Over the last few weeks I’ve been putting more focus on much more endurance training for my legs and lungs mixed in with more bodyweight training. One exercise I have really been focusing on a lot more is full bodyweight squats while either stepping or jumping or lunging up stairs. This is really a killer exercise that I had honestly never really done much of…many years ago I was doing a ton of stair running for a few months and did mix it up with jumps up the stairs: both feet to the top of 6 flights with 1 step jumps x 1 trip, then every other step x 1 trip, then 1 leg each step x 1 trip, then both feet every 3rd step x 1 trip. Did that whole circuit for 3 times through and crushed myself:) But recently while reading the book "American Shaolin" he talked about the monks doing full squats to stair jumps and I though yeah, I’m gonna make that part of my "Snowman" training. It is an amazingly hard exercise. Doing a full ass to grass squat and then jumping up to the next step…repeat for oh, 30-40 steps or until cooked completely:) It’s wicked man!

So here are some of my workouts over the last week or two and my thoughts on each in my prep for my trek;

This workout was just awesome, I wasn’t feeling it before the workout, but thought heck I’ll just start and see how i feel and it energized me big time and after just 3-4 minutes I was charged and attacking each set. Each exercise fed off the one before it and it gave me an amazing full body strength / endurance workout which is exactly what I wanted. I would do a set of 25 - 35 of one and then move to the next exercise until I had gotten 100 of each. Try it you’ll like it:)

100 of each in 4 sets or less each!

1) Hindu push ups (strict) 4 sets (100) - man doing these strict for sets of 25 really got hard, I usually fly through hindus and divebombers but wanted to slow it down and do really crisp hindus and man it kicked ass!!

2) Rope climbs 4 sets (102y) - this was no joke either! Climbing a rope is hard enough so sets of 25-30 yards each time was wicked!

3) Full squat stair jumps 3 sets (102) - the Shaolin monk’s exercise…talk about heating your thighs up. Holy S%$t !!!!haha, this burned like someone had set a blow touch to my thighs:) GREAT!!

4) JG curls 3 sets (102) - seems like the easy one of the bunch but your hammies will get lit up like crazy….but what I love most about Jungle gym curls is that it makes any tightness in my thighs or hips evaporate….this is a great exercise!

Great workout, did not even feel like working out and loved this one!!
3.5 stars

This workout was extremely taxing as the goal was to finish as fast as possible. Everything I am doing recently has this focus of challenging my overall conditioning and this workout was no exception! Even though 24k’s snatches are not that hard the high reps for time was especially tough mixed with kips. The two exercises are perfect in alternating fashion too. Felt really good getting both done in 14:30, did not rest much at all between sets and mostly did sets of 15 of each. Another excellent workout for power/endurance, just what I wanted, felt great. After the snatches and kips I took 3 minutes to recover…a bit:) and then jumped into the 24k’s push press/jerks:), I was doing my best but at this point my I was starting to hit the wall. This took all I had to hit 75 as fast as possible, but I kept a good pace of 15 a minute and kept my mind strong, too, to finish the last set fast. Great workout!!

75 afap

1) 24k’s double snatch
2) kips (total time: 14:30)
3) 24k’s double push press  (total time: 4:20)
great workout! 3.75 stars

This was pure Trek Training on my old stomping grounds of the University of Wisconsin’s Bascom Hill, got my boots on, my weight vest, a steep hill and I was off! Felt really good, was breathing through my nose only to make it harder and give that high altitude feeling and it works. It also helped having my vest on super tight to make it harder to breath and to lunge up the last 30 yards of the hill every time i did it which was 10 times. Then went to the back of Bascom hill where the steps are and did that, too, for 10 total times. To make it harder I mixed in "Monk Squat Step Jumps" and those kick ass!! Man those are amazingly hard and great for working full range of motion, balance, stability, strength, endurance- everything I need for my hike.

Snowman hike training:
1.5 hours of hiking up and down ‘Bascom hill’ x 10 (5x + 53lb vest)  and doing lunges to the top for last 30 yards each time to top.
Then did 10 x stairs on back of Bascom hill + 53lb vest (5 x w/vest)  other 5 x’s did full squat jumps up all the steps…this was hard!
Like Shaolin monks do!!
3 star workout, hard, breathing thru nose made harder for sure.

Wanted to do a simple and hard conditioning workout and this did the trick for sure. The first two exercises of swings and plyo jumps are sick!! The following exercises let your HR come down a bit but if you don’t rest you really never fully recover.  I was sweating like crazy after the second time through! Without question this is a great conditioning workout and super strong alignment / core training workout too. Crazy sweat, crazy conditioning!!

4 x Through AFAP
20 x 48k swings
20 x 24" box plyo jumps
5 x slow hanging leg raises (feet touch hands)
5 x slow power wheel full rollouts
5 x headstand leg lifts (from ground to straight overhead)
5 x 15 second back dome hold
16 minutes! kicked ass!
Then trained some BJJ, felt great!

Only 3 days before I leave on probably the biggest adventure of my life. Very exciting!!

I am going to write out a journal while traveling, hiking and will tell you all about it with pictures when I return.
Stay strong my friends:)

Sincerely,

Jon Hinds