Body Weight Fun!

I've stated this before, but I'm NOT a fan of Crossfit.  I am, however, interested in some of the things they do with bodyweight exercises.

In every way, I LOVE body weight exercise-squats, push ups, pull ups, sit ups, jumps, etc.  You can do anything you want, any way you want, and get a great workout without going to a gym, investing in equipment, or risking injury (more times than not).  In regard to Crossfit, while I'm strongly against many of the "weighted" workouts they do-forcing athletes to perform high volume workouts with exercises that were never meant to include more than 5 repetitions-I am, however, a big fan of what they do with bodyweight exercises.  Using your own body weight to do timed and/or high volume exercise is a great way to push yourself while avoiding serious injury.  Doing timed deadlifts makes you an idiot, but doing timed rounds of push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and the like, makes you tough, hard, and in many ways, a better athlete than the next.

So, in keeping with my beliefs, I did a workout today containing the following:

Warm up:
Playing around with a light kettlebell.  With this, I concentrated on warming up my shoulders, back, legs and chest.  Plenty of ballistic movements to get the blood flowing.
Main:
5 rounds for time of:
5 Pull ups (strict-full extension)
10 Push ups
15 box jumps (24 inch box)
20 sit ups
400 meter run

I've done this one once before.  It's my modification of a Crossfit workout.  I like it because it forces you to use every part of your body in explosive ways, while still challenging you aerobically.  Done correctly, it's not a sprint, but more of a paced session.  I get the same "feeling" from this workout that I'd get from running a hard 5k.  It's difficult if you push yourself, but not so hard that you'll be throwing up.

In the end it took me about 20 minutes to complete which was right about where I wanted to be.  Not too fast, not too slow.  Felt good and tired, but not so much so that I'd ruin the rest of my day being too exhausted to move.

Great workout, great day, and great life.