Daily Extras -
run 2 of the 400m carrying a weight in your R hand
run 2 of the 400m carrying a weight in your L hand
You may split these up however you like.
Workout Notes:
- This is another benchmark workout for us. You should know your last “Lil Kate” time.
- Sub 25 minutes on this one is screaming fast. Most will take longer.
- Watch your form throughout this workout. The second round comes at you hard.
- Watch your back on the high sumos and keep those elbows high.
- On the squats watch yourself in the mirror. Get below parallel and keep your chest up.
- Snake the pushups if you like.
Musings ...
Exercise as a Lifestyle?
I once trained a lady who LOVED strawberries. She loved everything about them. She loved the colors, the seeds, the shape, the sizes, the smell, the tastes & etc. She read strawberry books. She attended strawberry conventions and workshops (who knew?). According to her, if it was for sale and had ANY element of a strawberry in it, she had to have it. Hell, she even named her cat "Fresca" after her favorite type of strawberry!
Not hard to imagine "the strawberry lady" loving cats, right? Wait ... that's insensitive of me. I shouldn't have written that. I've known some very lovely people who also love cats. And just because hordes of deceived cat people don't understand their cats are secretly plotting to take over the world and intend make humans their personal slaves, doesn't make them weird or bad or anything ... just, sort of, misinformed. :)
In those days the mantra was, "You need to make exercise a lifestyle!" I was taught this mantra from the pulpit of academia. I have, in turn, preached if from my own bully pulpit. In fact, preaching was exactly what I was doing to the strawberry lady on the first day she came to see me for her initial consult.
She was a nice lady. Mid to late 50s. Well established, opinionated and quirky. Maybe even a little bit of a tyrant. She owned her own business and had grown it from the ground up into a very successful, thriving company with several expansions. I liked her immediately. And she was having NONE of my "make exercise a lifestyle" speech. This is despite the fact that, by her own admission, she had never worked out consistently or even "deliberately" in the last 30 years. Although she acted as if she wasn't proud of this, it didn't stop her from laughing maniacally hard at what she was saying.
I was patient as I listened to her laugh at herself, but couldn't help it, I began to scold her. "Patricia, this is NOT OK."
"I know, I know ..." Her laughter trailed off into seriousness. "But here's the thing," She locked eyes with me - harshly! "I'm not into all your exercise is a lifestyle shit! "
That's when she taught me one of the greatest lessons of my working life. She got gruff as hell as she explained the following:
"Look, I already HAVE a lifestyle, thank you very much [I guessed strawberries?]. I'm very comfortable with my lifestyle. In fact I LOVE my lifestyle. I've put a LOT of time and dedicated effort into crafting this lifestyle and I don't need some snot-nosed 20 something kid telling me what lifestyle I should have. I'm guessing what you'd know about a quality lifestyle for a woman in her 50s wouldn't fill a thimble. So get off your high horse and make me a fitness program that adds quality to the lifestyle I've already built! I'm willing to do all it takes to improve my lifestyle, but NOT ONE THING MORE! And if you can't do that, please point me to someone who understands a little more about life!"
That was the day Minimalism was born. And I've used her phrase, "ALL IT TAKES AND NOT ONE THING MORE" thousands of times since then.
That was also the day I realized exercise's role in the process of becoming healthy. Exercise is only a piece of my health and fitness. It is not the only point. It's role is to help me enhance my lifestyle, not to hijack it.
Can't believe I found that pic! Hahahahaha!