Off-Ice Practice June 30th - July 6 2008

[singerskates]

Since this week has to do with Canada Day and my US skate pals' 4th of July, let's say that Independance is what we did well and Being Held Hostage is where we are stuck in our off-ice practices.

Independance:

Worked on a little core strength today by doing sit ups starting with laying flat on my back, keeping my legs fully extended and then raising my torso to 70 degrees and then holding it for 5 seconds, doing 20 reps. I'm trying to get thinner abs so that I can go down a size in skating dresses for the fall.

Did sideways leg extentions with a pause on everyone to hold it in the air at 70 degrees for 5 seconds and then didn't allow my leg to go lower than 15 degrees. Doing this move on each side to strengthen my hips and abductor muscles.

Did a few nice off - ice loops in the kitchen where I did a 360 and a quater rotation without even crossing my feet. Managed to get some good height on my loop even though I didn't bend down into the jump.

Anyway, I'm now seeing double out of tiredness, so better head to bed.

singerskates

[AgnesNitt]

Aerobics, weight training, balance practice. Dug up a stump (literally, a tree stump) to improve my yard *and* my delts, traps, and pecs. :D

[looplover]

I have great off-ice flips! that counts, right????:mrgreen::mrgreen:

Stretching to get leg higher for spirals...

Sometimes I practice the 8-step mohawk sequence off ice too.

[TiggerTooSkates]

Independence: did ten laps in the pool (20 lengths!!!:!:) with a kickboard. I despise running and probably shouldn't do that anyway - thanks to an old skiing injury to my right knee back in 1995 - so I use that as endurance training. Also did a lot of stretching with my Maxiflex, since my goal, even at my age, is to someday in the not-too-distant-future have a respectable Bielmann. At a minimum, I want the best spiral in the rink. With the Maxiflex I can get my left leg up to heights that make my husband cringe, but I still don't have the strength to hold it there on my own. I'm getting there.

Held hostage - have been neglecting my core...I hate sit-ups and crunches and have spent more time looking for acceptable alternatives than I have actually doing any. Not smart. Spins will suffer if I don't get hot on this - and it'll be bye-bye to any hopes of a Bielmann...

[Bill_S]

I did an hour and a half at the roller rink on my PIC skates, then went to ballroom dance class with Marilyn.

Last week I posted that the left front wheel of my PIC skates had shed a large chunk of rubber, cutting short my practice. I found an old wheel in the basement this week, but it was 70mm diameter instead of 72mm like the others on the skate. Because I had no choice, I tried it anyway.

I coudn't tell the difference while stroking, in threes, brackets, etc. BUT, I tried a spin and made it around 2 times. That's like being dealt a full house in Poker for me. The chances are slim that I'd even make a full rev on PIC skates.

I tried again - two revs.

Again, - three revs. WOOO HOOO!

The final time I spun, I made it around FOUR times. That's NEVER happened on these skates.

Brain starts to work...:idea:

The smaller-diameter skate wheel located behind the toe pick adds one new variable I have to consider. Having a smaller diameter wheel just behind the PIC decreases the rocker radius there. PICs are normally rockered, but the small wheel made the front part MORE curvy - just like an ice skate blade. :idea::idea: I wonder if this finally made spinning possible!?

Another factor was that I entered the spin from a RFI three-turn and wrapped the free leg in front during the turn - like I was entering a backspin - then stepped onto the LFO for the forward scratch. In the past with a RFI-3 entrance, I've always held the free foot beside the skating foot, then stepped out for the LFO scratch edge. The new entry may put my weight in a better position for spinning on wheels.

I left VERY satisfied, and one of the regulars even said that she was going to come to the ice rink with me when it opens. She wants me to teach her how to spin. 8-)

----------

Right after roller skating, I dashed home for a shower, then went to the ballroom dance class with Marilyn. More Salsa and Cha Cha. Marilyn has the hip wiggle down, but I feel like Joe Clod attempting that. I do work on free arm position when Marilyn does a turn, thinking about arm movements on ice.

There are some elements to ballroom dance that will translate to ice nicely, but there are a lot of movements that might not work so well.

We'll see how much this benefits skating.

[jazzpants]

Oh, geez, I'll post three post for three different days. This is for Tuesday:

Independence:
Trained with personal trainer. She said we're going to work on upper body strength and endurance today. Had me hop on and off the BOSU ball continuous for the time of my program. While doing that, I'm "presenting my arms" all nice and pretty pretty. I was following her lead on the arms, of course, since I can't improv while doing that to save my BUTT!!! :roll: :P Did the usual bench press and flies with (I think) 12 lbs weights and 8 lbs weights, respectively... and all sorts of other things I can't seemed to remember right now... (I remember doing some abs though.) Not much legs tonight.

Held Hostage:
This is my first day back working out from having a cold this past week. I think I was about 70-80% back, but I kept pushing myself as if I didn't have the cold. Kinda tough, but I survived it.

[jazzpants]

This is for Wednesday!!!


Independence:
Did some Gravitron (http://www.usedgymequipment.com/stairmaster_gravitron.htm).
Did some lunge exercise using a Pylo Box about hip height for me.
Spiral to sit spin position on a Reebox core trainer, with the trainer set to wobble a bit...
Crunches and side crunches on an exercise ball
Lots of stretching afterwards.Held Hostage:
Cardio... quite a struggle to get up on my upper range on the heart rate!!! (Yes, I was wearing a heart rate monitor. I never trust those pulse rate sensors that are on the elliptical, treadmills, etc.) I had to up my resistance by one to finally get the heart rate up. This has been going on for over a month.

Independence
The silver lining of that...is that this tells me my leg strength and endurance is much stronger now!!! Takes more to push me!!! http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/froehlich/k025.gif

[jazzpants]

Thursday:

Just did some cardio for 35 with a 5 min cool down and at 70-80% today. Just straight thru cardio. No interval training!!!

Okay, I also did some more Y-Spirals, Catch Foot spirals and spirals to sit spin position on the core trainer again. But I didn't want to kill myself after doing that PLUS taking my lessons and choreography too!!!

Friday:
TAKE A FREAKIN' REST DAY, ALREADY!!!


http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/verschiedene/s030.gif

(Now THAT is TRUE INDEPENDENCE!!! AHHHHHH!!! :bow: :mrgreen: )

[Kristin]

My off-ice this summer has mainly been mountain biking to/from work & errands, and this week I rode 31 miles. The good thing about summertime is that I haven't had to use my car as much, and can incorporate my "off-ice" regimen with something practical, like saving gas!

Today, I'm at Techskater's house in Chicago & we hit the rink early this morning for an hour & 1/2.

Have a great 4th, everyone! :mrgreen:

[singerskates]

Today
Held Hostage: Where has the time gone? I'm already cooking up a couple of pizzas for dinner and then I have to run to church to do VBS. Never did any leg, arm or core exercises today. I was going to ride my bike to VBS but, I was online too long and ran out of time to ride my bike. Must set alarm next time so I get off of the internet earlier.

Independence: Will probably be running around with the kids at church during VBS tonight doing some sort of out door games, so I will get some cardio happening.

[Skate@Delaware]

Well, due to the "problems" i'm having between ex-ortho doc & wanna-be-trainer, I have to do my own program.....so, I'm in the process of gleaning a program using stuff from my existing program, Poe's book, "Conditioning for Figure Skaters" and another book "Sports Conditioning" (can't remember the author but it rocks).

right now, I'm in the process of strengthening my left leg from the glute down to the arch and stretching it all out. And I have an inversion table, so I try to invert twice/day. Plus do some yoga hip twists and frogs to unlock and open my pelvis. Nothing really exciting.

[singerskates]

Saturday:
Worked out at Goodlife Fitness (my gym). Started out with warming up my body with 10 minutes on the bike pushing my heart rate up to 140. It almost took me the whole 10 minutes to get my heart rate up to 140 on the bike. Then I stretched a bit before going through the weight circuit. When I got to the leg press I was shocked to find out that even though I've been bad not going to the gym for a month or so, I ended up pushing 265 pounds. On the hamstring machine I was doing 110 pounds. The quads did 90 pounds. I think tomorrow I'll add maybe another 10 to 20 pounds to my hamstrings. I also did both my abductors (inside legs) and aductors (outside upper legs and hips) although I forget how much weight I did. The I worked on my arms and shoulders. I thought I was going to have to go down in weights because my arms feel jelloy but no. I had to go up. Must have been all that ice dance I was doing all spring. Then I hit the gym pool working on my arms again. After that I did in pool jumps. Waltz, toe loop, Salchow, loop, flip and Lutz. I then did combos Watlz/toe, Waltz/loop, Waltz/loop/toe, Salchow/loop, Sachow/toe, Salchow/loop/toe, loop/loop, flip/loop, flip/toe, flip/loop/toe, Lutz/loop, Lutz/toe. Then I soaked in the hot pool and stretched until I was cooked.

Sunday: Rode my bike 15 Km through city streets and bike paths from my house in Windsor to my friend's house in Tecumseh and then almost to St. Clair Beach, then back to my friend's house to drop her off and then back to my house. Topped it off with a hot fudge Sundae at the half way point, McDonalds, to complement all the vitamine D we were getting from the sun. Stretched when I got home.

[jazzpants]

Saturday:

VERY HARD workout day!!!

Took my very first tango class and met my new dance partner. Nice young man... :mrgreen:
Hard Cardio on the elliptical trainer: 40 plus 5 minutes cool-down
Lunges for warmup
Flies, chest press while lying on the exercise ball
Spiral to sit spin position on the core board, Y-Spiral on the core board
Arm Raises (lifting the BOSU Ball over my head), bring down the BOSU ball on the half circle side down and do a push up on it.
“Curtsey” side lunges on core board w/ronde-de-jambe
10 minute stretch (had to leave the gym before it closes...) :oops: