Where's the swimming? ;-)

You're opening up a nasty can of disagreement on this toic, I'm sure. I'd suggest doing a general resistance training plan, rather than one of isolation unless you have some specific weakness.

Chins, dips, press, all kinds of abs, low back, and if you believe it helps, then some kind of leg press/squat, leg curls, and calf work. All in one session.

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

OK, on the swimming...I don't do frigid, cold or even cool water. Born and raised in Miami, anything under 75 is freezing to me.

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The Cuban Comet
(Comets are unbelievably slow over Cuba)

I have struggled with the same question with regard to my own training and two years ago found a great answer, at least for me. I realize this may sound a bit ridiculous, but check out "The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness" (it is not that easy to find, but Amazon sometimes has copies). The book covers a number of things, but one of them is an overall strength building a maintenance program. The book advocates circuit training (all body parts), but over two days - one day upper body, one day lower body. You can then mix and match to meet your weekly schedule.

Do not isolate body parts, but rather train movements. The human body is integrated and multiplanner, asymetrical dynamic explosive and rarely static. No single joint, single plane stabalized exercise can compare to the benefits provided by movement based training.

At Functionally Innovative Training, we have been doing allot of strength based research with athletes in NYC training at commercial health clubs and this is one of the conclusions that we have come about. It seems more and more of athletes are working harder to become stronger and healthier. These athletes are constantly working to improve their activities by increasing their flexibility, strength, endurance, and power. A tremendous amount of athletes are performing high-level activities even though they are inefficient in their fundamental movements. These individuals create poor movement patterns, train around a pre-existing problem or simply do not train their weakness during their strength and conditioning programs. People are spending thousands of dollars on their bikes to become "faster" but spend little when it comes to their actual performance enhancement and or injury prevention.

In today’s evolving training and conditioning market, athletes and individuals have access to a huge arsenal of equipment and workout programs; however, the best equipment and programs cannot produce if the fundamental weaknesses are not exposed. The idea behind strength training is to individualize each workout program based on your weak link. This weak link is a physical or functional limitation. In order to isolate the weak link, the body’s fundamental movement patterns should be considered. Most people do not begin strength and conditioning or rehabilitative programs by determining if they have adequate movement patterns- but they should. By looking at the movement patterns and not just one area, a weak link can be identified. This will enable the individual, strength and conditioning coach, athletic trainer or fitness professional to focus on that area. If this weak link is not identified, the body will compensate, causing inefficient movements. It is this type of inefficiency that can cause a decrease in performance and an increase in injuries.

Once you can determine if you have a weak link or not, you can then start on movement based stability and mobility work. Another interesting piece of info that we have found in our research is athletes will always sacrifice quality of motion to maintain quantity of motion and in turn develop compensatory movement patterns in order to overcome functional deficits. An example of this is how an athlete will develop hip stiffness due to athletic participation. This is a result of the muscle hypertrophy and movement patterns that occur due to training and participation sports. When the hips become stiff in the end ranges of flexion, extension and adduction, the lumbar spine will have to sacrifice its stability at the expense of greater mobility. Excessive flexion, extension and rotation will occur at the lumbar spine in an attempt to compensate for a relative decreased stride length during running caused by the stiffness in the hips. Therefore, an athlete who has a slight decrease in range of motion may lose 2-3 inches in their stride and they will compensate by using poor body mechanics. This compensatory movement pattern is a temporary strategy and, although straight-ahead speed may be maintained, the ability to maintain it efficiently over long periods of time may be altered. This situation will predispose the athlete to develop micro trauma, or excessive wear and tear on the body. Imagine if your stride is shortened by 2-3 inches, and you run at a rate of 90 strides a minute. That is 3 inches per stride times 90 in a minute- now figure how many inches/feet/miles you can save or make up in an Ironman marathon.

Long long long story short and Im sure nobody really wanted to read this, work on your movement patterns for your strength training program. First identify potential biomechanical weaknesses and work on turning them into a strength and prevent injury and your weight program will help you tremendously.

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Jason Goldberg
FIT Multisports

get a bosu ball, and do the stuff on the tape. it will kick your ass and you will get stronger for it.

kittycat

there's some great 20 minute SEAL workouts here. man they kick my ass.

http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Smith_040123,00.html