Last night I went to the neighboring downtown with my family as everyone got some ice cream. In case you're wondering, I skipped the ice cream part 🙂

Don't worry, I'm still human, I eat ice cream, but I'm on a mission, and that will require doing what others don't do. This time around, I won the ice cream battle.

On the way home, about half way there, my wife dropped me off on the side of the road so I could run the rest of the way home. I was fired up and even a bit disappointed in myself. I felt I was losing some of my grit and toughness, losing my mental edge and overall getting too comfortable with nutrition, life and lifting.

So I told my wife to pull over and drop me off......

This wasn't your typical jog all the way home and call it a day.

Instead, this was a brutal sprint mixed with various calisthenics and jumps. The run home has some hills so even better. I needed a gut check and this was it.

First, I had to run the first few minutes up a steady incline. I ran instead of jogged, but didn't sprint all out. I then walked the distance of 2 or 3 houses, dropped and pumped out 10 push ups.

After the push ups, the hard running began again, this time, through the woods behind my old elementary school, jumping over bushes, downed trees, on the side of a hill and finally sprinting through the elementary school parking lot where I used to go to school.

I jumped up and grabbed the basketball rim and cranked out 5 pull ups.

I then sprinted across the lot to the playground I used to train my athletes at. There were picnic tables ready for pressing and a set of monkey bars for my pull ups.

I hit 2 rounds of the following playground workout circuit:

1A) military press on picnic table x 10

1B) chin ups x 10

1C) bodyweight tricep extensions with hands on ladder x 10

1D) sprint x 300 ft.

I walked down the parking lot to the bottom of my development. Now the uphill race was about to begin. The road back home was a steady uphill.

I sprinted the distance of a few houses, dropped for 10 push ups, walked a few houses and kept repeating. This totaled 70 or 80 push ups by now.

If I saw a fire hydrant I hurdled it.

If I saw a wall on the side of a driveway I jumped over it.

When I got to my house it was only 20 minutes from the start of my run. I cooled down by walking to the top of the street (4 house lengths) and hitting 50 consecutive push ups.

I walked back down and took a shower mixing hot and cold water (contrast showers) to aid in recovery.

It's been a while since hitting the road running and that felt great.

This was unfortunately NOT the type of runs I did when wrestling, but I wish I did train like this during my wrestling days.

Instead, I ran 4 - 5 miles every other night during wrestling season. I added conditioning on top of 2.5 hour practices and in turn, I got weaker and wrecked my knees.

Yes, my pace was fast and aggressive back then, but, intervals mixed with calisthenics is a superior method for training in Wrestling, even for those looking to train mean and get lean.

For the Best wrestling workouts, see my Wrestling Strength program HERE or get inside The Underground Strength Academy HERE.

This workout was different. It was the complete opposite of what I am used to normally training with strength and old school bodybuilding supersets.

Sometimes you need to do something completely different. Instead of a loud atmosphere,  go somewhere quiet, instead of a long workout, make it super short, instead of intense, go light and easy, instead of free weights, use bodyweight only.

Time to get out there and train in nature.

Those who take action will KNOW what I mean.

Live The Code 365,

--Z--

The Underground Strength Academy

Details HERE