Workout Week of 8/25/14: Recovery, Mobility, Core

Your priorities this week are:
-Take care of your body.  Tweaky?  Hurt?  Sore?  Do what you need to do to heal.  Take the week off?. Two weeks off.  Often that's the best thing you can do for the team.
-Pod Practice & Throwing
-ACL Prevention Sessions
-Lifting
-Workout

I've put together a recovery workout this week that focused primarily on mobility and stability exercises.  It is not cardio intensive, has no impact, and should only take 30 minutes or so.  Only do what feels ok for your body.  If your body is feeling great this week, email me and I'll give you advice on a second track workout for the week.

Part I: 10 minutes of rolling

• Roll your glutes (ankle over knee to really expose your glutes to the roller), top of your hip, IT bands, quads, adductor (inner quad both high near your groin and low near your knee), hamstrings, calves, tibia flexor, back (only on a foam roller, not a pipe), lats
• Roll the bottom of your foot on a baseball or lacrosse ball (shoes off)

Tips:

• If you find a knot, hold yourself on the roller on that spot.  Breathe through the pain.  Allow the roller to sink into the muscle knot to loosen it.
• 5 times (down and back) on each muscle is a good starting point.  Spend more time if the muscles are tight.
• Googling foam rolling images will give you a good sense of how to roll certain muscles: 

Part II: Mobility

Do 5-10 deep breaths in each pose.  Hold it longer if you want.

1. Kneeling hip flexor stretch, each side
2. Pigeon, each side.  Spend time in this position.  Move your upper body, change the angle of your foot, and see if you can get deeper into your hips.
3. Frog.  Again, spend time here.  Move your feet around.  Lean into the stretch.  Feel where the tightness is and explore that boundary.
4. Leg raises with a band.  Lie on your back.  Loop a band (or a rope or a towel or a long sleeve shirt) around your the ball of your left foot.  Using the band, hold your left foot, leg straight, up in the air at 90 degrees to the floor.  Raise and lower your right leg from the floor to parallel with your left leg.  Keep your hips flat, feel your hamstrings stretch.  10 leg raises each side.
5. Back rotators.  Lie on your back.  Bring your left leg to your chest, then gently lower your bent left leg to the right side of your body.  Your body will likely twist.  Stretch your right arm straight out to the side.  Lay your left hand on top of your right hand (or wrist/arm).  Slowly arc your straight left arm over your body so it is straight out to the left side of your body; bring it back.  You now have your arms spread wide and your left leg bent and resting across your body to the right side.  Repeat 10 times each side.
6. Hip bridge.  Lie on your back.  Bring your feet under your knees, legs bent.  Raise your butt so your body is in a straight line from shoulders (on the floor) to knees (in the air).  Slowly raise your left knee into the air until your quad is perpendicular to the flower.  Lower back to the ground.  Repeat 10 times on each side.  Focus on keeping your hips square and your body in line.
7. Toe squats.  Get into a squat position.  Grip your toes with your hands.  Gently raise and lower yourself in the squat position, never letting go of your feet.  Feel where your squat position is limited by your flexibility, and gently push the boundaries.  10 reps.
8. Lunges forward and back.  Step forward into a lunge, then step back.  Slow and balanced.  10 each side.
9. Angle rock lunges.  Step into a lunge, left foot forward.  Bring your back knee to the ground.  push yourself forward until your ankle stops your motion.  Come back to your original lunge with your back knee on the ground.  Push forward slightly to the left until your ankle stops your motion, come back to center.  Push forward slightly to the right until your ankle stops your motion, come back to center.  Repeat 5 times through each direction, each side.
10. Side lunges.  Start standing.  Step laterally to your left, left toe pointing straight ahead, and lean into the lunge.  Keep your right leg straight; it's ok if only your heel is on the ground.  Return to standing.  Repeat 10 times, each side.  Explore your lateral lunge flexibility.
11. Side lunges with rotation.  Same as above, except now you step back and rotate 90 degrees.  For example, start facing forward.  Step back with your left leg so that your toe now point 90 degrees to your leg.  Explore your flexibility here.
12. Dipping bird for hamstrings (similar to one of our plyos).  Start standing.  Kick back your heel of your right leg, dipping your upper body forward until your body is parallel to the floor with a straight line from your head to your right heel.  Bend your left leg slightly for balance.  Using your left butt and hamstring, pull yourself back into a standing

Part III: Stability

1. Dead bugs (from Tina and Sophie).  Lie on your back, in the same position as #6 above.  Keep your butt on the ground.  Press your spine into the ground.  Slowly raise one leg so your quad is perpendicular to the floor.  Lower.  Repeat on other side.  Focus on keeping your hips stable and your spine pressed to the floor.  3 sets of 10 knee lifts.
2. Plank Arm/Left Lifts.  Get into a plank position with straight arms.  Pick up your left hand and touch your right shoulder, lower back to ground.  Pick up your right hand and touch your left shoulder, lower back to ground.  Pick up your left leg straight up, lower, then your right left straight up, then lower.  Repeat 4 times.  Do 3 sets total with rest in between each set.  Focus on keeping your shoulder and hips square to the floor while raising and lowering your limbs.  Don't rotate!
3. Balancing.  Stand on one leg with your eyes closed for 60 seconds.  Repeat 2 times, each side.
4. Balancing Test.  Stand on one leg, eyes closed.  Raise the other knee up as if doing high knees.  Hold that knee high for 10 seconds (see if you can do it!).  Do both sides.  It's hard.  You'll probably be waving your arms at first, and that's fine.  Work to be able to hold this pose, eyes closed, for 10 seconds with your arms relaxed at your sides.

Part IV: ACL Plyos

If your body is healthy enough to do these plyos, do the next session.  You may be finished with Set 1 or starting Set 2.  Set 2 is the same as Set 1, just for longer time intervals.  Lester suggests doing two sets of some of the jumps, like the squat and tuck jumps, at Session 6.  

Plyometric Training                                        Session 1         Session 2        Session 3

Jump	Time	Reps	Reps	Reps
Wall Jumps	20 seconds
Tuck Jumps	20 seconds
Squat Jumps	10 seconds
Barrier Jumps (S/S)	20 seconds
Barrier Jumps (F/B)	20 seconds
180 Jumps	20 seconds
Broad Jumps (stick 5 seconds)	5 total
Bounding in place	20 seconds

Plyometric Training                                        Session 4         Session 5        Session 6

Jump	Time	Reps	Reps	Reps
Wall Jumps	25 seconds
Tuck Jumps	25 seconds
Squat Jumps	15 seconds
Barrier Jumps (S/S)	25 seconds
Barrier Jumps (F/B)	25 seconds
180 Jumps	25 seconds
Broad Jumps (stick 5 seconds)	10 total
Bounding in place	25 seconds