Health Fitness

General Preparation Phase Workouts for Punch and Discus Throwers

In this article I want to cover a couple of workouts that we do with our team during the general preparation phase of training. These workouts are great for athletes to work out and get back in shape. They come from various sources and are always evolving, feel free to take them and put your own spin on them.

A couple of years ago, Romona Pagel gave a great presentation at the NTCA Convention. He really has great workout ideas. One of the workouts that I took from that session with her, I now call it the Pagel Circuit. The Pagel Circuit consists of all bodyweight exercises, so you don’t need specialized equipment or a lot of space. Athletes complete 10 repetitions of each exercise with no rest between exercises. We complete the exercises in this order:

-Eructation

-V-ups

-Jump squats

-Lizards

-Split squat jump

-Side jump

After completing the 6 exercises, we walk or jog 200 meters to recover and then repeat the circuit for three cycles. I keep track of the time it takes to complete each cycle and use that as one of my data points to verify that our training methods are effective.

Another good early season exercise is the medicine ball relay. This exercise was presented to me by a former athlete in our system, Dan Hytinen. It’s a pretty quick but brutal workout that athletes really get involved in. We use heavy medicine balls that do not bounce and the athletes are paired in groups of two. Men use a 25-pound ball and women a 16-pound ball. Working around the 200-meter indoor track, the first partner takes the ball and chest passes it in front of him, then runs to her continuing this for a full turn around the track. After crossing the line, partner does a chest lap across the track while partner 1 rests. In the second round, the athletes throw the ball forward through the legs, lowering the hips and then raising them. In the final leg of the relay, athletes run while holding the ball overhead. With this workout, you need to be careful not to have too many athletes throwing balls at the same time. I limit it to only 3 athletes on the track at any one time to reduce the risk of them being hit by medicine balls.

Each of these workouts can be completed in a relatively short period of time. They are great for getting athletes back to normal and improving work capacity with minimal chance of injury. I have found that they are a good combination of volume and intensity for early season workouts.

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