Last Monday’s Devil’s Mile proved several things:
- 1/4 mile of anything sucks
- 1/4 mile of duck walking is good ONLY for actual ducks
- A few changes are needed to gain interest (not scare PAX away) and to work up to a 1/4 mile of anything
For some, a 1/4 mile of an exercise may prove to be too much – at the moment. Any F3 PAX knows that your bodies are capable of improvements. Just look at run times and the amount of Merkins/sit-ups that are done during the PT Test over the course of time you’ve been doing F3. Improvement. And just as you didn’t start out doing all of those merkins you’re currently doing back when you first started – 1/4 mile of bear crawls may be a bit out of your reach at the moment. F3 is all about improvement. Improvement means you need a plan, consistency, and incremental adjustments. We WANT you to work up to being able to do a 1/4 mile of bear crawls with ease. So, instead of the brute-force-go-right-out-and-do-it method, we’re going to incrementally work up to it.
As such, I give you:
The Devil’s Mile version 2.0
A 1/4 mile track is a rectangle with rounded corners. We thought about breaking this up into 1/4 increments of a 1/4 mile track. Our brains see corners and are instantly gravitated towards them. Therefore, we’re working towards corners. Chem-lights will mark the corners.
Preferably with weight, perform the following:
From the starting point:
Bear Crawl to corner #1
Perform 10 Merkins
Sumo walk to corner #2 (picture sitting in an air chair while bracing your knees with your hands. Do not bend your knees past the 90 degree mark and try to keep your back straight)
Perform 10 squats
Lunge Walk to corner #3
Perform 10 Overhead Squat Presses (raise your ruck over your head and squat; overhead arm claps if you’re naked – no ruck)
Sumo Walk to corner #4 (starting point)
Perform 10 Turkish Getups – 5 per arm (ease back onto your back, raise your left arm – or right – and stand back up, repeat using the other arm) Here’s a good example of a Turkish Get Up.
For lap #2…raise your ruck and run or walk 1 lap. You are only allowed to make forward progress if your ruck is over your head. If you need to adjust or if your ruck drops below your head…stop. Rest/adjust. Continue. You can rest your ruck on top of your head. But the ruck must be above your head to make forward progress. If you’re running naked – no ruck – run the lap with your arms out to your side. Your hands AND elbows must be between the plane of your shoulders and head. In other words, don’t make V’s with your arms and don’t hold your hands above your head. Imagine your arms are stiff boards out to your sides.
This should equal 1/2 mile. And since this is the Devil’s MILE…rinse and repeat.
Version 2.0 is doable. It’s not as bad as a full 1/4 mile of one exercise, but it’ll still suck. And eventually over the next few months, we WILL work up to 1/4 mile of one exercise and back to true Devil’s Mile form.
However, there will be NO MORE duck walking. We don’t need any knee injuries.
See you in the gloom!