Sunday, January 8, 2012

Off season training

The tri season rolls around pretty quickly every year. It's important that you give your body some down time before you jump back into your training regime. Triathletes are reluctant to let go of that late season fitness and want to keep the training rolling. There's a number of great ways to maintain some fitness without prolonged linear aerobic sessions except for the barefoot beach runs. I listed 5 workouts that are short durations with maximum returns that will set you up for a new and hopefully healthy tri season.
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1. Strength Training -- If you haven't formed some type of off season strength training program it's not to late. There's multiple options to work on your over all strength and core. The off season is the time to work on your specific limiters and building strength for it. You should include some type of squatting & lunging with free weights to require you to engage your core. I would insert some type of lateral movement and plyometrics with some jumping moves. There's a variety of choices if your designing your own program on You Tube. If you don't want to go the gym route there's the home garage or just go to the local park or School and do the standard push up and pull ups on the playground equipment. Check out P90X, TRX, Kelly Sarrrett and Lance Armstrong sites on You Tube for great workouts. 2.Stretching , Flexibility & Recovery-- There's nothing better for great fitness than great flexibility. The injuries Begin to creep in when the muscles shorten up from prolonged use. Incorporate some yoga postures into your daily workouts for stretching and some type of rotation for back flexibility. Use the foam rollers and TP massage gadgets all over your body to floss the muscle fibers every time you get a chance. Do some type of inversion everyday for a few minutes to get the blood flow going the other way for optimum energy flow and and take the load off your legs. 3. Hiking--- If you live in snow country you could be snow shoeing or cross country skiing. Here on the Central Coast of Calif. in the winter there's an abundance of trails and mountain peaks that provide great day hikes that maintain fitness and is a great way to spend time with your family and significant other before the 6 to 8 hour training days roll in. 4. Paddle--- If you haven't had the opportunity to either Stand Up Paddle or Kayak ,your missing a great workout or just an adventure. The Stand Up Paddling is a full body workout that includes the core,upper and lower body. There are numerous outlets for paddling. My friend Buzz from http://www.toobs.com Boogie boards in Morro Bay CA. makes a unique board that can be transported in small spaces and is light. Paddling is a great recovery workout year round to supplement your training. 5.Mountain Biking--There's nothing better than off road bike riding to build strength. The MTB ride is 2:1 for energy expenditure over road riding and will help with your bike handling skills. Find some hilly terrain and spin up the hills seated to build power for those long rides on the tri or road bike later on.

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