If there’s one thing I dislike about working out it’s cardio. You’re probably thinking…..this guy is going to give me the same lecture I’ve heard time and time again about how essential cardio is to your workout program. Close. I’ve been around sports my entire life so I’m just going to talk a little about the conditioning exercises and techniques that I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.

Let me start by reiterating that fact that I really don’t like cardio, unless it’s for a purpose. I’ll explain. I don’t mind running down field to catch a pass or sprinting down the court for a fast break, I just don’t like doing cardio just to do it. I did run track in high school for a year, not sure what I was thinking - apparently I wasn’t.

In this post I will focus on conditioning for football - I will get into other sports in future posts.

Football Conditioning

To get started, it’s important to make sure you’re running the “proper way.” Form running is a very effective exercise used to help develop or improve your running skills. The workout consists of: high knees (10 yards down and 10 yards back), butt kickers (10 yards down and 10 yards back), high jump skip (10 yards down and 10 yards back), stride outs - just like Deion Sanders which is why this is my favorite (20 yards down and 20 yards back), and lastly put it all together and sprint for 15 yards down and back. This workout is great as it effectively dissects the running motion and allows you to work on each individual aspect of the movement.

Read on for more!

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Recently I went through a lot of big changes - moved, new job, etc. etc. I decided with all of these things going on, why not change my workout routine and goals?

That being said, I always used to tell myself and others - that I had a 6 pack at one time, and that if I really wanted to - I could get one again. Well, the more I thought about it, the more I questioned myself, “could I really commit to that kind of diet and exercise regiment again??” I remember hating it, and never wanting to do it again. And I thought about how much I loved crap food.

Well - as you can guess, I decided to go for it. If you’ve read any of my articles about abs, than you know I had to start with the diet. I know I’ve said it 1000 times already, but you’ll never see abs without a proper diet.

FUEL FOR YOUR BODY

As I worked on my diet, I consulted Team Scivation (which is made up of professional bodybuilders). They put me on a diet which essentially eliminates carbs. One thing I really took away from the diet plan, was they said carbs could be considered “cheap gasoline” while the proper fats could be considered “rocket fuel.”

That one analogy put everything into perspective for me. I cut out the grains and all other obvious carbs.

To get a better idea of my diet:

I eat a lot of chicken, tuna, almonds, avacado, shrimp, (some steak), apples, vegetables, and protein shakes.

And one day I week I eat a lot of disgusting food, and drink a lot of alcohol - i refer to this as my “cheat day.”

As I’ve followed this diet for about a month and half, I’ve gotten down to a four pack, but I’m still slowly trimming away.

After finding an appropriate diet which is working for you - I can’t stress enough, be strict.

In part 2, I’ll discuss my current workout regiment.

Walking to quiznos ain’t no thing but a chicken wing, running to the gas station to get a snickers isn’t sprinting, and shuffling around behind your desired guy/girl at da club isn’t resistance training. Get pumped, now that your diet should be a bit improved from part 1 of the series(if not remember, abs are made in the kitchen not the weight room), now comes the next part: working out. “I’m on a diet” doesn’t cut it as your plan for looking good for the summer. Your plan of attack should consist of exercising three-six days a week. “Oh noez! I don’t have time for that between video games, reading cosmo, and taking out the trash!” well suck it up, you gotta put the work in. Sucka.

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Are you getting huge?

Anybody can be a jackass who does a lot of weight for one rep or who does 200 reps with the pink weights. Those that have lost their gym training wheels, discontinued bragging about their 145 lb bench, and decided to stop wearing wife-beaters/sleeve-less tee’s until there is something to show off are decidedly more interested in some more substantial gains. The question beckons, how many reps should I be doing?

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Since I am temporarily separated from all of my workout partners, it’s been somewhat of a challenge trying to continuously push myself. Not just in how hard I work out, but also with changing up the routine. By the way, Marissa Miller wasn’t actually my trainer, I just thought we should finally get a picture of a hot girl on the site…and I love her.

As luck would have it, when I joined my gym, I got a free personal training session. Most gyms do this, so go ask about it if you haven’t already. I set up the time and when I met with the trainer he of course asked me what my goals were and why I wanted the session blah blah fuckin blah. I basically told him that I wanted him to hurt me, kill me, push me, take my body to the edge, make me cry like a little school girl panzy ass bitch, so on and so forth. 

HUGE MISTAKE (But an awesome huge mistake) Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing with the quick and convenient home workout segment, today I’m going run through a crazy arm workout, you should really be pushing yourself to the max in terms of how much weight you are using and how tired your arms get. Coincidentally enough, this follows the push/pull method we here at yogymbo have been so fond of recently. All you need is a set of dumbbells to do this workout, but having a barbell with some weights would also be helpful. It involves six exercises, three bicep and three tricep. You do one set of every exercise, and then repeat as many times as you’re comfortable with, two more times is a pretty good number. Read the rest of this entry »

As the weather gets nicer in this neck of the woods, golf can become a predominant activity around here, so I figured I’d write a little piece on what exercises one can do to help improve their game.

Because golfing involves a twisting motion, using the hips, abs, lower back etc, you should really focus on exercising, and strengthening your core. A strong core will help keep your swing steady, consistent, and stronger.

Some other great core workouts are: The Ab Boot Camp, The Champion Workout, and the Plank Workout.

Its also very important to be flexible, as a golf swing can really utilize your entire body. Below is a video of a good golf swing that can help anyone looking for a few pointers.

Most of the posts we’ve written about exercises and workouts have been written under the assumption that everyone has the time and the desire to spend an hour(s) in the gym four to five times a week. I’ve been spending a lot of time with family friends lately, what with graduation parties and everything, and somehow we would always start talking about working out and how they didn’t have the time or the energy to spend hours in the gym everyday. That being the case, I figured I’d write a short little series of articles about how you can get a good workout in the comfort of your own home with limited equipment. I’ll do a short workout for a different body part in each article and at the end you can mix and match and make it as long/short as you like. Read the rest of this entry »

So I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I think about the gold standard of overall physical fitness, one of the first things I think about is the military and how there’s no way in Hell I could even come close to keeping up with their crazy six mile runs and whatnot. Their boot camp workouts just get these people into shape in every way shape and form, from muscle strength, to muscular endurance, to cardiovascular fitness. One of the really impressive things about this is that since the military trains in such large groups, they have very limited time in facilities to weight train. As a result, most of their workouts are body weight resistance based. Pushups, pullups, crunches, and distance running are the staples of the military workout. I’ve recently become a huge fan of the pullup and in my opinion it’s the best and hardest exercise you can do. Read the rest of this entry »

If any of you follow football, then you most likely know a thing or two about the NFL combine workout. For those of you who don’t, there is a portion of the workout where the players are asked to bench press 225lbs as many times in a row as they can. In talking to a couple of people I know who either play, have played, or are involved in football, I was given the idea of actually incorporating this into a real workout. It’s a very complicated process so pay close attention….you lift 225lbs as many times as you can…..then you rest and do it three more times ha. Read the rest of this entry »