Brazil penthouse pool workout on our active rest day

 After landing safely in Brasilia and training double days in the sand from Tuesday through Friday, we decided to take the pressure off the gas pedal to active rest before setting up a 3 session day today to mimic our qualification path Wednesday.

We rested in the morning and took in a few 1000 calories in the form of an Acai bowl (picture below)

then chilled by the penthouse pool at sunset to prime ourselves for the following day. Here is our workout.

After a nice mobility warm up I did some exercises I learnt from Rob Williams utilizing the Core X bands. I started with lateral and pivot movements opening up my stance and arms at the same time to connect my core to my legs and upper body. I did 3 sets of 16 side steps and quarter turn pivots, going from normal ready position to wide spread back to ready position. I then went onto all fours, using a Joga inspired balance posture but adding difficulty with the Core X bands. I would raise on hand and the opposite leg controlled for 3 seconds, hold for 3 seconds and then coming back to a stable 4 point position. I did 3 sets of 16 for each leg/arm combo.

We then both got after some ab roll outs with proper lumbar spine positioning and kept the reps under 10 as not to fatigue ourselves. I mixed in some V ups to push up on the foam roller. We complimented these core exercises with single and double arm plank holds while paying attention to shoulder stability and proper trunk muscle recruitment.

Josh wanted to some preventative/maintenance shoulder work so he did some isolated band exercises to target his rotator cuff muscles. He then did wall slides (his favorite/least favorite exercises) to strengthen scapular movement and stability.

We then stretched for quite sometime, allowing our bodies to sink deeply into personal favorite poses. Below is Josh's specialty and you will catch him chilling in this position after every training session or game. It really gets after pelvic stabilizers which generally stiffen from training in sand.

I tucked into some groin, quad and hamstring stretches after doing some trunk and pelvic mobility exercises specific to movement patterns I want to improve.

With only the use of an ab wheel, Core X, elastic band and a foam roller we activated our cores, hit our trunk stabilizers, strengthened our shoulders and opened up mobility patterns specific to our individual needs. Lots of work yet to be done here in Brasilia but we definitely took in the 26 degree sunset next to the pool as we took care of our bodies in preparation for our qualification tournament on Wednesday.