AC can't be broken... or can he? News at 11.

[CookAndrewB]

Circuit with pack:

Lunge x 10
Push up x 10
Lunge x 10
KB OHP x (45lb x 10/10)
Lunge x 10
Pullup x 5

Above circuit done 3 times.

Circuit #2 with pack:
Walk 1/3rd mile
Bear crawl 30'
BW squat w/ pack x 20
Bear crawl 30'
Walk 1/3rd mile
Bear crawl 30'
BW squat w/ pack x 20
Bear crawl 30'

Elliptical w/pack:
10 minutes

[CookAndrewB]

16 Feb Cardio

5.24 mile street run. Got a new pair of Mizuno running shoes and took them for a test spin. Felt great! Really only stopped because I had somewhere I had to be and I needed to eat and take a shower. I'm feeling my endurance grow week by week, feeling strong, losing a lot of bodyfat (which wasn't a goal, nor the point, but its really coming off), and all in all I feel better now than I have in years. Tired, but my joints aren't feeling beat up and I'm not unbearably sore like I ended up being during my strongman training days.

Right now I'm looking at some obstacle races to put my training to the test. Looking at a warrior dash or two, plus a tough mudder might be in the works assuming my endurance keeps on track.

[GelatinJay]

Ay brah. Saw link to this thread in your sig on a misc post.

Anyway, I'm doing one on the 30th! 4 days, well technically 3 since it starts at 1am Friday night (so the night of the 29th/technically the 30th though).

I don't want to say you're overthinking it, but the best practice you can do is just ruck beforehand so you're use to the weight on your back for extended periods of times, and it gets your feet use to the weight as well, learn proper foot care, and make sure your feet are as tough as possible to hopefully avoid the whole blister/hotspot issue all together.

Cardio is good no doubt but running is a hell of a lot different than rucking, but surely it won't hurt.

I've actually got my backpack/ruck all laid out on the couch with all my supplies now. Getting excited brah. Taped up my bricks so nicely I'm pretty proud; bubble wrapped in 2's, etc.

Still need to get a small thing of sunblock and some chapstick though. Other than that I think I'm set. Two pairs of good socks, good shoes I've rucked with before (lightweight running shoes), 3 liter camel hydration blatter, 3 'pro bars' (high in calories, taste good, not too sweet), keys/money/ID/bandaids/waterproof tape in a waterproof bag I picked up from Sports Authority; also brought a minimal compass and did some recon of the area as well and printed two google maps of the meetup/starting point and a few miles in each direction (zoomed out to where you can still read the street names but it showed plenty of area)...just in case...my team will love me if we do have some navigation challenges......SureFire headlamp, (2) 5hr energies, minimalist gloves (protip: Look at the bicycle gloves to find ones for goruck, not the outdoors/insulated gloves unless it will be cold when you do the challenge), some bodyglide to put on the back of me above my ass (lower back area) so the ruck doesn't scrape up against my skin (has done it before with thin layers, bodyglide will help).

And that's it I believe. All of this going inside my black 5.11 24 backpack. Going to see if I can leave my keys like in the gas cap of my vehicle to a) take off a couple ounces of weight and b) more importantly, they're electric, don't want to somehow fuk them up even though they are in a waterproof bag, you never know.

Lets do dis


edit; Should be interesting though. my foot basically just healed from a fuked up sprain, and I haven't trained as much as I had liked; BUT I'm not new to rucking either, and consider myself to be in pretty good shape. The burpess, flutter kicks, and possibly bear crawls are what will kill me though since I literally have never done like any of those. Srs. I can't wait though, not nervous; excited to feel the pain bring it on brah

[CookAndrewB]

Been busy, but wanted to check in. It's been a while since I've had a few free minutes during my day, so I apologize for my absence.

Basically I wanted to update my training plan. I've stuck to my original rotation for the most part, but tweaked it a bit.

Currently I'm doing this:
Monday- Lower body endurance, focused primarily on high rep squat work and unilateral (non-moving) leg work like split squats, step ups, etc. The one common theme I see in my research is that people keep talking about how they wish they had done more squatting. Some of this work is loaded, and some is done with just my ruck sack.
Tuesday- Upper body strength. I was working in some endurance stuff as a warm up to this day, but decided that was really just too much. Warm ups on this day are really just aimed at getting warm for my pressing. I have been primarily using 5/3/1 bench for this, but regardless of the goal (maintain strength) I think this is simply too far away from any real performance measure to be useful. I'm doing a good volume of weighted pushups wearing my pack, and bench press isn't really helping that. I'm going to change this up and focus more on OH pressing.
Wednesday- METCON conditioning day. Focusing on hill runs, walking lunges (also frequently mentioned as a performance measure in GoRuck events), weighted carries with a sandbag, etc. The goal here is to move around, stay winded and keep my movements varied.
Thursday- Deadlift strength. Again, I have been using 5/3/1 for this and to keep my recovery in check I've only used DOH deadlifting (no straps) as my technique of choice. Am I losing some of my high end strength doing this? Sure. I get that and I'm ok with it as long as I'm keeping my risk of injury low and I'm able to recover week to week. Limiting my pull with grip has done a good job of that so far. I also tend to hit a lot of core work on this day, primarily focused on bracing vice flexion.
Friday- Really a duplication of Wednesday, but mixing up the exercise selection.
Saturday- Long run, averaging between 5-7.5 miles so far. Every third week I work on increasing my mileage (next long run will probably put me over 8 miles), and the other two weeks are just primrily aimed at getting in the miles. I do shorter distance pace work (1-2 mile runs) in the evening during the week. Average distance per week is usually 8-10 miles total.
Sunday- Still aimed at building up my conditioning while wearing my ruck.

Not a lot else to report. I feel strong and physically capable of taking on this challenge today. So long as I don't run into any injuries, I'm on track to feel VERY confident in June. Still enjoying the variety of exercises I've been using. Honestly, I can't ever see going back to a more traditional gym style workout. I still love strength training, but the more I do this the less powerlifting and bodybuilding make sense. If those are sports you are competing in I get it. But the vast majority of people (regardless of goals to be stronger or in better shape) simply won't benefit from the specialization that occurs in these styles of training. Not to sound like a pitch for Crossfit, which I care nothing for as I think it is just as guilty of trying to take things to extremes, but the idea that "nature punishes the specialist/extremist" has been pretty evident to me through my most recent experience. Whether you want to look good naked, or survive the zombie apocalypse (my goal), I don't think your average workout on this site will get you there.

[LadyLore420]

You're some crazy zombie prepper amirite? Cuz you workout like a crazy zombie prepper. Plz don't be a zombie or we'll for sure lose.