A Continuum of Suffering to Achieve Optimal Wellness

Sound contradictory? Why would I need to suffer to achieve optimal wellness? Good question, and to be honest, only a few push themselves to a place of true suffering.. But suffering is the ONLY way to get to the top of your game.. There's no pill, diet, DVD, or new age shiny fitness machine at Gold's that will get you there.. It's in your heart and it's in your head. Top level cyclists know what it is to suffer.. Nobody suffers more than a guy like Lance Armstrong climbing Alpe d'Huez or a guy like Tim Johnson throwing it down at a cyclocross race.. The ability to get your heart rate at above 95% max and keep it there for 20,30,40,60 minutes... I did it climbing Mt Washington on my bike.. At the top I got off the bike and dry heaved for 3 minutes with a smile on my face because I knew I just pushed myself beyond the limits any sane person would. Most people can get their heart rate to that level for well under a minute and then they stop because something in their head tells them to. For those that push past those signals, we benefit by achieving a fitness level that few will ever realize.

I'll give you an example of a workout that I did just this morning where my head was telling me to slow down after 2 minutes but I pushed through and suffered for 10.. I did a 10 minute workout of burpees (with full pushup and jump with hands overhead) in a 45:15 format where I would do burpees straight for 45 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds (if i had to guess, 15 seconds of rest after 45 seconds of burpees is about enough to get your heart rate from about 100% max to about 95% max).. After the 2nd set I was already saying "holy shit" knowing that I had 8 minutes to go.. But I pushed, and pushed, and pushed harder.. My numbers for the sets were 15, 14, 14, 14, 14, 13, 14, 13, 13, 15 (last one i went through the beep at 45s so I could get 15).. 10 minutes, 139 burpees.. My heart rate couldn't be measured.. It was a random mess of something resembling a burst from a John Bonham solo followed by a second or two of silence.. Is this dangerous? I don't know.. But I do know this.. I'm in the best shape of my life, I'm 41 years old and I'm at about 6 or 7% body fat.. I'm this way because I push myself using old school methods of training.. I use my bodyweight, kettlebells, medicine balls, sandbags, ropes, monkey bars.. No machines, no pills, no magic diet.. I train for performance.. You want to train for aesthetics and not have to feel pain, I'll point you to a nice shiny gym with showroom models toting around clipboards that will set the pin on the leg press machine for you.. What a joke!

After the burpee workout I played with the power wheel for a bit working on a new exercise I've been playing with called the Power Wheel Handstand Press... And no, you won't find anybody doing this at Gold's.. Because they can't.

Later in the afternoon I did the workout that I put a few people through this morning and I have planned for the Spartan Workout tonight.. I put a really fit detective from Nashua through it at 10am and then I had two of the fittest people at the gym do the same workout at noon and they also had to push really hard to get through it.. So I had to try it out for myself.. The workout consisted of:

-Battling Ropes (50 ft 2" rope wrapped around a pole.. Grab both ends of the rope and repeatedly slam it into the ground. This is a super difficult exercise. 30s of this is the longest 30seconds of your life)

-Kettlebell swing

-box jumps

-burpees

-double kettlebell press

I did this workout in a 30:30 format (30seconds work, 30 seconds rest) for 4 rounds with no breaks.. I give the groups a 2:00 minute break after 2 rounds but I wanted to push myself a little harder.. I did the swings with a 32kg bell, jumps on a 24" box, and presses with double 20kgs... I can see why everybody had to work so damn hard to get through this workout. Definitely a decent level of suffering when you push yourself hard with this group of exercises.  And I got to add another 40 burpees to my total for the day since I was getting 10 burpees every round... Mental, I know....

Train hard, be well.

kevin