Military Muscle: Don’t hate your workout, play ‘The Game’ - Military Health, military health and wellness, military physical fitness - Military Times

Military Muscle: Don’t hate your workout, play ‘The Game’

Trainers are big believers in making fitness fun. A colleague designed a total-body workout using the four-quarter structure of a sporting event. He calls it “The Game.”

Reorder these exercises as you like, but make sure you tally 100 reps per quarter and use weights you can control slowly. The clock runs continuously once you step onto “the field.”

This workout assumes you understand the technique required for each exercise. Here’s how it’s done:

Pre-game warm-up

Cardio: Half-mile at an easy pace

Push-ups: 10

Crunches: 10

Squats: 10

Dynamic stretching: At a slow, controlled pace, go to the tug point and come back — don’t hold it.

1st quarter: Arms

Bicep curls: 10

Triceps overhead press: 10

Triceps press down: 10

Bench flies: 10

Bench press: 10

Perform another round of these five exercises and follow it with a quarter-mile run. Push yourself. Strive for a pace that’s slightly better than your best fitness test time.

2nd quarter: Abs

Roman chair: Perform 10 reps fully raising and lowering your legs, followed by 10 more raising your legs only to waist level. Repeat.

Crunches: 30 using a stability ball.

Russian twist: Lean back on a lat bench holding a weight to your chest. Twist side-to-side 20 times.

Back extension: 10

Perform just one round of these four exercises and follow it with a quarter-mile run at the same pace or faster than your first quarter-mile.

3rd quarter: Shoulders

Shoulder press: 10

Upright row: 10

Lateral shoulder: 10

Bent-over flies: 10

Shoulder shrugs: 10

Perform another round of these five exercises and follow it with a quarter-mile run at the same pace or faster than your first quarter-mile.

4th quarter: Legs

Plyometric jumps: Do 10 onto a box 24 inches tall.

Hack squats: 45

Full squats: 15

Single-leg press: Do 15 per leg, stopping for a three count at one-third and two-thirds of the way down.

Perform one round of these four exercises and follow it with a quarter-mile run at the same pace or faster than your first quarter-mile.

Give it a try and tell us what you think.

Bob Thomas, a fitness trainer and retired naval flight officer, is director of the Navy Wellness Center in Pensacola, Fla. E-mail him at jomof14@cox.net.