Ouch! My legs hurt!

I am having trouble walking down the stairs today. Why? Well, I completed my first Nike SPARQ training session (and as a reminder, SPARQ = speed, power, agility, reaction, quickness). Let's just say it was a little more difficult than I thought it would be!

The first thing I did was meet with Sean from Velocity Sports Performance. We sat down and discussed what goals I wanted to achieve over the next 6 weeks. I told him that improving my strength and agility were at the top of my list. To see what my current fitness level was, Sean introduced me to Kelly who put me through testing. Many of the tests were really straightforward. I tested my vertical, how far I could throw a ball, and my sprinting speed. However, one test was a little more difficult. The dreaded endurance test! This consisted of me running back and forth and crossing a finish line before a beep sounded. I had to repeat this over and over until I missed the beep. It sounds simple, but believe me, it wasn't.

After my testing, I hopped into one of the classes offered at Velocity Sports Performance. I've done similar workouts in high school, so I felt prepared for the task. However, when I started sweating during the warm-up, I knew I was in trouble. The jogging part was ok; I could do that. But then we did this thing called the alligator crawl and I started to feel major pain! It was like doing a super intense push-up! By the end of this drill my arms felt so fatigued! I could have stopped right then, but there were still more exercises left. After that, we moved on to the SPARQ hurdle and ladder drills. The ladder drills were my favorite. We practiced about half a dozen ways to get through the ladders and each way was more difficult than the one before. I already feel like I am more agile because of them. We finished the class out with some lifting and stretching.

That night I already knew that my muscles were going to be sore. The next day, I could barely move! My arms, legs and even my toes hurt! I thought that I was in pretty good shape, but this workout was a whole other ball game. A couple of days have now passed and I can walk down the stairs with no pain. And since I can't take the awesome trainers from New Jersey back home with me, I will be training with a Nike SPARQ trainer in Nebraska over the next six weeks. Based on my test scores, Sean was able to create a specified training regimen for me. At the end of the program, I will re-test and see if any of my scores have improved. And hopefully I will be more prepared for the endurance test!

-Brittany