Stupid human tricks: 90-lb dumbbell hike

You might recall that I’ve been carrying rocks around my neighborhood. I don’t have much patience for indoor exercise, and I enjoy working everything — strength, stability, endurance — at once. I’ve been rocking this workout for the past three weeks.

– Carry a pair of 45-lb dumbbells to my mailbox and back. It’s 850 steep paces each way.

– Every 100 paces, do a set of pushups, bent rows or upright-rows-to-presses. Pick up the ‘bells and continue.

– The heart rate floats in the mid-high aerobic range. It feels like most muscles get worked (and in a real-world, integrated way). As far as I can tell, this adventure develops: overall strength, stability, cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, grip strength/endurance and stupidness.

– I’m fascinated by the way our bodies adapt to stresses. I’ve done this workout three times in three weeks, and each time was much easier:

Day 1 – 40 minutes – very hard; could barely hold on at the end

Day 2 – 37 minutes – medium hard; struggled at the end but no big deal

Day 3 – 35 minutes – totally doable

Pretty fun. Time to change it up.


5 replies
  1. scott says:

    Ah Sensei….
    Heavy things defying gravity are good! Better grip strength, core stability, the list goes on. Have been playing with sandbags, another nice thing to try…
    scott

  2. scott says:

    What do you do with them? Anything that you can do with a dumbell, or a rock for that matter. They’re just tougher to keep a grip on, they shift (a little more core engagement), just something different to do. To be called a sandbagger at least makes it sound like I’m fast 🙂 They never to seem to accuse the slow guys of sandbagging…hmmm
    Scott

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