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.
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
Yeah Scott!
How big/heavy? What do you do with ’em?
OK here it comes:
Sandbagger …
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
WITH A BROKEN CLAVICLE!