How-To Weekend Rec Sports Shape Up Guide

If you're on a rec sports team, you need to shape up to prevent injuries and win those games for bragging rights. If you just show up for your games without preparation, you will blow out a hamstring or pull a quad muscle (or worse injury). Oh, you already blew out a hammie!? Get in better shape to play......


The easiest way to start getting in shape is to use bodyweight strength and bodyweight cardio workouts.

Begin your training by getting your body in general condition to play your sport. Full body bodyweight strength training (3 days a week) and interval cardio (2-3 days a week) sessions will get your body ready for more intense training to follow. Do this training for 2-3 weeks.

Athletic bodyweight workouts will burn fat from your body like never before...just try a workout and see for yourself. These workouts will sculpt your body without your joints taking a pounding from lifting heavy weights.

To get your muscles to improve power (how fast your muscles can produce force), do some or all of the exercises full speed. Also, you will really burn fat and shape your bulkier, fast twitch muscle fibers when doing exercises at full speed.

Here is a good athletic bodyweight workout. Do each exercise (10 repetitions) one after the other with 30-45 seconds rest between exercises. Rest 2-3 minutes between circuits. Do the circuit 2 more times.

  • Bodyweight squats, moderate pace
  • Medicine ball soccer throw, full speed
  • Pushups, full speed
  • Medicine ball walking lunges with upper body rotation, controlled
  • 2-Handed medicine ball chest pass, full speed
  • Squat jumps, full speed
  • Back extensions, moderate pace


Use correct form and get after it!

Do your strength workouts between practices with your rec team. Your practices with teams like soccer, basketball or flag football will be adequate interval cardio exercise. If you play a sport like softball, interval cardio and bodyweight cardio would be helpful to get you in better shape.

You could also progress to plyometric exercises specific to your sport. Cone hops, lateral speed shuffles, bounding, speed ladder drills and medicine ball exercises are some examples. Choose exercises that mimic the movements in your sport (transfer-of-training-effect). Plyometric exercises help you to increase power. Traditional barbell and dumbbell strength exercises do not allow you to move at the speeds necessary to improve power. Strength training gives you muscular and nervous system development needed to develop optimal power.

Advanced sports power training supersets a strength exercise with a biomechanically similar power exercise. An example would be barbell squats and repeating full-speed squat jumps. The squat jumps would be performed immediately following the barbell squats to get maximum neuromuscular adaptations.

You would do a set of squats at 85% of 1 Rep Maximum (5 reps) followed immediately by a set of full-speed repeating squat jumps (8-10 reps). This is an advanced training method and should not be performed by those who do not have adequate stabilization strength and muscular strength.Other plyometric exercises can also be superset this way.

Surprise your friends with improved power and explosion during your games! And, do so without getting injured!

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 Metabolic Fat Burner Workout Book below and start shaping your body faster! There are 3 levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. You will also get fat-burning menus!


About Mark

Hi, I'm Mark Dilworth, Nutritionist, Dietary Strategies Specialist, Nutrition for Metabolic Health Specialist and Lifestyle Weight Management Specialist. Since 2006, I have helped thousands of clients and readers make lifestyle habit changes which includes body transformation and ideal body weight.