“Exercise dissipates tension, and tension is the enemy of serenity. I found that I worked better and thought more clearly when I was in good physical condition, and so training became one of the inflexible disciplines of my life.”
Smash sent me this article from the National Post about Nelson Mandela’s workout routine while he was in prison. Bear in mind that inmates were forced to do grueling daily physical labour. That didn’t stop Mandela from getting up and exercising 1 hour each morning in his tiny prison cell before work began. 45 minutes running in place, 100 fingertip push ups, 200 sit ups and knee bends. Mandela recognized the importance of having an outlet for his frustrations during his enforced confinement. Maybe you can relate. No Crossfitter can read this workout description without feeling inspired by Mandela’s commitment to fitness. It’s worthy of a Hero WOD and you can’t resist wanting to try it. Of course, in true CrossFit fashion we are going to gamify it and make sure the movements are functional:
Mandela
60 min AMRAP
In any order:
100 fingertip push ups
200 sit ups
300 squats
Every 5 minutes, run in place for 5 minutes
Score = total push up-sit up-squat reps completed (no credit for running in place) or, if you finish all 600 reps before time runs out, record 600 as your score and your tie break will be how many minutes of running you have remaining. For example, if I finish my 600 reps 34:36 into the workout, I have 25 minutes and 24 seconds of running remaining before the 60 minutes are finished (tie break 25:24). And you bet I’m going to complete them all because Mandela didn’t quit, so neither will I.
Warning! Do not underestimate the running in place, it is a lot of running don’t start out too fast and try to vary your steps. You can certainly move about the room a bit but imagine you’re confined to a prison cell, don’t go far. If running is too intense, please consider walking in place for part of this workout.
Modify the fingertip push ups as needed to ensure good quality.
Prep: Make sure you have a pen and paper to track your total reps. Keeping track of reps completed will be a big part of this and organizational skills along with a good strategy for breaking up movements will go a long way!
I realize some of you are in the habit of checking in to Zoom at the very last minuet before the hour but with a 60-minute workout, in order to get everyone finished in time, we will need to start the clock on the hour and the 8am will have to start at 7:55am in order to not overlap with the 9am Laughter dose. Please join us 10 minutes before the scheduled class start time for warm up and instruction. If you join us on or after the hour the workout will already be in session.
Warm Up with Yoga Flow
Cool Down
Calf Stretch
Tricep Stretch
Wrist Stretch
Quad Stretch
Cobra Pose
Pigeon Pose