Today was an upper body workout. Today, and the next two weeks, to give my legs a rest. My cardio for the day was a mere 30 minutes on the StairMaster (whoo - I felt like one of those old ladies I've seen working out in the gym, not for a goal like kick-ass-in-ultimate, but to lose the 5 pounds that no one in the world knows is there but them). It was so short, but my legs were fine. Kris managed an intense lower body workout on Monday, which I missed for MPUL, so this complemented it well.

I've been doing rotator-cuff lifts every day. I'm using only 3# weights, but I've been very very consistent. Today I learned how to use the elastic bands to replace those exercises. I'm not sure if I'll do both, as the previous ones work well as shoulder exercises. These exercises are ones that I often see the baseball players doing.

I did only one set of the new exercises, because we were pressed for time. From now on, I'll have to arrive 15 minutes early to warm up with these.

G provided me with new rotator-cuff exercises. These are the ones the baseball kids do each time they're in the gym. Now, I too, will start doing these every day.

The first three exercises are with the bands hooked low.

• Lower back, face away

  Face away from the wall where the bands are hooked, one band in each hand, hands together on forehead (bands go over the head). Stand in a power stance with one foot forward, moving forward so that when standing leaning back slightly, the bands give resistance. Lean forward past 90°, keep back straight. Stand back up so that the bands pull slightly back, the front leg and torso should be straight. Repeat for 10 reps.

• Lower back, face forward

  Face the wall where the bands are hooked, one band in each hand, hands together on forehand. Stand in a power stance with one foot forward, moving backward so that when bending forward below 90° the bands give resistance. Stand up, leaning slightly back, keep the back straight. Repeat for 10 reps.

• Straight arms, tip

  Stand facing away from the wall where the bands are hooked. Stand in a power stance with feet apart, arms straight out to the side, one band in each hand, forward enough so that the bands provide resistance. Tip to the left, stand back up, tip to the right stand back up. Repeat for 10 reps.

The last two exercises are with the bands hooked high.

• Rotator cuff, forward

  Stand facing away from the wall, band in one hand, arm at a 90° angle, hand up, with upper arm parallel to the floor. As quickly as possible, push down so that the arm is parallel to the floor, then back up. Repeat for 10 reps. Repeat with other arm.

• Rotator cuff, away

  Repeat as above, but face the wall. Start the arm parallel to the ground, and at a 90° angle, with slight resistance. Quickly pull the arm up so that the hand points up, then rotate the arm back down. Repeat for 10 reps. Repeat with the other arm.

That's one set. Do 3 sets.

That went much better.

The first night of MPUL was tonight. We had attendance issues (12 on a winter league team is 6 too few), and gender issues (my team forfeited for lack of women players), but people showed up. They seemed to have fun, too.

So, I'm happy.

I wasn't able to make class because I needed to be at MPUL tonight, so Kris went by himself. He said he had a great time doing sprinting drills. Here's what he gave me as his workout tonight.

Accelerations in the parking lot

A twist on the catch the ball before it bounces twice, a cone was placed away from G (not sure how far). Kris ran from the starting point to the cone, planted and cut towards G. At the foot plant, G dropped a tennis ball. Kris was to catch it before the second bounce. 6-8 of these

Sprinting with bands

With bands around his waist and G pulling backward on them, Kris did three sets of resistance sprinting. The first one was with small steps: feet moving just over ankles for quick feet work. The second was with high knees. The third was just sprinting as fast as he could.

Circuit

This circuit was a doozie. Probably would have worked better if I had been there to give Kris a bit of a rest.

• Jump rope
• Ice skaters with bands on legs, done in a semi circle. The first set with R foot in center, clockwise, then again counter-clockwise. The next set with L foot in center, CW and CCW.
• 4 boxes: hop over with both feet, then L, then R
• Side-to-sides over the weightbench (nominally the same as over the wood box, but higher by 50%)
• Frog hopping along 4 cones with both feet, land on R foot, hold, then sprint. Repeat for L foot. For the last 3, G calls out which foot to land on

And that would be two times through that circuit. Ooof. I'm telling you, Kris gets all the good ones.

Wall sit

Sit along the wall (i.e. back on the wall, legs at 90°), 25# weight on lap.

Abs (lower)

• 6-12" leg holds
• swimmers
• crossovers
• partner leg throw downs
• 6-12" leg holds with partner pushdown (ugh!)

Apparently, it doesn't matter what you do when you run a draft. Everyone and his brother is going to whine about what team he ended up on.

Mom's comment:

There are always people who whine ... and there are always people in any organization who never do anything and then complain or figure they can run it better, although they never step up and commit to a project.