Off-season training

[azwildcat96]

I've never been to the Queen Mary Games, but they're in the winter....February, perhaps?

I would look on the SAAA website for entry forms.

http://www.saaa-net.org/

OK, Thanks.

[Alan H]

DEAD LIFT DAY..

Stretch Cage...put in my quarter and got my stretch
stationary bike for active warm up...4 min
DeadLift ... 3 x 4 x 185 / 2 x 4 x 225 / 4 x 275
Core 1 ... incline situps 20, no weight. time to start hoisting a 10 lb plate
Core 2 .... hammer wind ab crushers 2 x 8 x 12 pound ball

Zercher squats .... 4 x 4 x 135, these really hit the quads. I formally declare now, that I like these better than front squats.
row machine .... intervals, just did 3 x 30 sec sprint-30 sec recovery. Got headachey and wrapped it up.

[eclarkhb]

Alan, I just finished the Tucson Celtic Festival Games yesterday, and someone there told me about the Long Beach (Queen Mary) games. Looking at the website, there isn't too much information, only sign-up forms for piping and dancers. Any chance you know more about this event?

Queen Mary games are February 18-19. I don't think sign-ups are up anywhere yet. The website is here: http://www.queenmary.com/Scottish-Festival.aspx

I'm not sure what else you want to know. Here's an interesting fact: The Queen Mary Games are For Profit, which makes them a little unique. Expect more merchandise for sale....

[Alan H]

TODAY incline bench day

Stretch Cage, the usual
Incline Bench ... 12 x bar / 2 x 6 x 135 / 6 x 160 / 2 x 185 / 195 FAIL
bench rows ... 8 x 85 each arm / 2 x 6 x 85 each arm....time to move up!
Plate Transfer ... 4 plates on a "low" pylo box. Transfer to "high" pylo box. Now transfer back to "low". Turn around so I'm facing the other direction. Move from low to high...then back from high to low. Go fast. REPEAT for 3 minutes. Sweating like a pig. I saw video of Ryan doing this and figured it'd be a good break from the usual routine of core exercises.
triceps pull=down ...2 x 8 x 87 / 8 x 72
seated flies .... 2 x 4 x 190 "on the stack" / 4 x 175, 3 x 175 "on the stack"
Core 2 ...hanging leg lifts - 12x, 6, lazy butt
curls .... so the girls think I'm hot and I don't rip my bicep off the proximal end of my humerus , someday... 2 x 8 x 85 pound curl bar, standing.

[eclarkhb]

In the "So you want to be an athlete" thread, there is a link to some DIY instructions for equipment. I followed the instructions for a DIY Scottish Hammer - cost me about $10 total, and its awesome! Just thought I'd share - here's what I did:

I bought some sched 80 conduit at Home Depot - $2 for a 10' piece with a flange at one end. Then I bought some 1" weight plates for about $8 from Play It Again Sports. I got two 5 lb plates and two 2.5 lb plates. Cut the conduit down to about 48", slid the weights on. Wrapped the plates in duct tape to hold them together. Viola! Scottish Hammer!

Went to the park for some throws, did about 20 throws, thing works like a champ. Made MASSIVE improvements in my hammer technique today. Throws were consistently in the 65-75' range I think, I didn't really measure, just paced it off. But they felt good.

Went home & weighed my hammer, it's 16.2 lbs. Just about
perfect.

[Alan H]

In the "So you want to be an athlete" thread, there is a link to some DIY instructions for equipment. I followed the instructions for a DIY Scottish Hammer - cost me about $10 total, and its awesome! Just thought I'd share - here's what I did:

I bought some sched 80 conduit at Home Depot - $2 for a 10' piece with a flange at one end. Then I bought some 1" weight plates for about $8 from Play It Again Sports. I got two 5 lb plates and two 2.5 lb plates. Cut the conduit down to about 48", slid the weights on. Wrapped the plates in duct tape to hold them together. Viola! Scottish Hammer!

Went to the park for some throws, did about 20 throws, thing works like a champ. Made MASSIVE improvements in my hammer technique today. Throws were consistently in the 65-75' range I think, I didn't really measure, just paced it off. But they felt good.

Went home & weighed my hammer, it's 16.2 lbs. Just about
perfect.

All it takes is a little ingenuity!

The other day I was looking at some of Matt Vincents videos where he is practicing 56 pounds weight for distance. Dang, but if Matt, who is one of the best pro's out there, isn't throwing a stacked plate implement with a ring handle, instead of some fancy purchased job...

[Alan H]

EASY CORE DAY

I was kind of beat-up from this weeks workouts and doing a brutal 1000m sprint on the rowing machine last night, so I took it a bit easy. 40 minutes...in and out.

Stretch Cage, the usual
situps..incline board, 7.5 pounds on my chest, did 17
lat pulls on the roman chair... 2 x 10 x 65 lbs each side, so 40 total pulls
hammer wind ab crushers .... 2 x 10 x 10 lb ball
Core Crushers ... 2 x 10 x 205
landmines ... 2 x 10 x 55
Farmers Walk .... just for yucks...110/hand, 2 x 100 feet.

[eclarkhb]

Had an awesome practice today with the OC Highlanders so I thought I'd share:

11/13/2011

Throwing Practice with OC Highlanders

Open Stone
8x Standing Throws
5x Reverses
12x Full Spin Throws

LWFD
15x Throws

HWFD (56#)
5x Throws

Light Scottish Hammer
12x Throws

Great practice today! This was the first time I've been able to make it to a practice in a few months, due to my kid's soccer schedule. I was a little sore from the 20-rep squats on Friday, and it really showed today. After the practice, I'm exhausted & very sore! Going to eat & watch football for the rest of the day so I can recover!

Open Stone throws were mid 30's, a bit disappointing. The LWFD is coming along nicely, I was consistently around 48-49'. 47 is my current PR, so that's great. For HWFD I threw the 56# weight for the 1st time. Damn, that was really hard. I threw it 18-19'. Needs lots of work for me to get comfortable with it. Hammer is improving the most. I was consistently throwing around 78' today, my current PR is 67'.

I'm really expecting some big improvements between now & Long Beach Games in February!

[Joshua]

I see landmines in there! YAY! One of my favorite all around thrower movements.

My off-season ideally would include this core group...

For Explosion
Cleans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_yL8y6XV3Q)
Drop Snatch
HEAVY (30kg) kettlebell snatches
Jumps
Behind-the-neck jerks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X1I2x9lDYE)

For base strength
Front Squats (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3C-OKjA75w)
Overhead Press
Floor/Bench Press

For improving specific events
Cheat Curls (Caber)
Medicine Ball Thrusters (Weight for height)

Conditioning
Trail Biking
Tireflips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvQn99e2OQQ)

Now if I could just actually do these things on a regular basis...

[Alan H]

I see landmines in there! YAY! One of my favorite all around thrower movements.

My off-season ideally would include this core group...

For Explosion
Cleans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_yL8y6XV3Q)
Drop Snatch
HEAVY (30kg) kettlebell snatches
Jumps
Behind-the-neck jerks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X1I2x9lDYE)

For base strength
Front Squats (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3C-OKjA75w)
Overhead Press
Floor/Bench Press

For improving specific events
Cheat Curls (Caber)
Medicine Ball Thrusters (Weight for height)

Conditioning
Trail Biking
Tireflips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvQn99e2OQQ)

Now if I could just actually do these things on a regular basis...

All good!!!