If you've ever seen "The Karate Kid" from 1984, you realize that Kreese, the evil sensei that trained the Cobra Kai, may have had a point. Mind over matter. He was training his kids that you don't bring sissyness into his world. Because that is the reality of the world. Miyagi, although gentle in spirit and wise in everyday life, wouldn't know what an American high school boy has to go thru to gain respect. I love this movie don't get me wrong. But I would put money that after the tournament, Johnny and his cronies probably jumped Danny in the parking lot. Hollywood be damned. Because there ARE no rules in survival. Therefore, having had his leg swept, he would've been dogmeat. They kinda' glossed over this in part 2 when Miyagi walks him out to the parking lot only to have Kreese be taught a lesson by Miyagi. I call hogwash.
Anyway...
It's a scorching hot day in the valley when I arrived at 11:00AM at a park. 2nd day of sobriety. Feels good. I unloaded my car. Which consisted of a 50lb. sandbag that I made, a 12lb. medicine ball, a 4' length of heavy duty chain, and a weight belt. I hate being late to anywhere. I have no idea where it comes from, but it I always like to be early. So upon arrive the rest of my workout buds were still enroute.
This park is great because it has a very long stretch of grass. It is the backside of the basketball courts and just outside of the community pool area. There is a lot of activity today, due to it being summer, kids are out. I would begin the workout. But as all the equipment wasn't there, I elected to modify what I had to fit a part of our workout. So after stretching for a little bit...I decided to do an explosive exercise that was introduced to me by workout buddy Brad.
What we do is clean-jerk the 50lb sandbag 10 reps then at the end, explode out into a full sprint. Now, people...I'm not sure what your idea of working out may be, but I have to tell you...if you had to do any workout ever and you want to drop weight fast...this is the one. By the end of the sprint, you see nothing but monochrome. I saw greys. And different shades of grey. I huffed and puffed and probably scared children with my swearing. But it is ruthless. And it gets your heart moving. After a few minutes under the shade. What little there was. And gulping down as much water as my reflex could handle...I did it again. Why? Because that's work:
Imagine for a minute, I'm some caveman throwing saber-tooth tiger pelts onto a pile. I'm spotted by big mama saber-tooth...what do you think I need to do now?...that's right...drop and sprint like my life depended on it. Drop and sprint. Remember this. It is THE SINGLE BEST exercise you will ever go thru.
Next, since our "sled" had not arrived yet...I clipped the chain over the handle of the sandbag and low dragged that. What that means is that I stayed in a squat position while dragging it the length of the field. Periodically touching the grass.
So now that I was warmed up. Brad arrived with the kettlebells. We exchange pleasantries. And he does a drop and sprint. Not to bore you with the details but the workouts usually end up being "what can we do to really suffer."
Well, most of the time we "plow the field". We drag, carry, smash and crush things to resemble working in the fields. And we add in a few pushups or a hundred. The trick for us to keep high intensity. Most of the times I drop to my knees forearms on the ground praying air would return to my lungs. I get slightly woozy. But it's a positive thing.
Our other workout buddy shows up and brings the tire and sledgehammer. I'm sure a few of you have seen this contraption where you slam the sledge into the tire. While it may not seem difficult, the grip strength and coordination is what it works. To us...it is pure reward. We added it to the lift heavy and sprint routine. Huffing and puffing as my guts turn...the last thing I want to do is lift anything metal over my head. But somehow you find the energy.
Speaking of chains...Mike recently purchased a long tow chain. I modified a battle rope workout to incorporate this swing. Basically, we tie the chain to the end of a VERY heavy weight. Then we grab the other end and swing over head. Causing the chain to wave. And repeat. Over and over again. Angry after every swing. And, just this week...we started leaping in coordination with swinging. You know after less than 30 seconds, you kinda' regret a few things in your life. You see back into the past and you remember defining moments. Like that first high school girlfriend who dumped you. Or the Fourth of July picnic that had apples in the potato salad. It's all non-sensical. But you get to that point. The sound of the chains is so primal. You don't want to stop, because you're breaking down and building up. When it hits the ground, you feel the ground shake. And that's because of you. Your shoulders burn. You sides ache. But you press thru. As you drop the links...you know in about 5 seconds, that explosive energy hits every part of your brain. That's when you go down, walking sideways on the decline.
After sucking in as much air as I could get...we moved on to Tabatas. This is an interesting theory behind this...in essence, it is believed that four minutes of intense training is all you need to feel the full effects of a complete workout. That is...if you go full force. It means driving your VO2 (osygen) level to its peak. Thus crippling you physically by the end of 4 minutes. Well, we modified it so that we would have a few stations of exercise gear and we'd switch. The plan is that you do 20 seconds full throttle exercise. Then 10 seconds rest. We chose to switch exercises during that rest. So...
station 1) battle chain
station 2) medicine ball slams
station 3) kettlebell swings
station 4) sandbag
station 5) sledgehammer & tire
I like this better since when you switch, your body has a way of doing different work. To me, as we rotated I switched up the exercise For instance, the battle chain swing overhead, would change to a side-to-side motion. The sandbag squat would turn to a deadlift. Anything we could do to make it different. Confuse the body. WORK.
Two minutes in, and after the first station, I start to feel the effects. Maybe because I've been thru this before, I have an odd sense of fear.Fight or flight response. I'm already amped. Well, I made it thru the 4 minutes. And...I kid you not...I dropped to the ground in a fetal position sucking air (and subsequently anything near that air...which included flies). It is...grueling and exhilerating at the same time. And a fine end to a sun-parched morning. What I failed to mention to the rest of the guys is that as I stood in the shower, the grass and dirt floating between my toes I began weeping from the pain and accomplishment. Which, in reality, Danny LaRusso would've been doing off in a corner to himself.
Next...how to choose a workout partner.
No comments:
Post a Comment