When it comes to exercise, I’ve always considered myself lucky. I’ve enjoyed enough sports to stay active and healthy without having to make a conscious effort to work out. Now that I’m getting over 40, however, I’m starting to feel that just cycling and playing tennis may not be enough. My lower back tightens up once a year, forcing me into a weeklong Larry King impression. I occasionally feel disjointed when riding out of the saddle. My creampuff serve tails off dramatically after an hour of tennis as my torso loses it’s ability to torque.

@##=#<2,R>@##=#The Next Level, a DVD from Jeb Stewart of Endurofit and Reece Haettich of The Next Level addresses these issues and more. It’s a four phase workout plan for strength training aimed at endurance athletes. The progression is 8-10 weeks of flexibility and stability, followed by 8 weeks of strength and 4 weeks of power, and finishing with in-season maintenance. Jeb and Reece demonstrate each exercise, explaining proper form as they go. There’s a fair amount of repetition and progression as you work through each phase, and the sheer amount of exercises (there are 16 stretches and 35 exercises in phase one alone) can be daunting. The good news is the training plan is printed out on three cards, which helps to map out an overview of each phase.

The exercises roughly break down into stretches, swiss ball/exercise mat workouts, dumbbell workouts, form running/lunges/leaps, ball tossing, and gym apparatus weights. The first three can be done at home or at the gym. Form running was demo’d on a grass field, ball tossing on a racquetball court. I focused on phase one workouts that could be done at home for this first look for a couple of reasons. One, we’re in base building season right now, and two, I despise the gym and refuse to join one.

@##=#<3,L>@##=#The stretches were very interesting, more specific and effective than the traditional stretches we all know. Several involve the swiss ball and really isolate certain muscle groups. They were novel enough to inject an element of fun into something I consider pure tedium. I found myself more limber than I ever thought possible afterwards, walking with strangely large strides.

The swiss ball/exercise mat exercises ranged from ‘you gotta be sh!ttin’ me’ to just about doable. The reverse hyperextension might as well be a circus act for me, while the horse stance, supine ball roll, prone ball roll, etc., were very challenging, difficult enough to be a game. It didn’t take more than a few reps of each to reduce me to jello. The supine ball roll was especially cool – it hurt my hamstrings almost as much as weights, but the element of skill required made it far more interesting.

Dumbbell workouts were more traditional, but enough were done on the swiss ball to make things fun. There were many more arm and shoulder exercises for the gym, which my pencil necked geek self gladly passed on.

Time for Hate
Speaking as someone who hates the gym, hates weights, and hates working out, I wish there was a condensed version. The toughest part of any workout plan, for me, is being able to stick to it. The sheer size of this program (it takes 33 minutes just to demo a few reps of each exercise in phase one) makes it harder for me to adhere to the plan. There also seems to be way too many arm and shoulder exercises for cyclists. One look at the enormous Mr. Haettich (a triathlete) would appear to bear that out. Cyclists will end up avoiding many of the upper body weights exercises. Of course, the counter argument is that it’s better to be comprehensive than not, and gym rats might appreciate the huge variety of workouts.

@##=#<1,r>@##=#So where does that leave us?
I’m going to cherry pick as many workouts from phase one as possible and report back after a couple of months. I’ve never been able to stick to a strength training plan, so I’m hoping the challenge of mastering the more difficult movements will keep me interested. Hopefully I won’t have suffered a freak swiss ball faceplant accident in the interim.

But wait, there’s more!
The first two people who can email us the answer to the following questions will receive a Next Level DVD and t-shirt direct from Endurofit. Don’t post the answers in the comments section! Winners must live on the continental US.

What are the three coaching plan levels offered by Endurofit?
What are three exercises demonstrated in The Next Level?

JT and Matt Howard have won the contest. Congratulations, guys, and I’m a little creeped out by how early you get on the site.