August Week 4 - Week 16 of The Program. Final Post!

August - Week 4 - Medium Intensity Week

This is the final week of the program! Hopefully you should be feeling ready for the season to commence so make sure you really put in this week at home and in the nets and especially in any practice matches or trials you are attending. Hopefully this program will have given you an edge so take advantage of that!

One Core Session.
Circuit of Exercises A-E.
(Plank – Side Planks – Basic Bird Dogs – Reverse Planks)
1 set of each exercise is 15 reps holding each rep for 30 seconds (rest for 15secs between reps). REMEMBER TO BRACE YOUR CORE WHILE HOLDING EACH POSE! 2 sets of each exercise with 60secs rest between sets.

One Upper Body Session.
Circuit of Exercises A-D
(Reverse Dips – Bicep Curl with Barbells - Bench Press with Barbells – Seated Deltoid Raises) + Medicine Ball Tosses
3x sets of 40 secs continuous work on exercise A with minimal rest between exercises. Then 4 sets of 15 reps of Exercises B,C and D with 1 minute rest between sets. NB If you are using a Med Ball or Bar for Ex C-E, you do 15 reps per set. If you are using free hand weights, you should be doing 15 reps on each arm. Then 3 sets of 30 on the Medicine Ball Toss.

One Lower Body Session.
Circuit of Exercises A-E
(Posterior Chain Step Downs - Wall Sits – Skateboarders – PC Bowling Cone Drill - Box Jumps)
Complete 4 sets of each Exercise before moving to the next. 2 sets of 15 reps on each leg on each of the 4 positions in the Step Downs (Straight down, Straight out, Straight forward and back at 45degrees); 4x 70secs Wall Sits; 4x 15 Skateboarders on each leg (swap legs after each set); 4 sets of 4 PC Bowling Cone Drill (2 on each foot per set); 4x45 secs continuous Box Jumps.Rest for 1 minute between exercises.

Running Drills A-D 30 minutes twice a week
(Note the number of reps in each set varies. Rest for 2 minutes between exercises)
A – Jog – High Knees - Sprint: 10m Jog – 20m High Knees – 20m Sprint. Jog back to recover (walk last 5m) 8 Reps.
B – Jog – Bound - Sprint: 10m Jog – Bound 10 strides – 20m Sprint. Jog back to recover (Walk last 5m) 8 Reps.
C – Jog – A-Skip - Sprint: 5m Jog – 20m A Skip – 15m Sprint. Walk back to recover. 6 Reps
D – Run Up Drill: 5m Jog from standing start – 10m Accelerating to top pace – Sprint 5m transfer to jump and decelerate. Walk back to recover. 15 reps
E – POSE Drills 1to5: Stand and hold 1st Pose; Toe Tap with high knee raise (standing); Pony; High Knee to High Knee; Toe Tap with Knee raise (dynamic).
*The POSE Drill should be done at a separate time 5minutes every 3 days.


Flexibility for 30m minutes every day!
15 mins when you get up and 15 mins before bed.

Endurance running
Fartlek circuit - Continuous for 20 minutes 3 times a week. Note modification of Fartlek Circuit.
At each corner of the circuit you will do 20 “Cone Taps”.
Side to side then forward then side to side again then scissors

Well, that's about it! I really hope you have felt like the program has given you a great preparation for the coming season. Good luck and keep working hard at your game and your fitness.
Remember - if you are get fit and stay fit, and you are technically sound - you will inevitably get opportunities at higher levels as the players you are competing with for spots get injured or cannot handle the workloads required to be successful!

All the very best!


JH