This week’s Thursday Throwdown in short was an absolute killer!
20 Minutes of Hard Work. That’s it. Just 20 mins.
Here’s how it went down…
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So, E.M.O.T.M. (x 2 mins) x 10 total rounds of:
1A) Rope Climb x 15 ft x 1
1B) Push Ups x 10
1C) Toes To Bar x 10
1D) HEAVY Sled Drive x 100″
***Use the remaining amount of time left to REST.
***With 20 lbs Weighted Vest
***Repeat circuit x 10 total rounds OR if you FAIL to get in all of the work within the round, you are done.
This one on paper looked a lot easier then it was, but you know what, it usually works out to be that way most of the time anyways so I just expect it.
Before I go any further, I’ll quickly talk about some of the “swap outs” you can use for the different movements because I know not everyone out there has a rope to climb or a sled to push.
So, first off, if you don’t have a rope, either buy one and hang it from a tree or even a squat rack and go from there. If you can’t get access to a rope, simply sub in 5 chest to bar pull ups. As I mention in the video, try to get a .5-1 sec hold / squeeze in at the top.
If you do have a rope, but you can’t climb just yet, use these rope climbing progressions:
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Next, if you can’t hammer out solid reps of Toes To Bar quite yet, just use your progressions:
Dip Bar Knee Tucks ==> Dip Bar Leg Raises ==> Hanging Knee Tucks ==> Toes To Bar
Finally, if you don’t have a Prowler or even a tire sled (I would highly recommend at least having a tire to drag and pull around) you can sub in some sprints. Just sprint 20-30 yards and back.
Bottom Line – You can always make these Throwdowns work in some way or another by subbing in similar movements. It may not be the exact same, but it can be close. As long as you make the effort, that’s what truly counts 😉
So, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about this E.M.O.T.M. Set Up.
First off, instead of your normal E.M.O.T.M. interval, we’ll be going every TWO mins instead of the normal one minute.
This type of set up is a great way to work on a lot of different strength skills at once as well as get in some good ol’ fashioned hard nosed conditioning.
This type of set up also is a great way to help improve your lactic acid threshold.
To explain this in simple terms, basically as you get further into the later rounds, the movements become tougher and tougher to get in the work due to the lactic acid build up in your muscles. When ever you start to feel a “pump” in your muscles, that’s lactic acid build up.
So, instead of going straight through the circuit without rest for a certain amount of time or rounds, with the E.M.O.T.M. set up, you get a nice little rest in between rounds that gives your body a chance to buffer out the acid build up in your muscles.
As you train this more, your body will become better and better at buffering the acid in your muscles and you’ll not need as much time to rest.
But of course, when you first start training like this, it’s a bitch. If you’re body isn’t used to training this way, it get real tough real fast..
Either way, If you’re in shape or not, when it starts to get tough and your rest periods start to get smaller and smaller, that’s when you have to dig deep and just push yourself through the pain and fatigue.
I started to really feel it at the 5 round mark.
The fatigue really started to set in as the rope climbs were getting more challenging, the push ups weren’t as smooth, the toes to bar just plain sucked, and the sled started to feel a ton heavier!
To add to it, the 20 lbs weight vest wasn’t much help.
My round splits looked like this:
1:15, 1:25, 1:32, 1:30, 1:35, 1:42, 1:35, 1:45, 1:42, 1:40
I can remember after the 7th round how bad I wanted to take the 20 lbs weight vest off. It too a TON to keep that baby on and I’m happy I did.
The last 5 rounds is where the real work got put in. The real challenge always comes when you’re fatigued. That’s when the battle truly begins…
Just the other day, one of my athletes, Ronan Conlon, (who just about a month or so ago took on the infamous Spartan Death Race and finished!) shared an awesome quote with me that went like this:
When you think you’re done you’re only 40% into what your body is capable of doing and that’s just the limits that we put on ourselves. – David Goggins
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So if this is true (and I certainly BELIEVE it is) then that means when we get fatigued within a training session and start say to ourselves within our minds that we can’t go on any further, that we’re finished, we still actually have 60% capacity left!
That is INSANE! We are typically capable of giving 60% more effort if we so choose to go through the pain and push ourselves through.
This is hard, but I know it can be tapped into. You just have to want it bad enough and find a way to make it happen.
This is why I train.
Each and every session I want to tap into the extra 60% of my body’s capacity to do more work.
If I can tap into this just a little bit more every time I train, I’ll get that much better overtime.
Let me know YOUR thoughts! I’m looking forward to your questions and comments on this one! Drop them down below!
Keep Living and Training Aggressive!
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