2020-05-15

More than bodyweight

While I do love a good bodyweight from Darebee, I also firmly believe that diversifying your routine(s), will get you a more well-rounded, functional physique. After all, it’s been said that “man does not live by bread alone” (Mattthew 4:4, obviously referring to (hu)-man).

The pic is a little collage of me doing the exercises I do when I am not doing bodyweight or training martial arts (more on that in later posts). If you click the pic, you can see them more clearly – complete with me making weird faces. I collected these exercises over the course of my journey (I am still not sure about the destination).

The descriptions below take you through each one, including the purported benefits of each exercise and a little about how I “found” them.

Jumping rope
Great for your core, calves and for strengthening the muscles that support your knees, this is the quintessential cardio exercise for anyone who does any kind of sport that demands you be quick on your feet. It burns 3x more calories than running and 10x more than cycling AND it trains your reflexes. This is how I open and close my workout, jumping for between 2 and 5 minutes each time, depending on how I feel.

I hated jumping rope until I went to the Vision Quest Wrestling Camp, run by the great “Mean” Gene Mills. There, we watched a video of Buddy Lee jumping rope and I was hooked. I got my first ever Buddy Lee Magic Speed Rope and I haven’t stopped since – that was 25 years ago.

Kettlebell swing
Kettlebells are my go-to for weights. I don’t have any other weights than my 24kg and I use it for all my weight-related exercises. This is the first exercise you start with and a great way to strengthen your back, quads and shoulders. It also burns a lot of calories thanks to the constant swinging motion. I do either 6 or 9 sets for 15 seconds each, with 15 seconds of rest in between. And because the kettlebell puts the weight outside your grip, the swinging further trains the smaller, finer muscle tissue.

I first learned about it on Art of Manliness, which introduced me to Pavel Tsatsouline – the god of kettlebells.

Turkish getup
This is the ultimate exercise for anyone looking to develop muscles beyond the regular forward-backward range of motion. So many exercises we do are just front to back, it is important to get one that takes you in circular motions, activating hips, legs (though to a lesser extent), core, shoulders and forearms. Then as you come down, you have to keep in total control. I do 2 or 3 for each side.

DO NOT try this without taking a course. The danger of injury is far too high. I took a one-day course with a friend. The course was from Kettlebell Rheinland with a great instructor named Pia Scherenberger.

Russian twist
This variation on the sitting twist has you hold your kettlebell while you twist from one side to the other, targeting the obliques. But holding the ketttlebell also involves your arms – hardcore. 20 to 30 reps, depending on how I am feeling.

Crunches
No real explanations necessary – I gotta do ‘em. They work the abs. Ignore the poor placement of my feet on this one – I was tired. I will do 30 or 40 and add 20 bicycle crunches to each side as well.

Power twister (pull down, push up and butterfly press)
I hold it palms down at chest level and do 12 reps downwards, then palms up (chest level) and do 12 reps upwards followed by holding it above my head and bring the two handles together like doing a butterfly press. I do not like to use my neck, like I see some YouTubers doing. It works your chest, biceps, triceps, wrists, forearms and shoulders – but you have to do it slowly.

Honestly, I have no idea why I decided to pick this up, but I did and I have it so I use it.

Jump rope again (see above)
One more hard sweat before I close out my workout.

That’s it. I hope this helps you a little. If you have any questions, drop me a comment.