Lessons From The 500

Yesterday morning I woke up (as I’m sure most of you did too) and decided that the day’s workout would be devoted to mental toughness.  The particular form my mental toughness training took was to complete a 500 rep push-up challenge by the end of the day.

I posted it up on my Facebook status to make sure I would be held accountable and to my surprise and delight, 3 other people (maybe 4 or more by now) decided they would share the adversity and do the challenge with me.  2 of these rugged individuals, fellow Underground Strength Coaches Al Rymniak and William “BadMofo” Lafleur, added 500 reps of 24 kg kettlebell swings to the challenge – they humble me!

Needless to say I began my challenge with the intent of finishing well before the end of the day.  I knew there were easier ways to accomplish the 500 reps, for example to break it up into very small, manageable sets and spread them far throughout the day.  But this was a mental toughness challenge, not just a goal of reaching 500 by any meas necessary.  So I took the hard road.  If you want to know why I do that, check out my post – Why Do You Do That?

The hard road consisted of simply doing as many as I was able to in one go, resting, then doing more.  On and on until I completed the 500.   I also added in several sets of 20-25 bodyweight squats to offset some of the arm pump and balance the upper and lower.  I wanted it to be tough.  I wanted it to hurt.  I wanted to push myself. Again, if you haven’t already, watch the video in my post Why Do You Do That? to understand my rationale.

So what were the lessons?

Well, no real surprise here, but it was nice to once again have confirmation that my philosophy and system of training works under stressful conditions.  In no particular order, they were:

1. I am (read – ‘we are’) more capable than I previously thought.
2. That correct breathing goes a long way to improving one’s endurance.
3. That mental toughness begets physical toughness.
4. That mobility, proper stretching, and vibration drills are magic.
5. That short, quick breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth really can “pull” pain out of the muscles.
6. That adversity shared, even online and over large distances, lightens the burden.
7. That competition can spur one to greater heights.  Please note here that the Latin root of the verb compete is competere, which means ” to seek together”.
8. That all the “300” rep workouts of the past few years based on the movie, 300, were a walk in the park. 🙂

Jon

Jon Haas, "The Warrior Coach" has been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for more than 25 years and is currently ranked as a Kudan (9th degree black belt) under Jack Hoban Shihan. He has also trained in Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Russian Systema, BJJ, Krav Maga, as well as Internal Martial Arts of Yiquan and Aiki.He is a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, a certified Personal Trainer as well as founder of Warrior Fitness Training Systems. In 2008, Jon wrote the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and since then has created numerous other online training and coaching programs helping people around the world become the strongest, most capable versions of themselves!

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