deck of card today.

2/6/13

 My training today:

Warm-up; Stretch bands, Indian Clubs, and joint mobility 

“Deck of cards” Kettlebell style. “

Cards	Kettlebells
hearts	push press-2-KB
clubs	kettlebell snatch
spades	long cycle press 2KB
diamonds	cleans-2 KB
aces	10-side swing-2KB
kings	10-wall balls 1 KB
queens	20-fig. 8 and catch 1 KB
jacks	10-bottoms up press-2KB
aces	10-front squat -2KB (16-2KB
jokers	50-flags ab exercise  2 kbs
52 cards selected at random and executed  AFAP		takes around 40 to 60 mins depending on recovery.

            Oh no! Not that” Deck of Cards” today! Yes you weakling punk, wimping out with blitz style training, which you thought was in your best interest, but you knew intuitively that you were cheating yourself. You thought just because you were using big bad ass power exercises that you were training intensely. ( it must have been the music or swearing)  However, you did not really “embrace the suck”. That is what The SEAL operators when training like Mark Devine and Rich Graham from Trident fitness, to use as a rally cry to training in very uncomfortable zones.

            I must digress for a time to show where I am really going with this on training effect, which is what we all seek. My very good friend, Udo, is a unique person who came to the US in the 50”s from war torn Germany. Unlike most of the immigrants of today he had “skills” and just wanted the freedom to pursue them. He entered the Army and become an instructor after completing basic, really!  But demonstrating those “skill sets”that he acquired by being in a real total war and surviving gave him a huge advantage. Beyond that, it was his experience In the French Foreign Legion that made him unique from the average “boot” in the US Army system.

            So once again where am I going with this and what does this have to do with training  for the average person on the street?  My Friend, who was a  French foreign Legionnaire, showed me how unique their training was as opposed to what he was given to recruit in the US.  He did not compare to make himself more important, he just noted in a practical sense what was needed to achieve a “positive outcome” .  It was not that complicated as complication leads to stagnation of action. Therefore, his training was very basic, performed in a real environments that one would have to operate instead of a constructed mazes that was truly uncomfortable, but not practical.

            The training in the Legion is very austere for pratical  reasons, as this is real life and not the creation of some person who never experienced the process of war. It is very unrelenting and crude by most military standards, but they in the legion are the final stand of what is required of their service.  The Legion is a instrument of  War and a total mental and physical integration process that has to have a random mental association to be successful in operation and training. So whatever card you are dealt in a card game, you have to reconcile.

            Let’s get back to my “Deck of Card”. I take 54 cards; assign exercises to each card based in suit, face card and even jokers. The selection is very random in terms of volume (reps) and suit (exercise assigned with difficulty) and ever weight.  Makes sense to me, as life is random selection or happen stance that Udo always taught me. Udo, would be proud of me to train in such a way that challenges my ability to adopt to the mental and physical challenges that make warriors of the Legion and or Special forces we have today.

            I have been educated in progressive exercise programming, but there is nothing like the random selection as the session unfolds, that the human factor is challenged to the max like one would experiences of total society upsets.

My friend Udo from the Legion,  as I use as a closing:

“The mission is sacred”