I am an alumnus of Iowa State University (Class of 1969), in Ames, Iowa. While I was there, I had the privilege of competing in football in the former Big 8 Conference (Oklahoma, Nebraska, etc.).
In my senior year, our head coach was Johnny Majors, who went on to coach University of Pittsburgh to a national championship. He and the coaching staff liked to come up with different drills that tested us to the limit. Of course at the time we all thought the drills were way beyond simply testing our limits.
Here's a workout I have named Cyclone, which is the mascot of the ISU athletic teams. It's one you can do anywhere, since it requires no equipment except for something on which to do pullups. The idea is not to try to finish it as quickly as you can; rather, proceeding methodically and using good technique on each exercise. Look to complete it with only short breaks to take a drink of water or catch your breath.
The workout consists of seven rounds of seven exercises (seven letters in Cyclone). The repetitions assigned to each exercise are the value of where each letter stands in the alphabet (C = 3, Y = 25, etc.). Exercises alternate between upper- and lower-body, and each round ends with a nice 200-meter cardio output.
The workout
Again, keep working throughout except for short water breaks, but do not try to speed through.
Warmup: Dynamic full-body stretching (hold the stretch only for a two-count, then move on).
Exercises: Do seven rounds of:
- 3 pullups, palms facing away (no kipping). Make sure to get your chin above the pullup bar.
- 25 walking lunges (left/right, so 25 each leg). Make sure your back knee touches the ground on each lunge. Keep your back straight and hands on hips.
- 3 handstand pushups. For most, this means doing a handstand against the wall or having someone hold your feet while you’re in the handstand position.
- 12 air squats (quads must get to parallel). Use a Dynamax medicine ball or low bench as your sitting target. Go slow on the way down and explode on the way up. Tighten your glutes before coming up.
- 15 regular pushups (upper arms must get to parallel). Try to keep your hands at shoulder width.
- 14 crunches. I like to change this up each round, so Round 2 might be leg lifts to the vertical and back; Round 3 might be toe touches while legs are at vertical, and so on.
- 5 lengths of 40-meter sprints (at 85 percent effort), for a total of 200 meters. You can get a rest while walking back from the fifth sprint.
After: Foam roll/stretch when you're finished.
Later on, you can add a weight vest. If you do, I would suggest changing the handstand pushups to ones that have your feet on a bench and your hands on the floor. To kick it up a notch, put your feet on a stability ball. Remove the vest when doing the crunches or other ab work and the sprints.
Bob Thomas is director of the Navy Wellness Center in Pensacola, Florida. Email him at jomof14@cox.net.
