Motivation
I worked with a new member Monday morning. About two years ago he had surgery on his cervical spine because he had two ruptured disks that were pinching his spinal cord causing numbness in left leg and right arm. He is still experiencing some lack of strength but really wants to improve. He was an active individual and losing his strength and motor control has been difficult for him. Before I took him through our Day 1 he described his situation and told me, “I don’t know if I will be able to do many of the movements.” I ran him through Day 1 like we do for everyone. We talked about muscles involved with the “core.” I had him squeeze his glutes to experience the muscle recruitment of the legs and trunk muscles. He was happy to feel the muscles in his leg tighten when he generally has difficulty flexing those muscles. If you did not know of his condition you would not have picked up on his deficiencies as he completed Day 1. You could actually see his confidence growing during the workout. He had recovered from his surgery much better than he thought. I told him that I don’t think he will be limited at all in his movement. Yes, we need to develop strength but his overall movement is great. His total demeanor changed when I told him this. He was standing taller and I noticed goosebumps on his arms. He explained how excited he was and said it was giving him the chills. Today gave him hope. Hope that he has not allowed himself to have in many years. He believes in himself again. He believes that through consistent hard work he can get better. After losing so much motor control he has a great appreciation for doing even basic movements. Life can give us challenges that hinder our physical ability. Injuries often set us back. Coming back from an injury is often as much mental as it is physical. You must allow yourself to succeed. Expect yourself to be awesome.
Strength
Press
Workout Strategy
Finding the right tempo to be used during a workout can be difficult. In tempo we have four phases. This can be used for a workout like today. We have two movements, like the eccentric and concentric phase of a tempo movement. Two movements also give us two transition (rest periods). We can plan our workout like a tempo. The wall ball should be a weight where you can do all 12 repetitions without stopping. This should take 18-24 seconds. You can then rest until the 30 second mark. Take longer if you need. You may want to give yourself 30 seconds to complete the toes -to- bar movement. It’s a fast movement that can be done in 15-25 seconds. Rest for the remainder of allotted time. You must earn level 4 today with a qualifying time of 4:35. This means each round is done in 55 seconds. Last time we did this workout it took me 5:02. We have to keep the bar high so we can continually strive to be better. I am not particularly good at Wall Balls but that was the easy part of this workout. What caught me was the toes-to-bar. I broke them up in 6 and 6 the first 3 rounds. The 4th round was 6-4-2 with very short breaks. Last set was 4-2-2-2-1-1. I completely fell apart but only deviated 2 seconds off my 60 second/round pace since I wasn’t concerned about resting on the last round. Everyone should set a pace to complete the workout in 7 minutes or less.
| Workout of the Day | |
|---|---|
| Strength of the Day | Press |
| Level 1:
5 Rounds 12 Wall Ball, 14/10# 12 Knee Raises |
Level 2:
5 Rounds 12 Wall Ball, 14/10# 12 Knees to Elbows |
| Level 3:
5 Rounds 12 Wall Ball, 20/14# 12 Toes-To-Bar *If done in 4:35 or more |
Level 4:
5 Rounds 12 Wall Ball, 20/14# 12 Toes-To-Bar *Must be done in under 4:35 |
Get more Awesome: Turkish Get Up: 6 with each arm
