Athlete Spotlight: Brian Wilson and Barry Zito’s Offseason Workout

For this installment of Athlete Spotlight, we highlight baseball players Brian Wilson and Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants. Recently, they shared their offseason workout regiment on the Giants Official Site.

The two pitchers have engaged in a six-day-per-week routine since November 1st. Here are the details:

• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are devoted to specific muscle groups
• Tuesdays are for plyometrics, which refine the body’s fast-twitch muscles
• Thursdays are for yoga
• Saturdays are kickboxing days

Also, check out the article to find out more about their interesting games of catch.

The success that Wilson and Zito have this year will largely be determined by their dedication to this offseason workout.

Athlete Spotlight: Jimmy Rollins Off-Season Workout

Welcome to the first edition of Athlete Spotlight. We will find examples of serious athletes and trainers staying in shape. And we will post them here to give new ideas and inspiration from their workouts.

With Spring Training a little less than a month away, we thought we would show you a glimpse of the off-season training that an MLB athlete goes through. Courtesy of Stack TV, this video shows Philadelphia Phillies shortstop and 2007 NL MVP Jimmy Rollins doing some warm-ups and speed drills with his coach, Aaron Sistruck.

The point of the exercises on display is to improve body control, and based on the success Jimmy Rollins has had on the field, these exercises have to be pretty effective. So get out there and add these to your workout to get a speed and power boost!

1 Month Down… 11 to Go

The first month of 2009 is almost over, so for all you Players who had “get fit” in their New Year’s Resolutions List, there are 11 months left to go! We thought a couple of tips, ideas and refreshers might be a helpful way to kick off 2009.

If you are looking to burn the fat and don’t have a lot of time to dedicate at the gym, circuit training might be a great addition to your routine. Circuit training is great at getting a full body workout in a short period of time. The idea is to have a set of exercises that combine cardio and strength and to do these exercises in quick succession. To give you an idea of what circuit training entails, take a look at this great routine from about.com.

If you are in the business of building muscle, but time management is essential, then multi-joint exercises might help you accomplish your goal. Instead of focusing on exercises that work a specific area of the body, like bicep curls, dedicate more time to up-right rows, which work your biceps, forearms, shoulder, and upper back in the same motion.

Here is a good schedule from AskMen.com for multi-joint exercises:

Full-body “every third day” workouts might include leg presses, deadlifts, dips, pulldowns, and upright rows during one session. The next workout could comprise squats or lunges, bench presses or pushups, pullups or barbell rows, and overhead presses. For those favoring a four-day split program, do several sets of squats and lunges on lower-body days, and choose leg presses and stepups for the next workout.

Upper-body days would involve selecting bench presses, dips or pushups, pulldowns, pullups, or dumbbell rows or barbell rows, and either upright rows or overhead presses.

As John F. Kennedy once said, “Physical fitness is the basis for all other forms of excellence.” So get to it, Players!

One Hundred Pushups

A lot of Players on introPLAY have talked about the One Hundred Pushups program. We wanted to show our love for this great program. Basically, they have set a program where you will be able to do 100 consecutive pushups without rest, regardless of your current condition, after just six weeks.

Just take their initial test and then start their program using their Week 1 instructions.

And remember, as you go through the 6 weeks of building up your strength, you can record your progress as Strength Training on introPLAY. And if you need some extra motivation, start a pushup introLEAGUE today!

Good luck!

New Physical Activity Guidelines Out Today

The Department of Health and Human Services today put out its 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines include a wealth of information and resources for individuals of all ages. They are meant for the public and are based on a committee report published earlier in the year, which we wrote about here.

What’s the bottom line? For adults, it is to get 2 1/2 hours of exercise per week.

Some of the information that came out today includes:

• The full guide
• A report for adults
• A toolkit for communities and organizations
• The original committee report

Of course, we would highly recommend individuals, organizations and communities all take advantage of introPLAY’s full set of services for tracking workouts, forming communities, sharing with others and improving motivation! How can introPLAY help? (Registration required.)

1. Instead of using a paper journal to keep track of your workouts, use our workout tracker
2. Get more value from your workouts by viewing statistics and comparisons with other Players
3. See what other Players are doing in the Workout Ticker
4. Expand your physical activity presence to your Facebook account by taking advantage of our Workout Olympiad Application
5. Start an introLEAGUE to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to take part in your goal to increase your levels of physical activity

In fact, if you are a member of an organization or part of a wellness initiative for your organization and you would like to find out more about partnering with introPLAY, please contact us.

Olympic Training Tips

MSNBC has a couple of great articles featuring Olympic trainers and athletes talking about some of their training habits and techniques. Here is a summary of some of the strength training tips:

Warmups. “Place eight cones three feet apart in a line, and then do three sets of each of the following exercises: Weave through them at a sprint, weave through them while high stepping, jump over them with your feet together, and weave through them while facing sideways.”

Core. “Lie on your back on a decline bench, holding a weight plate against your chest with both hands. Then lift your upper body off the bench about 6 inches. Holding this position, press the weight plate straight up from your chest, as if you’re doing a bench press. Lower the weight (but not your torso) and repeat. Do 12 presses, rest 1 minute, and repeat once or twice.”

Dips. “In the ‘up’ position of the exercise, raise your thighs in front of you until they’re parallel to the floor, and bend your knees 90 degrees. Hold your legs that way for the entire movement — instead of crossing them behind you. This redistributes your weight so that your torso leans forward as you lower your body, placing more of the stress on your chest instead of your shoulders.”

Improving Balance. “The best way to bolster [balance] is with an overhead squat. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and grasp a length of PVC pipe with a grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder width. Hold it eight to 12 inches above your head, keeping your chest out, torso erect, and heels on the ground. Press the pipe upward as you squat down as far as you can go without arching your back, and then rise up. Do three sets of five to 10 reps. Start doing it with a barbell when the PVC pipe becomes easy.”

Hitting a wall. “When you hit a wall don’t train harder or attempt to force muscle growth by piling on more weight. Reduce your load by 10 to 20 pounds. In other words, if you want to bust out of a rut, undertrain for a week or two.”

Body weight exercises. “…most guys do body-weight exercises incorrectly. They focus on reps when they should really be concentrating on time. Rather than shoot for, say, three sets of 10 push-ups, do as many as you can in 30 seconds. Employ the same strategy with pull-ups, dips, and single-leg squats, resting for 30 seconds between each set.”

We will post some more tips for specific sports, from running and swimming to volleyball and basketball, so stay tuned.

Links to the MSNBC articles here and here.