Announcements and Schedules
Team Fitness will be taking a blog break during the month of February. During February we will still have Monday workouts. This Wednesday we will not have a workout as we finish up the full body challenge. Starting in February Wednesday Workouts at 6pm will be back on the schedule. We will return to Coach Oden's workouts or similiar format.
Understanding Strength Development
by Coach Anita
There are many ways to develop strength - bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weight training, high-intensity training to name a few. But the strength needed in soccer is different than the strength needed for running a marathon; the strength needed in throwing the shot put is different than the strength needed for paddling. So determining the strength needs for a particular sport is the first step, but then what’s the right way to develop it? Every sport has a season that begins with a preparatory phase and progresses to a competitive phase. And while some sports compete once a week, others compete only once or twice a year. By looking at a sport’s season and using a process called periodization - which is simply looking at the whole season and breaking it into smaller sections that each focus on a particular training need - athletes can develop the necessary strength and skills sets for their sport in a manner that adheres to their competitive schedule.
Muscular conditioning and strength training that follow this process is called periodization of strength.
Periodization of strength focuses on bringing an athlete to the highest possible level of maximum strength. Then once maximum strength is trained, power, power endurance or the muscular endurance needed for the sport is trained. Depending upon the sport, these periods might be repeated more than once before entering the competitive phase of a season. The goal in periodization of strength is for athletes to reach peak performance at the time of major competitions.
The neural abilities necessary for successful athletic performance are strength, speed and endurance. Athletes do not develop strength simply for the sake of being strong. The goal of strength is to develop the specific needs of a sport - to develop sport-specific strength or combinations of strength in order to improve athletic performance. A combination of strength and endurance creates muscular endurance - the ability to perform many repetitions against a given resistance (e.g. water) for a prolonged period. A combination of speed and endurance is called speed endurance - the ability to move at speed for an extended period of time. Both of these are requirements of 500 meter dragon boat racing.
Development of one ability affects the development of other abilities. When an athlete develops strength, she may experience a positive transfer to speed and endurance. However, if the strength training program is focused only on developing maximum strength without a muscular endurance or power segment, it could negatively affect the development of endurance. Periodization focuses on training strength in concert with the other required abilities of a sport.
Neural training goes hand in hand with energy system training. Our water practices focus on training our energy systems. The neural training we do off the boat complement and support the work we do on the boat.
The Right Way to Breathe During Exercise
By Suzanne
There are two different types of breathing: chest breathing and belly breathing. Breaths from the chest are shorter and shallower, which does not allow our lungs to fill properly, which then does not provide our muscles with their needed oxygen. If we can create a larger storage space for oxygen it will allow more oxygen to our muscles shortening recovery periods between sets. It will also provide an overall increase in energy and stamina. Good posture will create the physical space we need to properly position our diaphragm in relation to our rib cage. Drawing breath in through the belly allows us to take in more breath and fill the diaphragm.
Another division of breathing is breathing through the nose or the mouth. People often breathe faster than they should while exercising, or they often hold their breath. Generally those who are mouth breathers have a slightly harder time breathing deeply. Drawing air in through the nose slows our breath and allows us to draw in more oxygen than through the mouth. Studies have shown that people who are better nose breathers also have better posture.
When you are running, walking up a flight of stairs or on a treadmill: There is a technique to practice called three-to-two ratio. Inhale for a count of three and and exhale for a count of two. It's hard at first, but it will help provide the body with the maximum amount of oxygen available to us.
During core abdominal exercises: It is common to stop breathing as you crunch your body in half or pull your belly in tight. Keep breathing to help stabilize your torso. Breathing allows the muscles on the front such as the rectus abdominis and obliques to do their job easily and maintain the balancing position longer. Next time you do a plank or any static core exercise try this. As you exhale, draw the breath out as the rib cage contracts generously back to the midline-the deep core. Keep a four count "in" and a four count "out'.
When you are lifting weights: It is crucial to breathe properly during strength training. Not only does proper breathing support the exertion of the exercise and allow you to lift more with better control, but not breathing can lead to hernias. Using a bicep curl as an example, exhale as you raise the weights to curl, then inhale as you lower the weight. For a push-up inhale as you lower to the floor, and exhale when you press yourself up.
When doing a HIIT workout: High intensity interval training can leave you breathless-and quickly. For instance, if you are doing 30 seconds of jumping jacks during a routine, you are probably taking big breaths in through your mouth to get more oxygen fast. But this actually decreases blood levels of carbon dioxide, inhibiting the body's ability to release oxygen into the cells. Your nose is the preferred way to get oxygen into your body. The body is designed to breathe through the nose. The hairs in your nose help to purify the air and remove potential irritants and toxins, and the nasal passages and sinuses help to regulate the temperature of the air you inhale. If you get to a point where you are too out of breath and start to lose your form, slow down until you can resume again.
To get better at taking consistent and even inhales and exhales, practice during your cool down and stretching. Practicing your breathing while stretching allows you to condition your body to master proper breathing techniques. When you have mastered your inhales and exhales technique it is time to focus on exercise specific breathing. This will allow you to maximize the benefits of each exercise and avoid the dangers of forgetting to breathe.
Keep the Momentum
By Coach Pat
We are leaving our last challenge next week and coming up on a month where we don’t have accountability to a team of our peers. For some this is a welcome break, but for many of us it brings worry of getting lazy. The last challenge (you can review it here) was a good guideline to a total body workout. Let’s use this foundation workout to maintain our fitness levels. Even if you drop to two days a week or go back to two sets on four days a week you should be able to maintain.
Mix up the exercises and pick several to rotate through vs doing the same ones all the time. Add more cardio to a warm up and the inter set plyo. For example: Do a 5-minute walk / run on the street to warm up or add a jump rope tabata to your warm up. Those of you who have bikes or rowers can jump on the machine for 5-6 minutes. Take on your first set of strength training and then instead of the minute plus 15 reps, repeat your cardio warm up or a cardio sequence for another set -- go as fast as you can for 5 minutes or even 2 minutes. Go back to the strength training and repeat.
If you have no equipment and don’t want to go outside, attempt to do some intense cardio, take a look at this : https://www.self.com/gallery/equipment-free-cardio-workout Take these moves each one 30 seconds on / 10 seconds rest and add up to 5 minutes. All of these moves demonstrated are low impact. Add more velocity and a hop to make them harder. Or use this intense plyo workout in between your weight training sets. https://youtu.be/oAUY6Yko2lU
Keep in mind that yes, you can do a full body workout in 12 minutes, but this type of short HIIT workout won’t get you anywhere near the recommended minimum 150 minutes of activity per week. Recent research shows there is no upper limit on exercise for heart health. It actually shows, more is better than less. During this crazy time of COVID-19 we have to push to get outside and to increase our active minutes each day.
To keep your weight workouts fun, mix up your exercises. If you are doing 15 lunges on each leg , try 5 forward, 5 back and 5 curtsy. WIth squats do three sets and make each set a different squat. You can vary the weights as well. Tricep dips, skull crushers and kick-backs all in the same workout. You get the idea. .
Use as much weight as you can, while you complete the repetitions and the sets. The idea is to change it up so your body doesn’t get bored. Use your arsenal of exercises from all the workouts to create new sequences.
