Last night I had an awesome opportunity to be a guest on the Dad-Bod-Wod Podcast. Kevin Torres who runs the show and an instagram page that shares workouts you can do anywhere in 15-20 minutes is an awesome individual. Kevin was in high school in manhattan the day that the towers came down. He put his money where is mouth was and signed up for the army after that and did two combat tours with the 101st airborne division. Now he’s a Vice Principle of a middle school and he’s running a high energy podcast, and website where he provides 18 workouts and a free e-book to people who subscribe to his e-mail list.
Kevin will also be coming on my podcast in the next two weeks and because he is a fellow vet and he shared some awesome workouts with me that are his go to burners. He inspired me to provide my viewers and listeners with 10 Hero Workouts they can do from home this week and here are three reasons why.
Veterans and military personnel are very familiar at dealing with adversity. I think Andy Stumpf did a great job of explaining this concept on Joe Rogan’s podcast that you can listen to here. While we shouldn’t look to veterans for advice in a lot of areas, I think dealing with adversity is an area where we should embrace best practices developed in the military. I’ve been saying it for weeks now on the blog and the podcast. Let’s shrink our sight picture of the world around us and consider the small chunks of time we are forced to deal with during this pandemic.
Stumpf points that when he was a BUDS instructor he had the fortune of interviewing people who quit Navy Seal training during “hell week.” Many of these people left division one scholarships, dream jobs on wall street, etc, in order to pursue what they believed was their purpose in life. Then when things reached the precipice of difficulty they would quit. When he would ask them why they did that the majority of them would respond, “I lost sight of what is important.” Take this as a lesson. Find what is important for you to focus on right now and do it.
Fitness is my preferred method for grounding myself in the moment. It’s a great way to express emotion. It’s a great way to create a chemical change in your body that can increase your mood. There is something about pushing yourself to the brink of exhaustion that reminds you of your mortality and at the same time that you are not made of glass. We all need this reminder from time to time. Many of us get caught in thought loops that we cannot break out of. Fitness is an excellent way to introduce an interruption to said loop and readjust to our surroundings.
This is a mantra of mine when things get tough. It’s harder to say to people now more than ever. I am finally hearing of friends who are passing away from this pandemic. I sat in line for groceries the other day and spoke with a man who was laid off and wasn’t sure how he would pay for everything. I know for some of us we are left wondering how it could be worse. I promise, it can always be worse.
Perhaps doing these hero workouts, for individuals who lost their lives in service of our nation will remind you of the following; If you’re reading this you’re probably sleeping in a warm bed tonight. You are probably going to get to eat a warm meal. You have shelter to be thankful for that will keep you dry and warm. You will most likely see some if not all of your loved ones at the end of this pandemic. These hero’s had none of these comforts before passing on. It does help for us to think of others and pull ourselves out of our own pity at times. So hit one of these 10 workouts and ground yourself.
For Time
10 Burpees
10 Burpees
25 Push-Ups
10 Burpees
25 Push-Ups
50 Lunges
10 Burpees
25 Push-Ups
50 Lunges
100 Sit-Ups
10 Burpees
25 Push-Ups
50 Lunges
100 Sit-Ups
150 Air Squats
Run 5 Miles
Every 5 minutes on the minute complete 50 squats and 50 pushups before beginning the next interval.
For Time
50 Burpees
400 meter Run
100 Push-Ups
400 meter Run
150 Walking Lunges
400 meter Run
200 Air Squats
400 meter Run
150 Walking Lunges
400 meter Run
100 Push-Ups
400 meter Run
50 Burpees
21-15-9 Reps for time
Hand Stand Push-ups*
Ring Dips**
Push-UPs
*Sub pike pushups or dive bombers for HSPU
** If you don’t have rings put two chairs next to each other. No excuses.
For time
800 Meter Run
400 Meter Run (Backwards)
800 Meter Run
400 Meter Run (backwards)
Run 1.5 Miles
150 Burpees
Run 1.5 miles
1 Mile Run
100 Push-ups
100 meter Bear Crawl
1 Mile Run
100 Meter Bear Crawl
100 Push-ups
1 Mile Run
1 Mile weighted run
50 push-ups
50 sit-ups
1 mile weighted run
50 push-ups
50 sit-ups
1 mile weighted run
Wear a Weight Vest, Body armor, Loaded pack or what ever is needed to load yourself with 50 lbs for the runs.
For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run
6 Rounds For time
24 Squats
24 push-ups
24 walking lunge steps
Run 400m
I didn’t pick these in any order except number one is what was recommended to me by Kevin Torres over at Dad-bod-wod and I wanted that to be a top recommendation of mine.