Jungle Training
By David Kelso
PART TWO- month of the cheetah

We have learned to crawl, now it’s time to learn to walk, jungle style - fluid, fast, graceful, agile!!!!

So for a month now we have been learning to move with agility and gracefulness on all fours, building our power and animal instinct, now were going to learn to move at speed in our most efficient way, bipedal, let’s get some speed!!!

For the next month we will make our focus mastering bipedal movement. That means everyday training of varying intensities and some of the hardest training sessions you have done in your life!!!

Watch the way a cheetah runs; fluid, relaxed and completely graceful. Now go outside and run at your top speed for 100 meters or so, and notice the difference, compared to the great feline you probably move clumsily and awkward, we need to rival the cat!!

The workouts- mix and match everyday go with your feeling but get at least TWO of the harder sessions every week!!

1. Feel your paws
Go to an area of grass like a field or to a sandy area and take your shoes off. Start running at various speeds and various directions, experience running with a heel-toe foot strike, then toe-heel, feel what works best at different speeds. Vary stride length, stay as relaxed as possible throughout, relax your breathing and feel how to move with grace. Imagine yourself as a big cat moving in silence- silence is the key to this exercise, the quieter you can move the better. Strive to make no sound and move like a shadow. Continue this for 30 mins, progress to combining running on two legs to a combination of running and animal movements, make the switch from movement to movement smooth and fluid.

2. Breath of life
Go out bare foot or with shoes, whatever you prefer. Start running and just focus completely on your breathing, deep and relaxed. Let your whole body relax with your breath. Let your body move with its own instinct, just focus on breathing and relaxation. Run until you feel your body moving completely relaxed and without effort.

3. The Cheetah
This is a hard one! Sprint as fast you a can and keep sprinting. Imagine you are a cheetah on the hunt and you are chasing down your prey, feel the life force of the cat. Don’t stop sprinting when you feel the lactic acid flooding your legs and your lungs burning; don’t stop, keep on going at your top speed- DO NOT JOG!! Do not stop until you your body puts the breaks on from exhaustion. Depending on your condition this could be anywhere from 100m to a mile or so. When you stop sit or lie down and breathe deeply, try to slow your breath, just like the cheetah after the hunt. After your breathing has slowed, get back up and go again in the same way, the hunt is still on, do this 3-5 times!!

4. Blind as a bat
Do this one again in a field, park or beach. Blindfold yourself and go walking/ running. Rely on all your other senses to guide you, feel the ground through your feet (this exercise is better done in bare feet). Change direction, follow different movement patterns and feel how your body is moving. Focus again on complete relaxation of all your body, do this for around 30 min.

5. Up the mountain
Find a large hill or set of stairs, sprint up them as fast as you can again as relaxed as you can, walk back down and sprint back up, repeat this 10- 20 times. Progress to sprinting up and running back down then progress sprinting up cranking out a set of 20 burpees at the top, running back down and doing a set of 20 push ups at the bottom. Again repeat 10-20 times

6. Running free
Go out and run with complete reckless abandon. Jog, sprint, jump turn, dive or roll, all as spirit takes you. Jump on walls and obstacles you pass, swing from trees, just simply move. With the eyes of a child see opportunity for movement and take it, this can be as intense as you want, but just enjoy moving freely.

7. Agility run
Go to an area like a play park with lots of obstacles or make your own. Set out an obstacle course for yourself, one that will challenge you a lot to pass through. Now go to the start and sprint through it moving as fast, fluid and as graceful as you can. Depending on the size of your course repeat 5-10 times. Use your imagination in the courses creation.

8. The long chase
Challenge yourself maybe once or twice in this month with a really long run. Make no special preparation to do it, just wake up go out and run 20-40km. Become as relaxed as you can, let the run become a meditation.

9. Cheetah VS Bear
Bear crawl 100m then sprint back to the start, repeat 10-20 times.

10. Spartan Cheetah
Ok this cat is one tough dude, he wears Spartan armour and fights at Thermopylae, you don’t want to piss of this kitty!! This will possibly be the hardest training session you have ever done. Run in the way the way described in workout 3, THE CHEETAH. Give it you absolute all but this time instead of lying down or sitting your rest period will be 100 push ups!! As soon as you finish running and collapse onto the floor start cranking out the push ups and as soon as you finish them get sprinting again.

It gets a whole lot worse!!! After you have done this 5 times you are halfway, but there is a halfway challenge; 100 burpees as fast as you can. As soon as you finish you are off sprinting again and doing push ups, the work out will look like this-

Cheetah sprint, 100 push ups x 5
100 burpees
Cheetah sprint, 100 push ups x 5

Getting through the last one and some of the others will take real courage and animal ferocity, the pain will feel like it will never end. When this happens listen to the words of Buddha-

“Everything that begins also ends. Make peace with that and all will be well.”

The Buddha

During this month continue practicing the animal movements from the first issue, you don’t need to continue to do an hour daily, but add them into your other workouts and use them as warm ups and finishers or as workouts on there own. Learn to move on all fours and two legs relaxed, fluid and graceful, in any direction, on any terrain. Learn to be a jungle warrior.

Live free

Kelso