It Was the Burpees That Killed Him...

I can see it in my obituary.. "He seemed so fit, I never thought anything like this could happen... It was those damn burpees!"... I mentioned in a previous blog that I want to get to the point that I can do 100 burpees in 5 minutes.. I'm sitting here now cursing myself. 100 burpees in 5 minutes? What do I think I am, a 50 pound 5th grader? But the challenge (to myself) has been put out there, and I'm going to do it (unless it murders me).. Today I put burpees in everybody's workout, including my own, and most weren't real happy about it. The burpee is the single most effective way to coordinate and engage every muscle in your body at a really high level. The burpee is the kind of exercise that really starts to suck for most people at about 7 or 8, so going to 15, 20 or more is an excellent physical and mental challenge that really forces you to push yourself. For my own workout today I started out with about 20 minutes of jump rope....

... and then I started the burpees.. Last week I got 100 in 7:04 or something close to that.. Today I got it in 6:42!! 22 seconds off my previous best.. But it left me in a heap. Holy crap was it brutal.. I did the first 60 without stopping and it took 3:20.. I rested 30 seconds (which wasn't nearly enough), did 20 more, rested 30 seconds (which was even worse than the last 30 second break) and then did the last 20.... And then collapsed in a puddle.... Still a long way from my goal of 5 minutes, but I'm getting closer.

I finished the workout with some intense core work. Two sets of 5 Double Getup Situps with 2 16 kg kettlebells...

...followed by the one i've been working on lately that have been having trouble with, (and still need more work on), the kettlebell dragon flag...

Later in the day I did four 30 second sets of alternating SOTS press which is another incredible core exercise with kettlebells (video coming at a later time).. And then I went back to the stairs for another round of Shaolin Squat Stair Jumps with a Reverse Bear Crawl which I wrote about in a blog last week.. I was working the NM varsity basketball team out and I had them do 3 rounds of the stairs followed by one backwards bear crawl.. Each of them said it was the most difficult thing they've ever done and they couldn't wait to tell everybody at school that they did it.. Very cool!!

Train hard.. Be Well!

kevin