Jump!

Today's Velocity Sports workout was all about jumping. Brynne and Heather were both already in class when Kris and I arrived, the whole group getting ready to go go go when we showed up late. The morning's workout was all about jumping, in decreasing sets. I was planning on taking a later train down south so that Kris and I could throw after the workout, to practice throwing when tired, concentrating on good form to establish good habits.

The workout circuit was:

Box jumps
Barbell twists
Ball slams
Burpees

The repetitions in the sets reduces by 3 from 21: 21 18 15 12 9 6 3

I'm not sure how we were supposed to do the box jumps other than land softly on the boxes. I jumped onto the middle height box, which is higher than I normally would jump, but I'm ready to start pushing myself. The season is almost over, I've played at Regionals without injury, which was my season goal, actually. So, why not push myself? An injury now wouldn't upset me as much as the one last January, so why not?

So, box jumps, landing lightly, middle height box.

Barbell twists were done holding one end of a barbell, with the other nominally anchored (really, just resting in the hole of a 45 pound weight plate). Starting straight armed with the barbell held in both hands to the right side, lift the barbell up to the side with both arms straight, over the head, and back down on the left side. That's one.

Ball slams were the same as normal: lift a weighted, non-bouncy ball over head (we used the D-balls), and, in one motion, push the ball down to the ground while squatting. The ball will bounce maybe a foot. Catch the ball in the squat position, and stand up, pushing the ball back up overhead. That's one.

Burpees are still the same: stand, squat, put hands on the floor in front of you, thrust legs out behind you into a plank position, do a pushup, thrust legs back up into a squat with hands on floor position, lift hands, do a jump squat with hands high in the air, land, that's one. However, I concentrated on looking up when I jumped up. I have a tendency to look down when I jump up. I don't know why I do that: the ground is going to be there when I land.

So, my squat jumps were higher than normal, but that's a good thing.

Kris and I threw afterward, but he wanted to sit, so not as much as I expected to do. I was tired, however, so fine with it.