2007.12.19

Mini-Mattis is a WARRIOR

To be a warrior - no, not the Ultimate Warrior. My gym has become known as the Omega Training Compound. The workouts sometimes border on crazy. Huh, maybe we are closer to being like the Ultimate Warrior than I realized.

Here is a quick breakdown of the workout we did this morning. Today was chest day. We start at 5:10 AM. It takes a special amount of mental toughness to roll out of bed and be at the gym at 5:00 AM.

This morning, we started with 100 standing squats. We get nice and deep. We reach a 90-degree bend in our knees at the bottom. We fully extend, contract our quads, and pull our hips through at the top. It takes roughly 2 or 3 minutes to get through the squats. The purpose of the exercise is to elevate our heart rate and prepare for the task that is ahead.

Next, we did three sets of ten on what amounts to modified (football) up-downs. It is a controlled movement, hands to the ground, top of a pushup position, down, chest touches the ground, back up, top of the pushup position, pop to your feet. This is one repetition.

Between each set of up-downs, we did a set of ten standing lunges. Well, each leg steps forward ten times. Pledge considers this to actually be twenty standing lunges. Anyway, step forward with your left foot, right knee gently touches the ground, your left knee is at a 90 degree angle, the left knee is directly over top the left ankle, then with an explosion from the ball of your left foot, explode back to a fully upright position, feet together, step forward with your right foot, left knee gently touches the ground, your right knee is at a 90 degree angle, the right knee is directly over top the right ankle, then with an explosion from the ball of your right foot, explode back to a fully upright position, feet together, this is one rep. It is also important that we keep our chest up, shoulders over hips, hips over our knee that is gently making contact with the ground. Everything should be in complete alignment.

By now, our heart rate is elevated significantly. The pace is... rapid. There is no down time. By this time, we are about 10-minutes into our workout. Our body is now properly prepared.

At this point, we moved to the flat bench. On flat bench, we did three sets of twenty repetitions at 135 pounds. The weight is light, so we do a greater amount of reps. Even with light weight, it starts to get heavy around 14 or 15 reps. Between sets on flat bench, we grab a jump rope and complete 50 repetitions.

After jump rope, we perform ten dips. We lower until there is a 90-degree bend (notice a recurring theme?) at the elbow; push up until our arms are at full extension. The head remains up at all times throughout the exercise. Again, we focus keeping shoulders, hips, and knees in a straight line.

Finally, we grab a couple of dumbbells from the rack. We perform five pushups while supporting our hands on 40 lb dumbbells at the top of our 5th pushup, 5 left hand lat pulls with the dumbbell, staying tight through our core - knees off of the ground back/butt flat, 5 more (chest touches the ground) pushups - top of the 10th pushup, 5 right hand lat pulls with the dumbbell, staying tight through our core - knees off of the ground back/butt flat. We did three sets of these pushup/lat pulls. Between sets, we did three sets of five on standing (30, 40, 50) dumbbell lunges.

We finished up right around 5:50 AM. Our workout took just more than 40-minutes. It is fast-paced. It was intense. It completely fatigued each of us. We concluded the 10-minute cool down time that concludes with prayer.

To recap the workout:
100 standing squats
3x10 up-downs
3x10 standing lunges
3x20 flat bench 135 lbs.
3x50 jump rope
3x10 dips
3x10x10 pushup/dumbbell lat pull
3x5 standing (30, 40, 50) dumbbell lunges

We do not go through the motions. We closely watch one another and strict tight form on all repetitions on all exercises. We strive to be form perfect. We executed 475 repetitions in a 40-minute time span.

I posted a new video on YouTube. Mini-Mattis is demonstrating his work on the Hill. For any youth (under the age of 12) to perform twenty repetitions in twenty minutes maintaining a pace of roughly ten seconds per rep is an accomplishment.