Animal Conditioning With The Dopa Band

 Finding different ways to train with the Dopamineo Band is turning into a habit and the more I've used it, the stronger and better healed up I've gotten. I can't get enough of it and it's one of my top equipment to promote right now. It is a game changer and I'm testing myself doing hard workouts, methodical and a bit slower, intense, rugged and just plain having the time of my life with it. 

You can do so many exercises with this thing that even with all the instructional videos, there's something to discover. Today was one of those discoveries as I did another test to see where I was at; I did my Animal Dice Game Workout while I had the Band around my waist and went a few rounds. The objective in this workout was to go as far out as possible and repeat as many times for a specific animal so one rep was going as far as you can stretch it. Bear Crawls, Crab Walks, Tiger Crawls, Primate and Frog Jumps; did a total of 60 reps and that was more than enough. Rested when I needed to but my lungs were firing and was feeling it in my legs and my shoulders. Full Body workout that every exercise hit multiple muscle groups.

I would say that was a hell of a conditioning workout that really took that particular Animal Workout to another level. Normally I can go for 20 min or more without much of a rest other than rolling the dice but this was just nasty and because of the resistance, you're fighting a hell of a lot more and it just tortures the muscles more. Although shorter than usual with that workout, I made it count and went as far as my body allowed me. That's the point of training is to work with what's possible and intuitively know when you've had enough.

Wrestlers & Football players have done similar workouts but I don't know about this specific using a dice to come up with a random animal and go hard. They've done Animal style movements forever and there's a good reason why they're incredible for conditioning. Grab a band for yourself and try a few animals and see how you feel. Hell, I'll even throw in a discount for you by throwing in 10% off your order when you use the code POWERANDMIGHT at checkout. Check out the instructionals, find the type of band suited for your size (just like weight classes in wrestling) and have at it. If you want multiple bands, you can get discounted for those as well by customizing your own bundle and use my code for even more of a discount, how bad ass is that? 

Train well, get fit and keep being amazingly awesome. 

Here's another video of doing Duck Walks, these particularly are torturous when you do them for several times going out in a row. 

It's Always Good To Have A Backup

Always keeping my training simple, the workouts can vary to either going hard one day and "taking it easy" the next. Physique wise, it could be better and putting in more effort to trim down since I couldn't do a whole lot while I was injured. Keeping an eye on doing more Isometric Style training (with an emphasis on the Hybrid Forms, check out Overcoming Isometrics on that one) and other things. 

I love going to the park and playing basketball and shooting around, some days I bank them in, other days not so much but I enjoy it. Every now and then, some guys would want to shoot around or play one on one. In addition, I like to bring along my Worldfit Iso Trainer and when I'm not shooting, I put the strap around the back of the hoop and do things like Rows, Pushups, Squats, Hangs and Pull-ups. One day not too long ago, I went to the park to shoot around but there was an event going on and there was a promotional jeep covering the side of the court, not wanting to hit the damn vehicle, I had my back up Iso Strap and just did 50 Rows & 50 Push-ups in 5x10 each exercise. Always good to have a back up, after the exercises, went onto the grass and did an animal workout doing my favorite dice game until I was ready to head back home. 

Sometimes you just have to adapt and improvise. You won't always have things align right, the stars won't always be in your favor and you won't always know if you'll get an empty space around you or getting a crowd of people. Do what's possible with what you have. That's one of the reasons why I love Isometrics, they're always there with or without equipment and having the strap in your bag can make up some stuff you're not always able to do. Training is about discovery, conditioning the mind to always have something there and be able to come up with stuff on the fly if needed. It's important to have that knowledge because some workouts may not always be at your disposal so you come up with something doable and something you can do for the moment. 

Find ways to train that will be in your favor, learn to improvise in certain situations and get what you need with what you have at the time even if it's just your own bodyweight. Never settle to just one thing or one type of workout. The knowledge and creativeness you can possess can take you places that many won't or be able to come up with. I mean seriously, who the hell puts a suspension trainer around a basketball hoop and can do an animal workout on the fly? Not many but that's the beauty of being intuitive and understanding what you know and be able to act on a workout you didn't expect to do. When I got to that park, I expected to just normally shoot around, put on some tunes, get some exercises in with the strap and that was it but that didn't happen. There are events that go on about every other weekend at that park and most days, I'm just there by myself with literally no one in the vicinity other than the restaurant right next to it and the houses around the corner. It's peaceful, get a great view of the mountains, getting in fresh air and just having a blast putting on my speakers. On that particular day, I had to do something different and had to tone down the volume I normally use with my speakers to where only I can really hear it and just do a couple of exercises and an animal workout which turned out great and had fun. 

Always good to have a backup in mind whether training or whatever. Hope everyone is having a great summer so far and stay safe tomorrow for Independence Day. Be amazingly awesome. 

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.

The Length Of An Animal Workout

Time can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending how you prioritize and take things into consideration along with making time. Time in itself is an illusion but for the sake of everyone's sanity (which could use a bit of a tune up these days) let's just play with the idea that time is of the essence. 

Workouts in reality don't take up a whole lot of time unless you're a pro athlete who's job is to train for a specific sport and supplement exercises in order to perform at a high level. You could also look at the Great Gama who did nothing but exercise, eat, sleep and do a ton of wrestling that would make the average man's job look like a walk in the park. Most workouts shouldn't last for more than 30-45 minutes max, hell look at guys like The Mentzer brothers and Dorian Yates at the peak of their bodybuilding careers doing the HIT method and trained for 90 minutes a week. Most ideal training programs should be simple, short and with intent.

If you ever read up or check out the books from Red Delta Project (Side Bar Here), you'll find out that the workouts built in or certain plans don't take up a ton of time and make the time count in order to get the results you need. The truth is, if you can time your workouts right, you can make them as short or as long as needed. Micro Workouts are perfect for this because they give you ideas on how to spread out a workout or help you put in a certain short time frame and get the most out of it. 

Now for the reason of the title of this article, Animal Workouts don't take up a ton of time and for good reason, they're intense as hell and most of them make you work every muscle in your body in various directions. A high percentage of workouts don't take more than 20 minutes if that because of how intense and explosive they can be. In reality, you can go as long as you want or do short workouts because it's not meant to be a "workout" per se but more of a way to play and have fun with. With other methods of exercise you can have fun with them too but it's something that brings that natural excitement when it comes to Animal Exercises. When you were a kid, you weren't thinking about how to properly do tricep kickbacks or planning your future to bench press 500 or more more pounds, most likely you were chasing friends and pretending to be a wild animal. Howling like a wolf, making sounds like the wildcats as you crawled like them or play on the monkey bars thinking you can be an ape. 

It's that natural and instinctive connection to wild animals. We are fascinated with what we see at the zoo or an aquarium or even some crazy battle in the Forest or Serengeti that's on National Geographic or Animal Planet. It's that feeling of wanting to know what it's like to run like a cheetah, climb like a monkey, swim like a dolphin or wrestle like a Grizzly. As we get older, we lose sight of what made us pure, connected to nature and understanding what it's like to have that child-like energy and imagination. 

You've all read about the animal dice game more times than you care to find out. To me, it's the GOAT of all workouts because you never know what comes next and you can either do a beginner's version of a movement or a more explosive, fast and more advanced version it's up to you. Some days, I'll just go a few minutes, other days I'll go for a half hour, it's new all the time and it builds your awareness and being ready for what comes next because you never know what animal you'll have to do. The longest workout I did with this was 82+ minutes long and if you want to know what it's like to need water and feel endorphins kicking in, that's it. For the most part, 20 minutes max is more than enough for anyone but it all depends on your energy levels and what you want to do. They can be so intense, 5 minutes will kick your ass and that's all you'll be able to do. 

When you really get into it and understand the movements, you can go as long as you want or can handle. There's really no timeframe when it comes to Animal Exercises, you can do one animal per workout or do a whole zoo of them if you want. The variety is there for you and regardless of your age and sex, you will get some crazy results from them. Think about how much stamina you can build up, the strength you can posses, the explosiveness you will attain and acquiring a level of conditioning that would blow people's minds. Make the time count but have fun with it too, animals can teach us a lot of things. Be strong, get wild and be amazingly awesome.