Friday December 11, 2015

If you don't know Ross Enamait, you definitely should.  Ross is a boxing trainer who runs the site, www.rosstraining.com

I found Ross' site in 2005 and loved it right away. Ross has an excellent attitude and I enjoy what he writes.  He has books and videos that are excellent.  Check them out.  I liked his attitude so much that I asked him to be on Saltwater Experience.  The weather messed us up a little, but we had a great time and he caught a huge Bull Shark.

One of Ross signature workouts is one called Work Capacity 101 (Sometimes just WC 101 seen in the video above).  It is a simple workout, really, but guaranteed to give you a challenge and a benchmark to work towards each time you repeat it.

The idea is to do as much work in 20 minutes as possible (work capacity) with the goal of completing 10 full rounds.  At some point, I started to see how fast I could do 10 full rounds and it made the workout even more intense.  You can do it either way. 

The concept of work capacity is simple.  Take a given amount of time and do work in that time.  If you can increase your fitness to allow for more work in the same amount of time, you are in better physical condition.  Work capacity is a great judge of fitness.

The workout looks like this:

Work Capacity 101

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

5 Pull-ups

10 Ball Slams (we use an 8 lb non bouncing slam ball)

15 Burpees

20 Jumping Jacks

I think the fastest that I have ever completed 10 rounds is 16:39.  We have not done this workout in over 2 years so I was excited to give it another try.

Today, I was thrilled to complete 10 rounds in 15:56.  I have been doing this workout since 2006 and consistently improved, but today was the best.  This is very satisfying because I am 47 years old and still improving. 

Workouts like Ross' WC 101 give us the opportunity to use simple movements to set benchmarks and gauge our fitness.  Keeping track is hugely important to always know where we are and what we need to work on.  Besides...seeing improvement; even by 1 second is incredibly motivational.  That motivation carries through every part of your life.