Train like an athlete

Hello workout friends!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. Mine meant great time with family, but several days of eating poorly and not working out. It's time to get back in the groove!

If you're feeling like you need a jump-start, this week's workout is a great one to try. Nick Rouse is the owner of Spartan Strength in Clive and he knows a thing or two about sports training. He's a former Drake football player and coach and now he's a personal trainer - or as he likes to say, a "performance specialist." However, Nick says you don't have to consider yourself an athlete to train like one. He starts Sonya and I out with basic lunges and then starts adding modifications to target our guads and hip flexors - areas that are often tight thanks to many hours sitting at our desks. There are also little changes that force us to work on balance and flexibility, and side lunges and squats that get work our glutes and inner and outer thighs.

Various forms of running are next. We do high knees and rear kicks and then move on to a funky little move Nick calls "Kid 'n Play." He looks like a member of a boy band when he does it, but we feel pretty goofy. "You'll be on Dancing With The Stars, next!" Nick says with a laugh. That's doubtful, and be decide to give speed and agility drills a try next. We're doing footwork on a cloth "ladder" that's stretched out on the floor and it's not always easy. "Geesh!" says Sonya, "Can't I just go run a mile instead?!?" But that's the whole idea - to get us to do things we normally don't - and that includes the next portion of the workout. Nick sets up four cones - one in each corner of the artificial turf. We have to sprint to the first cone, turn, sprint to the next cone, run around it and sprint back to the start. We do that three times through and then reverse directions. We are sucking wind and not at all prepared for the next cone drill. This time we have to shuffle to the first cone, turn and shuffle to the next, turn and sprint to the next, back pedal to where we started and finish with a sprint. BRUTAL! We feel like we are back in our hometown high school gyms during two-a-days for volleyball! "That's the benefit," Nick explains, "at Spartan we are constantly giving you a different stimulous, so you continue to see improvement."

Speaking of new stimulous - we're moving on to timed stations that include exercises we've NEVER done before. "That's a good thing!" Nick exclaims, "once you become accustomed to any kind of work, it becomes easy!" There's nothing easy about these moves. There are five stations and we spend twenty seconds at each one. We do a crazy mountain climber move with our hands gripping gymnastics rings, an exercise called "The Rock Singer" using a weight bar, high plank with an opposite reach, weighted ropes, and finally - some equipment that comes straight from the Rouse family farm. We get to use sledgehammers and pound the snot out of a huge tractor tire. This is definitely our favorite part! Nick usually puts clients through four rounds of this circuit, but for us he cuts it in half. "Everything is adjustable," he explains, "we can make modifications for anyone with any exercise." We're glad to hear it, and also glad this is the end of the workout ... except that it's not!!!

The last thing we do at Spartan Strength is what Nick calls a "finisher." We're pushing a weighted sled like you see football players use in practice and we have to do three laps, followed by three sets of shuttle runs. We are supposed to be sprinting, but our bodies are so tired we're mostly stumbling back and forth. We know we've burned a ton of calories and gotten a great workout, but we also feel like we've conquered a new challenge and that's what Nick likes most about his job. "My biggest pride is not seeing the body change - it's seeing the mind change," he explains, "that's what changes people's lives faster than any change in body composition." Amen.

If you want to work out with Nick - check out the website, drop him and email or give him a call.
www.spartan-strength.com
(515) 987-0341
NICKROUSE@SPARTAN-STRENGTH.COM