Jack surprised me yesterday when he asked if he could join me for the Survival Workout. He’s been training diligently at the gym for over six months now and has added over 35 pounds of muscle during that time. He is used to doing multiple sets of exercises and focusing on a particular muscle group or groups and has no cardiovascular or muscular endurance in his routine.
“Who do you think is stronger Dad...you, me or Jason?” he asked at the beginning of the workout.
“Well...you’re brother is strong and he’s ten years older than you, but you’re more dedicated to the gym. But the answer is me,” I concluded.
He chuckled at this notion and asked me what we’d be doing first.
“Reverse-incline push-ups,” I said while hooking my feet on the rail and beginning my count. He moved in next to me and was done around 40. I kept going until I hit a new pr at 86.
“Those things aren’t about strength,” he said as we moved to the dip station where I did 60 and he managed about 40. “And neither is that,” he said, breathing heavily as I dragged him to the tree for pull-ups.
He managed about 6 good ones, but with all the push-ups and dips preceding, he had little left. I haven’t been doing pull-ups since mid-summer when the elbow became enflamed, but thought I’d see where I stood and managed 8. My arms were trembling as well.
We headed down the trail with him still convinced he was the strongest Rolf. When we reached the overhead rock lift, he managed two fewer than me. At the row station, I let him go at it alone...my elbow would not tolerate this lift. We then peeled off for a thirty-second sprint through the woods, leaping and dodging downed trees and were both gasping when we made our way back to the bridle path. After another set of dips, push-ups and crunches, we moved to the picnic table hop where sixty seconds had him ready to hurl. I indicated the hill for karaoke’s, but he had plopped down on the picnic table bench.
“I want to catch my breath before we go,” he said.
“That’s the point...I don’t want you to catch your breath. We’re trying to keep our heart rates up for the entire workout,” I said.
He got up slowly and joined me at the foot of the hill and followed my lead up the steep incline. By the time we reached the top, he needed to sit down again. He was beginning to understand that the old man was in the process of kicking his young, strong ass. Not that I had that as a goal and told him so. “I do this kind of exercise all the time Jack and no amount of lifting in a gym will prepare you for this kind of stuff. It’s more active and tests your muscular endurance...like you would if you were in a competitive sport. It’s just different and you’re doing really well.”
We reached another overhead rock lift and again, he became competitive. I did ten on my third set and he followed, struggling to get six. He dropped the rock to the ground and blurted, “you win...you’re stronger.”
We continued on doing more log lifting and hill climbing and by the time we’d returned to the car, we’d done over 20 different sets of a very wide ranging and total body workout. He finished strong and mentioned he’d be going to the gym for his leg work out when we returned home. He was truly in great shape.
“I have to say though, you’re in the best shape of any dads I know,” he commented as we drove.
Not a bad compliment from an 18-year old training beast.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150.
Calories burned: 600.
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