Week 25: Going Bear Mode and Black Belt Test

Since June, I've been attempting to recover my former muscle on the same whole food plant based diet advocated by Drs. Joel Fuhrman, Michael Greger, Caldwell Esselstyn, and many  others.  I've begun incorporating steamed mushrooms and raw onions on a daily basis at the encouragement of Dr. Fuhrman through his YouTube channel, and I've been following Michael Greger's Daily Dozen Checklist to maintain a complete nutritional profile.  I've considered that my symptoms may be at least partially caused by an iron deficiency, and have begun drinking prune juice and eating prunes on a daily basis.  This has eased my symptoms of shortness of breath following exercise during rest, so I have been able to increase my exercise capacity per week.

As a result, I am gearing up my training in preparation for a 12 hour black belt test that culminates in full contact sparring after 11 hours of calisthenics and technique practice.  This hazing ritual is one of the most extreme in the world of martial arts.  Considering my age, this may also be my last opportunity to complete such a punishing rite of passage.  I have already reserved a week off from work to recover as well as a cup for groin protection and a mouthguard.

For exercise, I will complete Martial WOD #4 on Mondays, WOD #6 on Tuesdays, Eating the Army for Breakfast (100 squats, 50 pushups, 50 situps all in single sets) on Wednesday mornings, WOD #3 on Thursday morning followed by 5 all-out hill sprints and WOD #5 Thursday evening, followed by a 3 day rest.  I only have 2 more weeks to maintain this routine and then I will take an entire week of rest with walking, studying a list of martial techniques, and reading The Art of War.  I know that this routine will be sufficient for the task at hand and I am ready to assume all consequences of my participation in this hazardous test.

Martial WOD #6

For this workout perform:

120 one handed kettlebell swings (60 per hand with 32 kg.) for time
then, without resting,
Bear crawl 30 steps forward, then 30 steps backward
then, after a rest,
run 5 hill sprints of 10-15 seconds at 95% intensity up a VERY steep hill
finish with a 2 mile recovery walk carrying at least 30 pounds of gear (I do this as my walk to work and back)

Martial WOD #5

For today's WOD, you'll be using a pullup bar and your bodyweight.  This is meant to be a fast workout performed as quickly as possible.

30 pullups
30 airborne lunges per leg
Bear crawl 30 steps forward, then 30 steps backward

That's all.  If you think this is easy, just make your sets longer, with one qualification: you need to match your sets, meaning if your maximum pullups are 10, you can perform only 10 airborne squats per leg for that set.  Ideally, this means you transition from pullups to airborne squats then back to pullups with minimal rest.  For the strong, enduring, or abnormally lightweight, this should be doable in around 30 minutes.  I personally subdivide this into 2 sets of 5 pullups/lunges followed by 4 sets of 4 pullups/lunges.  I find this workout functions particularly well as an end of the week muscle builder, especially when followed by a 2 day weekend of nutritarian, whole food, plant based eating and rest.