Creative conditioning maximizes Warriors’ potential

Pick an object, any object. Gary Beemer probably can turn it into a workout device.

"What governs what we do is based on what we have," said Beemer, the University of Hawaii football team’s strength/conditioning coordinator.

With iron-chef creativity, Beemer has concocted training equipment from semi-truck tires, heavy ropes, and beach towels.

Strength and speed training is rooted in resistance. The Rainbow Warriors run sprints while attached to parachutes. When there are not enough parachutes, players will run while restrained with elastic bands held by trailing teammates. "Bands are just as effective," Beemer said.

For agility, players hopscotch on rope ladders spread on Ching field.

"Our best weapon in strength training has been the beach towel," Beemer said. "A kid can work out his whole body with no equipment, just a towel."

Towels can assist with upright rolls, shrugs, inverted rolls, squats and leg curls.

"You can throw a towel on top of a bar and do chin-ups," Beemer said. "We can wrap a towel around a bar to make it thicker and the exercise harder. It’s pretty extensive with what you can do with that towel, man, that terrible towel."

Beemer oversees the Warriors’ offseason conditioning program that runs to the opening of training camp in August. In 2013, his first summer at UH after stints with the Minnesota Vikings and Ohio State, Beemer’s workouts focused on toughness and conditioning. "Last year, we tried to build on it and get a little more complicated," Beemer said of the program, which included weekly workouts at Waikiki Beach.

This summer, he increased the agility and field work.

"We’re trying to maximize their genetic potential," Beemer said. "We’re doing more in-depth, football-specific stuff."

Wideout Devan Stubblefield, running back Steven Lakalaka and linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams are at full speed after recovering from season-ending injuries in 2014. Nose tackles Penitito Faalologo and Kory Rasmussen have worked on maintaining agility and quickness while competing at heavier weights.

"I’m very proud of the guys," Beemer said. "It doesn’t matter what I ask them to do. It doesn’t matter if something is hard. The guys show up, and they do it. I love coming to work and helping those guys train."

With limited resources, Beemer has to devise creative solutions. His top assistants — Kyle Casillas and George Montoya — are non-salaried interns compensated with occasional grocery outings. "They have to fund their own journey here," Beemer said.

Two weight room graduate assistants also help with football while rotating among other UH sports.

Beemer said Na Koa, the Warriors’ booster club, paid for a belt-squat unit that will help players with lower-back and spinal ailments train. The club also bought plyometric platforms that can be set at different heights. The current plyometric boxes are about 20 years old and have jagged edges.

Beemer has learned to adapt. It stemmed from his childhood, when his parents refused to buy him a video-game console.

"It helped me a lot," Beemer said. ‘I had to play with my friends and I had to read."

Despite resource constraints, Beemer said: "I’ve got no complaints. I’m living and working in Hawaii."