Those Burpees Suck

Reactions to Primal Hardship

Disclaimer / Disclosure

Reflecting

If you have not yet read it, please check out my recent conversation with Sam Alaimo. It got some great reactions including this question and my effort to answer. I enjoyed it and learned from it including the power of visualization and importance of recovery.

Training

I recently mentioned my goal of hitting 1k lbs. across my bench/squat/deadlift. Progress report: dl still comfortably and consistently 405. No change. Bench still 275 for reps. No change. Squat PR of 315 up from 305 felt good. So that brings today’s total to 995. Eager to find 5 more pounds so I can shift gears. Next plans are more bodyweight stuff on the rings/pull up bar. I want to get the iron cross, bar skin the cat, and human flag. Advice from gymnasts or others who know how to do such things welcome.

Fueling

If you snack, try slightly inconvenient foods to slow it down. If you get nuts, get them in their shells so you have to crack them by hand. Nuts are great but calorie dense so if you get them shelled it is easy to massively overeat. Another I love that’s slightly inconvenient: pomegranates.

Supplementing

I’m on day two of microdosing Tirzepatide GLP-1 (branded as Mounjaro and Zepbound). If you have serious weight to lose, a standard dose is a great idea. It makes you feel fuller faster and longer. But if you want to just take the edge off of extra snacking or make it easier to stay disciplined, a tiny amount goes a long way without discernible side effects. 5 mgs / week will help you lose a lot of weight. The 1 mg / week I’m on will help you hold the line. I think that this would help almost everyone. You can get it here.

Initial subjective impression: I love it. Life’s pleasures are unaffected. Favorite foods still taste good. But impulses are just gone. For me, I’m in it to eliminate snacking. But it would probably feel the same for drinking or any other bad habits (friends report that they’ve stopped gambling and even excessive online shopping). Decisions feel less animalistic and more intentional. My guess is that I transition from this microdose to maybe 5 mgs to hit my precise weight preference, then back to 1 mg forever.

Measuring

This week my Basal metabolic rate came in at 8,933 kJ / ~2,135 kcal/day. I love this metric and want to jack it up as high as possible. Muscles burn calories and the more they burn the easier it is to stay in equilibrium.

Recovering

I am working out each day so need to keep moving when I’m done in order to be at my best the next day. Two tweaks to my routine. I got a rice bucket for hand recovery. You just plunge a hand deep in the rice and manipulate the hand muscles in each direction. It is great after pull-ups/Olympic barbell, etc.

I also added a treadmill to my office. I have mixed feelings about treadmills as they’re less good than running in nature but better than sitting at a desk. I use it for walking when I have a presentation or call to listen to. In the past I’ve had to Jerry rig non-OSHA compliant contraptions to get enough incline but the NordicTrack X24 has a 40% incline.

Closing

For me, a highlight of writing Vale Tudo was publishing my conversation with a childhood hero of mine, legendary climber Mark Twight. He weighed in on Sam’s view that,

… the burpee is a joyless and wretched movement that should not exist.

There is much brilliance in this, and most of the insight is more important than this quote, but it’s the one that grabbed me because … there once was a workout named, “Those Burpees Suck”.

- Mark Twight

There once was? Beware the passive voice. He doesn’t identify the perpetrator, but probably knows the responsible party for this workout:

Those Burpees Suck

For time:

• 10x pull ups

• 20x kettlebell swings (53 lbs)

• 30x box jumps (24”)

• 40x push-ups

• 50x sit ups

• 60x burpees

• 10x pull ups

FKT 7:11(!)