Warm-up:
5 minutes of jump rope and 10 minutes of targeted, static stretching.
Exercise 1 - Banded joint mobilization drill: emphasize on maintaining muscle tension along your entire back and shoulders throughout the stretch. Do not lose tension! (3x10)
Exercise 2 - Scapular mobilization drill: can be done with your back against the wall if you do not have a PVC pipe; Aim to have your arms never lose contract with the wall. Upper back should be the primary mover here. (3x10)
Exercise 3 - Superman with shoulder rotations. contract your abdomen to raise up off the floor and rotate your shoulders and arms in a 180-degree trajectory and then back to the overhead position. Much like all of the above exercises, the key here is to maintain tension on your back and shoulders to practice muscular awareness and engagement. (5x5)
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Plyometrics:
Exercise 1 - Forward-backwards skips with varying height. We are aiming to work on knee resilience by varying jump heights. Focus on minimizing Ground-Contact-Time (GCT) per jump. 10 rounds.
Exercise 2 - Explosive Medicine Ball Split Lunge. Emphasize a proper hip-hinge prior to exploding towards the bench, Once landed, both legs should be generating equal tension to ensure your hips are stabilizing your body. We can ensure this by having a partner generate a slight stimulus (demonstrated here with a PVC pipe) across the frontal plane. If your hips are working, you shouldn't tip over! (5x2 each side)
Exercise 3 - Seated Vertical Jumps. Weight is optional. Focus on shifting your weight towards your posterior chain for a brief moment, prior to shifting forward and propelling yourself off the floor. GCT is also a factor here. Look to "stab the floor" with the middle of your foot to explode upwards. Land in an athletic stance with a slight knee bend.
Exercise 4 - Lateral SL Skips - Aim to keep your hips squared and force your knees, ankles, and feet to adapt to the varying heights. As you may have already noticed, GCT is a prominent focus in this session. The longer you stay in one spot during this drill, the more difficult it will be to shift your weight and the more likely you are to fail the rep; fast is good here!
Exercises 5,6,7 (Circuit)
1) 50-repetition Neutral -Grip Curl (10-rep alternating sets)
2) 40-repetition Close-Grip BP (10-rep alternating sets)
3) 60-repetition Banded Tricep Pull-down (15-rep alternating sets)
Partner here is optional, but I recommend to keep the tempo fluent throughout the circuit with minimal rest in between sets.
(3 rounds)
