Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Nueromuscular conditioning

This semester of school is going about how I expected. My health promotion class is easy enough, but also interesting at the same time. My Kinesiology class is brutally difficult, and I think there should be some introductory classes before people take it. You have to know every bone, muscle, and peice of hair on the entire human body... and the scientific term for those. My first test I studied harder than any point of my College career (not saying much), and ended up getting 68%! That's not going to get the job done.
My third class is Nueromuscular Conditioning. I figured this class would be good for me. We get to learn about all kinds of weight lifting and other conditioning techniques. I plan to be a high school coach someday so this will certainly be relevant to me. I will know how to organize specific training routines for each individual person.
So far we've just been doing in class bookwork. BORING stuff to me. The teacher is explaining how muscle movement works and blah blah blah blaaaaaaah!!! I just want to see how it's done. I have the basic idea how muscles work, I don't need a Sheldon Cooper explanation for every little detail. I'm already getting that in my Kinesiology class.
So today we started the "fun" stuff. We did some fitness testing to see where we're at individually. The four test we took were: T-test, Vertical jump, standing long jump, and push-up test. Let me just say that my results were depressing. I consider myself to be in fairly decent shape. I am fairly good at a variety of sports. I found out today that I'm muscularly challenged!
Here are my test results and the accompanying feedback that I got out of my book:

T-test- (This test is completed by setting up one cone. Then about 15 feet away there is a line of three cones. Each of those cones is about 8-10 feet apart. The cones form a T! You sprint from the single cone to the middle cone, then side step to the left cone, sidestep to the right cone, sidestep back tot he middle cone, and run backwards to the starting cone. You must touch the base of each cone as you go.... and it's timed. It's designed to test a person's agility)
I got this done in 9.97 seconds. In case you're wondering that's WELL below the expected time for my age. A few guys were getting in the 8's. My book said I performed at the level of a 17 year old boy, or a womens college basketball player.

Push-ups- I maxed out at 15 which put me in the "Needs improvement" category. I could have squeezed out a few more but it wouldn't have improved my feedback much.

Vertical Jump- You have to stand flat footed under this measuring stick and jump as high as you can. I got 23 Inches, which actually wasn't horrible. The feedback said it was at the level of a Div. one college baseball player.

Standing Long Jump- I jumped about 8 feet. Sounds good, but it isn't! Well below the expected level once again.

I would like to point out that I was wearing skater shoes while doing these tasks. I didn't know we'd be running or jumping so I wasn't prepared. The point is that I'm a weakling. I have no muscles, speed, power, agility, ect. ect. ect. I guess what I've had all these years in sports is a drive to win! I don't take losing lightly, and I don't ever play a sport half assed. I've been mistaking myself for the athletic guy all these years, but it turns out I'm the Matt Harpring! I'm the guy that just tries harder than everybody else.
So I've decided to try to work on the muscles a little bit. Hopefully by the end of the semester I'll improve some of these tests and I won't be a 17 year old boy anymore.

6 comments:

Megan Shaw said...

Hey...it's not an insult be like Matt Harpring...he is, afterall, in the freakin NBA!

Rachel said...

Aren't 17 year old boys in really good shape? I'm confused, lots of your tests said you did awesome, what's the problem? You're more in shape than most people I know, so I wouldn't sweat it. (P.S. Great Sheldon Cooper reference, very funny) -I think I would like taking some of your classes besides the whole test/assigment thing. Like they would be fun to just learn about. In a different life it would have been fun to go into sports medicine.

Steven said...

Matt Harpring was just an example of where I stand athletically. Obviously I'm not as good or athletic as Matt! He's just a guy that gets by with hustle.

And Rachel... 15 push-ups for a grown man!! And 17 year old boys have energy, but they're boys. I'm supposed to be a grown man not a boy. If I showed you the results in the book you'd probably see that is wasn't favorable.

Alyssa said...

I agree with Megan and Rachel.. for one.. Matt Harpring is not an insult! ;) And what is wrong with having a 17 yr olds body? Man, that should be a good thing right? Well I can promise that your scores would have been tons and tons and tons better then mine!

Steven said...

Other examples in the book were:
Div 1 football player.
Div 1 Basketball player.
"Excellent"


And I'll admit the Matt Harpring wasn't a good example but I was trying to relate to the potential reader. If I called myself George Murisan you may not have grasped my point.

Casandra said...

Actually, I know exactly who George Murisan is and that's hillarious. 17 push ups is pretty weak, but I can't even do 2 real push ups so where does that leave me? Much worse off than you. Sigh! At least you're a skinny weakling...ha ha ha...better than a fat one.

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