We’ve all been in situations that have demanded more from us than we originally thought possible. Even if you can handle the job alone it’s usually good to know there is a helping hand not too far away. When I was a Navy Diver, I can’t tell you how many times we assured ourselves that a project was going to be “quick and easy” only to find ourselves, 5-6 hours later, still busting our backs. What was amazing to notice after a while was that each of us would stay in the water as long as possible before you changed out with another diver. Even if your hands felt like blocks of ice, you couldn’t feel your feet anymore, you hadn’t had water in what seemed like forever, and you were damn near exhausted, you dug down and gave it all you had until the job was done. This was the unspoken rule most of us followed because you didn’t want anyone else having to take up your slack, or to be the weak link in the team, ever.

This mentality was not about ego, bragging, or trying to be labeled “hard-core” in any way. The jobs were usually cold, long, and dangerous at times. We all knew that if we didn’t give it 100% that the next guy would have to do more and that attitude was simply unacceptable. Knowing that every person on the team was giving it his absolute best motivated everyone involved. The strengths of one person would support another’s weaknesses until this mutual support created an almost unstoppable mentality that enabled us to perform well beyond our own individual limitations.

I consider this workout a combination gut check/team builder because it instills an “I’ll do more so you don’t have too” mentality. I’ve used this particular workout in my fitness classes and there have been many a participant that has run off to the sidelines to puke in the middle of it, so be ready to push yourself. You will need a partner for this workout (but you can do it on your own if your friends are too lazy to do it with you) and I call it Perpetual Motion because each person is always doing something. By doing your best to make sure your partner doesn’t do more than “his share” of exercises, you’ll be pushing yourself harder and harder as the workout progresses. There is seemingly no time for rest and any rest that is taken during the workout only insures that your partner will suffer longer. It’s easy to fall in to the “you took your time, now I’ll take mine” game and believe me it ruins the workout in quick order. Drop the ego, assure your partner that you will do more so he won’t have to, and give it 100%. Let’s play.

Perpetual Motion

Set up:

The first thing we’ll need to do is select 5 exercises for the workout. The option to select exercises that fatigue predominantly upper or lower body parts or choose exercises that are considered “full body” is yours. Just to make things interesting, I’ve selected the following 5 exercises for you:
Reverse Squats
Dive-Bomber Push-Ups
Turkish Get-ups, Clubbell Rocket Drill, Dumbbell or Kettlebell Swings (just to show some of the versatility of the workout by using weights)
Squat Thrusts (or Burpees)
Flutter Kicks

Take 5 index cards, or pieces of paper, and write one exercise on each card.

Take your 5 exercise cards and shuffle them up so they are in no particular order. With your back to the pull-up bars (with cones and cards in hand) walk about 20-30 yards directly away and place your first cone and card on the ground. Don’t worry about which exercise is first, even if it’s the easiest one in the group and you start to worry that you’ll place the difficult ones towards the end. Do not change the order of the cards from the original shuffle! It’s tempting to place the more difficult exercises at the beginning so that you can do them when you’re fresh, and save the easier ones for the end of the workout, but that’s just too bad. We’ve already discussed that life doesn’t always let you do the hard stuff when you’re fresh and that’s not the point of this workout anyway, so suck it up! Continue walking directly away from the pull-up bars and placing the cones/cards at 10-15 yard intervals. When you’ve placed all your cones down you should have a direct line, away from the pull-up bars, that’s about 75-100 yards long.

You and your partner should decide on a set number of pull-ups that you feel you can do for all 5 sets. Pick a number that is challenging but doable. Remember that you must do all the pull-ups before you can leave the pull-up bars so try to be realistic about your abilities and keep in mind that you’ll be sprinting before the pull-ups. This puts a whole new twist on this section of the workout! If you pick a number of pull-ups that is too high and you can’t do them all at once, your partner is in for a treat because you will not leave the pull-up bars until you have done all the pull-ups in your set. Keep this in mind as you’re shaking the fatigue out of your arms and he/she’s out there doing squat thrusts, waiting for your sprint back, cursing your mother for ever having such a wuss as you for a child. Sound a bit harsh? Believe me, I've seen good friends swearing at each other like drunken sailors when they feel the other guy is slacking.

Like I said, this workout builds some serious mental toughness.

Now walk back to the first cone and you and your partner are ready to begin.

The workout:

Both partners are standing at the first cone and have read the card, which might say “squat thrusts”. When you are both ready to begin, partner “A” will start performing squat thrusts while partner “B” sprints to the pull-up bars, does his set, and sprints back to the first cone. Now this point is crucial: “A” will not sprint until “B” begins doing the exercise that is designated on the card! Why? Because after sprinting, pull-ups, and sprinting again, it’s likely that “B” will stand at the cone with his hands on his knees praying for death, while “A” sprints to the bars. By the time “A” starts to sprint back from his pull-ups, “B” may have only done 5 squat thrusts as opposed to the initial 25 that “A” did. This workout isn’t about you catching your breath while your partner suffers, so your partner is not allowed to leave the cone until you begin the exercise! This might be where the term “suck it up” takes on a whole new meaning.

You might be saying to yourself; “Well, I can do one squat thrust so my partner can go and then I’ll stop to catch my breath.” Think again. If, while your partner is sprinting to the pull-up bars, you stop for more than 5 breaths then you will yell out “ADD ON”. Be ready for your partner to start cursing you (or me for that matter) because “ADD ON” means that he now has 2 sets of pull-ups to complete before he can leave the bars. This means that if the designated number of pull-ups was six he will now do twelve. Honesty is the key here so don’t be a cheater and take a break when you think no one is looking!

Once “A” has sprinted to the pull-up bars and completed his pull-ups he will sprint past the first cone to the second cone, look at what’s on the card, and begin whatever exercise is written on it. As soon as he begins the exercise he will call out “GO!” and “B” will then sprint to the pull-up bars, perform his set, and sprint back to the second cone to start the exercise. Remember what I said about the transition at each cone! This will continue for each cone all the way across the field. Whoever is “A” will always sprint to the next farthest cone after completing the pull-ups. Done in this manner, both partners will “leap frog” each other down the field and the workout is finished when both have completed the pull-ups and sprints for the very last cone.

Final notes:

One of the best things about this workout is the endless variation you can throw into it. You are only limited by your imagination and lack of knowledge of conditioning drills. Remember that this workout is not only designed to build your capacity for more work it’s also going to develop your mental toughness like you won’t believe. It’s somewhat easier during a traditional workout when you know how many reps and sets you will be doing. With Perpetual Motion, you have no idea how many reps you will perform so you really have to dig down deep and find the drive to continue.

These workouts are easy to set up and the instructors have the option of:
Breaking the class up into two groups with each group lead by an instructor
Assigning a group "leader" to lead each group while the instructors monitor each group as they perform the exercises
Staying out of the workout entirely and just counting the tempo out while the class just follows along

Obviously, I'm not a big fan of option #3. This method of running the class can be useful but I don't feel it's very motivating for the instructor to count out the reps and not perform the workout. I find that if you try to count the reps without actually doing them that you end up counting too fast and participants have a hard time keeping up. I usually run the workouts utilizing options #1 or #2.

Option #2 allows the instructor to follow the group along and offer guidance to those that need their form worked on and remind the group leader of how a particular exercise is run if he/she doesn't remember. Option #1 can be fun for the class if there are two instructors that are "close" to each other in regards to physical conditioning. This way, it's possible to integrate a little humor based "trash talking" between the class as the instructors lead their respective groups in a "race" to see who finishes first.

To add more intensity to these races, it's fun to throw in a "prize" for the losing group. I tell everyone that the losing group must do 20 8 Count Bodybuilders (or an exercise that everyone hates), but then make the whole class follow along! I rationalize making everyone do the 8 Counts (when there is whining from the group that won) by saying that the winning group needs to motivate those that have fallen behind.

If you are running this class utilizing option #1 or #2, it's preferable to begin each group at opposite ends of the circuit. Group "A" will start at cone 1 and Group "B" will start at cone 6.

Before you begin, you'll need to set up the cones in the following manner:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

____

Pull-up Bar


The red cones represent the stations and the blue cone represents the pull-up bars. The distance between cones is approximately 20-25 steps and the distance from cone 4 to the pull-up bars is approximately 40 yards. These distances are dependent on the size of your training field!

For this initial introduction to Perpetual Motion you'll place a sheet of paper at each cone. The instructors will lead their group through the exercises that are listed on each sheet. The exercises are listed as follows:
Cone 1: 5 Regular Grip Push-ups
10 Bootstrappers
15 6-Inch Crunches
:30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups
:30 second rest
Sprint to next cone

Cone 2: 5 Wide Grip Push-ups
10 Half Squats
15 Good Mornings
30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups
:30 second rest
Sprint to next cone

Cone 3: 5 Diamond Push-ups
10 Shoulder Width Squats
15 Flutter Kicks
30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups
:30 second rest
Sprint to next cone

Cone 4: 5 4-Count Reverse Push-ups
10 Reverse Squats
15 Alternate Toe Touches
30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups
:30 second rest
Sprint to next cone

Cone 5: 5 Judo Push-ups
10 Lunges (each leg)
15 6-Inch Crunches
30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups
:30 second rest
Sprint to next cone

Cone 6: 10 Reverse Push-ups (single count)
10 Squat Thrusts
15 6-Inch Crunches
30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups
:30 second rest
Sprint to next cone

Cone 7: 5 Regular Grip Push-ups
10 Bootstrappers
15 6-Inch Crunches
:30 second rest
Sprint to Pull-up bars

Pull-ups: 5 Pull-ups


Water break and Final Stretches

The intensity of this workout will be dictated by the amount of rest you give the participants both before the sprints and between each exercise. The 30 second rest time is designed to let participants recover a bit from the exercises just completed so they can put forth more effort during each sprint. The instructors should strive to be at each station before their respective group so that they can jump right in to the exercises! This immediate jumping in will make each station more challenging and as the workouts progress the rest time before sprinting drops until there is none.

Upon initial viewing of this workout, it may seem like less volume/intensity than the previous workouts but, as I stated earlier, the sprint/rest times will dictate the intensity. If you find that you've finished the workout early, begin another cycle at the opposite cone you started from.

The instructors must also ensure that form isn't sacrificed for speed in these workouts! This is especially true during the pull-up station! Make sure you are spotting those that need help and that the group begins the sprints all at the same time.