Lumberjack Strength-Training Workout

Sadly, I am not the creator of this brutal workout.

My friend Jake posted this gem on Facebook last week:

So naturally, I was all like, “challenge accepted, my friend.”

Raise your hand if you want DOMS for the next week! No? Okay. I guess last Friday I was in the mood for some hurt.

I dubbed this workout “The Lumberjack” because my friend calls himself a lumberjack from time to time.

In fact, I just created a logo for his photography studio, which is called Lumberjack Studios.

Here is the workout as I did it last Friday.

I’m planning to do this once a week, but reduce the reps and work back up to 100 or more of everything. I also ran a mile afterwards. Then I found $20. Kidding about that last bit.

[ original image source ]

This looks really daunting, but it really isn’t.

It’s as simple as doing each exercise as many times as you can — with perfect form — and taking a break (no more than a minute) until you reach your desired reps. I broke most of these moves into sets of 25 with a 30 second break between. I modified some of the moves because I’m really out of shape, and because I’ve got all sorts of fun injury stuff going on right now. I snaked my pushups (which is actually more beneficial than doing on-your-knees pushups), and I only went part way down on my squats and lunges because the crux of all my injuries is my weak butt, thighs, low back, and core. I focused on perfect form, and this workout hit all my problem areas really hard. I definitely felt stronger by midweek when the soreness went away. I definitely don’t recommend doing this full workout unless you know you can complete this many reps without an issue. This can be a beginner workout, and it’s a great one since I mentioned that it strengthens everything and doesn’t require any equipment, but be prepared to start off with maybe 10 or so of each move, and modify to make it work for you.

Here’s what I did the rest of this week in case you’re interested:

Sunday:

Corrugation workout from GPP (this one was another tough one, and is going to stay in my rotation) and ran 2 miles (total — to and from the gym)

Monday: 

REST — I was super duper sick. I lost my voice. 🙁

Tuesday:

1 hour of biking + some leg moves

Wednesday:

REST

Thursday:

15 mins stair stepping (hard, but slow), 15 mins elliptical backwards (fast with less resistance), 500 m row, and lifting

Saturday:

likely yoga or else repeating corrugation

So that’s that.

But it would be a crime if I were to blog about lumberjacks and not post this classic Monty Python sketch. Enjoy. Have a great weekend!

What is the toughest workout you’ve ever pushed yourself to do?

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