According to Mr. Campbell, a "fit" man can:
1. Bench press 1.5 times his own body weight - for me currently that would be about 330 pounds, or 6 plates plus two fives and two 2.5's. The most I think I've ever done EVER was 225 (4 plates) and that I barely got up once. I just don't do well in combine drills, and I definitely have never even wanted to do this sort of lifting so I'll pass. Hulk, it's all yours. To be fair, they do give a sliding scale on each of these bullet points, but I'm just going by the ultimate measure. Here on the sliding scale I'd be "weak".
2. Run 1.5 miles in 10 minutes - ok this one I thought I might actually be able to do...on the treadmill at least....so I warmed up, stretched, set the thing on 9 mph and let it rip to see if I could last 10 minutes...and it worked - right...RIGHT???? Well, too bad this isn't horseshoes cause I got close. I hit 7 minutes and basically went delirious...I mean, I look over at the TV going "wow who is she?" then realize I'm watching Serie A football...oy...so needless to say to preserve my peace of mind I had to back down to 8 mph for 2 minutes, but then I started to feel ok, so I was like - hey if I just jam it the last minute maybe I can still make it...so I went to 9 mph again for 45 seconds, and then 10 mph for 35 seconds....and completed my 1.5 miles in 10:20. So ok, almost. Still, rather than give up there to go sulk I did a rest rate pace for 4:40, then did 15 more minutes of interval training. Then I went to sulk in my frozen yogurt. We'll get there. Right now I'm just barely on the line between "ordinary" and "endurance excellence".
3. Touch the basketball rim - yea-right. Being born caucasian, I am naturally vertically-challenged. I can touch the net on a good day and ordinarily I'm pretty sure I can clear a couple phone books. My status : "grounded". Next!!
4. Leg press 2 1/4 his own body weight - seems like an awfully weird number to pick, Mr. C....but that would be about 495 pounds for me. My leg strength is a definite strong point, so I think I could actually do that on the leg press machine once.....once.... But since I don't have access to a leg press machine - "shaky foundation" it is. mmmmmmmmmNEXT.
5. Swim 700 yards in 12 minutes - okay break that down. 700 yds = about 640 m. An Olympic-sized pool is 50 m across, so that's rougly 13 times across the pool in under 12 minutes, roughly 55 seconds each time across at a steady pace. I dunno about that one, I'm a strong swimmer but not a fast one (I was a lifeguard once....ONCE...). The problem is, the only accessible pool of any size for me is the local public pool, and good luck keeping 50 yards of that clear for longer than 5 seconds. Would love to try, but no real measurable way to test this one, sorry. Maybe if I go to a lake with a really long tape measure...otherwise I'm considered "sunk".
6. Do 40 pushups - pfft. He didn't even give a time limit on this one. I've done 50 in a row, did it a couple months ago. Of course I strained a shoulder doing it so I'm not game to try again, but I did it so nyah. One point for "strong and tough".
7. Measure up - no not that. Get your mind out of the gutter. Say hi to mine first though. This is waist circumference divided by hip circumference. Despite wearing much narrower pants I barely scored in the "ordinary" range here (36 / 40 = 0.90)
8. Run 300 yards in less than a minute - well when I was 19 I could, but I'll have to test that one later, too exhausted from that crazy running I just finished. I'll test this later, maybe I'll go run with the skunks over the weekend. Long story.
9. Touch his toes - they give this really great description of what to do and how to measure it, but then no scale as to how well you did. I can touch my toes that way, no problem at all, so I'm giving myself a point for this one.
10. Throw a basketball 75 yards from his knees - how...frickin...random...is that...? Dude, I don't think I can throw a damn baseball that far standing up, I have a terrible arm, forget it. Plus my neighbors already think I'm a dip, don't need any more fuel to the fire by sitting in the local soccer or football field throwing a basketball while kneeling. I'll pass on that pass.
So all in all I got...2 out of 10, with a slight possibility on 3 more.
Final verdict : Adam, you gotta be f-in kidding me. Maybe you could title it "10 standards to assess the fitness of an Elite NFL or NBA athlete" instead. I mean, seriously, these are some pretty tough marks in anyone's book - I've been working out like mad for 6 months straight and I'm barely 20-50% fit? Bull pucky. I think it's all relative - if you feel good, you're maintaining a good weight and overall health, that's what really matters. Not getting a six pack or ripping up biceps or crossing some arbitrary line in the sand like this article sets. Will I keep trying this stuff? You bet your ass, I love a challenge. But it's not what you got, it's how you use it. Ok I'm stopping there before I say something really stupid...
Diet for Thurs 9/24/09:
Breakfast
- Cheerios w/fat-free milk
- 4 oz orange juice w/vitamins
- Big cup of coffee
- 2 pieces wheat toast w/yogurt spread
Lunch
- Turkey sandwich on wheat w/fat-free cheese
Dinner
- 4 oz London Broil, grilled
- 1 serving mashed potatoes
- 1 serving lima beans
- one glass red wine
Post-Workout Dessert of Shame
- 2 servings fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt w/Hershey's lite chocolate syrup
Exercise for Thurs 9/24/09:
- 5 min warmup @ 3.5 mph on treadmill
- 10 min stretching
- An attempt to break 1.5 miles in 10 minutes on the treadmill that failed and became a 30-minute interval workout instead:
- 7 min @ 9 mph
- 2 min @ 8 mph
- 45 sec @ 9 mph
- 35 sec @ 10 mph
- 4 min, 40 sec @ 4 mph
- 5 min @ 7 mph
- 3 min @ 4 mph
- 3 min @ 6 mph
- 3 min @ 5 mph
- 1 min @ 8 mph
- Cooldown : 1 min @ 4 mph, 2 min @ 3.5 mph, 2 min @ 3 mph
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