Who knew you could structure an entire blog around breathing? More helpful for sports (or at least more concise) is Breathe Right and Win. Very useful for me, as I do way too much breath-holding when working out. Related, and unfortunately incurable by Googling alone, I’m also too stupid to count my reps and breathe at the same time, if the reps and the breaths aren’t synchronized one-to-one. (via jeters)

I guess I'm running a real fitness blog now, promising to reveal "secrets". The shame. Anyway, another Ultimate post. The conditioning stuff should be of interest to everybody, at least, so I'll mention that first:

Awesome new Ultimate resource The Huddle just posted a feature: Training For Ultimate. Lots of good stuff there, including a little bit of nostalgia seeing Tully Beatty contributing. Used to lose to his team routinely way back in college. Class act, that guy (and his post is excellent).

As for forehands, I've thought a lot about Idris Nolan's flick advice off and on for awhile. Not so much for myself; as a 20-year split-finger thrower, it's too late for me unless I take a season off to rebuild my grip, and I might not have that many seasons left! More for my daughter, who's 10, and just starting to show an interest. I'd like to teach her right.

So I e-mailed Idris, and he kindly shared more thoughts with me on the subject. In the end, it's pretty much as he described, as counter-intuitive as that may be for we split-finger throwers. For the throwing action, picture delivering a karate chop to pretty low on somebody's midsection (your palm would be up, your forearm/wrist/hand all in a line).

But if a picture is worth a 1,000 words a video's worth a million, and Matt Mackey provides it. The revelation, for me, comes at 1:40, "these two fingers almost become superfluous". Superfluous?! Stunning, as my flick depends on those very fingers. This explains, finally, why my flick suffers so mightily in the rain, while others are barely affected. Give it a try. Very interesting. Those fingers still play a role, but it's definitely a supporting role rather than the lead.

P.S. Okay, so you don't want to rebuild your grip, and the wet (either sweat or rain) still messes with you. Here are the best (by far) solutions I've found in my 20 years:

• For sweat: wristbands and Tite-Grip.
• For rain: forget football gloves, Ansell Hyflex Machinist's Gloves (for handling small oily parts!) are the closest thing you'll find to a bare hands feel even in driving rain. And at three bucks (!) a pair, you have nothing to lose but your pride.

Andy Shirley on the Crossfit boards pointed to these fantastic rowing workouts for rugby players with great crossover to all field sports. The Rugby Training Guide (PDF) is the big one. See if these two passages grab you, no matter what your sport:

A rugby player needs to produce a top performance almost every Saturday of the season. They cannot afford to relax their fitness preparation; if they do the game could be lost and the season with it. So how is it possible for players to produce this top performance week in, week out? In truth, it is not. However, by training smart a player will include the correct balance of training, recovery and relaxation, which will enable him to arrive for games in optimal condition.

[snip]

Physiologically, rugby players have to perform intermittent high intensity and low intensity work during phases of play and throughout the game. This demands high levels of anaerobic and aerobic endurance. Phases of play can vary from 10 seconds to over three minutes so conditioning will be geared to cope with the maximum demands. The high-speed modern game demands that players of all positions are capable of producing high power high strength movements in extreme physical situations. Whilst all players will require a highly efficient aerobic component of their fitness to encourage speedy recovery from maximal efforts...

Then there's these bits on "Why Rowing?":

In England's preparation for the World Cup Martin Johnson's injury history meant he only did one session a day on his feet. Most of his aerobic work was done on a Concept 2 rowing machine.

Games players need whole body aerobic fitness, not just individual muscle fitness, to perform. To raise the aerobic fitness level the entire body should be exercised and exercise on the Indoor Rower uses both upper and lower body muscles, therefore recruiting a very large muscle mass.

If the statement that "aerobic fitness underpins the whole performance" is true then it would make sense to follow the training programme of a rower. Rowers are generally recognised as athletes with amongst the greatest aerobic capacity. This is achieved with no risk of injury through impact, as training is weight supported and non-contact. A slightly modified programme currently used by rowers in preparation for their competitions would meet all the physical requirements of ball players.

There are very few training activities than can produce a high intensity upper body workout, involve the strongest muscles in the body, the legs, and raise the heart rate to cause almost immediate fatigue. These are the requirements and demands of a rugby player. They can be achieved by using a Concept 2 rowing machine.

That's all just preamble though. Where the guide shines is in it's programs, and I love that they include benchmarks. Always good to have a target! « via CrossFit Forums »

Same drum I've been beating here from the get-go, but it's always good to reinforce it. Vern Gambetta on the myth of the "aerobic base". Plus, even better, his follow-up post on the subject:

I asked Jack Blatherwick to address his viewpoint on establishing an aerobic base. Jack is with the Washington Capitols and was conditioning coach for six American Olympic Ice Hockey teams including the 1980 "Miracle Team"). The following is his response:

Definitely click through and read the rest.

Interesting piece on breathing at MarkFu's Barbarian Blog.

This is devolving into a link blog. That's okay though, as I feel like I've covered most of what I want to cover (check the guide and the archives). As I try new stuff I'll post it, but until then...

• Gregg's favorite exercise is one of my favorites too. The difference between us is that he uses kettlebells instead of DBs, and he includes pictures.
• There are some great ideas (and workout names) in this Crossfit thread, Hardest Metcon Workouts ("metabolic conditioning").
• With the outdoor season right around the corner here in the NE, it might be worth having a look at this article on preventing quad soreness.
• Patrick Beith: Summer Training for Speed (and Part II).
• Finally, Dispelling The Top 10 Nutrition Myths (update: this guy slams this piece; update 2: see discussion below).

• An interview with Oscar Pistorius. An inspiring athlete, unfortunately mired in controversy (some say his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage).
• Check out the "Knees to Elbows" video linked to from this CrossFit WOD.
• Interesting training article on preparing for The Secret Service Snatch Test.
• Chad Waterbury's article on his Full Throttle Program ("Simple Methods to Develop Fighting Endurance") was a good read. I bet that's an excellent conditioning regimen.

Via Crossfit comes a bombshell, lactic acid is your friend:

[George Brooks] and his UC Berkeley colleagues found that muscle cells use carbohydrates anaerobically for energy, producing lactate as a byproduct, but then burn the lactate with oxygen to create far more energy. The first process, called the glycolytic pathway, dominates during normal exertion, and the lactate seeps out of the muscle cells into the blood to be used elsewhere. During intense exercise, however, the second ramps up to oxidatively remove the rapidly accumulating lactate and create more energy.

Training helps people get rid of the lactic acid before it can build to the point where it causes muscle fatigue, and at the cellular level, Brooks said, training means growing the mitochondria in muscle cells. The mitochondria - often called the powerhouse of the cell - is where lactate is burned for energy.

"The world's best athletes stay competitive by interval training," Brooks said, referring to repeated short, but intense, bouts of exercise. "The intense exercise generates big lactate loads, and the body adapts by building up mitochondria to clear lactic acid quickly. If you use it up, it doesn't accumulate."

With a title this long and cumbersome, there's really nothing for me to editorialize over: Short bouts of very intense exercise improved muscle health and performance comparable to several weeks of traditional endurance training.

To date I've been a Burpee man exclusively, but some digging turned up two other full-body plyometric exercises, bringing the list to:

• Burpees
• Thunder Rolls
• The Mahler Body Blaster

Here's a quick Thunder Rolls vs. Burpees thread. I just tried a quick set of Thunder Rolls without a medicine ball (don't own one yet), and it does seem like you get quite a bit of help from momentum that you don't get with Burpees in the lower part of the exercise. Maybe I'll feel differently when I add a ball, but I could add a ball to Burpees as well.

I haven't tried the Mahler Body Blaster yet, as it's dark outside right now so I don't want to brave the wolves, and I can't do them in here as the exercise covers more horizontal space than my basement allows. I don't think I've figured it out though. Do you ever stand up again after the initial squat, or do you just keep going roll-pushup-roll-pushup-etc.? Also, after the pushup do you keep your feet in place and use your arms to return to the squat and then roll back, or do you jump your feet up to your hands and then roll back? If the latter, you could do Body Blasters for distance, as you'd move forward with each rep.

The prisoner's workout would be fun for any of these, I bet. I tried this yesterday for the first time, but I started at a paltry 10 burpees and laddered down from there. My walk was about a 10-second walk. Concentrated on form and speed, making sure I exploded on the jump, and then flowed into the next burpee immediately upon landing (i.e. rather than catch myself on the landing from the jump, I pretty much let gravity pull me right down into the squat, with minimal slowing and no hitches). 10 wasn't too bad, 9 was uncomfortable, 8 through 5 truly sucked, 4 showed the light at the end of the tunnel, while 3, 2, and 1 were a welcome home stretch. I really must get better at these.

There's a very interesting table embedded in this Paul Chek article. It's from the late Mel Siff's Supertraining, an out-of-print book I really should track down. The table lists...

...contribution of short, intermediate and long-term energy systems to common sports. This information is useful in determining acute exercise variables for program design. Please note that most sports are anaerobic, yet many athletes and coaches make the mistake of using aerobic training to prepare for anaerobic sports, which actually decreases performance.

So is Ultimate more like basketball, or soccer? And if soccer, which position? Keep in mind there's more subbing in Ultimate (which is not to say I've already formed my opinion).

If you haven't considered the humble NordicTrack cross-country skier, you should:

• It's a good full-body workout.
• Taku mentions it specifically as a good choice for interval training, and my own experience bears this out.
• There is a balance component to the exercise, and thus really works the lower legs, especially in the first few weeks. It's been great for my shin splints.
• It's dirt cheap. Check out the current eBay listings (make sure you also check the "show only completed listings" box to give you an idea of what these are going for, and note especially all the auctions that end with zero bids!). You can also often pick these up for a song by watching the classifieds or CraigsList. Heck, I've seen them at tag sales or just sitting by the side of the road.

I will warn you though: when you first hop on the thing you'll think it sucks. It'll feel wobbly and awkward. You won't like coordinating your arms and legs, and at least one part of your body will probably fatigue well before the others. So you'll cut your workout short without really feeling like you've achieved much. For me, it took about three weeks to hit my stride on the machine, but now I'm very glad I put in the work to get used to it.