I find the above quote better than the now trendy "functional exercise" slogan. "Sooo, your giant green swiss ball is functional?" OK!! Slogans, phrases, workouts, exercises, clothes, slang sayings, etc. become so trendy so fast in today's world, they soon become so dumb too. I'll tie in my heading quote below in a bit.
Well, I haven't posted here in awhile mainly due to laziness. My workouts having been staying fairly consistent but, I am beginning to enter "yet another" CNS burnout/adrenal fatigue. I've went at it pretty hard for the past four straight days (today included) and am looking forward to a two day layoff. Today's workout wasn't really a workout per se, but is something that is becoming the backbone of my fitness/athletic endeavour.
I woke up at 0630 this morning at Station 9 (on the beach in Vilano Beach) and walked over to the boardwalk to watch the sun come up. Beautiful. One hour later after my relief had arrived, I was in the water (water temp.- 68, air temp.- 48) and on one of our paddleboard/rescue boards paddling up the coast. I probably paddled about a half hour, then swam a little. There is something therapeutic about the cold, ocean water on my body, especially that early in the morning. I noticed (as I have times before) that when doing this, all of my senses are working. You can see all the shadows cast by the sun and clouds, you feel the wind and the cold water, you smell the salt, you hear the waves, the ocean, the birds, sometimes the dolphins, and, on rough days, sometimes you even get to taste the salty ocean with a nice mouthful of water. That part sucks. Following this, I drove up to UNF to "run"the trails. Now, when I say run, I don't mean jog, like you would see gerbil imitators doing on a treadmill at your local 24hr fitness. I mean, I RAN, and jumped, and climbed and so on and so forth. I initially only planned on being on the trail for 20-30 minutes but it turned into about an hour and fifteen minute exploration fest. I had no timer, there were no reps and sets, no fixed weight, no bars, no iron, no chalk, no rings, no bags, no gloves, no nothing. It was me and nature. And as I described above about all of the senses working; the woods really brought that into perspective. What I did today was basically a trio/combo of me acting like a four-legged animal, a monkey and a child at play. This kind of natural work/play blows away any fitness routine, regimen one could think of. I'd be willing to put money on that one. I'd like to go into detail and describe to people exactly how pure and natural doing this is, but at this point in time I will not waste my breath. To be simple about it, it's basically parkour in the woods. Running full speed, jumping as high as you can to grab a tree branch, climbing the tree, jumping down (or falling from the tree) and then off on another sprint to the next obstacle. That's only a small sample. I'm sure that most people, if they came across me in the woods and observed me jumping from trees, throwing big rocks, and shadow boxing would probably think "what the hell is this guy doing?" I believe that getting back to nature as I have described above with my early morning ocean spectacle and my trail parkour adventure is for me, the ultimate mind-body connection. I don't think that is something you can find in the gym or even in a yoga or pilates studio with jungle music and spandex on. Maybe some people THINK they can, but I think they're missing some important elements. So, in a sort of concise way, that is my answer to "being strong to be useful." One day, you may have to lift heavy rocks to help free a loved one, or lift heavy sandbags to ready your home for an incoming hurricane or flood. You may have to fight off a predator in an alley and then sprint to safety. You may even have to climb something, again to escape some impending doom. All of these which I mentioned, you and I would never do at a "steady state" treadmill pace, nor a "let me stand here and curl my 50lbs. 10 times pace." Be strong to be useful, for yourself and for others.
Tuesday 04/07/09
I think I basically described this above, but...
30 minutes of paddling in the ocean, followed by a brief swim.
1 hr 15 minutes (approx) of trail/woods sprinting, jumping, climbing, walking, slower running, balancing and general human movement, ducking, squatting, lunging, hurdling, shadow boxing, etc. The UNF trail now actually has a "parkour" loop of various bodyweight stations; i.e. pull-up/push-up bars and such. Of course, I utilized these. I also did a muscle up on a really thick tree branch.
Monday 04/06/09
At work at the station but got a good workout in.
Adv front tuck lever PU's: 6x5
Tuck planche holds: 10x6 seconds
55lb. dumbbell swings (one arm): 4x5
Band assisted OAC/OAP: 3x3 (each arm)
Block assisted one-arm push-ups: 3x5 each arm
Tuck back lever holds: 8x8 seconds
L-sits on the ground: 8x8 seconds
Sunday 04/05/09
Practiced handstands and flags. Handstands are becoming more solid. I am actually starting to feel the flag position. I held it for one second today.
Adv. front tuck lever holds: 8x8 seconds
PPPU's with feet on wall: 6x3
Standing wheel rollouts: 3x6,1x5 last set was one short, back started to hurt, overworked.
L-pull-ups from rope and square bar with 45lb weighted vest on: 3x5
RTO Dips: 3x3
Tuck back lever holds: 8x8 seconds
V-sits: 8x8 seconds
Saturday 04/04/09
MMA style kickboxing, bag lifting, bag "ground and pound" work: 6x5 minute rounds with 1 minute rest between.
Friday 04/03/09
Rest day, at work at the station.
Thursday 04/02/09
Shadow kickboxed: 12x3 minute rounds with one minute rest between. The one minute was spent on ab and lower back work.
Wednesday 04/01/09
Rest day. Up all night from a structure fire at 0300 this morning.
Tuesday 03/31/09
Rest day, at work at the fire station.
Monday 03/30/09
Boxed: 12x3 minute rounds with one minute rest between. The one minute was spend doing ab and lower back work.
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