I just finished a great workout taken from The Complete Guide To Navy SEAL Fitness by Stewart Smith. It looks like this –
First the pyramid.
. 10
. 9 9
. 8 8
. 7 7
. 6 6
. 5 5
. 4 4
. 3 3
. 2 2
. 1 1
At each step of the pyramid you do a super-set of three excersises. The level of the pyramid is multiplied by the number of reps for the exercises in the super-set. I did the following:
x1 pull-ups
x2 push-ups
x3 sit-ups
For example:
SET #1:
- 1 x 1 = 1 pull-up
- 1 x 2 = 2 push-ups
- 1 x 3 = 3 sit-ups
SET #2:
- 2 x 1 = 2 pull-ups
- 2 x 2 = 4 push-ups
- 2 x 3 = 6 sit-ups
Pretty easy so far, right?
SET #10:
- 10 x 1 = 10 pull-ups
- 10 x 2 = 20 push-ups
- 10 x 3 = 30 sit-ups
By this time you are pretty wasted and very thankful that you are going down the back side of the pyramid.
When it’s finally over you have done 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 sit-ups. Not bad for an old fart.
This pyramid workout is very useful and can be applied to many different exercises. You can do it for a single exercise or any number that are super-setted. You can vary the multipliers. For example, there is another popular variation that does the above but then adds a fourth exercise of dips with a multiplier of 2.
For kayaking, try this. Do the same pyramid but the exercise is paddling as hard and fast as you can. The multiplier would be 1 with 1 minute of slow recovery paddle until the next step:
1 min paddle hard, recover 1 min
2 min paddle hard, recover 1 min
3 min paddle hard, recover 1 min
and so on until you complete the pyramid or puke.