By popular demand, here is a new routine for you to try.  Its a nice little combo platter featuring arms and core.  Do your best to get through as fast as possible, but be sure to keep the form clean.  After doing a 4-6 minute warmup (to include a light stretch), jump right into the mix.

1. 21′s (bicep curls)
2. One leg Balance Throw the Bomb (45 seconds per leg)
3. Low Plank hold (2 minutes)
4. One leg Balance Curls (90 seconds total – 45 with each leg up)
5. One leg Balance Tricep Extension both arms (same form as #4)
6. Super Scissors
7. In and Out Bicep Curls
8. Diamond Pushups
9. Hanging L’s (from hang, legs straight down, and raise to L – max reps)
10. Concentration Curls
11. Side-Tri-Rise
12. Around the Worlds
13. Congdon Curls
14. Lying tricep extentions
15. Oblique V-ups (30 per side)
16. One leg balanced hammer curls (90 seconds total -45 per leg)
17. One leg balanced front to back tricep extension (45 sec per leg/arm)
18. The Cross  (hang from bar with feet together, raise feet to bar, lower half way, open/close legs, then down.  *PAUSE at bottom between reps to eliminate body sway*)
19. Full supination curls (90 seconds)
20. One Leg Balanced kickbacks (90 sec. total – 45 seconds per leg)
21. Mason Twists (50 reps)

End the workout with a good upper body stretch.  The purpose of the timed moves is to force you to use a light weight, and try to conduct the movement for the designated time.  Adding the leg raise recruits the core, and increases the intensity (as well as forcing you to maintain form so you don’t lose your balance).

As always – enjoy it, and let me know what you think.

~Mark

I wanted to touch base with all of you and speak a little bit to the issue of mind set.  I’m currently working my way through my 19th round of P90X! Its another hybrid round, and this was to be week 5 (as of yesterday). Unfortunately, I suffered an intercostal muscle tear (muscle between the ribs) yesterday during MMA, so I’m going to be hitting only elliptical workouts for at least the next week while I give it time to heal.  I could certainly have become frustrated by this “set back”, but instead, I’m focusing on what I CAN DO to continue to move forward with my fitness goals.

Often times I receive emails from people that express frustration for a setback that happens in the middle of their round. Many feel they need to start over, or that they are a failure because they can’t get through the routine EXACTLY as its written. I NEVER feel that way, and I urge others not to either.  The reason, because we are going to workout for the rest of our LIVES!

Exercise and clean eating is a lifestyle change, not something we do for 90 days and then stop doing.  Life is all about pushing our physical limits and challenging ourselves. For those like me (that love extreme sports), injuries are just a part of the game. If my lower body is injured, I train the upper body. If the upper body is injured, I shift focus to the lower. ALWAYS focus on what you CAN DO, and stop worrying about what you can’t!!

Make sure, if you are in a limited workout mode, to always RECALCULATE your food intake so you at least maintain where you were when you got injured.  It may not be picture perfect, and it may not go exactly the way you want it to, but guess what, NOTHING in life does!  Get your mind right, dust yourself off, and keep working toward your goals – because they belong to YOU!

In 2004 I broke my hand so badly that it required 2 surgeries to repair it. Not ideal, not fun, but I focused on my diet and rode a recumbent exercise bike 6 days a week (and did abs every other day) until my hand had healed (12 weeks!). At the end of those 12 long weeks I had lost muscle mass, but I had maintained my weight, stayed toned, and held onto the 4% bodyfat that I had worked hard to achieve. When I went back to the weights, I gained back my lost muscle mass in 8 weeks.

Life is full of ups, downs, and obstacles, but as long as you keep your mind right, you can overcome anything that pops up in front of you. Never surrender, and never quit – just adjust fire and drive on!!

Mark

Its been a while since I posted a workout, so I figured this one is well past time.  My good friend, Bob Hansen, came up with this workout to run his Son’s Soccer Team through.  This evening, Bob and I got together and ran the kids through the paces.  The total run time for the workout with a warmup and cooldown was 36 minutes.  My max heart rate was 182, and average was 161.  Total calorie burn – 633!

This workout will require you to be familiar with Insanity to know the moves – but if you know them, its a high speed calorie burning monster!  Enjoy!!

WARMUP (from MAX Interval Plyo) Repeat x 3  (10 minutes)-30 seconds first 2 rounds, 15 for last round.

jog
straight arm jack
123
jump rope side to side
high knees
switch kick
hit the floor
side to side floor hops

Stretch 5 mins.

SET A (45 seconds each – 2 rounds for each move)
Switch jump
squat push up
ski abs
power jump

REST (30 seconds between rounds)


SET B (45 seconds for each move – 2 rounds for each move)
power push up
globe jump
level 2 drills (8 push ups)

REST (30 seconds)

The Last Move
power lunge/hop squats (1 minute)

Cooldown and Stretch – (5 minutes)

I ran this workout at a group session this past weekend (8/15/09), and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.  You may recognize most of the moves (with exception to Side Plank Hold and Twisting Plank) from Tony Horton’s incredible Plyo Legs routine (from One On One with Tony Horton).   I took the great workout that Tony created, increased some of the time intervals, and added some reps.  I also added a great warmup from Shaun T’s Insanity program.

To put a fresh spin on things, I took the sheet that the exercises were printed on, and I cut them up into individual exercises.  Then, I took each individual exercise listed, folded the small paper in half, and then dropped them into a paper bag, creating an audience participation game of “draw the next exercise out of the bag”.

What was great about this is that you may go from doing Wall Squats, and by luck of the draw, end up doing Single Leg Wall Squats on the next exercise – magic!!   You can also repeat this workout over and over again, and you are NEVER going to draw the same order of exercises each time!  Now, be forewarned, if you follow this workout to the letter, you are looking at about a 90 minute session with warmup/cooldown included (which created a 1600 calorie burn for me!).  We took short breaks (of less than 1 minute throughout various times of the workout), but for the most part, the only break between exercises happened when I walked around the gym to have the next person draw an exercise out of the bag.

If you want to adjust the time of the workout, just draw some random exercises out of the bag.  There are 22 moves, so if you randomly removed 12 pieces of paper, you should be able to knock this down to a 40-45 minute monster!!  I’ll be anxious to hear your reviews — so give it a try!

~Mark

Plyo Legs Plus

The Warmup:

Jog (30 seconds)

Jacks (30 seconds)

Heisman (30 seconds)

1-2-3 (30 seconds)

Log Jumps (30 seconds)

Butt Kicks (30 seconds)

High Knees (30 seconds)

Mummy Kicks (30 seconds)

(Repeat the above 3 times, increasing speed each time)

Stretch (5 mins)

The Workout:

• Squat and Reach (50 reps)

• Run Stance Squats (60 reps)

• Super Skaters (20 per leg)

• Side Long Jump (50 reps)

• Wall Squat (3 minutes) – *START WITH 20 PUSHUP JACKS

• Super Lunges (40 reps)

• Groucho Walk (30 steps) – *START WITH 20 PUSHUP JACKS

• Run Stance Squat Switch (50 reps)

• Deadlift Squats (20 reps per leg)

• Leapfrog Squats (24 reps) – *START WITH 20 PUSHUP JACKS

• Chair Salutations (2 reps – 45 seconds each)

• 4 Corners (30 reps each direction)

• Single Leg Wall Squat (2 minutes)

• Wacky Jacks (100 reps per side) – *START WITH 20 PUSHUP JACKS

• Toe Roll Iso Lunge (50 reps per leg)

• Sumo Chair (30 reps)

• Side Lunge and Reach (40 reps)

• Run Stance Jump Switch (60 reps per side)

• One Legged Speed Squats (20 per leg)

• Egan Brothers (140 reps) – *START WITH 20 PUSHUP JACKS

• Twisting Plank (12 reps)

• Side Plank Hold (60 seconds per side)

]]> http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/08/plyo-legs-plus/feed/ 7 http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/07/legs-and-abs-massacre/ http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/07/legs-and-abs-massacre/#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:33:09 +0000 Mark Briggs http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/?p=235 My apologies for not getting in here to update sooner – I’ve been running at a sprint through life the last few weeks (in a good way).  But, this newest hybrid comes directly from Tony Horton.  He and I are always coming up with new fun ways to challenge each other (ok, its usually him kicking MY ass, but…….)

Here is how this one is done – go through the moves as quickly as you can, and perform 20 repetitions for each movement.  The goal here is to do the workout in the shortest period of time (but make sure to keep the form clean).  Let me know what you think of it!

Most of the abs moves come from Ten Minute Trainer Abs – but you can sub in whatever you like.

LEGS AND ABS MASSACRE

1. Squats (feet shoulder width)
2. Cross Crunch
3. Hot Foot (20 hops per leg)
4. Bridge Crunch
5. Toe Roll Iso-Lunge (20 per leg)
6. Iso Bike
7. Leap Frog Squats (20 front/20 back)
8. Golden Gate
9. Double Airborne Heisman
10. Side Arm O’Crunch (20 per side)
11. Three Position Calf Raise (20 each position – toes out, toes front, toes in)
12. Hip Lift Kick (20 per side)
13. Jump Shot
14. Speed Bike (like Iso-bike, but fast)
15. Side to Side Squats (focuses on the glutes)
16. Plank O’Crunch (same side knee to same side elbow – alternate for 20 reps)
17. Swing Kicks
18. 3 Point Plank Crunch (knee to same side elbow, to forehead, to opposite elbow – 1o per leg for 20 total reps)
19. Pliate Squats (legs wide, toes pointing out)
20. Lolasana (from plank, jump feet in to chest, balance on one foot, jump back out to plank)
21. Lateral Leap Frog Squats
22. The Dawn (from forearm plank, raise and lower rib cage – tuck pelvis)
23. 80/20 Speed Squats (20 per leg)
24. Mountain Climbers (20 reps per leg)
25. Mary Katherine Lunges (20 reps per leg)
26. Superman Crunch (20 reps of superman, alternated by rolling to back for crunches)
27. Close Stance Squats (knees and feet together, squat for light touch on stool or chair)
28. Tick Tock Lift
29. River Jumps
30. Peek-a-boo (on your back, legs together and out away at 45 degrees – open and close legs for 20 reps)
31. Sumo Chair
32. Scissor Crunch
33. Squat and Kick (10 kicks per leg – 20 total squats)
34. Scissor Lift
35. Mary Katherine Lunges
36. Fifer Scissors
37. Squat switch Pickups (10 per side for 20 total reps)
38. Leg Climbers (10 per leg)
39. Lunge and Reach (10 per side)
40. Mason Twists (20 per side)

Remember, the goal is to get through the workout as quickly as possible.  Give it a try, and then share your times here – we’ll see who claims the title of Legs and Abs Massacre Master!! 

]]> http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/07/legs-and-abs-massacre/feed/ 6 http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/06/plyo-legs-and-back/ http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/06/plyo-legs-and-back/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:57:28 +0000 Mark Briggs http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/?p=232 Well, in the quest to shake things up, I got to thinking about how I really wanted to blast legs and back, but I needed a change from LEGS/BACK that’s in P90X.  I had Plyo Legs from the One on One series, but I wasn’t really feeling that workout today either – so, I came up with my own little hybrid of PLYO LEGS and BACK – all rolled together in one little monster of a workout!

My friend Anson is coming over in about an hour to join me for a workout today, but he has no idea what I have in store for us!  I just created this workout, and its never been done before – so it should work wonders for making us hobble around by later today!

Give it a try yourself, and let me know what you think!

~Mark

PLYO LEGS and BACK (created 06/26/2009)

1.Squats (feet shoulder width)  -  40-60 reps
2.Hot Foot (30 seconds per leg)
3.Wide Grip Pullups – max reps
4.Toe Roll Iso-Lunge – 40-60 reps
5.Leap Frog Squats – 60 seconds forward and back
6.Chinups – max reps
7.8 card stud
8.Double Airborne Heisman – 60 seconds
9.Close Grip  Pullups – max reps
10.Three Position Calf Raise (5 reps each – toes in/center/out) – 60 seconds
11.Jump Shot (60 seconds)
12.Overhand Pullup
13.Side to Side Squats (40-60 reps)
14.Swing Kicks (60 seconds)
15.Switch Grip Pullups (max reps)
16.Pliate Squats (40-60 reps)
17.Lateral Leap Frog Squats (60 seconds)
18.Close Grip Chinups
19.80/20 Speed Squats (30 reps per leg)
20.Mary Katherine Lunges (60 seconds)
21.Wide Pullups
22.Close Stance Squat (to stool or chair – light touch) (30 reps)
23.River Jumps (30 seconds)
24.Pullups (your choice) – max reps

I get a lot of emails with people asking why they aren’t getting the kinds of results they want to see with their fitness programs.  They tell me how hard they workout during the programs, and they just can’t understand why they don’t have a six pack!  My very first question back to them is, “How is your diet?”.  Every time, it comes back the same, “Well, I don’t always eat that well.”  Well, there is your answer!  People, the eating equation is a HUGE part in that puzzle of of fitness!  The goal is to turn off the mind chatter, and stop making excuses for eating bad food!

Fitness really boils down to goals, and where you want to end up in life.  For me, I REALLY like being super-fit and being able to do the things that I do.  I  workout and eat clean because I feel so much better when I do.  If I eat junk, I feel sluggish, bloated, and gross.  Why would I want to make a choice that I know is going to cause me to feel lousy?  I don’t do workouts for vanity reasons (although that’s not a bad side effect), I do them because I feel so incredible when I’m fit.

I still get the same bad food cravings that everyone else does, I just CHOOSE not to indulge in them, because they move me away from where I want to be.  The longer you eat clean, the less you crave the junk food, and ultimately, you feel BETTER!  Then, the “good addiction” sets in – and you just want to constantly reach for that ever next higher level.

Everything you do in life is a choice.  You can either choose to do the things that make you better, or you can choose to do the things that make you worse.  Life is ALL about choices!

I have a strong family history of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.  You know why?  Because I have a family full of people that made the choice to not workout, not eat right, and a parfait of other bad life choices!  You can either invest in yourself now, or you can deal with the fallout when you get into your 40′s, 50′s and 60′s!  My CHOICE is to invest now, live well now, and be SURE that I’m not a miserable, hunched over, grump when I become an old man.

You are the person that decides what you are going to do.  Nothing has power over you unless you allow it to.  Not food, not relationships, not your boss – nothing and no one – just YOU!  Clearly we have to do things in life that we don’t want to do….that’s just how it is – but we have 100% control over what we decide to put into our mouths.  We have 100% control to decide to exercise.

“Do your best and forget the rest”.  Those words can be applied to EVERYTHING we do in life.  You can see the glass as half empty or half full……its all about your perspective.  Don’t be one of those people that has a defeatist mind set.  Get up every day and invest in yourself.  You’ll be better person for making that CHOICE!

No matter what the situation, I always look to the positive, and I always try to stay on track with the things that bring me closer to my goals.  Turn off the mind chatter, stop the excuses, and become the person that you want to be!

The choice is YOURS……Who do you want to be, and where do you want to go?  Decide.  Commit. and trust me, you WILL Succeed!

~Mark

The title really says it all with this one.  Tony Horton, the creator of P90X and several other top selling Beachbody workouts has been changing lives all over the world with his incredible training and insight into fitness and nutrition.  He came up with these 11 laws to help guide people toward being better, happier and healthier.   I do my best to follow these “laws” every single day, and their impact in my own life has been nothing short of profound.  Read them, absorb them, and live them – you’ll be glad that you did!

1. Variety - Variety is the spice of life and fitness. A lifetime of health and fitness is achievable when you can think outside the box. You have to mix it up all the time. Stay curious, creative, and stick with the kinds of workouts that you enjoy. A variety of exercises, workouts, and sports will allow you to avoid injuries, plateaus, and boredom.
2. Consistency -  Improvement and change occur when you do things often. Stopping and starting all the time will kill any momentum you need to succeed. You must find ways to stay in the game. Moderate forms of exercise, done consistently, provide far better results than the occasional full-body pummeling. A lifestyle that includes multiple forms of exercise five to six days a week guarantees results.
3. Intensity – YOU’RE TOUGHER THAN YOU THINK. The fear of pain or injury from working out is a mindset steeped in failure. You must learn to “Find the Line.” Do the extra rep or two, increase your range of motion, and increase resistance as you get stronger. Intensity goes hand in hand with Variety and Consistency. The combination of the three work together as a triad that creates a platform for success. The programs provide variety. Your plan will keep you consistent.
4. Purpose – Your purpose is to have a better life. Exercise and eating right help you feel better. When you feel better, you do more. When you do more, you meet other people. A healthy lifestyle gives us the energy to be better than before. We want to participate, share, communicate, and build a community—have purpose in our lives. If you had never found Beachbody, you might be right back where you were—isolated, with nothing to share, no purpose, because you weren’t doing anything with anyone.
5. Reality – Why do we want life to be different than it is? Why do we think about who we were and who we’re going to be more than who we are? We certainly talk a good game about who we are now. Why do we try to predict the future with the hope that wishful thinking is enough to change it? Life is NOT the way it was. It’s the way it is. Life is not our fantasy predictions of the future or our glory days of the past. Life is that thing that is happening to you as you read this. We fall into the trap of living in the past and future because right here is not good enough. Back then and up there are keeping you from right now.
6. Sports – Take the onus off of weight, inches, and body fat percentages and put the focus on MOVING—from dancing, rock climbing, and mountain biking to table tennis. I love that ping-pong! Think in terms of “can do” instead of “look like.” Sports are fun and help develop balance and coordination—which in turn accelerates your results. Jump, kick, run, spin, throw, skate, shoot, hit, score, compete . . . PLAY!
7. The Plan – SCHEDULE ALL WORKOUTS IN ADVANCE. This creates accountability. Plan an entire month ahead of time. Try to schedule as many workouts as possible with friends who have similar goals. WOWY was developed so that we could find an easy and effective way to stay accountable and work out together. Now we’ve got people in all over the world working out at the same time. That is cool!
8. Sleep (and stress) – Stressed out, sleep-deprived people don’t eat right and exercise regularly. Stress depletes energy, strength, and desire, while poor sleep habits affect your moods and immune function along with cognitive and motor performance. Burning the candle at both ends makes it impossible to be fit and healthy.
9. Loving It – Exercise and workouts involve commitment, determination, planning, consistency, and intensity. If you don’t like what you’re doing, there’s no way on earth you’ll succeed. Enthusiasm is a very big piece of the puzzle. Get creative and stay curious. If you enjoy doing Power 90 exclusively and it works for you, then keep doing it until it doesn’t. If you get part way through P90X and it’s not your cup of tea, then stop, and do something else. Something’s got to bring you back day after day, week after week. Love it (tolerate it) or leave it.
10. Flexibility – Flexibility is the fountain of youth. Flexible people are much less prone to injury. Yoga and stretching allow you to bring more intensity to your workouts. Flexibility is the key component to becoming less vulnerable and more durable. Aging has a funny way of making everything we do harder. Staying limber and flexible is the way to prevent that from happening.
11. Food and Supplements - You are what you eat! Food and supplements are your fuel. The right fuel supplies proper energy and recovery through balanced brain chemistry. The right supplements simply fill in gaps in your diet.

I do quite a bit of traveling, and sometimes, my schedule causes me to have to go places without notice – so I don’t have my resistance bands, or my DVD’s to do my workouts.  But, I’m going to share one of my favorite types of workouts with you, so you too can enjoy getting a GREAT workout ANYWHERE with no equipment needed.

The workout is called U.C.M.L. (short for Upper/Cardio/Middle/Lower).  This is the workout that Tony Horton and I did with Usher on New Years Eve this year in Las Vegas.  The greatest thing about this workout, is its diversity!  You can sub in any upper/cardio/middle/lower movement that you want, so you can change it up and never do the same workout twice – and I promise you, if you push yourself – you’ll be blown away with how effective it is.  Go for your OWN personal best, and push the pace……..you are going to LOVE IT!!

This version is one I did when I was on my latest trip out to Massachusetts.  I met up with my friend, Chuck Oleson (another P90X fanatic), at his house, and we spent the next hour running through this monster.  I’ve done this workout with NO BREAKS in it – but you can add breaks at the half-way point, or after each sequence of 4 movements.  Decide your own targeted number of reps and time for each move – make it challenging, but make this YOUR own workout.  Adjust it to YOUR own level of fitness, and enjoy the results!  Now that you know that plan, here is the sequence! 

1. Standard Pushups (30-40 reps)
2. Jacks (100 reps)
3. Roll up V ups (30-40 reps)
4. Shoulder width Squats (40-60 reps)
5. Sphinx to plank pushups (15-25 reps)
6. Double Airborne Heisman (30 reps each direction)
7. Around the Clock (10 each direction)
8. Squat and Kick (40-50 reps)
9. Hindu Pike Pushups (15-20 reps in each position)
10. Jump Knee Tucks (40-50 reps)
11. Bicycles (40-60 reps)
12. Wide feet squat to calf raise (30-50 reps)
13. Spiderman Pushups (14-20 reps)
14. Side Speed Kicks (aka: Briggs Kicks) (40 per side)
15. Wide Leg Crunchy Frogs (30-40 reps)
16. Sumo to Chair (20-30 reps)
17. Four by Fives (5 pushups – fingers in, out, forward, and diamond) – (20-30 total reps in groups of 5 per hand position)
18. Jump Squat Switch (30-50 reps)
19. Oblique V ups (30-50 reps)
20. Toe Roll Iso Lunge (40-50 reps per leg)
21. Wide to Diamond Pushups (20-30 reps)
22. Leapfrog squats – 2 front/2 back (30-40 reps)
23. Fifer Scissors (30-50 reps
24. 8 Card Stud (from One On One Bun Shaper workout)

Be sure to do a warmup, and then a good cooldown stretch when you get done.  If you have questions on how to do any of the movements, feel free to email me at markbriggsfitness@gmail.com

Finding new ways to challenge yourself ALWAYS brings on new results!  BRING IT!

~Mark

]]> http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/04/get-a-great-workout-anywhere-with-no-equipment/feed/ 8 http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/04/push-to-new-limits-by-changing-your-mechanism-of-movement/ http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/2009/04/push-to-new-limits-by-changing-your-mechanism-of-movement/#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:29:06 +0000 Mark Briggs http://www.markbriggsfitness.com/?p=177 Push to new limits by changing your Mechanism of Movement

Mechanism of Movement.  Its a term I like to use as it pertains to exercise.  What does it mean?  Well, to simplify it, look at it this way:  If your a cyclist (or a spinner), your legs are used to that specific range of motion and spinning movement.  Same goes if you are a runner, doing pushups, squats or lunges.

Our bodies are incredible machines, and they adjust very quickly to our Mechanism’s of Movement.  So, if we really want to excel at what we are doing, its essential to get out of our box of comfort, and train in a DIFFERENT mechanism.  I’m not talking about changing the tempo by adding more resistance or varying in speed.  I’m talking about creating something to challenge the muscles from slightly (or drastically) different angles.  Something that if you do often, will cause you to explode with new growth, and continue to get better.

I’m someone that does a LOT of ab work (I’ve knocked out 2000 crunches in a row), and a lot of pushups (close to 150 in one set), so I’m pretty good at them.  But, when you break away from the traditional planes of the movement, and alter the mechanism – EVERYTHING changes.  For example, I was visiting a dojo today (since I’m still away from home) for some MMA conditioning drills.  One of the exercises we did were called “Oh No’s!” (aptly named I’ll add).  You start at one end of the room, beside a wall, laying face up with your body stretched out, arms overhead (in kind of a banana position), from there, you contract your arms and legs toward each other (into a crunch), straighten back out, and then roll a complete revolution, moving you toward the opposing wall.  You contine to repeat this movement until you reach the opposing wall (which, in this section of the dojo was about 40 feet).  Once you reach the wall, you stand up and sprint back to the beginning wall, drop into a plank position, and then “hop” laterally in a plank position, repeatedly to the opposing wall (another 40 feet).  Once you reach the wall, you sprint back, and then repeat the “Oh No’s”.  For this drill, we repeated the movements for 2 full minutes – but you could just as easily designated a set number of repetitions instead.

Because the mechanism of movement was new to me, it REALLY crushed my abs and my chest, shoulders and triceps.  Just like MAGIC!  That’s the kind of stuff we all need to do to keep our progress moving forward.  Always workout with intensity, but also look for new ways to modify your Mechanism of Movement.

Back home I have a few friends that are marathon runner.  These guys can literally run for more than 3 hours, so they most certaily are in shape.  But the first time I ran a couple of them through a Plyometric workout (all different jumping movments, with varied short recovery in between them) it made them puke.  The mechanism of movement was foreign to them, and it completely shocked their bodies to be hit with different movements, different intensity, and different angles – it was like starting out at squre one for a new athlete.

The bottom line:  Apply your imagination to your workout, think outside the box, and your physical abilities will explode and grow beyond your belief!  Give it a try during your next workout – you won’t be disappointed!

All the best in life and health,

~Mark