General Physical Preparedness

General Physical Preparedness or GPP is a somewhat random style of training with a goal of being physically prepared or just fit and healthy.

It is rather boot camp or military oriented in that it uses mainly bodyweight exercises, obstacles, and mobility drills and provides a degree of conditioning and endurance.

Today, my workout went like so:

Fast walk with a 25 pound weighted vest for 15 minutes. (With hills)

4 sets of 5 weighted pullups with the vest.

Fast walk with the vest for another 15 minutes and included a few short, light sprints throughout.

Dropped the vest and performed a series of sprints from 10-25 yards in distance with speeds anywhere from 60-90% of my max speed. I think I did 8 sprints total.

Finished with 4 sets of 5 bodyweight pullups.

Felt great doing it, felt great for the rest of the day.

Throw some stuff together and have at it. You can make a GPP day of bear crawls, sprints, and sled drags. Or hit the track and jog a mile and a half with a set of pushups and squats at the end of each lap. Or walk for 60 minutes and perform a few getups at 10 minute intervals. Build an obstacle course in the backyard…

Skies the limit.

With the warmer weather on the way I will be having more GPP days. Slinging iron is one thing and being able to sprint, walk or jog for distance, and mobilize your bodyweight is another.

-Larry

Water!

Drink it!

Drink until your urine is the same color as the water you should be drinking.  There’s no reason not to here in a modern nation.  Don’t take it for granted because billions go without a fresh source of tap water daily.

Drinking enough water prevents things like kidney stones, bladder infections, muscle cramps, and headaches.  When we sweat, we not only cool the body but also remove toxins.  Saunas?  Oh yes please.

Watch the video below as the super cool Hank explains why we need to drink it:

Cells full of water and minerals activate muscles.  How can you expect to train hard if those watery cells have less water than they optimally need?

Drink.

Don’t like water?  Try mineral water.  Green Tea varieties or herbals.  Add some lemon or lime.  Avoid sugary stuff especially that corn syrup atrocity, it makes you fat, spikes your insulin, and can lead to insulin resistance, aka diabetes.

Gatorade?  Only if you are training very hard for extended periods or athletic events like a 5k obstacle course or a 90 minute face crushing boxing explosion.  On the other hand, there are even better options such as purpose built peri-workout supplement that sources it carbs from maltodextrin and contains protein.  For the budget conscious or occasional potent event, a Gatorade will suffice.

Drink more water because the Terminator said so.  Do you really want a Terminator after you?

-Larry

Get up.

The Turkish Getup, or simply the Getup is one powerful tool because of its simplicity, its loadability, and its impact on overall health and mobility.

As we age we lose the ability to move, especially if we neglect it. Moving down to the floor and getting back up may sound simple but for many people it is either difficult or downright impossible.

At some point in my training, I strive to have all of my clients capable of getting up from lying on the floor on their back.

Other than being able to save yourself if you fall, it has a lot of potential as a workout itself; spend 5 minutes of nothing but getting up and down. Add a weight vest. Do full turkish getups with a kettlebell or dumbbell. Add sprints, or push ups, or box jumps, or pullups in between rounds of getups. It is a total body experience especially if done with added resistance; the core activation, the shoulder stabilization, the unilateral leg work.

Now that I write this, I don’t do enough of them myself.

Let’s say your life is hectic, you can’t make it to the gym. You get home, walk up and down the stairs for 5 minutes. Then perform 5 minutes of getups. You’re done in 10 minutes and you’ll probably feel better.

Here’s a YouTube search: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=getups&sm=3

You don’t necessarily need any added resistance. Just get down and get back up.

Lie on your back with one knee up.

Roll up on to the opposite elbow.

Press up onto the hand.

Thrust up the hips and bring the lying leg back underneath you into a kneeling position, hand still on the ground.

Lean up.

Stand up.

Reverse it.

-Larry