Down and Dirty

by Matt B. Davis

  WEAR THE PROPER FOOTWEAR. Some say that plyometrics is best done with bare feet; however, don’t start out that way unless you’re accustomed to going shoeless during exercise. Progress slowly. It’s the rare person who can immediately withstand the force and trauma of jumps and landings on unprotected feet. Odds are that you’re not that person.

  On the other hand, avoid wearing cushiony running shoes. It seems like that would be a good idea, but it’s not. Stick to lightweight training shoes with thin soles that allow for proprioception. (That’s one of my top-ten favorite words. It essentially refers to an awareness of the spatial orientation of your body.)

  FOCUS AS MUCH ON THE LANDING AS YOU DO ON THE JUMPING. Keep your feet, knees, and shoulders aligned as much as possible and slightly flexed. Land lightly on the balls of your feet, not on your heels or toes. Mentally picture yourself landing while making as little noise as possible.

  BE CAREFUL WITH EXERCISES THAT HAVE YOU BOUNDING FROM SIDE TO SIDE. Knees and ankles are much better suited to withstand the rigors of front-to-back movements.

  BOUND OFF THE LANDING QUICKLY. Although you should concentrate on landing technique, come back off the landing as quickly as possible. The benefits in these exercises come from spending as little time as possible on the ground. Think “soft and quick.” Be a cat.

  AVOID PLYOMETRICS AS YOUR PRIMARY CONDITIONING ROUTINE. Yes, it’s excellent for getting your cardio mojo going, but you’re asking for injury if you try to perform these while tired. Your form will break down, leading to joint, muscle, or connective tissue failures.

  TIME YOUR PLYOMETRICS WORKOUTS CAREFULLY. Plyometric workouts should be highly focused, not endurance-based. A good rule of thumb (although by no means standard) is to exercise for up to 30 seconds, and then incorporate light active recovery exercises for a few seconds before going again. This will vary among individuals according to fitness level and per exercise. You either must honestly judge how well you can maintain form, or you could enlist the services of a trainer to monitor that for you.

  DON’T DO EXTENSIVE PLYOMETRICS EVERY DAY. Like any other training routine, the gains come from the rest days as the muscles, ligaments, and tendons work to repair the micro tears induced by exercise. Two to three times per week is plenty.

  Can you do more and get away with it? Perhaps. Sooner or later though, overtraining, whether it’s plyometrics, running, or lifting, will begin producing negative returns as your body weakens from the stress. Be smart!

  Reacting to changes in the course landscape with quick, explosive movements is crucial for speed on the course.

  Being able to land like a cat and spring away from potential ankle sprains is a valuable skill in a race.

  Plyometrics Basics

  Plyo is easily worked into almost any exercise routine that you’re currently doing. The exercises can range from very easy to extremely difficult, and anywhere along that continuum. Here are descriptions of various plyo exercises. These are just samples. You’ll quickly learn that there are various modifications. The exercises are grouped into categories according to ease of performance. They can be combined for entire routines, or they can stand alone within other types of training. Personally, I will sometimes incorporate a set of plyo between weight or core exercises as a means of elevating my heart rate.

  Always warm up before plyometrics. I spend at least 5 minutes warming up. The more time you spend getting loose, the better your workout will go.

  Start with low-intensity movements that work the hips, legs, knees, and ankles, and then slowly increase in intensity. Standing knee raises followed by running in place is a good start. Slow and easy jumping jacks are a good second level. I usually end the warm-ups with active stretching exercises, such as leg swings (forward/backward and sideways), body-weight squats, and/or lunges. Ideally, you want your ankles, knees, and hips loose and ready for quick movements.

  EASY PLYO EXERCISES

  JUMP ROPE: At first, I had a lot of difficulty with jumping rope. Since I was a kid, I had always envisioned jumping rope as a little girl’s exercise performed while chanting a silly cadence. That is until I watched the movie Rocky. It took me awhile to get the form down, but after rhythm has been established, it’s easy to knock out 100 jumps. Because you don’t have to jump very high, you may easily be able to do many more than 100. Jump for as long as you can, without sacrificing form. Quick jumps are better than slow ones. Keep your body aligned vertically from ankles, to knees, to hips, to shoulders, and land on the balls of your feet.

  CROSS HOPS. This can be performed a variety of ways, but the simplest is to hop off both feet back and forth across and along the length of a line—which can be tape, a jump rope, or even a line drawn on the floor—for 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 m), and then jump backward to the start. Repeat the process two or three times. Hop quickly and land softly. You can enhance this exercise by hopping higher and bringing your knees closer to your chest while still maintaining the same speed of bounding off the ground. Another variation of this is to hop side to side and back and forth. Or you could envision yourself jumping in the four quadrants of a large plus symbol.

  MODERATE PLYO EXERCISES

  SINGLE-LEG JUMP ROPE. Adequate enough description, right? Jump rope on one leg for 5 to 10 repetitions, switch to the other foot, and back and forth, for a total of 50 to 100 total reps. You’ll find this much more stressful on the ankles and legs than regular jump ropes, so start at the low end of the range and work yourself up. Let your body be the guide on the amount of stress you can handle here.

  SINGLE-LEG CROSS HOPS. This is just like the cross hops described earlier, except you hop with only one foot for 30 seconds or so, and then switch to the other foot.

  DIFFICULT PLYO EXERCISES

  JUMP KNEE TUCKS. Stand straight with your knees slightly bent and then jump by bringing your quadriceps parallel with the floor. Hold your hands out, with your forearms parallel to the floor to provide a target for how high you should jump. Land softly on the balls of your feet and immediately explode back up, bringing your knees back to your target. Perform 10 to 25 repetitions, depending on your ability. Don’t sacrifice your form!

  DOUBLE-UNDERS. A staple CrossFit exercise, double-unders are simply rope jumps in which the rope passes under your feet twice on each jump. This will send your heart rate to the max very quickly, so you won’t need many reps. Start with ten at a time and work your way up to thirty. It’s crucial that you maintain a good vertically aligned posture. If you start bending over, hunching, or generally just feel awkward, then stop, rest briefly, and start again.

  BOX JUMPS. Another CrossFit exercise, this one is easy to describe. Start by standing in front of a stable box or other platform that is 18 to 30 inches (45 to 75 cm) off the ground. Jump onto the box. Land softly. Immediately jump back off the box and repeat as quickly as possible. You can do these for time (approximately 20 to 30 seconds) or numbers of repetitions. Be careful with these. When form breaks down, you could find yourself losing a layer of skin (or worse) on the box edge.

  Good plyo exercises will have you master hopping obstacles like this one.

  JUMPING LUNGES. Put yourself in a slight lunge stance. Jump up and switch your legs so they land with the opposite leg in a lunge. Immediately repeat this. Ten of these will have you breathing heavily. Make sure you maintain good form.

  Jeff Cain, EdD, is an obstacle racer and associate professor at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. Follow his blog at www.onmywaytosparta.com.

  DOWN AND DIRTY TAKEAWAYS

  • Exercise caution. Always stretch first. Also, never perform plyo workouts on concrete.

  • Go minimal. Minimal footwear or barefoot breeds the best results in plyometrics training. Avoid shoes with lots of cushion.

  • Don’t overdo it. Don’t use plyo when you’re tired.

  12 INCREASING YOUR GRIP STRENGTH

  You will need a strong grip for almost everything you encounter on the obstacle course.

 
Featuring obstacle builder Rob Butler

  Rob Butler built the most difficult obstacles that I have ever come across at Shale Hill in Vermont. After I was tortured on his course, we had a conversation that led to this chapter. Grip strength is a much-needed, but often overlooked, part of functional fitness that can greatly improve your overall OCR performance.

  People often ask what makes someone a strong obstacle racer. Some people think it takes a strong runner, and others think you need strong arms and a strong core. These are all true, but if you can’t hold yourself up with your hands, you can’t finish an obstacle course race properly.

  I believe that most people can get through the running end of an obstacle course race without too much trouble. Where most people fail is on obstacles that require a lot of grip strength.

  I’ve had some success in generating a grip that works well for obstacle domination. Here are my quick tips for developing a gorilla-like grip—without really changing your workout schedule too much.

  TRAIN YOUR HANDS FIRST. Many people think that by lifting more weights in the gym, their arms will be stronger, and therefore their hands will be stronger. This is not necessarily the case. A giant arm does you no good if you can’t hold onto whatever you’re grabbing. If you train the hand, the arm will follow.

  When you’re using machines in the gym, try to replace any metal handles with ropes. Doing lat pull-downs, use ropes. Use cable machines for curls and use a rope. Do not allow your hands to touch the knots or rubber balls on the end of the ropes. Instead, use your grip.

  When you’re doing pull-ups, hang a rope or a rolled-up towel over a bar or beam and force yourself to use your grip in a vertical fashion. When you hold a pull-up bar with a hook grip, you’re not really working the necessary muscles for rope climbing and general “hanging on” stuff.

  Consider using a push-up pipe (PUP). I designed a product for Sinergy that was specifically made for the development of hand and wrist strength for obstacle course racing. It forces you to work all the tiny little muscles in your hands and wrists. These are the little muscles that will save you when you need to hold on to something for more than a couple of minutes, such as a Tarzan swing, rope climb, or traverse wall.

  BUILD LONG, LEAN MUSCLES. In the gym, I never lift a lot of weight. Instead, I start with a small amount of weight and do hundreds of reps. This builds long, lean muscles, not large bulky ones. Here’s why: The more nonfunctional muscle you build, the more weight you have to carry around the course with you. Often in an obstacle course race, you’ll find really large dudes on the sidelines, dead tired from lugging around all of their weight.

  TOUGHEN UP YOUR HANDS. One commonly overlooked aspect of grip strength is hand toughness. I have yet to find a pair of gloves that will protect your hands and work in all of the situations that obstacle course racing throws at you. I do everything bare handed: in the gym, on the training course, and in the races. One way to toughen your hands up is to simply climb ropes. Another technique I have used to build toughness as well as grip strength is to find a couple of small logs about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter and 16 to 24 inches (40 to 61 cm) long with some rough bark on them. Carry these on your long runs, one in each hand. This will slowly toughen the skin on your hands as well as get your body used to using your grip for a long period of time.

  “I do everything bare handed: in the gym, on the training course, and in the races.”

  Lean muscle and great grip strength make a huge difference for this obstacle course racer.

  With a strong, durable set of hands, obstacle training and racing will be much more enjoyable and rewarding.

  PRACTICE GOOD GRIP TECHNIQUE. Another commonly overlooked aspect of grip strength is grip technique. When most people grab a rope, they simply put their hand around it and squeeze. To properly grip a rope or any other object in this sport, you must first wrap your fingers tightly around it and roll it tightly into the palm of your hand. This can be easily understood by simply opening your right hand, palm up, and taking your left index finger and placing it across all four fingers at the first joint down from your right-hand middle finger. Now simply close your fingers around the left hand pointer finger, locking into the palm of your hand right where your fingers are connected. Now pull all of your fingers into the palm of your hand and wrap your right thumb over your right index and middle finger. As you can see, you have generated two gripping mechanisms working together to supply a vice-like grip. The concept is the same with larger rope and trees and such.

  DOWN AND DIRTY TAKEAWAYS

  • Remember that it’s about the grip. It doesn’t matter how big your arms are. If you can’t grip an obstacle, you are going to fall off.

  • Build long muscles, not big ones. Do hundreds of reps with small weights. Long and lean muscles win the day in OCR.

  • Toughen up your hands. Find ways to toughen up those hands. Carry sticks around on long runs.

  • Master your grip. Create a vice. Don’t just hold on.

  With a strong, durable set of hands, obstacle training and racing will be much more enjoyable and rewarding!

  Rob Butler has been constructing obstacles for the past three years. You can purchase OCR training equipment that Rob designs at www.sinergyobstacle.com (site no longer available). When in New England, please visit his one-of-a-kind training course and facility. Learn more about it at www.shalehilladventure.com.

  PART III

  ADDITIONAL TOOLS FOR MIND AND BODY

  13 FINDING MOTIVATION

  Motivation comes in many forms.

  Featuring Doug Grady

  I met Doug Grady through another friend of mine, Dominic Carubba. Dominic is the once out-of-shape friend I referred to in chapter 7. (Dominic was going to sign up for a Tough Mudder, and my thought was, “If he can do it, I can do it.” Doug was Dominic’s roommate, and it was Doug’s inspiration that got Dominic excited to sign up in the first place.)

  Many months later, I began a friendship with Doug. I credit Doug with indirectly starting me on my new life and career in obstacle course racing. Prior to doing his first Tough Mudder, Doug was already a successful salesman, speaker, and motivator. He took those lifelong skills, along with the recent events in his life, to create something called “Muddervation.”

  “When life gets muddy, get tough, my friend.”

  —“The (unofficial) Tough Mudder Song”

  I find obstacle course racing a magnificent, muddy metaphor for life. On the path to your personal potential, there will be walls, roadblocks, and barriers of many kinds. Your relationship to these obstacles is a major factor in achieving at a high level.

  “If you’re going to achieve, there will be roadblocks. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

  —Michael Jordan

  A few short years ago, I was stuck in the mud. I was out of shape, mentally dull, heavily in debt, emotionally unstable, and engaged in destructive tendencies. Just as success has a cycle, failure does as well. I was living it.

  My turnaround began with a commitment to exercising a minimum of 30 minutes per day. Somewhere along the way, I registered for my first obstacle course race.

  Registering had an immediate impact on my workouts. They became more interesting, purposeful, intense, and fun. Completing my OCR, which was much more challenging than I anticipated, opened up breakthroughs in every area of my life.

  Many days, I just didn’t feel like training. But I did it anyway. Feelings can be misleading. Do you know the hardest part about exercise for most people? It’s not the physical act of working out. It’s getting off your butt and getting to the gym, the trail, or even your floor. The pre-workout feelings often instill a sense that the task will be far more unpleasant, difficult, or tedious than it actually is.

  I don’t always feel like exercising, but I tend to feel good after a workout. You may not always feel like sticking with
your commitments. You may not always feel like you’re making progress. You may not always feel like doing the things you know you need to do. You may have to take your feelings out of it.

  You may at times feel irritable, frustrated, agitated, overwhelmed, exasperated, confused, and befuddled. Do it anyway! Honoring your word feels good, and knowing you’re making progress despite your “feelings” feels good. Hitting one of your major goals feels fantastic!

  “Completing my OCR, which was much more challenging than I anticipated, opened up breakthroughs in every area of my life.”

  Success takes disciplined, consistent action over long periods of time.

  Commitment has very little to do with feeling. Commitment means you do it anyway—whether you feel like it or not, whether it’s easy or not, whether it’s pleasant or not, whether you’re too busy or not, whether you’re tired or not, and whether it’s convenient or not. When you consistently do what you say you are going to do, you develop confidence, inner strength, momentum, and, ultimately, character.

  For me, it wasn’t the training or even the completion of the challenge that made the biggest difference. It was paying attention to what showed up in my life as a result.

  Each day, I forced myself to pay attention to the “ripples”—the progress, no matter how big or seemingly small, that emerged because of the shift in my lifestyle. I would notice and focus on my slightly better attitude, an increase in energy, or an unexpected, powerful conversation. I met extraordinary people along the way. I made other positive choices, which impacted my health, my business, and my relationships. I got stronger in my faith.