WARRIOR GRIP

In real world situations that require lifting and moving or carrying heavy objects it’s rare that you have the “benefit” or “advantage” of using straps or hooks to help you hold onto the objects. Sure, there may be a place (at times) for using those aids in strength training situations, but in the real world you typically need to be able to grip it and rip it (or carry it) unaided. This means that you need to have a strong (and more often and enduring) grip.

Warrior Grip Tools

While many of the exercises I do in “typical” Warrior Workouts require grip strength to a certain degree (like rope curls, pull-ups, climbing Jacob’s Ladder, etc), I’ve also started adding a quick “Warrior Grip Complex” to the end of my workouts one or two times a week. My tools? A homemade grip roller, a weighted “sword” and a sledgehammer.

The grip roller is simply an old dry bag (for kayaking/canoeing) filled with sand, a rope, a carabiner, a piece of PVC pipe and some cloth athletic tape. I’ll actually stand on top of one of my “plyo boxes” so that I can drop and roll up the bag over a longer distance.

I’m holding the sledgehammer upright in one hand at about shoulder height with my arm out almost straight. I simply “pass” the sledgehammer from hand to hand without letting it drop or dip or whack me in the head.

The final exercise is using the “sword.” The sword is just a piece of metal pipe filled with sand and stones, capped at both ends and with some athletic tape for a “grip.” I also hold this at shoulder height–similar to the sledgehammer–but switch smoothly (usually) from the sword upright to the sword pointing down positions. I like to do this exercise last in the sequence because it challenges the dexterity of my grip/fingers when they are fatigued.

This is just a starting place for working on your grip.

Homemade Grip Roller

Every one have a happy, healthy holiday and don’ forget to dare greatly every day!!!

3100 Push-ups in December!!!

Right! That’s an average of 100 push-ups a day. And, even though we’re six days into the challenge, you can still join in and create your own shortened version or catch up to the rest of us. Either way, like most challenges and goals, it’s better to start TODAY then wait until tomorrow, or next week or next year.

Check out the challenge (started by adventure racing friend, JJ Johnson) on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/events/209280115812778/

Once you join in, you can read other posts and find out how people are reaching their daily goals and blending the challenge into their other regular workouts and training. For me, today, I blended it into my regular evening Warrior Workout:

Circuit 1 (5 rounds)

1. Backpack Step-Ups: 2 minutes

2. Pull-ups (oh…didn’t mention that I added 50 pull-ups a day to my own personal December challenge)

3. Atomic Push-Ups

 

Circuit 2 (4 rounds)

1. Walking Lunges

2. Pull-Ups

3. Atomic Push-ups

4. Side Lateral Raise “Breakdowns”–one set to failure with one weight and then another immediate set to failure with a lighter weight.

 

Circuit 3 (3 rounds)

1. Webbing Rows

2. Atomic Push-ups

3. Kettlebell Shoulder Presses

 

Sure, I ended up with a few extra push-ups and pull-ups today. Hopefully, I’ll forget about my overage and not dip into them some day when I might be a little tired or pressed for time. It’s my goal to do at least 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups a day until the end of December. And, once January rolls around…well…we’ll have to come up with a new challenge!!!

Getting in 14 extra pull-ups for the day at the United States Marine Corps recruiting booth--97X Next Big Thing 2011.

Endeavor Racing, LLC–Adventure Races, Trail Runs and More!

 

Endeavor Racing, LLC, is my new adventure event management company–bringing you adventure races, trail runs, New Zealand-style multisport races, land navigation clinics and team building adventures. Be sure to check my current offerings for 2012 at www.endeavorracing.com .

First up in 2012? January’s Intro and Advanced Navigation Clinics.

 

 

First Race in 2012? Well, at the moment it is the Citrus Trail Marathon, 10-Miler and 4-Miler at the Citrus Tract of Withlacoochee State Forest near Inverness, FL–an awesome tract of land with long hills, hidden caves and single track trails that wind through a variety of habitats.

 

Closer to Tampa? The River-N-Rapids 10k and Fun Run at Hillsborough River State Park. And, for a limited time, the Fun Run pre-registration entry fee is only $5!!!!! No excuses for not getting out to one of Florida’s first state parks and at least running two miles!

Keep your eyes on our website and Facebook (be sure to “Like” our page!) for the latest race schedules, clinic schedules and updates.

I hope to see you out at the races!

Dare Greatly.

–Kip

24 Minutes of Work

As I sit here drinking my (shameless plug) Hammer Nutrition Recoverite, I’m pretty excited at how spent I feel after tonight’s workout on the Concept 2 Rowing Ergometer. You wouldn’t think that 24 minutes of work would do much, but broken into some intense intervals, it did the trick. The encouraging thing was that between work intervals my heart rate was coming down rather quickly–a nice sign that my fitness level is improving.

This evenings workout was three times through this interval workout:

1) 3 minutes work/3 minutes rest

2) 2 minutes work/2 minutes rest

3) 1:30 work/1:30 rest

4) 1 minute work/1 minute rest

5) 30 seconds work/30 seconds rest

Following my Recoverite, I’ll stretch, do some work on the foam roller and finally have a light dinner. I have to recover well so that I can run in the morning!

 

Row and Step

Simple workout this evening:

1. Concept 2 Rowing Ergometer: 2 minutes

2. Backpack Step-ups: 2 minutes

1 minute of “rest” in between rounds–essentially the time it took me to get from my “step” back to the rowing machine and squirt a little HEED in my mouth.

The step I use are actually three pallets stacked on top of each other. I have a fourth, but that’s a bit high for step-ups–but perfect for some plyometric jumps at other times. The backpack felt a little light during the first two rounds, so I added 10 pounds–that seemed about right.

I went through eight times for a nice high-intensity workout! As I was “cooling down,” I played a little on my homemade balance board–a nice extra challenge when I’m a little tired.

Warrior a.m.

First “clear” morning in a while and I sleep, sleep, sleep instead of getting out and paddling. Damn. But, I still managed to rally for a quick Warrior Workout to get me feeling at least a little badass before heading into the office.

1. Backpack Kettlebell Step and Press…Backpack Step and Press: Basically, started doing step-ups and press with the kettlebells while wearing my “heavy” backpack, then dropped the kettlebells when I couldn’t press anymore and kept stepping.

2. Low Back Extensions (LBX)

3. Webbing Twist/Tuck: again using my garage gym TRX and from the plank/push-up position  taking both knees to the outside of one arm, back to plank and then to the outside of the other arm–repeat.

Five times through with no rest and feeling pumped to start the work day!!!

“Basic”

Short on motivation, time or both? Then look to simple, short, high-intensity efforts to make the best use of what little motivation you have. Chances are, once you get started, you will manage to crank out an excellent workout. The trick is to not make it too long or too complex–limit the number of exercises and keep them fairly simple (minimal equipment needs).

My “Basic” this evening was:

1. Concept 2 Rowing Ergometer: 3 minutes

2. Atomic Push-ups: you can do regular push-ups if you don’t have some webbing.

3. Pull-ups

I moved from one exercise immediately to the next and took one minute of rest after each round. Maximum effort on the rowing machine, atomic push-ups and pull-ups to failure on each set and I was gassed at the end. My last time off the Concept 2, my legs were shaking–a great feeling!

Total=5 rounds.

 

Training Time: Plan vs. Flow

I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, “Whim.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Now most people won’t think of Emerson as one of the more recognizable athletic training gurus; another Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, with his penchant for long, strenuous walks, might be at least be a “stretch choice” for some knowledgable of American Literature. And, maybe I’ll write about Thoreau in that context at another time, but today it’s that quote of Emerson’s that penetrated my mind and my training.

How does that particular quote apply to athletic training?

A training plan can be a wonderful thing–providing structure and guidance to achieving a very specific athletic goal. Two of my favorite books on sports training are by periodization wizard, Tudor Bompa–Theory and Methodology of Training and Periodization for Sports. They are academic and thorough and lay out detailed plans (multi-year, yearly, monthly, weekly and daily) that can help you achieve great things in sports. I used such detailed plans during my collegiate coaching career (crew) and throughout my own post-collegiate athletic career (marathon kayaking and adventure racing).

But, a training plan–if too rigid–can sometimes sap the life out of your workouts and your desire to achieve. And, simply, it can take the fun out of a sport that you love. This is where Emerson comes in. Sure, he’s talking specifically about intellectual pursuits, but I’m fairly certain that he would be happy to see his thoughts applied to other aspects of life–even to sport.

The morning workout today was at the Total Air Gym–good, straight-forward upper body work. But, after a little recovery time, I was feeling good and looking for more–something with some good cardio and a warrior twist. Sure, I really should have been mowing the lawn (I can do that tomorrow, right?) or getting ready for a Labor Day pool party to which I’ve been invited, but sometimes you just have to listen to your body.

Now, most of us talk about “listening to your body” in regards to needing rest, but sometimes you also have to listen to it when it’s asking for more–ride 50 miles instead of 40, run two hours instead of one, do fifth round of your circuit even though the plan only calls for four. When you are in the flow of the workout, when your legs are responding every time you ask for that extra power to climb another hill, when the glide of the kayak across the water is so smooth you can’t help but paddle out to and around that island on the horizon, like when nothing else in the world seems to matter, don’t be afraid to tap into that feeling–that energy–and do a little more.

The little more I did today was:

1. Row: 2 minutes

2. Web Pikes

3. Row: 1:30

4. Tire Whack: yes the tire and the sledge-hammer were feeling neglected!

5. Row 1:00

6. Web Frozen Mountain Climbers: pausing in with one knee to chest and holding for five-count before switching.

7. Row: :30

8. Explosive Box Jumps

I went through this workout three times and put in maximum effort. And, I was glad that I took advantage of my gung-ho gut feeling to do more!

 

Now, I’m not suggesting you completely abandon your training plans–macrocycles and microcyles have their place! You don’t want to go out and hammer an extra sprint or two on the bike or crank out another strength training session the week before your big race–when your plan explicitly says you should be tapering. But, I do want to encourage you to have fun with your training from time to time–to follow your “whim” and take advantage of those times when your legs, lungs or head feel awesome.

 

Rain and Row

When you have a love-hate relationship with a piece of equipment or a particular workout it’s typically because it is working you hard. The Concept 2 is just that piece of equipment.

With proper technique, the Concept 2 Rowing Ergometer can provide an intense full-body workout–legs, back, arms, core and kick-ass cardio. This evening, it did just that!

My original plan was to go back to the 2 minutes of rowing, 2-3 minutes of running and 2 minutes rest–then, repeat. But, as is common this time of year in Florida, a deluge hit at the time I was headed out for my workout. Not a big deal if I had already been out there in the mix–a little tougher to get started in. Plus, I didn’t want to drag too much mud/dirt in on the rowing machine. So, instead, I came up with a nice Concept 2-only workout:

2 minutes on

2 minutes active rest (continue rowing)

Repeat 6 times, then:

1 minute on

1 minute active rest

30 seconds on

30 seconds active rest

I went through this workout twice this evening. Again, for the shorter intervals, it’s important to put in a high level of effort. For the rest periods, keep rowing lightly and focus on sound technique.

Get inspired! Get motivated.

 

Training

Inspired. Motivated. I was looking at various multisport races today and came across some photos and video footage of the 2008 Tropical Power Trinidad Coast to Coast. I think I was in some of the best multi-sport shape of my life for that event and even with a tough slog in the first day’s sauna mountain run I managed a respectable finish. That said, getting back into that well-rounded shape has become a goal. Sure, I’ve been doing well with the Primal/Warrior Workouts, some running, some mountain biking and some paddling, but I’ve not really committed to the discipline, consistency and purpose that drove me in preparing for that event.  I’ve yet to find another event like that to motivate me, but I’m looking. And, in the meantime, I’m preparing.

Tonight’s workout was getting the legs (sadly neglected a little lately) and the core training in gear:

1. Kettlebell Breakdown Walking Lunges: one length of the yard with 35 pound kettlebells immediately followed by another length of the yard with 20 pound kettlebells.

2. Squat Wood Chop: With a 25# plate, I squat and twist a little to one side, as I drive my legs to stand up I rotate like I’m tossing the plate back over my opposite shoulder. Saw a variation on this on some hockey training video–and I know those guys need some great rotational core strength to shoot while skating.

3. Low Back Extension

4. Box Jumps: starting to add some plyometrics into the mix to get some of the springiness back into my legs. Explosive jumps onto a 20 inch platform, step down and repeat.

Four rounds through that and my legs were shaking–good times.

I added three rounds of the following:

1. Leg Raise/Reverse Curl/Y: So on my back, raise legs 6 inches, hold. Knees to chest, hold. Legs back straight and open legs to form “Y.” Kiss the ground with heels and repeat. Mmmm…good.

2. Ball Choppers: chopping with a dumbbell on the physioball. Always one of my favorites.

3. Webbing Pikes: with a little extra “hold” in the pike position.

 

Now? Dinner and early to bed!