Workout of the Week: Odd Object Carry
Challenging workout focused on rucking, specifically carrying weight, in order to train resilience.
After indulging on Thanksgiving with family, I wanted to plan a workout that would be a grind.
Thanks to influences like
and Cameron Hanes, I’ve become a big fan of rucking.
Most often, rucking involves wearing weight in a fitted bag or vest. Weight attached to the body allows for our strongest and most efficient muscles to contribute to managing the load over distance.
Carrying an object, on the other hand, is a way to make rucking extremely more difficult. Carrying, vice wearing, weight is inefficient. The hands and arms are nowhere near as capable or experienced at sustaining resistance as the legs and back.
My in-laws have a house at the bottom a steep 100-yard hill. This hill has provided me a surface for many grueling workouts over the years when traveling to see them.
Yesterday, it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside but felt like 28 because of the wind chill and mild hailstorm.
Perfect environment to test my spirit.
My father in-law has an old school gym set up in his basement with steel plates for his barbell. I decided to grab one of his 50lb plates and attempt to scale that hill ten times without stopping. Having rucked and done circuits on this hill before, I knew this would be a good test. Doing it barefoot and in shorts would significantly increase the challenge.
I stepped outside and felt the wind hit me in the face as the hail started bouncing off my toes.
Let’s go.
My main intention for the challenge was to not drop the weight.
Thanks to jiu-jitsu, my technique for carrying objects or people has improved over the years. Finding ways to keep the elbows close to the body and use grips that engage those larger and more efficient muscles make carrying easier.
Not easy, but easier.
Mental toughness will allow for perseverance but only up to a certain point. Poor technique and inefficiencies will significantly increase likelihood of failure.
I set a cross grip to hug the plate into my chest and completed my first hike up the hill without much issue. By the time I reached the bottom, however, my grips were already beginning to feel fatigued.
Halfway up the hill the second time, my stress response was beginning to build and my mental demons were starting to try to make me quit.
“What are you doing?”
“This is dangerous.”
“Just put down the weight for a minute so you don’t do too much.”
“Let’s do something different. You can still workout, but go inside.”
Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
I stopped, reconfigured my grips without putting down the plate, took a few deep breaths with long exhales, and then continued on.
Scaling the hill the third and fourth time was progressively more difficult. Pushing down excuses and convincing myself that dropping this weight wasn’t an option, I just focused on each step. This only caused the burning in my feet to amplify from the cold. The multiple forms of adversity were taking their toll. I at least had to get halfway before reassessing.
Rucking is like a dynamic plank. You’re not doing anything technically difficult but you’re testing your mind, body, and soul. The absence of stimulation, distraction, and even a clock will mess with you when responding to a constant stressor. The mental and spiritual challenge feels harder than the physical. The stress cooks you from the inside out.
Thanks to previous experience, especially with prolonged planks, I know stress is not linear.
Stress is Not Linear
I’ve historically viewed stress like an internal fuse. Once I started experiencing a stress response, the fuse was lit and hopefully it was long enough to withstand the severity or amount of time a given stressor may be present. A shorter fuse could occur due to previous stress in the day, being sick, tired, or hungry. Once my figurative fuse burnt out,…
When things feel overwhelming, dial in. Focus on what you can control which is often just your perspective and breathing.
Recognize that we all have an inner voice that tries using justifications to “help” us quit. Learn to hear but not listen to this entity. Even better, learn to laugh at its attempts at preventing you from reaching your potential.
As I finished the fifth lap, I was beginning to settle. My heart rate came back down as I had developed a rhythmic cadence to my breathing. My grips began feeling stronger as I developed a system of switching between a few different configurations each time I reached the hilltop and bottom. My feet were cold but rather than feeling numb, my toes were digging into the ground more and it almost felt like blood flow was increasing to this region making them warmer.
By the time I completed the seventh lap, I fully overcame my inner demon by telling myself I was now going to do eleven laps instead of ten.
Knowing I could do more than my original ambitious goal propelled me through the last four rounds.
I can honestly say the last time up the hill felt easier than the second.
When the mind, body, and soul are working together, adversity becomes just another stimulus.
Hardship loses its perceived significance.
Distress becomes eustress.
I finished in just under forty minutes.
The time, weight, object used, distance, and environment don’t matter overall.
Complete this challenge by considering your perceived capabilities and then plan a carrying workout that causes you to operate on the edge of that expectation.
Pick a perceptually difficult combination of stressors and get after it.
The outcome is far less important than the experience.
Pushing your respective envelope allows for self-learning. We are often far more capable than we initially believe. Regardless of success, testing yourself provides data to better understand yourself. Update your expectations to more effectively push the boundaries next time.
As you develop a realistic understanding of your capabilities, you can now use mental resilience strategies like reframing, repeating mantras, or conscious breathing to work through the inevitable waves of stress you’ll experience in a self-created challenge.
Develop your foundation and then build on it.
Accomplishing difficult workouts makes inevitable life stress more manageable.
Overcoming a deliberate task that pushes your mind, body, and soul to their perceived limits provides confidence and trains resilience.
Plasticity is possible for anything.
Lessons learned and skills developed from planned challenges can be applied to any life domain and the forms adversity they will bring.
Expand your capabilities, confidence, and resilience with intentional stress.
Improve your life by intermittently making it harder.
Disclaimer:
The content provided is intended for general knowledge and informational purposes only and is not a replacement for medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional prior to making any decisions or changes relating to your health. Kyle Shepard is not responsible for any adverse effects resulting from the use of information in this publication.
“My main intention for the challenge was to not drop the weight.” Hell yes! You were barefoot.
Love it, dude.
Always appreciate the jiujitsu shout-outs, too. I think I could lift a washing machine to my shoulder (can’t) with what I’ve learned on the mat.