Session 4: A focus on squats
With limited workout time available for the team, this was my first attempt to focus on a specific technique during our team workout.
On Monday evening, we had a group of 6 show up ready for a workout. The emphasis for this evening was on squats and proper form. After the boys jogged in the field area, we found a small corner for dynamic stretching warm-ups.
During this session, the entire group did the exercises simultaneously, and we went through the activities for three sets each. A funny observation was that the boys like to stay huddled up, maybe to chat with each other, so I repeatedly reminded them to spread out so they have sufficient space for the drills.
Exercises:
Squats
Body weight squats with bench—tapping the bench with their rear ends to prevent leaning forward and minimize pushing their knees over their toes.
Body weight squats with hands up—focusing on keeping their arms upright and not leaning forward, as it becomes apparent when their arms fall forward mid-squat.
Goblet squat with 10-pound plate—this was our first time loaded to introduce some weight in the squat process, again focusing on form.
Pulls
Inverted rows with suspension strap—pull exercises are hard to do without equipment, so we took advantage of having several sets available for us to use.
Twists
High plank twists—a little core work as a last exercise focusing on rotation.
The boys did a little bit of jogging and then did a cooldown stretch as a group, and just like that, 45 minutes passed, and we were done. There was a comment after our warmups about how shocked they were that time was flying by. Getting lost in a workout is easy when you are focused and putting in the work. That was a good sign and positive feedback to hear!