Fun Animal Workout At The Park

 Yesterday, thought I'd take a stroll to the park and get in the Animal Dice Game. Roll once for animal, roll again for the number of steps of that animal. Man Eddie Baran was a genius coming up with that when he published Animal Kingdom Conditioning all those years ago. 

Went at it for 30 minutes. Walked it off when I needed to and did as many rounds as I can run with it. Lots of Crawling, Jumping, Hopping, Squatting, Going Backwards and feeling the INTENSITY. That's what I love about this type of training, expecting the unexpected and getting in some natural movement. It had been a while since I've done this specific workout so I kept things basic and not go Speedy Gonzales on it. It's still one of the best workouts I'll ever do in my life.

It's the type of training that makes muscles pop (more than just the core or abs), builds great leg strength and conditioning (some quack has said "If you ain't squatting, you ain't training" which he stole that line from Matt Furey but in reality, animal squats and leg movements IMO, are way more interesting than typical squats), makes you feel like a kid again and have that sense of relaxation afterwards that gives off vibes of feeling like a Bazillion Bucks all day long. 

Been doing this off and on since the Combat Conditioning Days and even more so since AKC came out in 2008. The fun of it just makes training come alive. It turns you into a RAGING BEAST that makes you feel unstoppable. I would at times go for more than 45 minutes on this and my longest workout was 82 minutes long, I just didn't want to stop and my energy was off the chain that day. Now does it give you the rank of Superhuman? In this day and age, quite possibly but it's important to not let ego hit you and do something foolish. Be smart about how you do it but also let it thrive in that adventurous nature.

Some of the exercises can be overwhelming at times. Hell, even though a few upper body movements can give you shoulders like boulders, don't forget that it's more about the movement than what specific muscles they build. After some workouts from this, it can make you hungry as hell, the intense movements that make you breathe hard with a fucking vengeance can build up quite an appetite. Still, it's great to get that Rugged, Animal-Like build that it can give. I still say my two favorites are the Gorilla Hop/Jump and the Bear Crawl. Giving off that Grizzly Power vibe that turns you into a fucking stud. Ok that was a bit lame and over the top huh? In reality, the classic Bear Crawl can never go wrong, it has been a staple for wrestlers and fighters for eons. It's one of the exercises Eddie taught to gymnasts as a conditioning coach to help build their handstand strength. One workout of the bear crawl I love to do every now and then is what I learned from some Blue Collar guy where you sprint or at least crawl as best as you can for 5 yards, walk back and repeat until you've done 20. The most I've ever done in this fashion is 45, I've filmed doing more than 30 in just crawling without going into Sonic Mode (this took 10 minutes or so to complete, very hard workout).

Overall, being able to train in a beautiful environment, fresh air, sweat dripping like Niagara Falls and breathing hard like it's going out of style is just awesome. Moving like a beast has a unique effect on the body and when you do it on grass, touching the earth, feeling the soil and letting it into your soul is something like no other. Animal Workouts are almost poetic in a way, it's weird but hey, weird is good in this case. Be wild, be free and be amazingly awesome. 

A Rollercoaster Of Craziness

 Damn, it has been 18 days since my last entry. It has been a whirlwind of emotions, laughter, tears, growth, loss and craziness. Other than the excessive heatwave we've had here in Idaho, around the time of my birthday, it became a time where I couldn't think about me and my celebration, it was a time of mourning and a time to be with people I truly cared about. My wife lost her stepdad to cancer and other things that went wrong with him that I'm going to keep to myself and our family. Very hard to see this man go that I knew for 8 years and those moments that we shared talking about music, comics and movies. 

I did the best I could to be there not just for my girl but her brother, their mom and our niece because all I wanted to do was to comfort them and be present. Life is way too damn short to bicker and be divided, when something like this happens, it's about family, togetherness and protecting one another. It wasn't as hard on me than it was for them because that's the man they knew for many, many years, close to 20 if I recall but it hit me a little differently because a little over 20 years earlier, my own stepdad passed that just tore me up and happened just before I finished high school. I never got to say my peace with him. Now, with theirs, I got a second chance in my own way. I got the opportunity and permission from their mom to use the music for his walk out before taking him to the funeral home, it was one of his favorite bands that did a cover of Lynyrd Skynard's Simple Man. 

We laughed, we cried and just did what was best to make the best of things, regardless of how hard it was. Now, the twisted thing about all this is the time he died. I don't know if this was the man's last joke or some kind of cosmic way of making us laugh a little but the man died at 4:20am and he was an advocate on weed LOL. Some things that'll never leave your mind and puts in perspective why this life is so precious when it comes down to it. From there, we went from tragedy to being prepared for seeing my dad's side of the family for the first in roughly 4 years, going to Lake Tahoe.

The last time my wife saw my family was our wedding and the last time I did was in Nov of that year for my dad's 70th birthday so this was a major thing for both of us. Traveling for 12 hours in planes and cars, it could've been John Candy's & Steve Martin's Planes, Trains & Automobiles but with without the train. When I saw my dad, I just broke down and held him for what seemed like forever even though it was maybe 30 seconds. Did the same to my sisters, my stepmom and other relatives. It was like a huge wave of emotions coming out that I needed because this is the longest time in my entire life not seeing all of them. 

Being back in Tahoe was the boost we both needed and spending time with each other was just incredible. Made some breakthroughs with my sisters and spending some time with my niece and nephews especially the youngest one. Going to the lake and jumping off the dock, exploring on the rocks, climbing the staircase that is a monstrosity, getting workouts in (mainly Isometrics & Swimming) including an Animal Workout near the stairs to the water and plenty of activities.

Went on a boat ride one day around the lake with my girl, dad, stepmom, aunt, uncle and my stepmom's friends from Boston (Accents and all). We went around an area called Emerald Bay where the water is not just crystal clear but as green as you would see in the Wizard Of Fucking Oz. Got to swim with my dad for a bit near a mountain with a small castle at the top called Valhalla (I so wish I had my Epic Sledgehammer with me, that would've been one of the coolest shots ever, hoisting it up and putting lightning in the background). Went around an area called Meeks Bay which is really cool because that's my wife's Maiden Name and she has distant relatives that owned or still operate it today. Overall, it was exciting and a lot of fun.

Another day was going to Virginia City in Nevada with my sister, her boys, her besties with her two daughters and the most awesome woman on the planet. I use to love going there when I was little, it was like time stood still as in you're in this old western town that seemed to never die out, you have shops where you can see paintings of men and women of the time, churches that just stand out in time and the cool saloons where cowboys and others drank, fought, cheated and died in. One of the most famous saloons in the town is the Bucket Of Blood where you can see this incredible view of the desert hills. Some of these places are said to be Haunted and I've been in some areas where Ghost Hunters came in and did investigations. Bought some souvenirs including decks of cards, a couple Street Signs for my nephews that says Beware Of Attack Brother just to make my sister laugh even though she at first gave me this cold stare and bought my sister a pink rose quartz crystal bracelet that she really loved. Holly brought her camera with her and put her Photography skills to the test and quite frankly, its unbelievable how these pics turned out. 

After Virginia City, we headed out to Reno to meet up with our other sister and her husband with their party. Took the boys to Circus Circus across the way to go play in the arcade. Had a lot of fun there shooting hoops with my niece, winning lots of tickets, tried my hand at the punching bag and see what my score was; the highest they had was 956 and my best was 899 so not too bad for a guy who doesn't do a ton of boxing training. Bought my nephews Panda Express and went back to the cabins on our merry way. Spent a little one on one time with my dad, wished we had a bit more but hey when there's nearly 30 people in 4 cabins all together, you're bound to be hanging around others. Had beautiful moments of growth with my sisters and spent some time with my stepsister and her hubs that are officially going to be parents (Stepsis Macky will be a great mom and her hubs mike is a great guy that lives life to the fullest). 

There was a bit of family drama but that's not only to be expected it might as well be mandatory (we do put the fun in Dysfunctional after all). I won't bore you with the details but peace was made in the end and that's what truly matter right? Overall, it was one of the most fun trips I've ever had since going there as a baby. In fact, now in 2023, it is now been 50 years since my dad started all this so it has grown to 4 generations of our family going there. Wish we didn't have to leave but got to face reality and move on to the next trip. We started our trek back around 7am and didn't walk back into the door at home until about 11:15pm, that was a day man but we got home safe, got in a short workout at the airport and finished off with 1 min of isometric push-ups at home. 

Yep, that's been the highlights of these last near three weeks and things will be calmer and back to normal but then again normal is just overrated LOL. Keep being amazingly awesome guys and I'll be back to writing a lot more often.