"Do you suppose they will choose to make war against lean, solid dogs rather than against fat and tender sheep?"
From Sgt. Sileika, a lean, solid dog in Vilnius who serves as our resident subject-matter expert in ruck marching and sentence diagramming. Living in the Baltics, he is located at the intersection (to use a fashionable word) of three of our favorite things: kvass, kettlebells, and Varusteleka. Power to you, sir!
Strength and endurance are rivals. “Strength loves rest,” as the saying goes, and it hates endurance. Strength and endurance compete against each other for your training time and recuperative powers. Yes, you can do both (and you should, at least a little). But unless you are a pure strength athlete or pure endurance athlete (e.g. a... Continue Reading →
Finally, someone who understands why they're called "shorts." At the GORUCK Heavy Challenge, after some refreshing PT, you start the 24 hours with a twelve-mile timed ruck. You need to walk it in 3½ hours or you can be disqualified. Lauren Four Boots and I were discussing this menacing prospect in the middle of a... Continue Reading →
Rucking looks to be the “next big thing” in exercise. In a word, you fill a rucksack (a glorified backpack) with weight and go hiking. For bonus points, you can haul other heavy things too: sand bags, a water can, a kettlebell, a log, a sledgehammer, a stone, a weighted sled. Try to read this... Continue Reading →
Today's rucking game was called "Five Elements": drag a charred tree limb (fire & wood) and schlep a steel club (metal), a stone (earth), and a backpack of water up to Faerie Ridge by any means necessary. Two takeaways: (1) You can haul even a very heavy jumble of stuff if you're willing to spend... Continue Reading →
New cardio hack! You've heard runners say, "An ounce on the foot is like a pound in the pack?" Well according to some researchers the ratio is more like 1:5, but that's still useful. So to work around some shoulder and hand injuries, today's game was to hike the Faeriemount with ankle weights. That way,... Continue Reading →
A complete gym in one tidy corner: Kettlebells. One is enough, but in a happy home they multiply. Somebody to swing them. Note the bare feet--that's how you should do it too. Rucksack and boots. Insert kettlebells and start walking. Pavel Tsatouline's classic Russian Kettlebell Challenge (1999), still the best book there is on this stuff. Sledgehammer... Continue Reading →
Volodya surveys the valley after earning his blue-and-white David Rigert tel'nyashka To initiate Volodya the 28kg Kettlebell, I suitcase-carried him with the Backpack of Bricks up the summit. Today's game was that I could set him down when needed, but for the whole hike I had to hold my chest and head upright. No hunched backs.... Continue Reading →
During the Buddhist Backpack Pilgrimage, I acted as your personal bodhisattva, dear readers, and compassionately offered myself as a sacrifice for your welfare. How? By venturing out to do the whole 34 miles in jackboots (sapogi) and footwraps. In our previous field test we'd shown their value in wet conditions, but we still didn't know... Continue Reading →
Following an idea from the Manly Monk of Vilnius, I declared this weekend the Great Buddhist Backpack & Beads Pilgrimage. The idea was, one step, one mantra, and in 27 miles that would make fifty-five thousand mantra reps. That’s got to be enough to make you a buddha in this very lifetime (即身成佛), right? But... Continue Reading →