A Few of my Favorite Things
The face of someone who just got a new PR on “Murph”. May 2020.
As I was thinking about this week’s post, I began to ponder what my favorite exercises and workouts are. And so that is what I will discuss today: three exercises and three workouts.
Exercises
Burpees. I’ve talked about these before, but they really are a fantastic full-body movement that really can get your heart racing in no time. I despised them at first, but grew to not exactly “enjoy” them but rather appreciate them for how efficiently they ramp up a workout. They are also scalable so you can do a version of them at nearly every fitness level.
Jump squats. Another grueling movement if you do a lot of them. These will turbo-charge a leg workout in no time. I’m a fan of the convenience of bodyweight movements and this one will help you break a sweat.
Kettlebells. OK, this is a bit of a cheat, since there are different movements you can do with kettlebells. But I’m just a fan of the equipment. It has an off-center weight distribution that causes you to have to fire up your stabilizers to do any exercise with it. Simply carrying one makes you really get your core involved. And the movements are fun to do (most of them).
Workouts
“Death by____”. Pick one movement (pushups, pullups, burpees, situps, etc) Each minute you add a rep. So minute one you do one rep, minute two you do two reps etc. (minute nine you do nine reps). You get to rest for whatever part of the minute is left over. So early on it’s a little boring, but by minute five you really start to feel it. You go as long as you can, usually for me that’s around 15 minutes. Burpees are fun, but you can do anything.
“Fight Gone Bad”. I haven’t done this one in years, but always enjoyed it. Not actually while I was doing it, though. You can follow the link for the actual workout, but the name has a funny origin: an MMA fighter asked a trainer to give him a workout that would simulate a three-round fight, and this is what he came up with. After he did it the first time, the trainer asked the MMA fighter if it was like a fight, and he replied “A fight gone bad” as he lay gasping on the ground.
“Murph”. Named for a war hero, this is a Crossfit WOD (workout of the day). Not for the faint of heart, but really gives you a sense of accomplishment to get through it. One mile run, then you complete (in any order) 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats. Then run another mile. Lots of people do it around Memorial Day as a tribute to fallen soldiers.
As my knee and leg get stronger I hope to be able to do more of these in the near future. I’m already adding the exercises into my workouts, but not at the intensity of my peak fitness just yet. Hopefully I’ll have Murph in my future this spring.
