Back in The Habit

It's been a bit hard to get in a habit of working out here in Djibouti. Not because of the heat. Mostly, it's a lack of motivation (I'm even getting emotionally adjusted now being away from my wife and child). Last week, it was injuries. The day after walking around for an hour with my body armor on, I was doing jump training and a jump that I had made the week before, I missed and skinned my left shin. After that, I just decided to squat and since I hadn't done so in a long time, I pulled muscles on the inside of both thighs. Day after that, I was playing basketball when I tried to stop on a dime at full speed and I pulled both calves, then a glute later on. Some would say that I'm getting old. But after much thought, I thought that I've never been a big stretching person. And I've never put in the amount or regularity of mobility work that I should.

Three articles really got me thinking. One was Eric Cressey suggesting 3 days of single leg work a week for 2 months. Another was Cardiovascular System Training Principles, Part 2 by Joel Jamieson on the Elite FTS site. Another was an article on Sports Illustrated about how the Phoenix Suns are fixing up Shaquille O'Neill (I think the Suns have the most injury free team in the NBA).

Then this week, I started Chad Waterbury's Total Body Training but substituted the single leg work for the squats, dumbbell work for barbell work. I'm doing the body armor walking sometimes but have found myself playing a lot of volleyball at night and some basketball. Aerobically, I've been keeping it low intensity. And I've started to do the Parisi Warmups every time I go to the gym. Probably after 2-4 months of this, aside from being in pretty good shape, I'll start to slowly ramp things up. The single leg work is humbling, especially the pistols - - - I can't squat up, and going down is hard. The DB Deadlifts were a real eye opener: 70 lbs dumbbells for 5 reps, and my core was tiring out right when my glutes and low back were. Give me a few weeks and I'll say if this workout is effective. But so far, I don't feel really beat up and I'm having fun with the volleyball habit. Don't know how this will affect my lifts but right now, that's not on my mind.

Stay Tuned.