| www.kettlebellplanet.com |
| Submit content |
| Feedback |
| Featured Sites |
| Connecting people with Kettlebells worldwide |
| The Outside Workout. Why, why not? By Nathan Donahue Sometimes you just don't want to go the gym but you know you need a workout because you workout every day! Here is a great little workout you can do at your local park that consists of nothing more than sprints and bodyweight exercises. You can do a set of the pushups and pullups and follow that with a set of sprints and repeat, or do all your bodyweight exercises at once either before or after the sprints. It doesn't really matter, just get the work in and you will be all good. Pushups and Pullups supersetted x 10 sets of as many reps as possible. For the pushups, elevate your feet on a bench and explode up so your hands leave the ground on each rep. For the pullups, switch your grip or hand position on each set and try to explode up so your hands come up off the bar. At the top of the movement, pull your legs up to do a leg lift and incorporate the abs. Sprints x 10 sets of between 40-100m Sprint like the cops are chasing, then catch your breath and go again. Simple? Yes. Effective, hell yes! Sprints will lean you out and improve athleticism like nothing else. Hills sprints are even better if you have one around. For more information on hill sprints, see Hill Sprints, Your New Best Friend?. Other ideas for training at the park are: Find something heavy and lift it overhead a bunch of times, then sprint. Repeat. These are called Litinov's, and they suck but are effective in building conditioning and mental toughness. I used to like taking my weights or sandbag out to the park and just carrying it back and forth. A 200lb sandbag on your back gets really heavy at about 100m. Take a kettlebell or a heavy object that won't break. Now throw it as far as you can. Walk over to it, pick it up, and throw it again. Repeat until you can't throw it anymore. Throwing heavy objects in a variety of manners will improve explosiveness and for some reason is really fun. Back in my rugby days we would carry each other on our backs and run up a hill, then do a bunch of bear crawls. Burpees, or squat thrusts are great to do before or after a sprint if you want to puke. Taking your kettlebell outside is always nice and refreshing. Kettlebell swings, cleans or snatches, then sprint. Same would work with a heavy dumbbell. No clock, no counting of reps and sets, no questioning of why you are doing this, just hard ass work...period. My point is training does not and should not always occur in the gym. Training outside is fun, invigorating, and will improve your mood. Also, the change in scenery can often be a strong motivator for a brutal workout. Some of the best workouts I had were running sprints in the dark, while raining, in November. Crappy weather, but it made me feel tough so I trained like a maniac. So get out of the gym for a change and bust your butt! |