High Five on "The Hill"

Between the playground obstacle course on Monday and The Hill on Wednesday, the gang is due a public high five this week!

WOOT!

This week's URBAN Boot Camp highlights include progressive plyometric work as well as "The Hill". Both are great for building strength and power, as well as the anaerobic component of the cardiovascular system. Squats, deadlifts, leg presses, and the like are great for making us stronger, but doing hill work can directly translate to your running and walking ability by quickening your stride, increasing your leg strength, and lengthening your stride, and increasing your aerobic capacity. Your muscles have no choice but to work synergistically as your entire body is supported while you perform. Participants may have joked that I "had it in for them" but they were greatly astonished at their performance so much so that by the end they were all still smiling...even Leesha!

Why? Accomplishment! The gang discovered that the so-called "impossible" was not impossible and everyone was able to go longer, farther, and perform stronger than they thought they could. The progressive nature of our program means that everything goes together and has a purpose (see guys... there IS a method to the madness. Muahahaha!)

Give your body controlled amounts of stressors and it will adapt.

Here's a great article on hill running: Everything You Need To Know About Hill Training

Now, your turn.

Here's a plyo workout:

Squat reaches
Pushups

Split squat
Plank reaches

Squat jumps
Side hover

Split jumps
Plank walks

Ice skaters
Reverse plank w/hip dips

Exercise 45 seconds on/15 seconds off, down the list 2-3 times. Remember quality over quantity. Stay focused and land properly EVERYtime. Of course, sandwich this between a proper warm up and cool down.

As for The Hill ...Portland has tons of hills. Find one and do shuttle runs (or fast walk): go up one block, then back down to the beginning, up two blocks, then down to the beginning. Shoot for 4-5 shuttle trips, then cool down.

Have fun!

Jump, Jump

Plyometrics!

That's a fancy name for jumping. Adding it to your training program is a great way to burn calories and increase your overall strength, power, and endurance. The problem is, while many people can get off the ground (accelerate), they don't land so well (decelerate) resulting in injuries. In UBC this week, we've begun working on jumping and will work more next week on developing proper form when landing so participants can get more fat-burning bang for their fitness buck.

So, how do you stop yourself after jumping off the ground? You decelerate the speed and thereby decrease the force on your joints by:

•Landing on the ball of your foot and sinking into your heel.
•Flexing at the hips, knees and ankles.
•Maintaining a straight back/neutral spine position.
•Maintaining your chest over knees and knees over second toe

This means you need the ability to properly load the muscles eccentrically while maintaining proper form.

We'll continue more on this next week with action!

Until then, here's an excerpt from NSCA's Performance Training Journal with a fantastic article: "Landing Mechanics: What, Why, When".

Make it a great weekend!
Jump, jump!