Outdoor Training

For the record, I love Fall. It's hands-down my favorite season. Crisp and refreshing weather (but not too cold), pumpkin spiced ales are a-brewing (or pumpkin spiced lattes, depending on who you are), Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and some may even argue that football season makes things more enjoyable.

Fall is also a perfect season to train outside. There's just something about breathing fresh air and having the sun shine on your body that makes training outdoors far more vivifying than remaining indoors.

This past weekend, a couple friends and I went to a local field to get in a training session, and it was awesome. We primarily used a 100lb sandbag and the prowler to get some work done, and just did whatever we felt like doing that morning. For those that have never trained with a (shifting) sandbag, it makes any movement you do ten times harder than using a fixed weight such as a dumbbell or barbell. Take a look at the video below:

Here's a quick recap of what we did:

Round 1: Repeat AMAP in ten minutes A1) Zercher Squat to Stepback Lunge (2 of each movement) A2) PUPP until it's your turn again

Round 2: Repeat the circuit three times B1) Suspended Row and Hold 4x :5 B2) SB Walkover w/two pushups each side (3 passes) B3) SL Slider Hamstring Eccentric 5x :6ecc/side

Round 3: Repeat until you're done (you'll know when you're done...) C1) Prowler Push to Reverse Drag C2) Sandbag Over-Shoulder Carry, 50yds/side C3) Sandbag Bear Hug Carry, 100yds **We then finished up with some alligator crawls just for kicks.

This workout hit the entire body and was challenging, yet didn't leave us exhausted at the end nor did it affect anything we wanted to do later that day (or negatively affect our training sessions once Monday came around). And, more importantly, it was FUN. After all, that's what training should be, right?

For those that have never trained outside, or, at the very least, completed hill sprints, I highly encourage it. You won't regret it.