I'd Rather Be Skating workout

This week, I had a lot of energy when I got home from work but not enough time to go skating.  So I decided to try something a little different.  Instead of a video workout, I decided to practice my jumps and created my own 10 minute, off-ice workout.

I'd Rather Be Skating Workout

 

Warm-up 
Your choice.  (I decided to kill two birds with one stone and warm up by walking the dog.)

Jumps

Since you can't work on those pesky MIF, you can get right to the fun stuff without any guilt.

• 10 frog jumps with a balance ball.    This gets you warmed up with a simple, two-legged jump.  My goal is to hit the ball on the ceiling.  (This one is from Fitness Magazine.) 
• 5 - 10 waltz jumps
• 5 - 10 Salchows
• 5-10 toe loops
• 5-10 flips
• 5-10 loops

 Wall squats with the balance ball
I find that using the balance ball for wall squats makes it much easier to get up out of the squat since it rolls on the wall, whereas my shirt sticks to the sheet rock.

• Hold 10 seconds on both legs.
• Lift your left leg into a sit spin position.  Hold 10 seconds.
• Switch legs and hold for another 10 seconds.

Standing Side Splits with a ball - Left

Another exercise I found at Fitness Magazine. 

The reason I included this is because it's similar to spirals.  (And because this is a yoga pose I've always wanted to try but never could figure out how to make it work with my limited flexibility until now.)  

The stability ball makes it more challenging than it looks. 

 Spiral - left leg

• Use a chair or the wall if you need support, or if you are strong enough, do it without support.
• Think about Michelle Kwan and try to get that foot above your head (in my case, above the hip) and the hold the position for at least 30 seconds. 

Do another set of wall squats

Standing splits - right leg

Spiral - right leg

That's it - 10 minutes and you are done.  If you still want to skate, put on your socks and practice your spins on the kitchen floor.  Be sure to clear the counters if you are going to work on your camels. 

Julie Benz credits figure skating to her success

One of my favorite actresses is Julie Benz.  Currently, she plays Rita on Showtime's Dexter.  Before that, she played Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

She's one of Carl's favorite actresses, too.  As he puts it, she's "Nummy-nummy-nummy."  I have to admit, I would love to have her figure just to hear him say that about me.

Turns out, Benz is a former figure skater who, with her partner, placed 13th in pairs at the junior level in 1988.  In an article in American Fitness, she credits her former ice rink days in giving her the discipline to take on her acting roles.  "I actually love exercise. I can't go for more than three days without working out or being physical," she admits. "That's the way I clear my head."

Her workout routine includes a lot of work on her legs and her bahookie.  "I do a lot of squats, lunges, walking lunges, jumps and sprints."

Seigler, Bonnie.  "Benz:  fitness with finesse."  American Fitness.  November/December 2008.

Top 10 Goals

As you know, this I don't make my New Year's Resolutions quite the way the time management gurus tell you to because I don't care if they are achievable.

That's right.  They don't have to be achievable.

Rather, I ask, "What are my top 10 goals for the year IF I AM GUARANTEED TO SUCCEED?"  It frees me up to work on things I might not otherwise do, like finding a pair skating partner.  Then I commit to taking one step toward one of those goals each week.

Generally, I take a lot of little steps towards several of the goals, especially since several of them revolve around skating.

So, here's what I did last week . . .

• Pass my Silver moves   (yes, this means passing bronze moves first).  I skated TWICE.  Andrew was there and gave me some extra help and by golly, it really felt like I was figure skating again. 

• Take a vacation with Carl. I forgot our anniversary.  It's not 'til next Saturday, so technically, I didn't forget it, but I did forget to take time off.  To make it up to him, we have planned a getaway for Valentine's Day.  It's not a full vacation, but it is one night by ourselves. 

• Have a baby.  When you screw up as badly as I did this week, working on this goal helps a lot to smooth things over.

•  Lose 30 pounds.  I committed to doing at least 10 minutes of exercise every day.  This week I added The Gift of Yoga, a gift given to me by our roommate.   

What are you doing to reach your Top 10 Goals? 

New Sk8Strong DVD available

Monday, January 10, 2011

NEW Sk8Strong DVDs: "The Skater Evaluation" and "Advanced Competitive Training"

Sk8Strong is very excited to announce the arrival of two new products: "The Skater Evaluation DVD and Manual Package", and "Advanced Competitive Training"! Find both in our DVD catalog here.

"The Skater Evaluation":  Per request of many customers: coaches, fitness professionals, and skaters, we have created an assessment tool that will give the skating world a comprehensive catalog of simple evaluative tests to determine a skater's strengths and weaknesses.  What's even better?  You can then refer to a collection of corrective exercises to instantly improve upon your findings and apply them to improve your skating skills.

"Advanced Competitive Training" is for the skater who has completed the highest progression levels of "The Competitive Skater" or "Adult Training" DVDs and is looking for the most challengind and skating specific functional workout today!

Posted by Lauren at 6:25 PM

You go!

One of my friends on Facebook said,: 

Stretching. Done. Abs. Done. All before 5am.

Maybe he'll share his secrets   What stretches do you do?  What do you do to strengthen your core? 

And how on earth do you do it before 5 am? 

 

Motivation . . . waning

Ahh!  Only 12 days into the new year and my motivation is waning.  I decided to research what would burn more calories:  yoga or a cardio workout.  My conclusion:  either one burns more calories than sitting at the computer!  

Bronze workout

Jana Kading, one of my coach friends in Phoenix, used to provide workouts for various levels of skaters on her website.  Her Pre-Bronze workout was the basis of my skating practice for a long time.

Now that I've passed my Pre-Bonze tests, I've modified it for Bronze MIF.  If I were to do the entire workout without stopping, it would probably take a little over an hour.  Since I do stop for water breaks (that's adult skater for "gasp for air") and to visit with other skaters, I takes closer to 1.5 hours.  No, I don't really have that kind of time, so I cut back on the number of repetitions or leave sections out (adult skater for "forget to do something")
 
Holly's Bronze Workout
Warm-up/Bronze MIF

• Forward and backward perimeter power stroking.  
• One full lap forward, end pattern per rulebook, one full lap backward
• Forward power 3 turns (2 laps)
• Alternating backward crossovers to backward outside edges (1 full lap)
• Forward circle 8 (x2)
• Five-step Mohawk sequence (1 lap)

Plus . . . 

• Alternating 3-turns:  1 hockey line each FO & FI 3-turns

Or, if that's not working very well, 

• Pre-bronze 3 turn pattern, since it uses all 4 forward 3's

Spins: 5x each

• 1-foot spin
• Scratch spin
• Backward outside edge on hockey circle with free leg in back-spin position
• Back spin
• Change-foot spin

Jumps:  5x ea

• Individual jumps
• Waltz (5 in a row, if possible)
• Salchow
• 1/2 flip
• Toe loop
• Combo jumps
• Waltz/toe-loop
• Salchow/toe-loop
• Toe-loop/toe-loop
• Jump sequence:  waltz-1/2 flip-Salchow-toe-loop

Footwork - 1 length of rink each

• Mohawk footwork
• Alternating crossovers/tap-toe

Program:  run through entire program at least once

Cool down:  2 laps (any pattern)

What's your workout?

One thing that has really bugged me since I took up skating again is how little guidance is available for adult skaters.  Obviously, you can't teach someone how to do a layback spin in a blog, so I'm not trying to take the place of your coach.

I can find tons of information and step-by-step instructions for all sorts of activities, like yoga or exercise for general weight loss.  Not so with figure skating.  I know of one ice dance instructional video, Learn to Ice Dance.  I've seen one video, Sk8Strong, that provides an off-ice workout.

So my first question:  have you used any of these resources, or anything similar?  If you have, please share!

My next question, what do you do for your workouts, both on- and off-ice.  I'll post some of my current workouts in separate posts.