FITNESS
The Four Pillars of Fitness
The ultimate athlete in you is just waiting to be set free. Break the barriers and unleash the beast. Here's how
By Omar Glenn D. Belo; Additional reporting by Ted Spiker; Photographs by Jake Versoza
Sweat doesn't always mean effort. Sure, you sweat yourself dry running around the track over and over, or pounding the ball on the court for hours on end. Soon you'll realize that you've never really done anything to test your athletic limits. Playing beyond yourself, beyond your limits is something else entirely—here you recognize your boundaries and wave as you fly past barriers on the way to elevating your game to a higher plane.
Meet four of the Philippines' best ballers, each representing a pillar of peak performance. Borne on their shoulders are our hopes of returning to basketball's biggest stage—the Olympics. Had they been content playing within their limits, they wouldn't be part of the SMC-RP team tasked to play for this month's FIBA-Asia Championship in Tokushima, Japan, the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But these men plow through every resistance and now have the enviable honor of representing the Filipino in the basketball world. Learn their limit-busting strategies that will help you tear your own walls down. You may not play with the pros (or get paid like them), but you will surely end up ruling the hardcourt.
SPEED
The Game Breaker
Watch the Phoenix Suns in the NBA and you'll see how much speed can kill. Previously lesser-known players are elevated to stardom because of the intensely fast-paced offense that the Suns run (see Joe Johnson and Boris Diaw). Speed, though is not about top-end velocity but more on acceleration and deceleration, according to Dennis Aenlle, PT, CSCS. He trains the SMC-RP team to be the greyhounds that head coach Vincent "Chot" Reyes demands. Here are the exercises from strength and conditioning coach Aenlle that aims to improve your speed.
Bust through the wall
Exercises for speed should be done in short bouts for optimal results. Aenlle recommends a low-volume, high-intensity circuit program to boost your speed and break your barriers. Start with wall drills. Position yourself in front of a wall with your arms extended like doing a pushup. Your body should be at a 45-degree angle in relation to the floor. Squat as low as you can, keeping your hands on the wall, for one second and push back up. Do eight reps. Then, lift your left knee up to hip level and your toes pointed up (ankle dorsiflexed). Hold it for 10 seconds. Then, bring your leg down. Pause for a second and do the same with your right leg. Do 5-8 reps per leg. Then do leg drives, where after holding the leg up you drive it down using your glutes on cue from a partner-—focus on driving it down hard while keeping your ankle dorsiflexed and bringing it back up again quickly. Do 5-8 reps per leg. Proceed to leg changeovers where you simulate actual running. Instead of driving down and bringing the same leg up, drive down your left leg and lift your right leg up on cue. Spend as little time as possible on the double-leg stance. Do 8-10 quick reps.
Fast forward
Proceed to acceleration cone runs. Prepare 10 plastic cones and lay them on their sides. The first four cones should be spaced three feet apart, the next four with four-foot gaps, and the last three with five-foot spaces in between. Run as fast as you can over all the cones, from cone one to cone 10. This improves acceleration through proper foot placement and prevents deceleration due to overstriding. Run through the cones 8-10 times.
Zoom from any position
Then do gear runs. Place five plastic cones 10 meters apart from each other. Run over each cone in increasing speed, like a car changing gears-—try to go fast after the second cone, faster on the third cone, and so on. This drill improves your transition acceleration, and your ability to change speed. Do the drill 8-10 times. Allow full recovery between sets.
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Men's Health Philippines - July 2007 Issue
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Jayjay Helterbrand
Point guard
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