The Wildest Workout In The Wilderness

 It's awesome to want to challenge yourself outside of what you normally can do. It's an opportunity to learn what you're capable of and making the most of what is possible yet also rewarding. Every now and then (sometimes more often) when I really have some energy to use up in my workouts, I take my animal dice game workout and double the amount of reps/steps per animal. This really hits your conditioning hard and it doesn't take long before you feel like you want to die. 

Although I like using reps/steps, you can make it however you want; yards, meters, feet or even inches for that matter. Use your imagination and see what makes this workout so fun to do. I always feel great after a workout like this. The longest I have gone with this was about 45 minutes with little to no breaks but there are workouts that make 10 minutes feel like an eternity. Imagine doing up to 40 reps on some moves and up to 80 on others, that's nuts man. Here's how it goes: You roll once for an animal and than another for the amount of steps or distance you have to do. Say you land on Bear Crawls and you roll a 17 (The dice goes up to 20), that means you have to take 34 steps of the Bear Crawl. 

I've had these animals memorized on that dice for many years now but I never do the same workout twice which is the beauty of this, you never know what will come up and that helps you to expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything. Nature can be pretty to look at and be in awe of, but it's also unpredictable and can creep on you at any moment; that's where workouts like this can really tackle your senses, your awareness, your strengths, your weaknesses and the ability to be on alert at all times because in the jungle, you have to know how to survive.

It's a hell of a ride and puts your conditioning to the test. Just a few minutes of this will take out anyone and you'll be huffing and puffing within less than 5 rounds. When you start to breathe really heavily, take a walk around to catch your breath. Some rounds get me winded fast and I need to take at least a couple minutes to catch my breath, other times it takes more than a few to get me winded and I'll just keep going. When I need a breather, I walk and practice my deep breathing until everything subsides and go again. For the longest time, once I felt done, I left it but now when I've had enough, I want to finish it off with Bear Crawls to really feel done. Since I've done that, I've had greater satisfaction that I kicked my ass in this workout. 

There is no limit to how many rounds you do so do what is possible that day. Some workouts, 10 rounds is all you can do, others you might go up to 20 or 30 so never look at it as "oh I need to do this many rounds to get in shape" or "That felt too short, did I do enough", this workout is so random at times that you never even know if you're doing more upper body or lower body. Let it happen and see what you can do and play around with because that's the point of this crazy workout is to have fun. 

For books/kindle on animal exercises check these out.....

Animal Workouts

Animal Moves: How To Move Like An Animal To Get You Leaner, Fitter, Stronger And Healthier For Life

Hyperactivity And Animal Movements

Many kids can be very hyperactive and some have ADHD  and need some sort of stimulant or activity to get that excess energy out. I've seen many little ones over the years just run around with so much fire and imagination it's almost unbelievable how some adults can keep up. Now when I say stimulant, I'm not saying put them on Ritalin or some kind of drug to keep them focused, I don't believe in drugs and I was on Ritalin during the first decade of my life.

Hyperactivity is due to the abnormal or extreme case of moving that can be restless and overstimulation of the brain that causes the nerves to keep moving the body. We were meant to move and when you have a case of a child or even in an adult where focus can be difficult for certain tasks either during school or at a job, movement is better than a drug but also we have been told in school, sitting still is a requirement and we have to pay attention to the task at hand at all times. Sitting still isn't just difficult for some, it can be downright murderous to the mind and when you're hyperactive, trying to suppress the nerves is just nuts. 

I loved playing outside when I was a kid, playing ball, tag, building stuff and even rough housing a little but that gave me the stimulation my body needed cause when you're full of energy and don't know how to bring it down and have those endorphins kick in, it can cause someone to have insomnia or restless leg syndrome. When it comes to putting kids on drugs like Adderall or Ritalin or things of that nature, yes it can help someone stay focused and form an ability to control the nerves in your body but it also can have an effect on the nervous system to shut down and possibly cause depression and not have the ability to use the energy needed that brings in those "happy" hormones and you're left with this near "zombie" like state where you're too focused and undermining the energy a kid needs or even an adult for that matter.

If you ever get a chance, watch the films Bigger, Faster, Stronger & Prescription Thugs to understand the drugs that people use to get ahead in their endeavors that include Adderall that kids in high school trade off on. I've believed for nearly 17 years that movement and exercise is one of the best medicines if not right at the top of the list for best medicines to help with depression, insomnia, hyperactivity, motor skills and strengthening the nervous system. It's a natural form of therapy. I know some people have stronger and much different circumstances than others and it's not always in Black & White but to me, going straight to drugs especially in little kids is just a giveaway of saying "you're destined to be addicted." 

I have played around with mimicking animals when I was little but when I got older and discovered systems based on moving like a wild animal, it became clear at least in my experience that this type of training helps a lot more than what the drug pushers give credit for. In my experience, it's an amazing relaxer and gives off endorphins naturally. It teaches you how to handle the body in awkward positions, it stimulates the brain to help control the nerves and muscles needed to move without falling on your face and pulverizes that excess energy to help you focus better and feel good as you continue on your day. It's my go to therapy to help me sleep since I've been known to be a night owl. A few rounds of my animal dice game, some deep breathing and within minutes I'm practically out like a light. 

I'm one of those people who hates drugs or even over the counter stuff (unless it's a supplement I'm interested in) so much that I won't even take cough drops or pain pills. I hated it when I was forced to take things when I was little and when I was in the hospital for my injuries, I felt guilty taking the stuff in the IV. When I had those muscle issues after the car accident last year, the only thing I took for them was Tylenol and after a few days, I tossed them because I felt like I was relying on them too much. I worked on joint loosening & flexibility training and that did more for me than the Tylenol ever did and I felt good about myself. 

Animal Movement or even regular exercise can be a great form of therapy for hyperactivity and it provides stimulation needed to help focus on the things you can do. If I was able to train this way when I was a kid, who knows where my focus could've gone. It doesn't take very long and has benefits that both kids and adults can appreciate. Get stronger both mentally and physically as naturally as possible. Be safe and be aware. 

Had Enough Yet?

 Sometimes we ask ourselves "Am I doing enough in my workouts?", "Am I getting enough reps in?" or "Will this be enough to make me stronger?" The truth is, we all don't always feel satisfied when we train. It can be a constant battle of being able to do enough. Some just push on and not realizing that not only have they done enough, they go too far beyond it and end up hurting themselves. There are those as well that just don't know any better and are so brain dead that they don't even understand why they're killing themselves in the name of exercise.

We are more capable than we believe to be and some of us are still learning this and figuring out what makes us stronger and doing amazingly awesome things. Now, we also come to a point in time where we just tell ourselves "Ok, this is enough for now" and we move on or do a little better the next time around. Feeling satisfied for some means they've done it, they've made it through and they're happy with it. For others, being unsatisfied means they're unhappy and feel like a failure or they may have done all they could but it just didn't feel right. It happens sometimes, more often than we care to admit.

When I started out with the Hindu Push-ups, Hindu Squats and the Bridge, I just wanted to see what I was capable of and just being able to rep out the best I could. I became frustrated when I was trying to satisfy the standards that the people demonstrating them saying you have to do this many push-ups, that many squats and hold this much time in the bridge. When I stopped trying to hold other people's standards on a pedestal, I felt free, in control to see what my standards were because my standards are what matters. Because of this, in various workouts, I've done more than 200 Hindu Push-ups, 500+ Squats and held a bridge for three minutes without thinking anything about it. Once I felt satisfied with my standards, I moved on.

When you hold your own standards, you're free to challenge yourself to your levels on your terms. When someone else sets standards for you, who're you really holding up to? Sure in some cases, when someone else sets a standard and you accomplish it (or even survive), it can feel great especially if the person who set them is a mentor or someone you highly admire and you believe in what they're trying to help you accomplish but the truest form of satisfactory is when you set your own standards and you make the choice of doing enough. 

This is more on developing your own fitness programs and such and setting goals or standards of training for yourself, this does not mean that if you're training for law enforcement, military, firefighter training or hell if you're in the damn CIA, you're training for specific purposes and there are standards and tests that need to be up to a certain qualification otherwise you need to up to the task or you won't make it. If you're training at a gym or at home or wherever, you can set your own goals and it's on you whether you fail or not or feel the satisfaction because you made that choice. 

These days when I train, I sometimes fail at attempting certain things or just had enough because my body or mind just isn't there that day or getting through it and had enough that day. Some days, I feel great just getting a thing in or two, I make the choice of what I want to do and if I fail, it happens, if I feel I've had enough, that's my choice. Because of this, I don't feel as sore, I recover naturally and I strive to be a little better each time. Holding onto someone else's standards that don't meet with yours is a recipe for disaster and you have an opportunity to make your own standards and learn what it takes to make things better for your body and mind. There are plenty of things I can't do that people have set a standard for but there are just as much that they can't do what I have done, that's the true nature of doing enough for you, you can do great things, make it enough for you to grow and feel that you made something satisfactory. 

Going Wild Makes The World Go Round

Some people have a love/hate relationship with their workouts. It's never easy going through a routine and getting the most out of. Sometimes, we just want to let loose and not be able to think. Letting our training become meditative in my eyes is the ultimate goal; sure we can go for time, how many reps or sets and go for quality as best as possible but yet when it becomes more of a meditation than anything, it leads to the big picture.

Animals are incredible to watch and the way they move, the skill sets, the ability to catch prey or escape a predator is just fascinating. From National Geographic to the Planet Earth Series, watching and mimicking wild animals is just so meditative. When I play around with my Animal Dice Game workout, I don't have to think much and can transform into a different animal at any given time. I have done this workout so many times, the order of the exercises is planted into my brain forever. Like the young superhero Beast Boy from the Teen Titans, being able to mimic just about any animal is literally like second nature to me. It's a language, a creative outlet to hone my instincts and my learning to expect the unexpected. 

My favorite times to do an animal workout is either in the morning or at night, when I do it at night, I would do as many rounds as I can until I feel like I've had enough. It gets me out of that jittery state and into a much calmer state of mind. Once the endorphins kick in and my breathing gets down to normal, it makes it easier to fall asleep and letting everything sink in. If I were to do it in the morning, it wakes up my brain and have greater focus and feeling alert. It's a moving meditation. 

Many people in sports or fitness see animal type movements as warm ups before they get into the big workouts. It's great to even warm up with them but to do them as themselves, it becomes a different workout. It channels your natural state to be with nature and using the body in a greater sense of being. In the last few years, people have gotten into things like Animal Flow, Ginastica Natural and Primal type training to learn a sense of blending systems together and mixing ideals like Gymnastics, Capoeira, Yoga and Martial Arts which is awesome and I would at times do those but there's nothing like mimicking wild animals as closely as possible without the flair and "spectacle" of movement training. It's a whole different feel and getting a true sense into the art of animal movements and closely resembling the imitations. 

Without question, wild animals are the kings and queens of bodyweight training and I hope more people take on this kind of training as part of their training regimen because it blends the imagination and develops skills that could be used later in life especially as we age. Not saying at 80 years old you should run 100 yards doing a bear crawl but you can learn how to move and strengthen the brain and strengthen your motor skills along with developing a stronger sense of coordination and focus. It's also fun as hell and it doesn't take up a ton of time. A goal in my lifetime is to be able to play with grandkids in this fashion and stay strong into the golden years. I never want to stop being wild in my training, it just makes life a little better.   

Training Through Grief

We all deal with grief in our own way; sometimes we dive into our work, we distract ourselves by being around others or go somewhere that makes us feel a little brighter, some of us even train to push through the emotional pain. It's still hard to accept that it has been 10 days since the passing of Bud Jeffries and the amount of love and influence he had on people during his life that are now dealing with this tragic loss. I still get little jolts of emotions whenever I write or think of him. 

Since he died, I have written on facebook, some stories about him when he was up here in Idaho from stories just days before my wedding to my most recent one about our trip to a Wolf Sanctuary sometime after we performed a show together. It's also a bit eerie to me that I'm now the same exact age as Bud was when I met him in 2011. His influence on me and others are mostly indescribable even though we try to tell what kind of influence or impact he had on us. 

Through this process, it has been a battle a time or two to get training in or just little workouts. The thing is, no matter how much I was feeling, I know deep down he would've wanted me to keep doing what I love to do and make the most of what's possible and be victorious in the midst of tragedy. That's what he wanted for all of us who train or perform feats or whatever in our lives to do because he would've done the same thing. The power he had and the energy he put on us can never truly be matched in the sense that when you trained either with him or through his videos and books, that energy made you feel stronger, almost invincible and you had abilities you didn't think were possible. That's the kind of person he was.

Most of my workouts recently had been short or micro throughout the day, doing little things here and there but one workout really stood out in this time where I wanted to do something that I know I can do but also have it be challenging enough to push through. In one workout, I did 500 Step Ups in under 22 minutes (21:51) which I had never done before or did that many in that amount of time. I used a countdown method and didn't rest the entire time. I wanted to quit a couple times but it felt like Bud's spirit was right beside me and telling me to keep going and that I got this. It wasn't really like a cheering me on type of thing but I sensed that he was just pushing me to be the best I can be and to not quit on what I can finish. 

Other workouts were some carrying & step ups, chest expander training, working with the TNT Cables and now just getting back into my animal workouts. I did some demo videos I posted on Social Media, swinging a sledgehammer like a mace, fingertip push-ups, hindu squats, lifting my 70 lb Kettlebell with three fingers in each arm and even doing push-ups on three fingers of both arms. I guess you can call those micro exercises or workouts and than doing a few other things. Some of these just came to me to do and others were to honor my friend and mentor because it's something I love and that's the biggest moral of this piece is that to do what you love and share it with the world like he did. 

This world is a little darker now that he's gone but in the words of Art Lafleur as the Ghost Of Babe Ruth in the movie The Sandlot, "Heroes can be remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart kid and you'll never go wrong." Bud was our hero and his legend will live on till the end of time.