I don't know what I been told...

... running in frost is mighty cold...

But these guys are taking the...

Challenge: To train and complete the necessary fitness requirements for the Irish Army.

Difficulty: 4/5 to pass. 5/5 to ace it.

Skills Developed: Self loathing... if that's a skill...

Overview/Rant: Right, so this challenge is clearly explained here. (Also- just learned how to do that here thing... as opposed to that there thing...) But for those too lazy to click on the link(s)- here's a simple breakdown of what's involved...

* A one minute sit-up assessment

* A one minute push-up assessment

* A 3.2km run

* A 10km hike with a weighted rucksack

If you check the site- you'll see that each part of the assessment has gradings 1-6. You HAVE to complete the 10km hike in 1hr 33minutes and you must get an average grade of 4 to pass. So you add up your grades and divide by three to get your final grade.

So how did I do....

54 push-ups in a minute

42 sit-ups in a minute

17minutes 54 seconds to complete 3.2km run

1hr 28minutes to complete 10km hike

That translates to 1 + 1 + 6 = 8... which leave me with a grade 3 overall... so I'm ARMY FIT... apparently... 

Hardest Part: Getting up at 7am to go for a 10km hike through FROST... seriously ridiculous... also- my pack weighted 15kg which was a bit of a b**ch... and had I been found dead in the forest they would have opened my bag to find the following... 

Recommendation: Do this if you a.) want to work out what level of fitness you're at or b.) hate yourself.

Conclusion: Respect to the Irish Army- they have to do this test every year to ensure they keep high levels of fitness. I don't see why this isn't introduced into the Gardai force as it's a fairly simple test to arrange and it only takes about 2 hours... I don't know if you've ever seen the Gardai training fitness requirements but its fairly hilarious by comparison...

Special Thanks: Laura Rooney for her sound advice the day before: "Steve, shouldn't you like train for it before just going out and doing it?" Yes Laura, yes I probably should...

Next Challenge: Since I haven't had a great suggestion for fitness in a while I've decided to make learning my piano pieces for my grade 3 exam my next challenge. The 'judge' of my success shall be one Susan Bourke, who is known to her students as 'The Destroyer...' 

... I'm going to be in trouble for that... :-)

Random Thoughts: Watch this if you get the chance- it's brilliant.

Skip me with your best shot...

Okay... so I took some artistic license there...

Challenge: To learn to skip like a boxer in one week.

Difficulty: 3/5

Skills Developed: Basic skip techniques, the double skip, the criss-cross and the matador. This video below highlights the main ones. I attempted the cradle and the backwards criss-cross... but... yeah... epic fail...

Overview/Rant: Firstly- I'm two days late due to Valentines Day, laziness and procrastination (in reverse order of actual reasons for lateness...) Anyway- apologies for the delay... Back to the review... SKIPPING is awesome... wait, let me try that again.... skipping is AWESOME!!! Within 3 minutes you can work up a sweat, you can choose to go for an hour or a minute and all it requires is a rope and room to do it. It requires a lot of practice though. I only for the criss-cross in the final days and I didn't really get the matador at all. The simple single hop on one foot (see video) took me a few nights of practice to perfect. Really though- there's not much to say about it apart from that... here's a break down of the techniques learned- at different points...

8 seconds - double hop on both feet

14 seconds - double hop on one foot alternating

20 seconds - single hop on both feet

24 seconds - single hop walking forward

27 seconds - single hop walking backwards

30 seconds - the skier hop

34 seconds - the double skip

44 seconds  - the criss-cross

52 seconds - attempts the matador

1 min 9 seconds - epic giving up....

I originally planned on recording the techniques with backing music- but I couldn't continuously skip for several minutes without making a mistake... I think my matador days will have to wait... don't want to end up like this guy...

Hardest Part: The matador... 

Recommendation: Totally recommend this. Take the time to learn the techniques and hon them. I'm going to try maintain skipping as it can be done anytime and is a fantastic cardio workout. Honestly- not much to say except DO IT...

Conclusion: Great challenge- well worth the week and something I will probably continue to research to find more challenging techniques. 

Special Thanks: Luke Walsh for providing the new leather skipping rope.  

Next Challenge: Complete the fitness requirements for the Irish Army. There's a one minute press-up assessment, a one minute sit-up assessment, a 3.2km Run Assessment and a 10km loaded march. Check it out at:  http://www.62infantry.com/Annual_Fitness_Test.shtml

Random Thoughts: Maybe someday...

Push it to the limit...

Challenge: I'm going to dub this as the 'breaking the limit' challenge... and thus explaining the use of another Final Fantasy VII image. My objective was to do the following...

1.) As many push-ups as possible in a minute followed by 1 minute rest... as portrayed by guy-whose-legs-are-not-consistent...

2.) As many sit-ups as possible in a minute followed by 1 minute rest... as portrayed by creepy no-skin man...

3.) As many pull-ups as possible in a minute followed by 1 minute rest... as portrayed by the failed entry for the Aha's "Take on Me" video...

4.) As many tri-ceps ups as possible in a minute followed by 1 minute rest... as portrayed by 'Look-at-me-exercising-at-the-beach-how-cool-am-I?' woman...

5.) Hold a 'bridge' for as long as possible.. as portrayed by... uh.... this dude...

I did a base amount on the Monday of the week- then I trained whatever way I wanted (obviously working the same techniques as much as possible) and then I had to significantly increase my total come Sunday.

Difficulty: 3/5

Skills developed: Eh... I properly looked up how to do the techniques... and how to fix statistics so you look awesome...

Overview/Rant: Right so here's how it went on the Monday night..

Push-ups: 42

Sit-ups: 26

Pull-ups: 9

Tri-cep ups: 22

Bridge: 55 seconds

Not a terrible start considering I can't remember the last time I exercised... so I went to bed and promised to get up and workout the next morning...

That was a broken promise.

But after that failed Tuesday I was driven to work harder- which I did.... kinda. Now in my defense I should note that I'm currently on antibiotics because I'm sick... again... so I'm gonna use that to excuse SOME laziness... the rest can be put down to work, college, tea and the return of LOST (omg! - Locke's a friggin ROBOT... or something to that effect...) ALSO- there was the knitting last week- which apparently screwed my immune system completely... who'd have thunk it?

But then I returned on Sunday to complete this challenge and see if I could break my limit... or achieve my 'limit-break' if you will... (Steve looks eagerly around for other fellow FF7-nerds to chime in for support... he is greeted by silence...)

Push-ups: 46

Sit-ups: 30

Pull-ups: 16

Tri-cep ups: 31

Bridge: 1 minute 10 secs


So- statistically speaking... that translates to... (Steve- the maths teacher- runs to grab a calculator...) And I'm rounding up... cus screw it... I want the extra credit...


Push-ups: 10% increase
Sit-ups: 15% increase
Pull-ups: 78% increase
Tri-cep ups: 41% increase
Bridge: 27% increase

Making an overall increase of approx 34%... assuming that you rate every technique as equal... which I will fully admit is completely unscientific result in ANY situation... but HEY- did you increase anything by 34% this week?!

Hardest parts: Finding the time to do the exercise. Also the realization that you are uber-unfit... bit of a ball buster really...

Recommendation: Really good for establishing your 'base' fitness level. Also I could see it as a really encouraging method of training over a few weeks as you can easily record and establish your improvement over time.


Conclusion: I hate tri-cep lifts. Fitness February is possibly the worst idea I've ever had...

Special Thanks: Colm Hanratty from work for the suggestion. Rebecca for not reporting all the times I should have been exercising but wasn't...

Next challenge: Learn to skip like a boxer or a little girl- whichever is more challenging...

Random thoughts: Just think of the word 'Jump-Rope' before watching this... 

And of course...