Tractor Tires, Cinder Blocks, & Sledge Hammers . . . Oh My!

Stop.  Remove the thought of Wizard of Oz reference from your head and re-read the title of this post with a George Takei "Oh My!" at the end.

. . . there you go.  Now you may proceed with the rest of the post.

Some of you may or may not have been aware of the plans that Ted and myself have had for some time now to do a strongman style workout once a week. 

If you are confused, replace "strongman" with "Crossfit" . . . and you'll be close.  If you are still confused, Google it . . . or just read the rest of the post. 

  If you have been following along to this point you know that Ted and myself have been working on getting back in shape and loosing weight.  If you know us personally, you probably know that we are a bit crazy.  Which would help to explain why we would even attempt something like this.  We both have changed the way we eat to be healthier and also began working out.  Recently I began biking to work and Ted also had his first bike to work just the other day.  The following is just one more thing that we wanted to do to help us along our way to being healthier people.


THE EQUIPMENT
The biggest challenge of getting this workout together was getting all of the equipment we would need for it.  We have one or two more items that we would like to get and add to the workout, but as we found out this past Tuesday, this was more than sufficient to start with.

1 Tractor Tire (5.5 feet in diameter by about 18 inches wide)
4 concrete blocks
1 Sledgehammer
1 75lbs Everlast punching bag.

They're not just for tractors anymore ( . . . or sandboxes . . . or planters . . )

THE WORKOUT
The workout has five sessions and each session is five minutes.  For Session 2 and Session 4, each exercise is done for 1 minute.  Each person does each exercise twice in the session with a 15 second switch delay between the 1 minute.

Session#1:

• 5 minute warmup.  Stretching and 10lb medicine ball toss.

Session#2: 

• Tractor Tire flip
• Farmer's Walk - Walk for 20 yds with a cinder block in each hand.  Stop, do 5 kettlebell swings with one of the cinder blocks (repeat)

Session#3:

• Cinder Block Stack & Pass (5 minutes) - I really don't know what else to call this.  I stood facing one direction and Ted stood facing the opposite direction next to me.  With the 4 cinder blocks stacked next to me I would pick them up and pass them one-by-one to Ted.  He would put them down on the other side of him.  Then he would pass them back to me.  Then we would switch directions we were facing and repeat.  This was inspired really by the "side lunge to shelf" (Ted calls it the "Fedex") from P90X.

Session#4:

• Sledge Hammer - Simple, hit the tractor tire with the sledge hammer repeatedly.
• Punching bag - This was improvised as we plan to have a sandbag eventually.  For this, basically we just did a fireman carry with the bag (lift onto the shoulder) and walked/jogged 20 yards.  Then going into a squat, dropped the bag and lifted onto the opposite shoulder, walked 20 yards, dropped the bag, did a rack & press and lowered the bag onto both shoulders and walked 20 yards - repeat.

Session#5:
5 Minute cool down.  Stretching & medicine ball toss.

THE RESULTS
Even after one go at it, this is one of my favorite workouts.  Ted and I plan on doing this exercise routine about once a week (or as our busy lives permit).  The past few days I could really tell that the workout worked my entire body.  Most noticeably were the core & leg muscles.  One exercise we have talked about adding would be a rope workout to add to the upper body portion of the workout.

The one thing I do plan on doing for next time is to make a sandbag to replace the punching bag.  While it did the job, it was still very awkward to try and lift & carry.  The original workout plan we had created called for a homemade sandbag.  The sequence would go as follows:

5 pushups on bag, 5 bent over rows, 5 squat & lift (to shoulder - alternating), 5 overhead presses - 20 yd run with bag.  Repeat.

Next week, we may even have someone to take pictures of this insanity to post & share. . . just a fair warning.