My background before Ultimate was with track and cross country, and for a while (longer than it should have) training for the mile or a 5k kept me in good enough shape for some mid market Ultimate. As I continued to play competitively, I became constantly overwhelmed with injuries. I fractured my collar bone on a poor bid. It healed, but not without a bone spur. That spur slowly (over 4 years) tore 200+ degrees of the labrum in my right (throwing) shoulder, culminating in surgery. I partially ruptured my achilles in my left leg going up for a disc. I broke my right foot not being aware of the signals my body was telling me grinding cuts on turf.
2024 has been a year where I've decided it's ok I don't know all the answers, I'm willing to change my behavior, and I'm willing to seek help to do so. I think people can take a lot of pride in figuring things out themselves, and if that works for you that is fantastic! I'm envious of your ability.
What was becoming painstakingly obvious, is the preparation I was doing to attempt to play Ultimate, was not translating to being able to compete the way I desired (or to stay healthy when attempting to do so). While I was recovering from the broken foot, a former teammate and friend was ending their 9 to 5 and starting to take on clients as a strength and mobility coach. To me this felt like a win-win opportunity. I can support a friend's entrepreneurial activity while ideally changing my training behavior for the better. Enter: dannykhoefitness.
The Process:
Danny and I had an initial conversation where we discussed my goals, what I had been doing to prepare for Ultimate in the past, and what I felt like my weaknesses were, that I would like to focus on. In addition to physical weaknesses, a mental weakness I certainly have is inconsistent motivation to workout. My hope was this would bring structure and onus to my workout routine.
From there Danny walked me thru a collection of mobility exercises to film that were part of a "movement assessment." These let Danny evaluate some movement strategies to find obvious movement compensations or patterns. For example, I had no idea what a hip hinge was before this, but Danny identified the need to prioritize lateral movements as well as opening up the hips and chest (to also free up the shoulder).
Video to that initial movement assessment
We landed on a program that had 4 days of workouts for the first month: two upper body and two lower body days. I would track every workout and exercise, recording a few sets (as well as my comments) so that Danny would have the ability to review and tweak what I was doing if needed. We would stick to that plan for 4 weeks, and then re-evaluate and update the exercises for the next 4 weeks.
We scheduled weekly checkins to follow up on the progress and this combined with tracking workouts in the TrueCoach app kept me honest with my routine. My mental weakness was definitely being satisfied by tracking what I was doing, and evaluating that progress with someone. The app was also a great way for Danny to embed reference videos of the exercises I was doing in case I needed a reminder, and it was simple to upload my reps for those exercises.
As the program went on, I started to notice a few unintended perks of being more deliberate with my exercise routine. In addition to having traditionally haphazard workouts, my diet was also inconsistent. I would have a cup of coffee in the morning to start my day, and before I knew it, it would be 3pm and I'd had 0 food. It only took a couple times of attempting to have a decent workout for it to be thwarted by poor preparation. I started planning meals more consistently, and would be sure to have eaten before working out as well as before practices. These are things we know are good for us, but until they're a habit it's hard to go out of your way to prioritize them.
The other unintended positive that came out of this effort, is a reduction of alcohol consumption. If I'm willing to put in this effort to do a thing I love to a better capacity, I need to do the same when recovering between workouts. I don't avoid alcohol completely, but now I track my intake and I'm comfortable not drinking if that is conflicting with goals I have on the field. Tracking my intake and how I feel makes this a much easier decision.
In addition to the unintended positive outcomes that came from this program, there were a handful of tangible expected outcomes. I feel better during practices. I feel better during tournaments. In June, Masters Regionals and Scinny happened to be at the same field complex, and I was rostered on both a Masters and Open team. If you were to tell me 8 months out of a boot I would not only be playing in a competitive tournament where we qualified for Master's Nationals, but I would be skipping our bye rounds to play extra games with Black Lung I would have told you you're crazy. But that's the weekend I just had. On top of that, the "Vitamin I" only left my bag if someone else on the team needed it. That is a new experience for me. I'll be 37 in October, and I feel fucking good and ready to try hard.
Another huge perk I'd like to call out is Danny's ability to identify weaknesses very quickly, and provide exercises to improve them. It is also humbling when these exercises have little to no weight, and you can feel like you gave your all. I think I had the notion I HAD to lift heavy to improve. Danny has shown me you can very effectively target a muscle group and exploit it without having to rely on heavy weights. Because we didn't have to start with heavy weights, it was easy for me to get into a routine at home when I had time. These workouts also typically only lasted up to 45 minutes which made it easy to stick to as well. I don't know if that will be the same for you, but I do know if you have a tailored program made and you follow it, you won't be upset with the results.
Post program movement assessment
I followed Danny's plan for 4 months, and by the end we got into a routine where we would touch base only if I had form questions (per my request) and we could review those live (video calls). Having the immediate feedback from Danny to change my reps was helpful to more quickly make changes and get the most value out of each one. Now I'm tracking and managing my workouts on my own, but bouncing ideas off Danny all the time to continue to improve myself.
TL;DR
Working with Danny to change my workout routine and habits is something I wish I had done sooner. I relied to much on "this worked in the past for me so hopefully it keeps working", and as I aged I had to do something different if I wanted different results. I was initially skeptical of having remote feedback and the cost of the program.
After a month both of those concerns were at ease. This program for me was a Master's Course in workout tracking and planning, giving me the information I need to prepare and train for an activity I love to compete in: Ultimate. Thank you Danny for making this a sustainable activity for me, when I was semi-knowingly imploding on my own.