In the late 90’s YHC had the good fortune of going to a high school with a strength and conditioning coach his junior and senior year, and learned a lot about the exercise systems specifically designed for Ice Hockey.  You may not realize this but hockey is a primarily anaerobic sport, with the ideal shift length being around 45 seconds.  Looking at shiftata from the 2016 season you can see the averages variedprogram for us my senior year, with the final being on the track for 45 seconds of sprinting, 90 seconds of jogging.  Simulate this for 3 17 minute periods (Ohio High School Hockey Association Period timYHC is now 20 years older, 60 pounds heavier, with lower testosterone levels than my former 18-year-old self, so YHC was concerned about my ability to run this workout for 45 minutes – best answer? CO-Q. Assisi agreed to step up and take over when YHC was gassed.

Bring on the Pain:

Assisi Warmed up the PAX (1 lap around the AO; SSH x30; Windmill x10; Slow Merkins x10)

Assisi then passed Baton to YHC:

Challenges of this workout – need to keep the PAX together in a group. Had a brief conversation with the PAX about the need to stay together.  Plan is fellowship pace for a minute for the “off”; High-Intensity Exercise for a minute for the “On”.  Not quite the hockey plan, but in the gloom, this works fine.

Fellowship Pace x 1 min, interspersed with x 1 min of the following exercises: Burpees, Apollo Ohnos, True Americans (YES – STAPLE OF ALL YHC’S Q’S – KNOW THEM LOVE THEM!), Lunge Jumps, Overhead Presses, Squat Jumps (Work on the explosive power – beat the guy to the corner for the puck), Flutter Kicks, and Air Squats.

YHC Gassed – Assisi has the Q – right around 5:55 AM (Got to love how a little pre-planning can go a long way!).

Assisi makes the call – Grab Steel and partner up; size does not matter.

Dora time in the small parking lot.  1 partner does exercise with steel while other performs select exercise.  Rough period of exercise time 4 min each with a little less for speed round.

• Overhead Press with Steel, Partner bear crawls to top and runs back, rinse and repeato
• Low Rows with Steel, Partner Crab walks to top and runs back, rinse and repeato
• Curls with Steel, Partner Lunge walks to top and runs back, rinse and repeato
• Speed Round – Overhead Holds with Steel, Partner Bunny Hops to top and runs back, Rinse and repeato

6:12 AM – Assisi hands Q back to YHC – 3 minutes of Mary: Russian Hammers x20; Heels to Heaven x30 (YHC heard the PAX Groaning when YHC didn’t stop at 20 and also the clunk of feet – got to love the gloom!); Flutters x20 (Karma is a b*tch, YHC gassed out around 15 and clunked for 2 of these and coordination was poor rest of the way in)

6:15 Co-Q over

Sal Pal asked for Prayers for his brother who is having a tough time in school

YHC has to say Co-Q’ing with Assisi was really fun.  YHC was able to test something out he had wondered about – I can guarantee you at some point in the near future we will go at least 2 periods, and maybe YHC will q a Saturday and we can do a full 3 periods next year.  Co-Q’ing is definitely fun, especially if you have a plan like Assisi and I did – would highly recommend it!