Outside's Shape of Your Life, Part V: Balance and Agility
4 weeks - $9.95
Total Hours: 21
Total Hours: 21
In part five of Outside magazine’s National Magazine Award winning fitness program, we’ll help you fine tune your sense of BALANCE AND AGILITY. We’ll show you how to take a series of standard strength-training lifts and destabilize them to improve your athletic stability and teach you three agility drills to mix in with you cardio workouts. WHAT TO EXPECT: Three days a week you’ll be in the pool, or on the road or trail, for 30- to 80-minute cardio workouts, including interval training on Fridays or Saturdays aimed at raising your lactate threshold. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you’ll get a comprehensive strength plan with an emphasis on destabilizing lifts to help you improve your balance--and stay upright on your skis or mountain bike while on a tough route. This is the final installment of our Shape of Your Life program, and a perfect finish for those who have tried the previous four plans, or anyone with a solid fitness and strength foundation who is looking to reach peak endurance and fine tune his or her stabilizer muscles and keep upright on, say, technical ski trails or bike rides.
After purchase, your plan will be available in your own private online training log account. You'll enjoy these benefits and more:
Sample workouts:
Workout #1 : Other
Endurance
Planned Time: 1:30:00
Congratulations, you’ve made it to month five of the award-winning Shape of Your Life total fitness program. Are you ready to reach peak fitness? This month’s focus: fine tuning your balance and agility. Over the course of the next four weeks, you’ll mix in some fun agility drills to the front end of your endurance workouts and add a set of destabilizing balance exercises to a weight training regimen based on the fundamentals of functional strength and Olympic-style lifting. Today, before you begin with your regular M-W-F endurance workouts, you’ll start with a plyometric workout (something familiar to those who followed us in month 4) and a new agility workout—shuffle steps, carioca, and reaction drills—designed to keep you graceful on the fly while making quick stops and starts in your favorite sports. Both of these regimes are detailed in the workout plan. (Be sure to get a good warm-up in for ten minutes before jumping in). Next, it’s on to your endurance work. As you’ll see from the duration of today’s cardio work, these last four weeks of the five-month program are the longest and most intense yet. But don't be intimidated; it's your final month of heart-rate training, and if you’ve been with us since month one, your body is prepared for the heavy training load. Today, your Zone-2 distance workout involves a mellow run for 80 minutes for runners and two hours for cyclists and swimmers. Finally, to keep you limber and give your body the proper cooldown it needs to recover, you’ll finish off you workout with an Ashtanga yoga series that we introduced in month three. If you are interested in learning more about this workout--and the training philosophy behind the exercises you'll be doing--be sure to read our complete story at:http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/123389008.html IMPORTANT NOTE: If this is your first plan with Outside, we highly recommend that you complete one through three of the Shape of Your Life Program. Months 4 and 5 are based on participants having built a solid fitness foundation to be able to carry the heavy load. This is not for beginners. Assuming you have a solid fitness foundation already, we also recommend that new participants perform our Lactate Threshold test before getting started. The lactate threshold (LT) is the exercise intensity at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood stream. The higher you can push this threshold, the faster you can go. Our test will help you set a benchmark, and you can check your progress on the final day of this month's plan. Here's how: On a flat route (ideally a track) after a warm-up, run 1 mile at 5 beats below your lactate threshold heart rate, or Zone 3 (Z-3) heart rate, which is 75 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate. Mark your time on the run. If you've raised your lactate threshold, this run will be faster than last month's. Finally, for more information on heart rate training, please see today’s pre-workout comments.
Planned Time: 1:30:00
Congratulations, you’ve made it to month five of the award-winning Shape of Your Life total fitness program. Are you ready to reach peak fitness? This month’s focus: fine tuning your balance and agility. Over the course of the next four weeks, you’ll mix in some fun agility drills to the front end of your endurance workouts and add a set of destabilizing balance exercises to a weight training regimen based on the fundamentals of functional strength and Olympic-style lifting. Today, before you begin with your regular M-W-F endurance workouts, you’ll start with a plyometric workout (something familiar to those who followed us in month 4) and a new agility workout—shuffle steps, carioca, and reaction drills—designed to keep you graceful on the fly while making quick stops and starts in your favorite sports. Both of these regimes are detailed in the workout plan. (Be sure to get a good warm-up in for ten minutes before jumping in). Next, it’s on to your endurance work. As you’ll see from the duration of today’s cardio work, these last four weeks of the five-month program are the longest and most intense yet. But don't be intimidated; it's your final month of heart-rate training, and if you’ve been with us since month one, your body is prepared for the heavy training load. Today, your Zone-2 distance workout involves a mellow run for 80 minutes for runners and two hours for cyclists and swimmers. Finally, to keep you limber and give your body the proper cooldown it needs to recover, you’ll finish off you workout with an Ashtanga yoga series that we introduced in month three. If you are interested in learning more about this workout--and the training philosophy behind the exercises you'll be doing--be sure to read our complete story at:http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/123389008.html IMPORTANT NOTE: If this is your first plan with Outside, we highly recommend that you complete one through three of the Shape of Your Life Program. Months 4 and 5 are based on participants having built a solid fitness foundation to be able to carry the heavy load. This is not for beginners. Assuming you have a solid fitness foundation already, we also recommend that new participants perform our Lactate Threshold test before getting started. The lactate threshold (LT) is the exercise intensity at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood stream. The higher you can push this threshold, the faster you can go. Our test will help you set a benchmark, and you can check your progress on the final day of this month's plan. Here's how: On a flat route (ideally a track) after a warm-up, run 1 mile at 5 beats below your lactate threshold heart rate, or Zone 3 (Z-3) heart rate, which is 75 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate. Mark your time on the run. If you've raised your lactate threshold, this run will be faster than last month's. Finally, for more information on heart rate training, please see today’s pre-workout comments.
Workout #2 : Strength
Strength
Planned Time: 0:45:00
Today is your first strength workout, designed to fine tune your balance and power. In addition to a set of Olympic Power Lifts, you’ll perfrom a half dozen functional strength exercises, using a wobble board or swiss ball (both can be purchased online or at a local sporting goods store) to keep you off kilter.
Planned Time: 0:45:00
Today is your first strength workout, designed to fine tune your balance and power. In addition to a set of Olympic Power Lifts, you’ll perfrom a half dozen functional strength exercises, using a wobble board or swiss ball (both can be purchased online or at a local sporting goods store) to keep you off kilter.
Workout #3 : Other
Endurance
Planned Time: 1:00:00
Today is a "reserve speed" workout, designed to increase your ability to access quick bursts of power towards the end of a long run or ride -- like the kind of burst you'll need for your "kick" to the finish line of a race. At some point toward the end of your Zone-1 run (yes, this should feel embarrassingly slow), add six or seven 30-second sprints, making sure you recover back to Zone 1 between each repetition.
Planned Time: 1:00:00
Today is a "reserve speed" workout, designed to increase your ability to access quick bursts of power towards the end of a long run or ride -- like the kind of burst you'll need for your "kick" to the finish line of a race. At some point toward the end of your Zone-1 run (yes, this should feel embarrassingly slow), add six or seven 30-second sprints, making sure you recover back to Zone 1 between each repetition.
Workout #4 : Strength
Strength
Planned Time: 0:45:00
These strength exercises are designed to improve your balance and agility.
Planned Time: 0:45:00
These strength exercises are designed to improve your balance and agility.
Workout #5 : Other
Endurance
Planned Time: 1:30:00
Interval training is on the menu for Fridays, which will genrally be the toughest workout of these final weeks. But before you start with your cardio workout, you'll do the prescribed plyometric and agility series.
Planned Time: 1:30:00
Interval training is on the menu for Fridays, which will genrally be the toughest workout of these final weeks. But before you start with your cardio workout, you'll do the prescribed plyometric and agility series.
Workout #6 : Other
Endurance
Planned Time: 1:40:00
Welcome back from the weekend. These Monday endurance workouts will be long and intense to work on your heart-rate training. but if you finished Friday's workout with a smart recovery plan (see that day's post-workout comments) and took it easy this weekend, your body should be ready to go.
Planned Time: 1:40:00
Welcome back from the weekend. These Monday endurance workouts will be long and intense to work on your heart-rate training. but if you finished Friday's workout with a smart recovery plan (see that day's post-workout comments) and took it easy this weekend, your body should be ready to go.
Workout #7 : Strength
Strength
Planned Time: 0:45:00
These strength exercises are designed to improve your balance and agility.
Planned Time: 0:45:00
These strength exercises are designed to improve your balance and agility.
Workout #8 : Other
Endurance
Planned Time: 1:00:00
Today is a "reserve speed" workout, designed to increase your ability to access quick bursts of power towards the end of a long run or ride -- like the kind of burst you'll need for your "kick" to the finish line of a race. At some point toward the end of your Zone-1 run (yes, this should feel embarrassingly slow), add six or seven 30-second sprints, making sure you recover back to Zone 1 between each repetition.
Planned Time: 1:00:00
Today is a "reserve speed" workout, designed to increase your ability to access quick bursts of power towards the end of a long run or ride -- like the kind of burst you'll need for your "kick" to the finish line of a race. At some point toward the end of your Zone-1 run (yes, this should feel embarrassingly slow), add six or seven 30-second sprints, making sure you recover back to Zone 1 between each repetition.
Workout #9 : Strength
Strength
Planned Time: 0:45:00
These strength exercises are designed to improve your balance and agility.
Planned Time: 0:45:00
These strength exercises are designed to improve your balance and agility.