Budo Blog: No Excuses

When I got back from Europe my first work out nearly killed me. That is because I went a solid seven days with out training.

I fell I perform better if I start the day with a workout. There was a time when I would just do my regular work out before Viody. Full body strength one day, running the next. However, that was time consuming, required equipment, and did not lend itself to group activity. So I got away from training before teaching, which kicked my ass when I got back home.

I have had success working out at the USMAA National Training Camp, even when I travel with the family, up at the lake, in Arizona, or at the in-laws house. I drive to all those locations which allows me to bring sand bags, suspension equipment and battle ropes - all sorts of fun stuff, but I can't fly with all that stuff.

I needed a workout I could do when I travel for Violence Dynamics. That workout has to meet specific requirements:

No Equipment
Can be done at any facility that can host a Violence Dynamics seminar
Could be done in a hotel room or where ever we are staying if necessary
Must be able to workout everyday of the seminar (without over training)
Strength training must be done at a pace to have cardiovascular benefits as well
Most humans not on PED's should be physically capable of accomplishing the exercises

Ever see a Calisthenic Kingz video?

Warm up - Work out - Stretch all together should take less than an hour
Should be easy for other people to play along if they choose to join
Should be fun

There is a huge difference between body weight strength training, and no equipment between body weight strength training.

Pull Ups and Chin Ups are killer body weight exercises, but they require some sort of bar to pull on. How does one work their arms, or back in an empty room? There are some door frame exercises that seem OK, but are you going to rest and let your heart rate drop while your partner, or a whole group take turns using the door frame? That doesn't sound very productive or fun. So I did some research, and give credit where credit is do. I took a lot of material from Athlean - X and adapted it to my criteria.

I developed two deck of cards workouts. One focusing on pushing movements, the other focusing on pulling movements. That way I can do them back to back without over training any muscle groups. Deck of card workouts are done for time (as quickly as possible) so you have to hustle, thus adding cardiovascular benefits to strength training without relying on separate cardiovascular training like running.

I am going to test this work out on Saturday March 9th. I'll leave my notes in the comments.

I'd like to do this in DC. I figure Wednesday day 0 push, Thursday day 1 pull, Friday day 2 push, Saturday day 3 pull, Sunday day 4 push, and maybe I can even things out with pull before I leave for the airport. If not that is cool too because travel day can be rest day and when I get home I should be able to resume my regular work out program with out getting kicked in the balls.

I hate when an exercise program has weird names for exercises and just assumes everyone reading knows how to do the movements. So I have included how to videos for every motion.

If you are attending a Viody I think it would be fun to do these as a group before class. If you can't attend but like to play along there is no reason you can't do this at home while we are grinding it out at the seminar and share your results in Life Dynamics

NO EXCUSES - VIODECK O' CARDS [PUSH]