Apollo Routine - RunningDVDs.com

First thing that we need to be clear about is that this video was shot in early January 2008, 7 months before the demonstrator dove at the line to complete the Oregon sweep in the Men's 800m at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials. This is also roughly a year after the same guy, Christian Smith, was on his death bed, having lost over 40 lbs. I bring this up for one simple reason - I firmly believe that the reason Chris was able to come back from the illness as quickly as he did was the years of general strength (GS) he had done as an athlete at Kansas State. That being said, this video was also shot during a window where he was back in Manhattan, Kansas for the holidays; he had not been doing as much GS with the OTC and if you pay close attention you'll see he's struggling a bit on the first exercise; that exercises is definitely hard, yet for someone who will go on to run in Beijing, it's quite realistic. My point is that this type of GS is like 8th grade algebra - the first week that you're working through new equations you're getting your butt kicked, yet fast forward a month and those same equations are not only easy, but sort of fun. Same thing with most of the GS routines in our DVD series.

The video explains the exercises well, but let me add two things: you don't need a partner for this routine and you should start with a light med ball (MB).

Why don't you need a partner? Because once you figure out the spacing, you can simply do the 180º to 90º throw against a wall, letting it bounce back to you, though it does take some experimentation to figure this out (men may want to employ a piece of equipment from their middle school baseball days when experimenting with the spacing).

Why start with a lighter MB? Because 10 good V-ups is tough without the MB and you're better off doing those correctly - you should look like the letter V - with a lighter MB than going straight to 4k. That being said, most serious HS and collegiate athletes will eventually want a 4k MB for most of their work.

*Weekly RunningDVD giveaway! We know that people are watching these Tuesday Tips and that's great, yet we'll all be better served if you and others will write questions/comments/observations in the comments area. I'll respond, then you may decide to respond to that response and pretty soon we'll have a much richer resource for us both. To that end, RunningDVDs.com will be giving away 4 DVDs each week to the first 4 people that comment on the newest "Tuesday Tips" video and become a fan of the RunningDVDs.com site. Simply post your comment below, become a fan and shoot me an email at [email protected] with your name and mailing address. I'll send you a free copy of Vol.1 or Vol.2 of Building a Better Runner, just specify which DVD you'd like. I look forward to your comments and to making Tuesday Tips a dialogue that helps us all.

Post here with any questions regarding the givaway.

Jay Johnson

You can download a PDF with sequential photos of the exercises shown by visiting the donwloads page on our site.