Off-Season Workouts

[Mike Simonds]

Like some of you other gentlemen we get to do the adult league which has a season that runs from May through July. In August the high school season starts again. My last games were November 28th (high school state play-off game) and December 5th (Pop Warner invitational games) so our football season is about 7 months from start to finish.

For rules, I'm taking a break until the middle of January then I'll start devoting at least 2 hours per week to study. This next year 3 of us are going to start meeting once a month to have a study session over lunch. Its good to study alone but group study is a great way to share knowledge and debate rules.

As for fitness: I believe in cardio training at least 3 or 4 times per week. Step aerobics is the best because it gets your heart-rate up into your training zone (75% to 85% of your maximum for between 30 to 45 minutes) and the various movements tone your entire body. Strength training is limited to tone and stretch classes once or twice a week that emphasis the core muscle groups of the trunk area, legs, chest, back, arms. We do lots of sit-ups, lunges, squats, and various other movements with light weights, bands, etc. I find that using light weights with lots of reps is great: the recovery time is faster and the muscles become conditioned to resist fatique over a longer period of time.

Plus lots of good books about football are good. NFL films gets me fired-up also. I need to go and buy their soundtrack.

Hey AB: you should get your kids CDs of Beethoven's late violin quartets. Listening to those will really get you fired up!