WOW – April 18th

Complete for time, Basic or Advanced (respectively): 10 or 30 Pushups 20 or 50 Meter Bunny hops 20 or 50 Meter Walking Lunges 15 or 40 Spiderman’s (Spidermen?) 10 or 25 Meter Sprint 10 or 25 Meter Grok Crawl 10 or 25 Meter Sprint 10 or 25 Meter Grok Crawl 10 or 30 Pushups 20 or 50 Squats 10 or 20 Overhead Presses 20 or 50 Meter Sprint How-to: Warmup: 30 second Grok Squat, lateral, forward, and backward leg swings (10 each leg). If you weren’t able to make it to this year’s PrimalCon, don’t worry: I’ve come up with a quick and dirty way for you to enjoy the experience remotely, without ever setting foot on a plane, train, or in a car. Okay, let me establish some caveats. It’s not exactly the same. You may not get expert, personal tutelage from some of the world’s foremost experts on posture, barefoot running, sprinting, kettlebelling, cooking, and movement, and you won’t actually bite into tender, medium-rare wagyu beef or perfectly-seasoned lamb, nor will any juices drip down your chin, but you can subject your body to the same physical stressors that your compatriots at PrimalCon 2011 endured. You can complete the PrimalCon PBF Challenge. And that’s the next best thing. The challenge is pretty self-explanatory. You know pushups, lunges, sprints, crawls, squats, and presses by now, right? I won’t go too deeply into those, but what about bunny hops and Spidermen? To bunny hop is to simply jump with two feet together (takeoff and landing). In a Spiderman, you assume the plank pushup position. Then, touch your right knee to your right elbow, bring it back to the starting position, and touch your left knee to your left elbow. That full right knee/elbow, left knee/elbow cycle is one Spiderman. Decide whether you’re in the Basic or Advanced stage and just get to it. Go hard. Go fast. Time yourself. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. Take as little rest in between exercises as possible. On Saturday, some of the best competitors were grazing the 3:00 minute mark, and that’s after a day and a half of sun, kettlebells, team challenges, and Ultimate Frisbee, so try to show them up! A few things to remember: Almost every presenter at PrimalCon kept coming back to the importance of maintaining a strong, stable core. It’s your base, your foundation, and if you try to do pushups, squats, presses, sprints, or heck, even just regular old housework with a flimsy, inactivated core, you’ll limit your potential and set yourself up for injury. Maintain that strong foundation! When bunny hopping, land on the balls of your feet. Those heels are no good as shock absorbers. Grok crawl sprints are most effective when you keep those hips low. Don’t form an upside down V with the ground and try to be conscious of using your arms (pulling yourself as well as pushing), along with your legs. Don’t make it all legs, which is often the instinct. Keep it balanced. Get those shoes off (or those Vibrams on!)! Variations: No variations this time, unless you count moving up to Advanced or down to Basic. Get out and do it as prescribed!