It is not the intent of this site to provide medical advice. This blog chronicles my fitness and nutrition philosophy based on some combination of my experience, research, and biases. You read, and you decide.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Body Weight (Mostly) Circuit

I'm a fan of minimalist fitness. Some of the standard gym equipment is very useful, but a lot of the new props out there are pretty goofy and useless in my opinion. If you're aiming for general fitness and overall health, then your workout needs to reflect that. Running on a treadmill and watching tv is not a functional workout. Running barefoot intervals on a trail is a lot closer. I'll develop this theme in far more depth in future posts.

Anyways, the weather was absolutely beautiful today, so I took the opportunity to do a body weight (mostly) circuit in a park. I like this routine because you can take it just about anywhere, especially if you substitute hill sprints for the last station that requires 30 lb dumbbells.

It also happens to be a pretty full workout using mostly bodyweight. Ability to manage bodyweight is definitely a measure of functional fitness in my mind.

Props: Tree branch or pull-up bar, 2 x 30 lb dumbbells, 2 strips of cloth

Circuit style, meaning no scheduled rest:

15 frog hops
6 one handed push-ups each side
30 pull-ups (Kipping acceptable)
15 clap-ups
4 pistol squats with each leg
10 handstand push-ups
200 yard (estimated) sprint carrying a 30 lb dumbbell in each hand. Since I study jiu-jitsu, I was interested in further developing grip strength, so we looped a small towel around each dumbbell handle and gripped the towel instead of the actual handle.

We didn't time it, but rest assured that I had to take a couple breathers during this routine.

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