Movement

The High-Speed Backyard Workout

Christie Rampone September 17, 2008

As a professional soccer player and mother of a 3-year-old girl, I know it’s hard to find time to work out and be a full-time mom. My schedule of late:

• Recover from Beijing Olympic Games
• Move family from Los Angeles to New Jersey
• Play in 10-game Achieve Your Gold Tour
• Prepare for season with new Women’s Professional Soccer league

We all have nonstop days, weeks, and months, which makes it easy to skip out on exercise, but here’s how I look at it:

I’m always taking care of my daughter, Riley, so my workout time is my time to take care of myself. I enjoy it and I appreciate it, rather than looking at it as something I have to do.

When you enjoy your workout time, you can squeeze a training session into the smallest window. The first year after Riley was born was the most difficult for me to work out around feeding times and nap times, but anytime. I could find 20 minutes, like when she napped, I’d take the monitor outside and do some sprint workouts.

Here’s a sampling of sprints you can do in your backyard two or three times a week to stay strong, energized, and healthy.

Directions

Choose from the four 60-yard sprints, or “shuttles,” below and complete one per minute. So if it takes you 18 seconds to complete the shuttle, you’ll rest for the remaining 42 seconds. Perform a total of 5 shuttles in 5 minutes, then rest 2 minutes and repeat once or twice.

How to make it harder: Choose harder shuttles, as noted below, or decrease the amount of time you rest between shuttles.

About The Author

Christie Rampone – As a member of the US Women's National Soccer Team and the New Jersey/New York Sky Blue FC of Women's Professional Soccer, Christie Rampone writes for CorePerformance.com.

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Tags: Soccer, Acceleration, Speed, Training

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