Lacrosse Ball for Recovery

Over the last year or so, I started really getting into how SMR (self myofascial release) can help performance. The more I learned about it, the more I realized that this is not just important for performance, but for life in general. I thought I would be working mostly with athletes on how to improve mobility, but on a daily basis I am dealing with people who sit for long periods of time (office work), do manual labor or who just have busy lives and are constantly on the move.

Benefits!

Before your workouts, or just before you start your day, SMR can help release tightness in your upper and lower body muscles and help relieve hip pain.  And unlike static stretching, SMR works the soft tissue.  This will cause you to have a better range of motion, which will prevent you from altering your normal movement patterns which causes imbalances.

After your workouts or long days, use SMR to help increase circulation, which increases oxygen flow to the muscles. This will help speed up your recovery.

How?

I have talked about foam rolling in the past and you can find those links on my blog. Or just Google foam rolling and there are hundreds of videos that can walk you through it. Today I want to talk about using a lacrosse ball for SMR.  Using something smaller will really help you into those trouble areas. Lacrosse balls work better than tennis balls because they are harder.

So instead of my showing you how this is done, I am going to post a video By Kelly Starrett. He is the one who taught me everything I know and who got me started working with mobility. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3KnC6RBhwU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp4QTYljWE4&feature=relmfu

Enjoy Life – Workout!

Mandy

New Challenges

I don’t know why I always try to challenge myself with endurance races, since it is what I am the worst at. I also have never liked running, but some reason every 6 months or so, I forget that and convince myself I will start running again. And here we are at month 6 J. So in 4 weeks I have a 200 mile bike ride that I am not prepared for at all. I have already apologized to my ass for putting it though this. Then I have the tryouts for the Bobsled team in August. This is still on my schedule, but my ankle may have other ideas. My next challenge will then be a half marathon in September. For those of you who don’t know, I have NEVER ran more than a 5k. So, this will be interesting.

My Goal!

I am not going to approach this like a normal endurance race where I run and run or bike and bike until I bore myself to death. My plan is to incorporate high intensity weight training, short and long sprint intervals and long distance paced runs/bikes.

I want to see if I can get stronger, faster and build endurance at the same time. From now until July 14^th my schedule will look like this.

Sunday = Long bike ride

Monday = HIT (high intensity training) + short bike intervals

Tuesday = HIT

Wednesday = HIT + Long bike intervals

Thursday = OFF/Mobility

Friday = Long bike

Saturday = HIT + short recovery bike ride

After July I will replace the biking with running. My goal time for the half is 1:30. Lets see what happens. If there is anyone in the COMO area interested in training with me, just hollar.

Enjoy Life – Workout!

Mandy