Bob meets the survival workout...

Thursday, May 12, 2011

I wasn’t looking forward to working out with Bob. He’d agreed to go through a survival workout with me, which is something I do pretty well…for an old guy, but with the shape he’s in, I didn’t think it would be much of a challenge. Bob runs at around 7 percent body fat, does 80 push-ups at a time, was a National Champion in ballroom dancing (yeah…I’ve taken his ‘Man Card away’), eats perfectly…and he’s nice. He’s also 52. Anyway, we met at the end of Ox Lane in the North Chagrin Reservation and before setting off, I had him do his push-ups while I did mine. He inspired me to a new pr of 46, and then it was step-ups, which I had him do with the 30-pound pack.

Our first stop was the rock lift, which he did well but maxed out at 12 to my 16…at least I had that going for me. We did our second set of step-ups before climbing the steepest trail in the park before descending to my favorite lifting log. I demonstrated the row and the overhead press and he followed with 5 more rows and 2 less presses…we were pretty much even. After setting the log down, he said, “hey…I’m surprised at just how good a workout I’m getting…who needs a gym?” ‘Who’ exactly…which was my whole point and what I wanted him to wrap his head around. We arrived at the cabins where I hooked up the bands and we continued the workout. He struggled with some of the form with the bands, but once he figured it out was able to max out on the various muscle groups with rapidity. We grabbed a slab of concrete and did some biceps curls and then headed to the picnic tables for some hop-ups.

I demonstrated the climb up the swing set pole, the bear and crab crawls and ‘walk the line’ before taking him up ‘the hill’. “Should I sprint up it?” Bob was thinking with his legs and not his head. I told him he could run if he liked, but about 5 steps into it, he realized that just climbing up would be all the workout he would need. We hit the top with heart rates around 200 and climbed back down.

We made our way back to the cabins after some high skips and did our abdominals before the rock carry and throw. To finish ourselves off, we stood back-to-back and passed a 40-pound rock back and forth, swiveling and handing off to each other for about two minutes. “Great oblique workout,” Bob gasped as we finished up and heaved the rock to the side.

We headed back towards the car, but stopped at the log for a final lift. When Bob completed his last shoulder press, he carelessly dropped it on the path. I heard the ‘crack’ as it hit the earth and noticeably flinched. “You…broke…my…favorite…log!” He could tell how upset I was and began to apologize, but I let him off easy…noticing there were more than a few downed trees in the vicinity. I knew he’d had a great workout because when we got to the last rock lift, he paused and said, “I think I’ve done enough for tonight.”

I had, anyway. My next door neighbors had both celebrated birthdays during the last three days and invited us over on separate nights for Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake. I mean…does it get any better? I ate a piece…only one…each time and man…was it ever good. I really miss the desserts and could have easily eaten half the cake. Well…I’m sticking with the Paleo diet. I’m really anxious to see where it takes me.

Survival Workout duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 600