Micro Animal Workouts

It's never easy getting the time in when it comes to training, that's where short workouts can come in handy as opposed to getting something in for 45 min to an hour or more in one shot. In most cases, just a few minutes will kick your ass, hell if you do it right, 30 seconds to a minute can feel like an eternity. They're intense, hard and yet so freakishly simple many overlook it.

That's one of the things about Animal Workouts that I love. Just doing a few rounds of something can wipe you out just like that. Last night, I did a workout where I took 4 animal movements and did 5 yards each straight through for a total of 20 yards for one set or round. Did a total of 10 of these with breaks in between every 2-3 sets or so because they're intense and will make you breathe hard quick. All together did 200 yards worth of training and I was dead. For most, just half of that would be more than enough but I wanted to see how far I can take it. 

Animals are some of the most challenging exercises anybody can do, sure some are fairly easy and not too difficult but others (as you progress) will work body in ways traditional movements or what have you won't even begin to touch. Like I said before, I'd rather work my ass off doing animals than most stationary exercises. The key to remember however is simplicity. Progressing to higher forms of movements is awesome but if you don't have the basics down, you won't understand the challenges that do lie ahead. You can still take the basic movements and just progress to greater speeds (as long as you stay balanced).

On Sunday, before heading out to watch The Raiders, I did a "quick" workout where I show three rounds of doing Bear Crawls & Crab Walks. Believe it or not, these three were the last three of actually 6-7 rounds because my angles were off and kept getting out of focus with my phone cam. That workout kicked my ass big time and it was just two exercises going one way with one and back with the other. Still fun though and is one of those workouts that can build up an appetite. 

The objective of good training is to make it effective as much as possible and to make it intense while also progressing safely without hurting yourself. Some people have used animal movements as warm ups which is awesome, but as a workout in and of themselves, is a whole other ball game. One of my favorite scenes from the movie Vision Quest is where the wrestling team is warming up doing basically the seal walk like it's a cake walk before getting into pinning drills. The seal walk is basically walking on your hands while keeping the legs nearly limp and no movement from them so in other words basically dragging the legs while intently tightening them in isometric fashion. 

Next time if you got a couple minutes, mark off a few yards and do a bear crawl one way and the crab going back. See how many rounds you can go straight before needing a breather. It's very simple but effective and this workout hits practically everything in the upper body but also will make your legs feel like jello. Just this workout alone can get you in rugged shape and will fire up your lungs faster than the first 30 seconds of a Ric Flair Vs. Ricky Steamboat match. Be strong, go hard and be amazingly awesome.