Daily Physical Conditioning Workouts: 12-18 June 2016

This week’s physical conditioning plan and daily workout sessions were designed and developed by myself to accomplish my fitness goal of maintaining a solid base of overall physical fitness. To sustain a solid base of overall physical conditioning I consider all components of physical fitness while conducting exercise planning.

A retired Marine, I am comfortable with designing my program in a manner similar to that of America's elite warriors. Their overall objective is to combine agility, endurance, power, speed and strength with combat skills to be applied in the defense of our nation.

This article is published for informational purposes only, and not intended to be a general physical training guide nor as an exercise prescription.

The warm-up is an key component to a great training plan and performance. Often overlooked, a proper warm-up is essential before conducting any rigorous activity and provides many benefits to the user.

Warming up increases the range of motion in joints. Increased range of motion improves flexibility and muscle function while reducing the risk of injury to ligaments, muscles and tendons during the workout.

Warm muscles function better than cool muscles. During a warm-up, the body temperature is gradually elevated which enhances both muscle speed and strength.

Muscles have an increases need for oxygen during exercise sessions. A proper warm-up "kick starts" the cardiovascular system making oxygen more available to muscles prior to commencing strenuous activity.

The warm-up complements all physical activities which follow. Regardless of the activities chosen for the workout, ensure that a warm-up is included in training sessions prior to intense physical training.

In short, the physical fitness components divide one's physical functions in the ways which allows an individual conducts continuous activity, manipulates weight, and moves the body in an efficient manner.

Neither running a sub-3 hour marathon nor lifting atlas stones are personal conditioning goals of mine. My physical fitness objective is to be physically ready to perform in a satisfactory manner across the realm of fitness. As such, I consider all components of fitness while designing and developing my physical training plan. These physical fitness components are:

• Agility
• Cardiovascular endurance
• Coordination
• Flexibility
• Muscular endurance
• Muscular strength
• Power
• Speed
• Stamina

In order to develop the capability to perform all or any of the components, training schedules must be proper planned and activities properly executed.

Sunday's physical training focus was on core and upper body development. The warm-up portion included mobility exercises while 10 minutes of stretching followed the day's main events.

Exercises chosen for this session included; bridges, chin-ups, crunches, planks, pull-ups, push-ups as well as weighted chin-ups and pull-ups.

The day's training session sought to sustain cardiovascular and muscular endurance. The warm-up included walking, mobility exercises and stretching.

The muscular endurance portion of the workout focus on core stability. Exercises included; burpees, chin-ups, crunches, flutter kicks, planks, pull-ups and sit-ups. A 3-mile jog followed the calisthenics session.

The training session concluded with a short walk and 10 minutes of stretching.

In many sports, speed is often the critical component in determining who wins and loses. This day's training session squarely focused on developing that component.

The general warm-up included light calisthenics, mobility exercises and walking. As with most speed session and specific warm-up, including; arm swings, jogging, skipping and striding, was conducted.

Speed work included sprinter's starts and wind sprints of varying distances. A short walk and approximately 15 minutes of stretching served as the day's cool-down.

Swimming and calisthenics were utilized to accomplish Wednesday's conditioning goals of muscular endurance and stamina.

Following 10 minutes of mobility exercises and stretching, several sets of pull-ups were conducted.

At the pool a continuous swim was followed by 5 sets of treading water. Prior to the cool-down, 4 sets of swim-calisthenics intervals were conducted. The calisthenics included push-ups and flutter kicks.

A short walk followed by mobility exercises served as Thursday's warm-up routine.

The training session focused on upper body development with chin-ups, pull-ups and their weighted variants being the day's primary exercises. Crunches and planks were conducted for core stability sustainment.

A passive rest day. No physical activities were planned nor conducted.

The session's focus on cardiovascular endurance was accomplished by a 3 mile conditioning hike.

Five minutes of mobility exercises preceded the hike which was followed with a flexibility session which included 10 minutes of stretching.

Calisthenics, including pull-ups, formed the core of Sunday's workout.

Core stability work preceded jogging on Monday.

Tuesday's session included a sprint-specific warm-up which was followed by wind sprints of varying distances.

Calisthenics coupled with swimming formed "swim-calisthenics intervals" during Thursdays pool session.

Muscular strength-developing weighted chin-ups and pull-ups were on Thursday's fitness menu.

A 3 mile conditioning march concluded the week's physical conditioning sessions.

That sums up the weeks training. Thank you for stopping bye, I hope you found the article informative and helpful. Please don't hesitate to send me a comment. Go and get your workouts in but don't forget the warm-up! Semper Fidelis.