The Wild Never Stops

 Animal moves have an endless variety but only a few are needed to get in a really good workout. What you choose to master or utilize in your training is up to you but never forget to respect the movements as you practice them. You can go hard, you can go slow, you can even do them in Isometric fashion (maybe not the jumping ones for obvious reasons). It's about building a foundation and finding what gives you the best benefit.

The wild never stops. You keep finding ways to condition your body and put yourself in awkward positions to strengthen areas that conventional or "traditional" training methods can't reach. One of the reasons why I love doing my Animal Deck Of Cards Workout (The Four Animals Of The Apocalypse). It never goes the same way every time and when a Joker comes into play, you get to pick which animal to tackle for reps or distance. The total reps I've done most of the time is around 500 but have done a 1000 total on a few occasions and feels awesome afterwards. With the 500 I would finish around 15-16 min for a full deck which is still quite a workout in itself. These days the main four are....

Bear Crawls

Crab Walks

Bigfoot Walk

Duck Walks

Why did I choose these specific animals? At least 3 are the most basic you see in sports such as wrestling and football since they can be so intense that only a few seconds of them can get you out of breath. The bigfoot walk was what I learned from Vahva Fitness and it's based on movement utilized mainly by wrestlers being in that stance and shifting for balance like in Shadow Wrestling or a match. They get the body in rugged shape pretty fast and when you go hard on even one of them, you're building that explosive conditioning. 

One of my other favorite workouts is a 5 min Tabata Workout of just the Bear Crawl. You go as fast as you can for 10 seconds, rest for 20 and repeat until you've done 5 minutes. That may not sound hard but it's not as easy as it looks on paper. When you have to explode at a moments notice and you're practically sprinting on all fours, it becomes quite the exercise. The first couple rounds you might be breathing hard but the more rounds you go, the more it's going to feel like your heart will rip out of your chest. If you're in good health, this might actually be good for you to do (not every single day though).  It's quick, fast and can be done practically anywhere. I do it in my living space and it kicks my ass every time.

There are so many ways to do Animal Workouts it's not even funny. When you get the idea of moving like a beast in the wild, it doesn't seem like a workout, it becomes a game you can play and being like a kid again. An ancient style of this type of training can be traced back to the art of qi gong and the Shaolin Monks who mimic animals in their Martial Arts practice. In today's style which can has been seen like with Animal Flow and Ginastica Natural, it's been used to target MMA style training and conditioning for certain aspects of Health. It can be fun especially if you combine them but when it comes down to it, you can do all of that and then some with the Movement 20XX fitness course that shows you how to not just work individual exercises but combine the elements of all of them together to form your own style and goals. 

These forms of exercise create an exciting aspect of fitness you don't get with conventional training methods. Yes some exercises may be too advanced for some people but as long as you stick to the basics, you're golden. Just the deck of cards workout I've given you would be a great warm up or a conditioning workout on its own and you can pick your own animal moves to work on. I picked those because they're fun to do. It can be challenging but I find it more interesting to do than hundreds of squats or push-ups. Regular calisthenics are great and should be mastered and practiced whenever possible but at the same time, very few replaces killer exercises like Bear Crawls, Crab Walks & Duck Walks. If wrestlers use them for conditioning, that should tell you how important and brutal they can be. Whether for a few minutes or close to a half hour, animal exercises can be a great asset to your health, your overall strength and conditioning along with building balance, flexibility and durability. Did I forget to mention they're calorie burners as well? 

Get moving by training like a wild beast and have fun. The more fun you have, the better your results will be. Keep being amazingly awesome.  

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Seabuckthorn Berry

Did You Hear The One About The Bear, The Crab, The Monkey & The Duck?

All jokes aside (maybe?) when it comes to exercise, you want to make things interesting. Being bored just sucks the fun out of doing something that's meant to get you in shape or keep you in shape. Although it is important to take training seriously because for one you want to maintain good health for as long as you can right? The other side of the coin is to make a workout work so well, you'll want to come back to it more and more or do it more often because you not only enjoy but it gives you a hell of a thrill.

That's one of the reasons why I love Animal Exercises so much, they allow you to freely move and harness your imagination to not only get great results but feel like it's not work but playing hard. From the dice games to flow routines and combos, there are so many ways to get in a great workout using the wild animals as your inspiration. One of my personal favorites for a while has been using a deck of cards which can be called the Animal Exercise Bible or the Animal Deck Of Madness (either way it's just a name). It consists of four Animals: Bear, Crab, Primate & Duck. It's 2 upper body animals and two lower body animals which target multiple muscle groups at the same time and works your conditioning, strength endurance, agility and your mobility. 

For a period with one of the lower body movements, I was doing an exercise called the chimp walk which I still do from time to time but have recently switched to an exercise that is based on wrestlers' type movements where it's somewhat like a lunge but you also reach out and pull as if to lunge and grab a hold of an opponent. I learned it from Eero Westerberg from Vahva Fitness and even though he isn't a wrestler, he was inspired by them and have seen a similar move people use in MMA and Amateur Wrestling. You can view it here....

The numbers on the cards can vary from workout to workout but today, the numbers on the cards were as follows.

Face Cards: 15 Steps/Reps

Aces: 20 Reps/Steps

Jokers: 50 Steps/Reps Of The Bear Crawl

2-10: Done As Shown. 

The objective is to get finish the deck as fast as possible. Now this doesn't mean you get sloppy and get lazy by not paying attention to form but to work the exercise as it intended to be with control and coordination. The speed will vary and it's not important to break world records by finishing in something like 10 minutes or whatever. These exercises are not just your typical type movements, there's a reasons wrestlers and grapplers have been using these exercises for a very long time and have stood the test of time. This can be used as a warm up to your MMA Workout or for conditioning in Football or Wrestling or as a stand-alone. It's not that difficult but it's not easy either so never underestimate it.

I've been doing deck of cards workouts off and on for years starting in my Post Rehab days of doing Combat Conditioning and evolving from there. I've written a few times on why I just don't like certain aspects of stationary exercises and feel like certain rules don't apply to me so I come up with my own workouts to suit my needs and Animals are the peak of conditioning exercises. Bodyweight Exercises have their place and if you're in close quarters like a hotel room, workouts like these are perfect for that but I love having that extra space to move around and I can go hard with Animal Exercises without getting sore. 

Be wild in your workouts and unleash the beast within. Grab a good deck, shuffle well and have at it and see how you do. Can't do a full deck yet? That's fine, do what you can and once you do, try to beat the deck every workout. Have fun and if you want to make some animal noises in the process, that's optional (recommend you do that alone). 

The Animal Deck Of Madness

A great workout is when you can play with certain exercises and make a little game out of them and making training more enjoyable while also getting the most out of your conditioning in a short period of time. Animal Exercises is one of those methods that really throws boredom out the window and into a world of imagination, playful movement and being free. 

When it comes to Deck Of Cards workouts; over the years I've done various types from doing Combat Conditioning Exercises, totaling 500 Hindu Squats, 1000 Step Ups, Ab Wheel/Step Ups duets and doing hundreds to a thousand reps or more with sledgehammer training. Some of these workouts go from 20 minutes to over an hour depending on what I'm doing. The 1000 Step Up Card workout lasted 50 minutes at my fastest. Some workouts are about speed but others were more precise and keeping form as best as possible and letting the speed come naturally. Some workouts required rest periods and others were straight through the deck where flipping the card was your only rest. You do what you like and make progress little by little.

When I came up with the animal movements for the cards, it naturally became a favorite. It was fast, quick and didn't require almost any rest and just go straight through. It consisted of 4 Animals: The Bear, The Crab, The Duck & The Chimp. At a good clip, it should take about 15 minutes or less to complete but don't forget, the faster you go, the more you need to be aware of your balance because if you move too quickly and the body doesn't line up, you can trip and fall on your face or ass. So although this workout requires speed and agility, it also requires a solid amount of balance and awareness. This was my morning workout today and finished the deck in 13:28. Got a great sweat going and feeling energetic plus the endorphin high just fucking rocks man. 

Here's how you number out the reps/steps to reach 500 (in this case for the animals)....

Hearts: Bear Crawls

Diamonds: Crab Walks

Spades: Duck Waddle

Clubs: Chimp Walk

2-10 Cards are as is.

Kings/Queens/Jacks Are 10

Aces Are 16

Jokers Are 50 Steps Of The Bear Crawl

All cards should lead up to 500 Reps/Steps. I learned this specific numbers game from an article that legendary catch wrestler Billy Robinson had said that he would do this with wrestlers from time to time on Hindu Squats because you can do 500 in various ways but with the cards, it's never the same order twice. 

This is an awesome workout that hits practically every muscle in the body and has awesome benefits for conditioning, continuous strength, balance, agility and cardio. Requires no equipment and if you're short on space, just move back and forth with the space you do have (for this particular workout, it's a lot more fun to do it out at a park or on a grassy area. Be wild, free and amazingly awesome.