Weights...again

It has been TOO long since I've been in the weight room! I can say that it has been almost 5 months since I've been in the weightroom consistently. By consistently I mean a two week streak. There is something absolutely wrong with this picture right? You would think so, but with facilities at school closed or "off limits" it is hard to get in any type of consistent workouts in the weightroom. That is due to A LOT of different issues, but for now I wont dwell on the past.

I started back on weights Tuesday, and it has been going very well so far. I know when we start full time with Coach Mitchell, he's gonna pound my body with not only tough workouts, but weights also. We decided that I should do some light stuff just to get back into the tune of things, so it wont take such a toll on my muscles with coach. Weights is something that I like to work at, but since the latter years of my collegiate years, have since lost power on the steel. This is one thing that I will need to truly focus on to be the world class athlete I dare to be.

Tuesday's workout was comprised of mostly upper body, starting out with some exercises from Howard that the strength trainer Travis taught me. He knows what he is doing but is short-staffed, and as far as weight equipment, undermanned. However, being at an HBCU such as HU athletes have to pull together to make things work, which I feel people do very well. So I started off with the olympic complex excercise with the bar to loosen up. Then I got right into the workout with some hang cleans supersetting with push ups. I do everything in 3 sets, these few weeks with low weight to tone and shock the muscles back into building stages. After that I did 3 sets of regular bench press followed by one set of negatives (bar is in top position and you count down to 6 on the way down to your chest then push it off fast back to the top). I then went into sets of curls, tricep pulldowns, and bent over wings. As a runner in general you must have to have a very strong core (front and back of body from thighs up to abs). As a hurdler you also need to work on your hips, groin, and low back especially. I ended up doing a hip abductor/adductor machine that really helps strengthen groin and hips for that driving action you get going into hurdles, and ability to keep that motion going, which gets increasingly harder at the last 3 hurdles. I ended off with two sets of a great abdominal workout called the Ab Complex, barbell roll-outs, and some of my own crunches tied into it.

I worked more lower body Thursday, but must admit that my body is adapting well to the steel. I could feel a stark difference in my legs when doing my morning runs, but was able to push though it due to my better endurance level. Week two of weights will start on Monday. Im headed to my cousin James' football game in a little while which should be pretty interesting. He is in the 9th grade, plays receiver, and I hear he is something to talk about so it will be good to see him in action.
PS I've gotta shorten these posts up huh?