You surf? Ski? Sights set on pro ball one day? Maybe you just want to be the ringer of your flag football league. Regardless of your sport, age, or athletic talents, if you’re serious enhancing your performance, then your gym-time should be designed around that goal. We partnered up with FOCUS NYC’s certified personal trainer and former collegiate athlete, Keita Minakawa to produce a plan designed to improve muscular strength, endurance, and injury prevention.
HOW IT WORKS
While all of our muscles are connected by soft tissue, total body movements are the best approach at priming the human body for athletic pursuits. “All of the exercises in these two routines require every muscle in the body to work together as one single unit,” says Minakawa. “More specifically, these exercises and movements will imitate what we do during sports and other physical activities.”
Further breaking down the plan: some movements will focus on the upper body, others on the lower body, but as a whole, all of them rely heavily on the “core muscles”. “The core is what allows energy to be transferred from the upper body to lower body and vice versa,” Minakawa explains. “Without a strong core to hold everything together, it’s impossible to move efficiently,” he adds. The exercises and movements will test your ability to main structural integrity through different planes of motions which is something that requires high levels of muscular strength and endurance. “By training in this manner, we’re able to build strength and endurance that has a high carry over to athletic performance and other dynamic activities,” he says.
DIRECTIONS
Minakawa advises that the two routines be alternated throughout the week for a total of three separate workouts. He warns that a fourth day would be excessively taxing on the body and that you need 48 hours to properly recovery from each workout. However, a fourth day may be used for “non-eccentric conditioning for extra cardiovascular endurance and/or soft tissue work such as foam rolling and other mobility work to address specific needs.”
WORKOUT ONE
Complete 3 sets of each circuit
1A. Tall-Kneeling Dynamic Plank x 8 each side
1B. Rack Carry x 1 min each direction
1C. Push Up + Single-arm, Single-leg Plank x 10
2A. Lateral Lunge x 10 each side
2B. Single-arm Cable Chest Press x 8 each side
2C. Side Kick-through x 8 each side
3A. Bird-dog Row x 15 each side
3B. Kneeling Jump x 10
WORKOUT TWO
Complete 3 sets of each circuit
1A. Plank with Kettlebell Slide
1B. Suitcase Carry x 1 min each direction
1C. Single-arm Cable Row x 8 each side
2A. Front-rack Reverse Lunge x 6 each leg
2B. Tall-Kneeling Alternating Pulldown x 8 each side
2C. Side Plank Row x 30 sec each side
3A. Half Get-up with Shoulder Press x 3 each side
3B. Box Jump w Single-leg Landing x 5 each side
