I stole this little workout from Dan John who in turn stole it from Sergey Litvinov, the Soviet Hammer Thrower from the 1980’s.  Sergey had some of the most impressive thighs I’ve ever seen.  He made most Bodybuilders look like marathon runners.

I particularly like it because of it’s simplicity, and it’s brutality.  There is a Crossfit-esque quality to the workout, hence my title.

Like to hear it?  Here it go:

Front Squat:  8 reps

Sprint:  400 meters.

Rest for a few minutes, then do it 2 more times!   Prepare for a lot of pain the next morning.

By the way, Litvinov used 405 lbs for the 8 rep front squat.  He only weighed 198.

This is why I advise people to use free Weights and NOT machines.

I don’t know what to make of this one:

Data gathered in large cohort studies suggested that current smokers had a 77% lower risk for Parkinson’s disease compared with never smokers, the investigators wrote in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology.

The protective effect of smoking increased with pack-years smoked, and decreased with years since quitting.

“Our data support a dose-dependent reduction of Parkinson’s disease risk associated with cigarette smoking and potentially with other types of tobacco use, they wrote. “Importantly, effects seemed not to be influenced by sex or education.”

I wouldn’t advise that you start smoking, considering the other effects it has (ones that are FAR more common than Parkinson’s).  But, the data is interesting.  And it makes one wonder what exactly it is in cigarettes that IS aiding in the battle against Parkinson’s, and can we extract it so that the harmful effects of smoking can be avoided?

(hat tip:  Andrew Sullivan)

Samurai Dave has a new Sumo Vid:

You can vote for it here:

http://www.current.tv/watch/61470061

What happens when you are pressed for time, you can’t get to a gym, but you NEED to workout? It’s happens to all of us. Maybe you were on vacation, a business trip, or were just overbooked. And next thing you knew, you were missing workouts left and right, whittling the time you spent every week in the gym down from 4 or 5 days to 2, or worse.

Never fear. Burpees are here! Now you will always have a way to workout, even when facilities, time, and resources are scarce.

But, what is a Burpee? A Burpee is something military types do. It basically goes like this:

• Squat down,
• place hands on floor,
• (keeping hands in place) jump your legs back so that your body is in the Push up position,
• then do a push up,
• jump back into a squat position with hands still on floor,
• jump up as high as possible.
• Land.
• That’s ONE rep.

Here’s a link to a demo vid. The dude doing them (Ross Enamait) is seriously hard core. And has written about the benefits of Burpees quite extensively himself.

The coach I trained under to get certified had us do these every-time we didn’t yell, “Yea Burpees!” in response to his meantioning of the word, “burpees”, regardless of how quiet he said them, or how subtly he snuck them into a sentence. Needless to say, I got SORE.

The beauty of Burpees is that they are a whole body exercise that you can do anywhere, anytime. And that is the point. When you are pressed for time, and don’t have access to a gym, you need tools in your arsenal that allow you to get a solid workout in regardless. The Burpee is just such a tool.

A workout that I have done, that is quite brutal, is the following done in Ladder fashion:

do 1 rep, rest a minute
do 2 reps, rest
do 3, rest
do 4, ….
all the way to 10 reps. Then go back DOWN. 10, rest, 9, rest, …, 2, rest, 1, done!

All total that’s how many? After this you should be thoroughly wiped out. You could also devise other rep schemes such as 5 sets of 5 reps, or 2 sets of 20, or more. There are endless options. Get creative. What I like about the above ladder method is that you end up doing more volume (reps) than you think you have, since the low rep sets (especially in the beginning) are not all that hard, but do get added into the overall volume calculus. AKA, more earnin’ for the burnin’.

Now you’ll have no worry when you are heading out of town. You’ll come back looking better than ever, yelling, “Yea Burpees!” at poor passers by who will forgive you only in deference to your well earned physique. Or something like that.