a time) while actually running, ideally at something more than a jog, can help train your nervous system to run more efficiently even when you’re going full-out and can’t focus on form as much (ie, in game).

    When I say “various aspects of form” I mean things like:

    • Arm Swing: Straight forward and back rather than across the chest, angle around 90 degrees (a little less on backswing and a little more on upswing). When you’re jogging this angle increases, but when sprinting your hand should go from hip to lip. My old track coach used to cue us to imagine grabbing potato chips from our pockets and bringing them up to our mouth to eat while running. This also cues keeping the hands relaxed, since if you clench you’ll crush the chip. It’s important not to “force” the arm action and tense up, as this just leaks energy and hurts efficiency. Swing from the shoulders, keep your elbows close to your body, and relax.
    • Body Posture (keeping a tight core): More wisdom from my coach–if you take a yardstick and drop it on its end, it’ll bounce back up, force transfers from the stick to the ground and back when it’s one piece. If the yardstick has a hinge in the middle (a weak core, or hunched-over posture), it simply collapses, and all the energy in ground contact is lost. Keep your core tight and keep from hinging at the hips to run more efficiently. (Keep in mind that when you’re accelerating you lean–this lean should come from the ankles rather than the hips).
    • Foot Strike: This is a little more advanced and takes a bit more work to make second nature. Short form: Heel strike is bad. “Toe” running is also bad, but that’s more of a misnomer for proper form. The ideal is to land on the BALL of the foot. Whether you’re sprinting or running distance, the body’s designed to absorb force on footstrike with the ball enabling the muscles and tendons of your foot, ankle and calf to absorb force (and exert force going into the next step). When you heel strike most of that machinery is negated or worse, has to work overtime, which can lead to all sorts of issues, from chronic knee injury and wearing to shin splints and stress fractures.

      I highly encourage you to examine the heel on your running shoe and consider investing in a pair of shoes with a lower, if not flat one, as most commercially designed shoes have heels that are way too high to allow a natural footstrike. I’ve been training and running in Nike Frees for years now after a couple years of knee woes and ankle sprains, and though it took me a while to adjust, I’ve had much healthier ankles and knees since. If you can’t afford or don’t want to get new shoes, at least do yourself a favor and start warming up and cooling down in bare feet on grass. Strengthening your feet means letting them do their own thing, and it’ll carry over to normal shoe wearing.
    • Stride Length/Rate: Goes right along with foot strike. You actually don’t need to focus on this too much, if you’re getting a good foot strike this should naturally limit your stride length. Keep in mind that the stronger you are the longer your “stride length” will be without you having to stretch; if you stride too far (are consciously trying to) your footfalls are going to become heel strikes, which in addition to being an injury risk also means your feet are too far in front of you and each step you take is braking, rather than accelerating or at least maintaining your speed. Same for rate–you shouldn’t need to focus on it too much. Let your body figure these ones out.
    • Knee Lift/Butt Kick: These are the things you focus on to boost stride rate and length. The more you can pick up your foot behind you, the shorter a lever your hip has to move forward before taking the next step. Makes a big difference for sprinting. Picking up your knee is a cue to maximize how much ground this short lever covers before you set down again–just make sure you let your foot fall naturally rather than reaching and overstriding.

    Short-term, I’d encourage you to focus on arm swing, posture, and knee lift/butt kick depending on which of those you need the most work on (hopefully you can pay attention next time you’re running and pick out if your arms are swinging across your body instead of straight back-forward, or if your foot carry is pretty close to the ground). I find posture tends to increase pretty dramatically with more core strength, so if you’re not already doing core work, especially stuff like hanging leg raises or static holds, working some of that in should carry over to running form pretty well.

    I spent a number of years running track in middle and high school and we did form drills for at least 15 minutes every day, so it’s something I take pretty seriously–it’s an easy way to get faster without becoming “stronger” or “better conditioned,” simply more efficient. Hopefully this gives you some rationale to understand and work with the form drills.

    Related posts:

    1. Running form: Use your core, and pelvic tilt
    2. Summer Workouts: Speed Work
    3. 7/26 Track Workout

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/03/track-workouts-and-running-form.html/feed 6     How I Do Crossfit With Ultimate Training http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/01/how-i-do-crossfit-with-ultimate-training.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/01/how-i-do-crossfit-with-ultimate-training.html#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:35:31 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=626 Xi Xua’s Huddle entries on Crossfit (a follow-up to his earlier article on play intervals in elite open ultimate) provide an informative look into what Crossfit is; however, he does not go in to much depth at all on how to go about how to incorporate it into ultimate training.

    This is by design, I think; done verbatim, Crossfit is an extremely taxing regimen to adhere to.  3 on, 1 off, learning how to do technical lifts like the squat and deadlift and the Olympic lifts too can make things overwhelming (to say nothing of the renowned intensity of the workouts).

    For me, there have always been two keys to keep in mind with incorporating Crossfit: Progression and Flexibility.

    The Samson Stretch

    Progression is, I think, the oft-overlooked component.  It’s easy to pop on to the homepage, eye the weights or what have you, and get discouraged (or worse, perhaps, to try at the listed weights or reps and destroy yourself right out of the gate).  Like any training regimen, it’s important to progress slowly to the movements and weights you’re going to be working at–in the early stages, mastering the movements takes precedence over any kind of intensity (as it should).

    At its most basic, this means incorporating the Crossfit warm-up into your routine, focusing on the samson stretch and overhead squat with light weight (ideally a wooden dowel; I wind up using a 6-9lb bar as it’s the lightest I can find.  If you have nothing other than a 45lb olympic bar, try substituting holding a towel, theraband, or something similar apart with your hands).

    OH Squat Sequence

    I still remember my first Crossfit workout back in ’06: It was my sophomore summer at Dartmouth, and I’d already spent a couple months of perusing information on Crossfit (including the forums–I was very fitness avid my sophomore year and did a ton of reading there and at sites like T-Nation in my spare time. More here). With the season finally over and my goals clear for the upcoming year (broken record alert: goal setting and planning are keys to success), Crossfit became a big part of my summer training plan. I scanned the archives, intimidated by workout after workout, until settling on one that was seemingly more innocuous.

    The workout called for 5 rounds of 21 95 lb Sumo Deadlift High Pulls, as well as 12 ring dips. I knew from reading the FAQ that I had to scale the weights down; I was not the 175 lb prototypical Crossfit guy. I figured 65 lbs was proportionately good enough to not overwhelm me, while still maintaining enough heft to be a manly amount to lift. I also diligently followed the 1 ring dip = 3 regular dips protocol, as the fitness center had no rings.

    I managed to survive, but only barely.

    By the middle of it, I’d shifted to a 1 ring = 2 dip protocol (with the assist from the machine to make it bearable), and even 65 lbs wound up being far more than I should’ve begun with. I spent the next three or four days sore beyond belief, recovering, yet somehow I’d been hooked! I made sure not to overdo it for the rest of that month, prioritizing taking the time to do the exercises well…after a few weeks I scaled the weights back up, closer to something more fitting with my 135lb physique, and was good to go.

    I’ll try and go in more depth on just what sorts of progressions are options for somebody just starting out in a later post, but for now know that it’s not impossible, and that you’re going to be better off if you’re doing Crossfit at half intensity (half weight, half rep, etc) than jumping in over your head, or worse, remaining sedentary.

    Flexibility is inherent in all of Crossfit. The program strives to build a well-rounded, capital-A Athlete, able to excel at any endeavor. To that end, Crossfit incorporates a wide range of modalities. Plenty of ultimate players are understandably dubious about whether or not it all has applicability to ultimate.

    The short answer? Of course it ALL doesn’t, at least not directly. I don’t follow Crossfit religiously (at this point in time, I don’t even follow it regularly). On days where the site calls for a 5k or 10k run, I do something else. There are naturally certain parts of the wide range of exercises prescribed that you’re not going to want to do, or won’t be able to do for reasons of equipment or otherwise.

    Just because Crossfit incorporates all of these modalities doesn’t mean that you can or should be able to cover the full spectrum, especially in the beginning phases.  Crossfit strives to keep the equipment requirements minimal, but even so I’ve wound up making do with less-than-ideal setups plenty of times. The ideal may be to do it all, and do it all well, but realistically it’s your life and your training plan, and Crossfit is not the be-all end-all of fitness; there are many routes to the same destination.

    If I am not a full practicioner, I do at least consider myself a solid student of Crossfit.  Some of their simplest workouts are their best–work hard, doing basic movements, and do it for time. Try to improve your performance next time. That’s the core premise upon which all of Crossfit revolves. The catch comes in mastering those basic movements (yes, squatting–squatting well–is a basic movement), and that’s why following a progression matters, but you can and should feel free to make Crossfit conform to you, rather than the other way around.

    Crossfit has slowly grown (or shrank, depending on your perspective) from a large framework of my fitness routine to simply a component of it. It still exerts a large influence on my general training plan however–I still diligently perform a couple cycles of the Crossfit warm-up any time I work in the gym, and still consider the overhead squat to be the pinnacle of developing (and evaluating) hip mobility.

    For any out there with reservations about whether or not Crossfit is a viable modality, applicable to your training, my advice is to do it (not “try,” that’s too tentative) and see. Give it a month of full (3+ days/week) or part-time (1-2 days/wk) incorporation into your rotation; pick and choose your workouts rather than following their “prescribed” order; make sure you progress into doing the full workouts, and see if you don’t feel better for having whooped your own ass a bit, and come away a little more confident in your stamina next time there’s a stoppage during a hell point.

    At its best, Crossfit means refusing to be contained to any set routine–and that includes Crossfit itself. Don’t be afraid to experiment and seize the reins of your own fitness.

    “Absorb what is useful; disregard that which is useless, and add what is essentially your own.”

    -Bruce Lee

    Related posts:

    1. Strength Training for Ultimate – Program Specifics
    2. So, you’re interested in training, huh?
    3. Strength Training for Ultimate – Program Structure Considerations

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/01/how-i-do-crossfit-with-ultimate-training.html/feed 0     A New Year’s To-Do List For You: http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/01/a-new-years-to-do-list-for-you.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/01/a-new-years-to-do-list-for-you.html#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:00:19 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/?p=570
  • Renew your UPA membership.  With electonic waivers, you can do it all now and forget about last-minute scrambles come series time, plus you’re a member in time to get all the copies of USA Ultimate.  Apologies to international readers who aren’t beholden to the UPA.
  • Get your fitness in gear.  The Huddle has a nice piece by Xi Xia talking about Crossfit; longtime readers will know that I’m a huge proponent of Crossfit, and I highly recommend that you look to get into it if you want a comprhensive general physical preparedness routine for your off-season training.If you’re in season (ie college), you can definitely benefit from incorporating some strength work to your practice and other training routine.  A while back I posted the routine we used at Dartmouth several years ago; it’s a solid place to start from if you’ve never lifted before, or are otherwise looking to ease into in-season training.
  • Play ultimate.  Hopefully this is the easy one!  I’ve got coaching at Vegas and dominating in Hawaii to help me get my fix this winter (and a bit of training motivation for #2).  Hope you’re finding satisfying pursuits, too!

    • It always bears repeating that good goal-setting practices, keeping the process in mind as well as the end result, will help you achieve the ends you desire, ultimate or otherwise.  Best of luck with keeping your resolutions!

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2010/01/a-new-years-to-do-list-for-you.html/feed 10     Good Books, Priority Shifts, and Kaimana http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/good-books-priority-shifts-and-kaimana.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/good-books-priority-shifts-and-kaimana.html#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:00:00 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/good-books-priority-shifts-and-kaimana.html ’tis a great season for reading, as students are about to go/are already on break…here’s what’s been on my tap of late.  Would love to hear your good stuff in the comments.

    The Definitive Book of Body Language. Really easy to get in to, broken up into perusable chunks makes it a great bathroom/bedroom read. From the perspective of a neuroscience major, I find it fascinating, and from the perspective of a future physician, I find it a useful tool for reading my patients and evaluating their needs (and how they’re responding to my suggestions).  You never know, it could help make you a more persuasive call-arguer.

    Guyland (what I’m currently reading).  Delves into the world of the “Guy” Demographic (ages 16-26+); the author’s main premise hinges on the concept of these years as a sort of prolonged post-adolescent period before “Guys” become “Men” and fully assimilate into the adult world, and a lot of the psychology and consequences of such. Definitely smatters a bit prescriptionist, and tends to be a bit sensationalist at times, but it’s a refreshing flipside to the largely female-focused Gender Studies coin and a decent touchstone for my own life, as I inch closer to my 23rd year. It’s a piece of the developmental education course I always wanted to but never took.

    For the fitness-inclined, you can never go wrong with Ross Enamait‘s books. Infinite Intensity continues to be a great resource for me and my training, along with Crossfit as the other main pillar. I’ve found Vern Gambetta’s Athletic Development to be a good resource for big-picture program design, but I’d only recommend that for coaches or others looking to coordinate training on a team level.

    Speaking of, I’m devoting more and more of my energy towards this team now that the roster is set and winter training is ramping up, which means this blog is slowly shifting towards the backburner. When I feel confident that I’ll be able to keep a regular schedule again I’ll let you know; for now I’ll shoot to keep dropping new content on Tuesdays (because what else is there to do on a Tuesday?) but can’t make any guarantees.

    Lastly, I’m still debating going to Kaimana in February (closer to the going end than the not going end of the spectrum, probably 75% at this point). Don’t even need to bring my passport this time–any readers out there care to endorse the tourney/heckle me for still being on the fence (Dusty)?

    Related posts:

    1. Kaimana not-so-Klassic

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/good-books-priority-shifts-and-kaimana.html/feed 1     Forehand Throws and Foot Turns: Follow-Up on the IO Foot http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/forehand-throws-and-foot-turns-follow-up-on-the-io-foot.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/forehand-throws-and-foot-turns-follow-up-on-the-io-foot.html#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:00:00 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/forehand-throws-and-foot-turns-follow-up-on-the-io-foot.html I tried to dig up a couple pictures of what I was talking about last week with the “IO Foot”; Keeghan Uhl’s gallery of Nationals provided a few useful pictures.

    Without further ado:

    This picture provides one angle on the IO foot. The throw isn’t explicitly IO–which is to say, this could just be a flat throw to the open side–but you’ll note that the foot position forces the knee to follow and wind up in a position which allows a fairly clean follow-through of the arm in front of the leg.

    This picture shows essentially the same position as the prior one, but from a slightly different angle. You’ll note the release point, which is both low and well in front of the knee–again, this is not explicitly an IO throw (thought note the slight tilt), but I hope it’s fairly apparent that a throw from a similar position could penetrate a mark for a low-release break.


    This picture is a great example of how the IO foot can be applied in game (though the foot block is a perpetual menace for low releases). Check the distance the thrower is able to penetrate from where his pivot foot (and presumably weight) was.  Note the direction the foot points, relative to the throwing direction–pretty close to perpendicular*.  Any mark within a few feet is a candidate for the step-through, IO forehand break.
    *I know I referenced “past perpendicular” in the prior post, and that may have been a bit hyperbolic–I get there sometimes, but it’s more instructive as a cue than a hard-and-fast rule.

    I’d love to hear thoughts from people who get by with other stepping/throwing techniques.  I know there’s a decent-sized camp that points the foot upfield and releases outside of the knee rather than inside, and I’m curious as to how that plays for making IO breaks in particular.

    Related posts:

    1. Forehand Throws and Foot Turns
    2. Balance Revisited: Throwing With Your Weight Set
    3. Throwing Thought: Balance for Short and Long Throws

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/12/forehand-throws-and-foot-turns-follow-up-on-the-io-foot.html/feed 5     Busy. http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/11/busy.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/11/busy.html#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:16:00 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/11/busy.html Two weeks ’til finals; no guarantees on posting schedule until Thanksgiving.

    In the meantime, ultitraining has gotten a spate of new writers, Atlanta‘s blog is still rolling strong, and even Match has a new post up in the blogosphere.

    Related posts:

    1. The Future of this Sport

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/11/busy.html/feed 0     Nationals Previews http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/nationals-previews.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/nationals-previews.html#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:59:00 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/nationals-previews.html Lots of words devoted to open previews; haven’t seen as much on the other divisions (feel free to chime in in the comments if you’ve found other material). Check:

    UCatch (Open)
    Pool A
    Pool B
    Pool C
    Pool D

    Canadian Ultimate
    Open Pool A
    Pool B
    Pool C
    Pool D
    Women

    Atlanta’s Ultimate Strategy/Coaching
    What to watch for (Open)
    What to watch for (Everyone Else)

    Ultivillage
    UV has a bunch of previews up in the Clip of the Day archive.

    The UPA
    Check the Club Championships Site for previews by each division’s reporter. Also note that the UPA will be providing streaming coverage in addition to highlight videos throughout the weekend. Cool. (I assume the link to check for streaming coverage, when it’s up, is here).

    Happy Nattieween! I’ll be rooting for Ironside, Brute Squad, and AMP in each division–friends on each team (sorry Masters, I haven’t been around long enough to have friends in your division yet). I’d love to see Chain continue to run its competition ragged as well; they’re probably my favorite team to watch based off of what I saw at Chesapeake.

    Will hopefully get to watch some, but I may be heading off to Yale this weekend and start coaching proper. Dartmouth should be more or less done with tryouts this week. It’s been great to see all the hard work at practice, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how our talent plays against the rest of the region right now.

    Related posts:

    1. Worth Reading: Nationals Coverage
    2. Nationals
    3. Nationals Coverage

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/nationals-previews.html/feed 0     Subbing: When to Push, When to Hold (But Change), and When to Fold http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/subbing-when-to-push-when-to-hold-but-change-and-when-to-fold.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/subbing-when-to-push-when-to-hold-but-change-and-when-to-fold.html#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:11:00 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/subbing-when-to-push-when-to-hold-but-change-and-when-to-fold.html Some quality content on the Atlanta Ultimate blog in the wake of South Regionals, namely two pieces on Using Your Top Seven (and when you should ease up) and When Losing is the Way to Go. (Relatedly, a bit on Changing It Up On Offense corroborating Jim P’s original post on the matter).

    Good food for thought for those of us who’ve yet to play in Regionals–from my experience playing in New England College Regionals, at least, aside from the rare case (Brown ’05) where one team was clearly the class of the region, ultimately who emerged from the muddle victorious depended as much on smart subbing and use of depth as it did on whose “top seven” or whatever comparison you want to make was better on paper.

    Related posts:

    1. My take on the UPA’s restructuring proposals

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/10/subbing-when-to-push-when-to-hold-but-change-and-when-to-fold.html/feed 0     Why Mobility is King for Fitness http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/09/why-mobility-is-king-for-fitness.html http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/09/why-mobility-is-king-for-fitness.html#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000 Mackey http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/09/why-mobility-is-king-for-fitness.html A gem dropped in a Force Flick post, this Men’s Health piece about deep muscle fascia and the massive role it plays in posture and, by extension, body function, is well worth the read. Makes me want to turn the scalpel to the side and do my own fascia examinations in the dissection lab.

    Great to see this stuff hitting “conventional” fitness sources like Men’s Health. If you don’t already, consider foam rolling and mobility work as part of your warm-up routine.

    Related posts:

    1. Mobility And Injury Prevention
    2. Fitness writings, and wisdom from Vern
    3. A Brief Overview: Fitness

    ]]>     http://www.ultimatethoughts.com/2009/09/why-mobility-is-king-for-fitness.html/feed 2