Hump hump hump day! Also, Bruins v Flyers game 3 tonight. Glorious Wednesday. I'm ready for Bruins to take a 3-0 lead and close the series out with another win on Friday. Friday night plans of friends, fun and hockey make this week look a whole lot better. On the contrary, the C's looked pathetic last night. Granted the Heat played well, but how can the big 3 not put up serious points when we turn the ball over with more frequency than we make a jump shot. We shall see if they can recover at home, a 0-2 deficit is tough to overcome regardless of who you are or where you play.
I've had several conversations over the past week about lack of muscular flexibility. While I am the first one to say that flexibility is overrated [sorry yoga fans], maintaining a certain level of flexibility is essential to being an athlete. I think flexibility is best maintained through stretching, foam rolling and making sure your fitness routine has a lot of variety. If your body is only conditioned to move in one direction [say running or cycling only], once you hop in the pool and start your freestyle, it will be more difficult for your shoulders, hips etc... to adjust to a new exercise. If you continue to stress your body with different motions on a consistent basis, flexibility will be a result.
A lot of the lack of muscular flexibility comes from building muscle really quickly. I experienced this issue in high school, when I went from no lifting routine to an intense 4 day/week power lifting routine. My lower body maintained pretty good flexiblity because of the running, drills, and hurdling I was doing on a daily basis, but my upper body, particularly my shoulders and traps/upper back, had no chance. It became a team joke to compare my level of flexibility to every other team member, I lost every time. My issue with flexibility became a problem when I started throwing the javelin and I couldn't physically get my arm in the position it needed to be because of a serious lack of shoulder flexibility. It took many years of stretching and variety of lifts and exercises to gain the necessary flexibility [although jav never really happened for me...I am not a natural thrower].
My mom is training for a sprint triathlon and had an awesome opportunity yesterday to use video during a swim lesson. She was able to see that her freestyle stroke is really limited by lack of flexibility in her arms and shoulders. Her instructor encouraged her to lay off lifting for awhile and gain flexibility. DON'T DO THAT! Lifting only helps your training for events, whether it be a race, triathlon, dodgeball game etc. It is essential strengthening and cross training for whatever events you have in your athletic future. You can work on flexibility and continue your lifting regiment simultaneously. As I suggested before, add more motion variety to your workouts and build in an extra 5-10 minutes after your lift to stretch it out. Stretch before you go to bed, stretch with a friend, stretch while watching your favorite show or sports game. As important as it is to build muscle, it is equally as important to maintain flexibility so you can use that muscle for whatever athletic endeavours you choose.
This topic is especially important today as I sit in my desk chair with a really tight lower back. My workout today was awesome, but I clearly need a bit more back flexibility work in my future.
Today's lower bod workout of CHAMPIONS:
Circuit x 3
Forward lunge x 10 each @ 20lb dumbells
Jump squats x 20
Leg press x 20 @ 2 plates each side
Back Squat
x 8 @ 155lb
x 6 @ 175lb
x 4 @ 185lb
x 2 @ 205lb
Deadlift
3 x 8 @ 145lb
Going to continue this Hump Day fun with a run after work to stretch everything out and get the blood flowing. ENJOY!
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