Keeping Active During the Festive Season

By David Lindsay, High Performance Coach, Keynote Speaker and Former professional Athlete, www.davidlindsay.com.au

If you have been diligent with your training and rituals for the past few months you should be looking and feeling so much better than you were only a matter of months ago. The weather is warming up quickly, and the festive season is just around the corner so let’s not let the ball slip now.

By now you should also realise that exercising not only generates more energy, but it also gives your body a chance to rid itself of stress. This may be stress from work, from home, from anywhere it doesn’t even matter, but training allows you to either smash it out of your system, or leave the troubles behind temporarily while you are training.

I hope you are still keeping everything going with your morning rituals, because I know if I miss out on it for a few days I feel like something is missing, and I have been doing this for years.

Today I will share a session that I enjoy doing myself, and that I used to run through with both the fighters that I trained and the rep footballers, that can be super tough even for the fittest of you out there. If you are finding it too easy simply do it faster, or set up the shuttles further apart

This session is a shuttle run session with exercises

Setting up your shuttle run you will require 4 markers. These can be anything such as 2 pairs of shoes. You are going to set them up roughly 10m apart in a straight line so the first marker is the starting point, the second is 10m from the first marker, the third is 20m from the marker and the fourth is 30m from the marker.

The goal is to do the rounds as quickly as possible. Make sure you are warm before you get started. If you jump straight into it you will increase your risk of injury. I will assume you have done a warm up run, and got your upper body moving as well.

Shuttle run session

At the starting point you will do 1 rep of the chosen exercise

Sprint to marker two and do 2 reps, return to marker one do 3 reps

Sprint to marker two do 4 reps, then sprint to marker three do 5 reps, sprint back to marker two do 6 reps and then sprint to marker one do 7 reps

Sprint to marker two do 8 reps, then sprint to marker three do 9 reps, sprint to marker four do 10 reps and then sprint back to marker one to finish the first lap

With this you will choose 4 exercises (Push ups, Squat, Crunches, Burpees for example) and complete 1 lap of the entire exercise before either moving straight into the next one, or having a break before moving on

X   <10m>   X   <10m>   X   <10m>   X

As the weather is warming up it can also be a great opportunity to play some games from your childhood with your co-workers. This not only gets you moving and having fun, but can be a great team building opportunity. Just remember that you may not have kicked a ball for years, or thrown a ball for a long time, so the muscles need to be re-awoken. This can be something as simple as:

2, 3, or 4 people and a tennis ball:- Playing catch and throw. This is such a simple skill, but when it hasn’t been done for years your timing and hand eye coordination can be a little off, so again start off slowly. This also gives everyone a chance to talk about things other than work, and you may end up getting a baseball, softball or cricket team together.

The exact same thing can be done with a football or soccer ball, but instead of throwing it would be kicking. With a football you will get some funny bounces, and have the opportunity to have a laugh and some stories. Just be sure to warm up, and don’t try to kick it too hard, particularly to start off with

If you have a large group and a soccer ball or football you can play a game of kicking tennis. I will explain how to set it up and play below

Kicking Tennis

This set up requires a bit of room and 6 markers. You are setting up the field like a tennis court, and if you have a lot of people simply make the court bigger.

X                              X                              X

X                              X                              X

The rules are simple. The kick has to go over head height, and must either be caught, or land inside the court

1. If the ball gets caught it is play on
2. If the ball lands the closest person gets eliminated.
3. If the ball lands outside the court, the kicker is eliminated
4. The team that gets all its players eliminated first loses and gets a fitness penalty such as run around the court 3 times

There are many variations to play this game, everyone has to kick with their weak leg, you can only catch 1 handed, the ball must bounce 1 time (which is very hard with a football)

These of course are just some suggestions beyond the normal game of soccer and touch. It is about getting to learn more about your fellow workers outside of work and have a laugh. Because the more you know, like and care for your fellow workers the more you are willing to do for them.

Even to this very day my wrestling coach and teammates still catch up for dinner and as families. We know that we have the utmost trust in each other and if necessary, we know that anyone of the guys would do anything for the other. This came from years of getting to know the guys. Not just their strengths, but also their weaknesses and beyond. In wrestling you have to have the utmost trust in your training partner as they could potentially break your arm, or choke you out. I have found this concept extremely important in the workplace. You need to trust, and care for your fellow workers, as if you do that you will come together as a unit and work smarter and harder for your mates.

Enjoy this concept and try it out with your team. You will always get push back when things are different, just keep plugging away as it will be beneficial when you see everyone working as a team.