5 Ways to Stay Sane During Training Camp

By: Diana Holmes

A drop of sweat trickles down a knit brow to the tip of the nose and slowly drops on the grass between a pair of shoes. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Huge, deep breaths to regain any sort of breath composure...That's me running after my son in the month of August because I'm out of shape. And you thought I was doing a clever, lyrical depiction of what my husband goes through at training camp, haha.

Training camp is one of the most physically and mentally exhausting parts of football season--for both player and family. So I decided to put a list together of things to do during this next month.

• Work Out! Stay sane and get those endorphins pumping with a nice workout. This one is tough for a lot of the moms out there because of the whole 'no babysitter' thing but even going for a run with the stroller can change your whole mentality. I usually go running when I'm having a bad day and it helps to clear my busy mind. In the famous words of Elle Woods, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't. " So there's that.
• Build Friendships. Admit it or not, we all morph into homebodies during the season. It seems like plans always get made and canceled because we don't get much time with our guys during season, so we try and capitalize on any we can get. Take training camp as an opportunity to build your friendships or make new ones. Dinner, wine tasting, play-dates--whatever!
• Work Towards A Goal. Set a goal for yourself to achieve. Plan to run a race at the end of the month, join a book club, or declutter your house. The options are really quite endless. You'll keep busy while working towards something that will empower your self-confidence.
• Support, Support, Support!I always get an attitude during camp because it's always frustrating. Andre is exhausted and never has much time to talk. If you're in the same state, you maybe see each other once a week--not to mention all the added stress they experience. It takes a toll on the relationship so this one is the hardest for me. Send care packages, inspirational quotes, Bible verses--anything helps.

Our significant others and their teammates will spend the next four weeks improving their skills and pushing themselves to better their craft. Why shouldn't we do the same?

4 of the Best and Easiest Health and Fitness Apps

Starting your day right - bright and early with a healthy breakfast - isn’t incredibly hard. What can get you is the two minutes you have for a good lunch and the tempting option of fast food for dinner. Not to mention trying to squeeze in a workout in between carpool or errands. The way I have found to hold yourself accountable are fitness apps right on your phone! These handy programs allow you to track your calories and workouts so that one slip-up doesn’t derail your entire day.

Some great, simple apps are:

Runkeeper

Mainly for the outdoor, naptime runner, it allows you to set weight loss and distance goals and gives you great training programs to follow. Runkeeper also lets you team up with friends or other runners so they can push you to be your best!

BodySpace

This app by Bodybuilding.com lets you create a profile with before and after pictures and gives you a ton of amazing workout routines to follow by some of the worlds top fitness pros! You can also rate and describe your workout in order to pin point exactly what pushes you harder.

Mindbody Connect

This is more of a class scheduling app. You can sign up for all kinds of great classes in your area and keep track of how many you have attended. It also makes buying class packages so much easier!

Lose it!

With a huge database of foods and a barcode scanner, this app is perfect for busy bees on the go! Everything you’ve eaten and all your workouts are displayed in a really easy-to-read graph so you know exactly where you are in your daily goal. Users can join challenges and earn badges making losing weight more fun!

How to Get the Perfect Workout Once You're in the Gym

So you made it to the gym. Kudos!! Now what? If you’re anything like me, there have been days when you get to the gym and have very little sense of direction about where to begin! Follow these 3 simple steps to stop wasting your time and become more fluent on the fitness floor!

1. Decide WHAT, WHEN, and HOW

Start by pulling out your calendar.

Be realistic.

Decide on what days you can commit, and how much time you will have. This will help determine the intensity in which you will need to exercise. For example, if you can exercise 2-3 days of the week, I recommended that you spend 60-90 minutes at each session. On the other hand, if you plan to exercise 5-7 days a week, then 20-30 minutes a day will suffice!

In addition, if you are doing resistance training, you will need to know how you will split the load throughout the week. For example, if you are training nearly every day, you may target only one large muscle group per day, whereas if you were training only twice a week, you may want to opt for total-body workouts. There is no perfect "split," but here are a some of my scheduling recommendations:

5-DAY Split:

• DAY 1 – Lower Body
• DAY 2 – Upper Body (Push)
• DAY 3 – Core & Cardio
• DAY 4 – Lower Body (PlyoMetrics)
• DAY 5 - Upper Body (Pull)

3-DAY Split:

• DAY 1 – Total body w/ emphasis on Lower Body (more time spent on lower)
• DAY 2 – HIIT (high intensity interval training, total body)
• DAY 3 – Total Body strength w/ emphasis on Upper Body

2. Choose Your Equipment

Choose cardio equipment (or choose none) and 5-7 resistance-training exercises. Have them handy.

It is important that you find some kind of cardio exercise that you enjoy. Cardio doesn’t always have to be on a machine. Cardio can be done by doing jumping jacks, jumping rope, running, etc. The important thing, especially during a warm up, is that your heart rate is elevated so that blood is efficiently pumped throughout your body (priming your muscles for the workload). After a 7-10 minute warm up, consisting of moderate exercise, it is then safe to spend a few minutes stretching.

After a few minutes of stretching and once your body has returned to a normal heart rate, you are now ready to strength train!

But what to do?

At the end of this article, I have included an "Exercise Bank" (e.g. Word bank on a Vocabulary test). When planning your next workout, have the list handy. Go to the bank and pick 5-7 exercises for your desired muscle group.

For weights, sets and reps, stick with the basics: 3 sets of 10 is a good place to start. When you’re not sure how much weight to use, consider how many reps you are doing. If you can do more than the desired repetitions, then the weight you’ve chosen is too light. If you cannot physically perform the number of repetitions desired then its too heavy.

3. Execute

• Warm up/Stretch.
• Perform your chosen list of exercises.
• Cool Down/Stretch.

Exercise Bank

The exercise bank contains names of exercises that are generally common knowledge and easy to find online. If necessary, use the internet as a resource to help you master the technique of each exercise.

Upper Body

• Push up (push)
• Pull up (pull)
• Flat bench press (push)
• Seated shoulder press with dumbbells (push)
• Incline Press (push)
• Single arm Dumbbell row (pull)
• Bent over Row (pull)
• Lat Pull down (pull)
• Seated Row (pull)
• Lateral Raise (push)
• Front Raise (push)
• Bicep Curl w/ Dumbbells (pull)
• Cable Tricep Extension (push)
• Flat bench Chest Fly (push)
• Reverse Fly (pull)

Lower Body

• Walking lunge
• Reverse Lunge
• Seated Leg Press
• Hack squat
• Back Squat
• Front Squat
• Leg curl
• Leg extension
• Seated Calf Raises
• Standing Calf Raises
• Glute Kick backs
• Glute Bridges
• Sumo Squat
• Hip adduction
• Hip abduction
• Jump squat
• Bulgarian squat
• Romanian Deadlift
• Good morning

CORE

• Alternating V-ups
• V-ups
• Russian Twists
• Decline sit up
• Oblique crunch
• Cable twist
• High plank
• Low plank
• Froggers
• Burpees
• Sit ups
• Full body crunch
• Straight leg lifts
• Captains chair leg lifts
• Reverse crunch

Happy lifting :)

XO