This fun challenge I wrote up for a friend and I became a neat strength endurance challenge of the “accidental cardio” variety (in places). I’ve been gearing up for Zach Even-Esh‘s Underground Strength Coach workshop in Orlando, and essentially using that as an excuse to come up with more “General preparedness” workouts inspired by his book the Encyclopedia of Underground Strength and Conditioning. Not to go too far into this next subject, but as a lot of these sort of workshops are usually attended by a bunch of guys, I make it my personal responsibility to be super prepared as to not be needing any special treatment. I take great pride in that sort of thing and NEVER want to be the reason that a workshop is slowed down. Gotta be able “to hang” as “they” say. Right?
In that spirit… along with the desire to move heavy things around, my workout partner and I headed out to do this, even though the sun had finally set. We brought some moderately heavy things with us and the workout was designed for two or teams of two (if you bring more “stuff”) so that one person or team will be at “home base” with our stuff, while the other is doing a fairly long farmer’s walk out and back.
After an ample joint mobility warm up, we figured out who was doing what first for…
4 rounds of:
- Heavy (for us… I’m about 130lbs right now) farmer’s walk out and back using 1 50lb Ultimate Sandbag (using Strength shell) and 1 24kg kettlebell, switching hands at the midpoint. The route we use for this is a sidewalk that’s approx 40 yards long, so it comes out to a total of 80 yards each trip. Adjust the weights usd up or down depending on fitness level and your own weight.
- 30 two hand kettlebell swings with a 20kg kettlebll (again, adjust to your situation. I chose the 20kg because it’s heavy enough for us to really need to apply attention, but not so heavy that it further fatigues our already tired grip from the farmer’s walk.
Some much needed water was had before…
4 rounds of:
- 50lb sandbag shoulder and carry 50 yards out, switch shoulders, 50 yards back
- Battling rope throws (50 up-downs) and 5 bodyweight dips (extra credit)
More water then the bodyweight and kettlebells final round!
4 rounds of:
- 10 bodyweight rows (Aussie pull ups)
- 10 push ups
- 20 kettlebell swings (we traded the 20kg and 24kg kettlebells back and forth)
- 10 bodyweight squats (optional kettlebell!)
After that we finished up with the CC2 Trifecta — the bridge, l-sit, and twist. Then more mobility exercises before going to get some much needed dinner!
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