Off Season

I was asked to write an article for the IFDA newsletter on off season training and injury prevention. I've decided to share it with you here too. Its non specific and doesn't go into too much detail but I feel it gets the message across. Comments greatly appreciated.

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Off Season: a time of year when a particular activity, typically a sport, is not engaged in and as such can be broken down into the following areas:

Complete downtime. This is where no ultimate is played, where the other activities you’ve put aside to play Ultimate can be undertaken and the body can take a well earned break after a hard season. The length of this complete down time is up to the individual but I’d recommend anywhere from two to eight weeks. The benefits of complete downtime are huge. You get to show people you have a life outside Ultimate, your body is allowed time to repair those little niggles (you get a few weeks without ibuprofen) and best of all you’ll end up missing playing Ultimate.

Off Season. This is a great chance to prepare for the coming season. It’s a great time to keep ticking over with 1 or 2 skill/tactical based training sessions per week with the rest of the time spent on the following areas

• Strength Training. The benefits of an increase in strength are twofold: Being a stronger athlete allows you be a more powerful athlete; the energy demands of the top game can mean the body uses muscle tissue as fuel. This atrophy can lead to injury unless the muscle mass is large enough to sustain it.
• Functional Training. Developing proper athletic movement patterns is a great way to avoid potential injury.
• Rehab/Prehab. Whether it’s the tight hammy that needs to be looked at or the glute that has a tendency to go at vital times, now is the time to fix it (rehab) or to ensure it stays fixed (Prehab).
• Flexibility and Mobility. The off season is the perfect time to increase your flexibility and range of motion. An increase in both of these areas will not only help you recover quicker from training it will reduce the risk of picking up an injury.

Pre Season. This is where the fun starts. Conditioning, movement patterns and skills can all be trained hard in pre season with a solid off season base behind you. Lashing into pre season without a solid base is an injury waiting to happen.

Some Dos and Don’ts for off season training.

• Do get into a gym and increase your strength
• Do train like an athlete – get advice from a good gym instructor
• Do train your weaknesses harder than your strengths
• Do Stretch after every session
• Do increase ROM before each session

• Don’t train like a body builder – focus on movements not the gun show
• Don’t run (you’ll run enough during practice) – not even for warm-ups
• Don’t rely on other forms of fitness to carry over to Ultimate e.g. the best swimmers do not make the best runners and visa versa.

Example Timeline (2010/2011)

This is only an example but I believe there are 26 weeks between October and March (inc)

Hypertrophy Program

A few things have changed since I started my 6 week program:

The weather has changed
I've got a job
My long term goal has a date

Because of this I've decided to spend the next 8 weeks putting on some muscle. To do this I'm going to cut my conditioning work to 1/2 sessions per week.

Here's what the next 8 weeks workouts look like on paper.

Day 1.
Bench Press 4 x 8-12
Dips 2 x 8

Db Bench Press|

| Superset 3 x 12

Flys |

Db Shrugs 4 x 12

Prone Incline Shrug 3 x 8

Day 2.

Power Clean x 8/6/4

OH Press x 8/6/4

Front Squat x 8/6/4

Face Pulls 3 x 15

Leg Raises 4 x 12

Day 3.

Inclined DB Press 3 x 12

Pullover 3 x 12

Flys 3 x 12

BB Shrugs 4 x 12

Upright Row 3 x 8

Day 4.

Dead lift 5 x 5

Pull ups 5 x 5

Face Pulls 3 x 15

Leg Raises 4 x 12

Alan

30 September 2010

KB 2 (30 seconds between exercises, 90 seconds between rounds) (AM)

Clean and Push Press x 7
Bent Over Row x 8
Reverse Crunches x 20
Front Lunge x 5
H2H Swing x 12

Resistance 20 kg
Rounds 4
Total Time 28:00

- found presses tough after shoulder work yesterday but flew through the rest. Might up the weight or rounds if I can fit this into my new program.

Fasting

So for the last 6 weeks I've fasted on Monday. Only water, green tea and black coffee.

Here are some observations on the whole experience:

• The first week is the worst; its new and I was in the house most of the day with plenty of available food. I dreamt about food that night and woke up the next day starving.
• Black Coffee, green tea and water are your friends.
• I felt I was able to eat/drink what I wanted on Sunday knowing that I was fasting on Monday, this was good.
• I only managed to exercise twice on the fast day but I would advise exercising in the morning as the energy just isn't there for a productive workout in the evening.
• The feling of self control is uplifting (after the first week obviously)

Would I do it again? Yes.
Is it worth it to eat what you want on Sunday? Undecided. I do believe that a carb-up day is important but maybe better choices and no fast is better.

29 September 2010

Push 2 (AM)

OH Press (Keg) 3 x 11
Step-ups (Large BBag, small BBag and 2x12kg KB~Approx 65kg) 1 x 12

-Step-ups were really tough this morning. Only did one set as I'm short on time.

28 September 2010

KB 1 (30 seconds between exercises, 90 seconds between rounds) (AM)

Clean and Press x 6
Renegade Row x 6
Reverse Crunch x 20
1 Arm Reverse Lunge x 8
1 Arm Swing x 15

Resistance 20 kg
Rounds 4
Total Time 30:52

Felt good this morning, slept like a log. Time for this is close enough to the last time, no worries.


Pull 1 (PM)

Bent Over Row x 9
Clean x 9
Dead lift x 9

Resistance: bar & wheels
Rounds 3

core anti-rotation 3 x 12

Farmers Walk 2 x 80m

Finished with some BBag work.

27 September 2010

Decending Ladder from 7 (84 Reps total)
Pull-ups
Clap Push-ups
1 Arm KB Swing

Time: 43:17

I love these descending Ladders. they're great at hiding reps and controling fatigue. I can't think of many other ways I'd get out 84 pull-ups at one sitting.

Think thats enough for today though.