PT

Much is made of PT, for good reason.

I promise you most people reading this post will lose a 60-second fight with a heavy bag at full speed.  Most will lose a 30-second fight.  If you can stay alive until your enemy tires out, you'll probably win.  Win = Live.

If you have ever grappled in a dojo, or run through modern .mil combatives, you know if your wind isn't up for 2, 3, 5, 7 minutes of going hard, you are in trouble if the other guy is able to last 10 seconds longer.  Because in that last 10 seconds while he still has gas in the tank, and you are on empty, he's going to break your physiology.

I am now 47 years old, and to you younger guys I promise you this: A 50 pound sack of rice weighs less when you are 20 than when you are 40.  That's simply the way things work with us bipeds - and why doing "it" while as young as possible is so critical as you get older, so that experience can make up for those lost physical attributes. 

A young man will fight you - an old man will kill you. 

There is a reason such axioms exist in our world.  I am not grappling anybody at this point in my life.  In a scrum today, I am not going to try and win, I'm going to neutralize the threat you pose, right now, and you'll probably die as a result.  Or, you'll kill me.  There isn't any middle-ground.

Everyone has their own notions of what a good PT regimen is for them.  Go with what works for you.

Since we are fond of the Warrior Ethos around here, be it Spartan, Samurai, Viking, whatever - here's how Gerard Butler and the cast of 300 got shredded for their movie.  Obviously it would be almost impossible to keep that level of fitness for very long - but try getting as close as you can, and staying as long as you can.  The life you save may be your own.  Because just as I know most 40-60 year-old guys reading this blog would lose a 30-second, full-speed fight with a heavy bag - I also know the average 16-25 year-old would lose as well - and he'd quit sooner because, as they say, today's boys got a lot of quit in 'em...

Here's your 300 work out:

25 pull-ups

50 deadlifts at 135 pounds

50 push-ups

50 box jumps with a 24-inch box

50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)

50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)

25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps

Here's a link to visuals.

Yes, we will be doing the 300 workout in Studio III for those who want to give it a go, if you are part of my combatives/CQB classes.

Remember, you don't have to know 30-years of knife-fighting to kill a knife-fighter, if you can stay alive for about 10 seconds after he runs out of gas with all his fancy training.  Then you just hit him in the head with a hammer, or stab him with his own knife.  (Though my preferred weapon is still an up-shifting Chevrolet, hitting overdrive, from his back side...)

Kerodin
III