Burn the Ships: June 2026

The Legs Feed the Wolf

It’s the first Friday of the month—which means it’s time to Burn the Ships.

On the first Friday of every month, we publish a new Burn the Ships workout for Members only.

If Two Percent is a cult, these Burn the Ships workouts are our Kool-Aid.

Burn the Ships workouts are hard, safe, and effective. They improve your strength, cardio, movement quality, and mindset—and, in turn, your life.

Members of the Two Percent community do the workout every weekend—a bunch of us satellites, spread out across the world, all sweating and improving together as one extended network.

For each workout, we give scaled versions and exercise swaps, so anyone and everyone can do them. That is to say, you.

Burn the Ships: June 2026

My Las Vegas Golden Knights are once again in the Stanley Cup Finals. The team has reached the finals 33% of the seasons since their inception. Not bad odds for Las Vegas.

One of the greatest truths in hockey—and also in fitness and health—came from Herb Brooks, the 1980 Miracle on Ice Team USA Coach.

His team wasn’t the best. But he made them the fittest. And that helped them beat the Goliath Soviet team.

Brooks put them through relentless conditioning, primarily focused on building their leg strength and endurance.

As they reached the edge during training, he’d say, “The legs feed the wolf.” The line was immortalized in the movie Miracle (which Cousin Tanner, famous for getting lost, watched so many times the DVD stopped working).

That’s what this workout is about. Feeding the wolf. Building legs that won’t die. Legs like that have upsides:

• All other things equal, people with stronger legs have a 14% lower risk of all-cause mortality. That came from a systematic review¹ of about 38 studies including roughly 2 million people.

• A large Swedish study² found that stronger legs were associated with 12 percent fewer heart attacks, while weaker legs were associated with 31 percent higher cardiovascular mortality.

• Meanwhile, people with weaker lower bodies have a 19 to 32 percent higher type 2 diabetes risk³.

• People with weaker lower bodies also had a 76% higher risk of falls⁴, which are a major risk for aging populations.

• Stronger legs will also help you do and feel better during summer adventures like hikes, runs, rucks, etc.

• And you’ll look better in shorts (science).

TL;DR: If you feel death and weakness creeping in, strengthen your legs and get more out of life.

The roadmap:

• First, we’ll cover the science of why one tough weekly workout is the non-negotiable sweet spot for both physical and mental health.

• Then, you’ll learn why it’s so effective when time is limited.

• Finally, I’ll give you the complete The Legs Feed the Wolf workout, with exact steps, full videos, scaled versions, and exercise and equipment swaps to get it done.

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The case for one tough weekly workout

• Section summary: One challenging workout per week is ideal for health and fitness.

There’s magic in pushing it once a week. First, there are the brain benefits.

Scientists at King’s College London analyzed 58 studies on intense exercise and mental health. They found that harder efforts led to:

“Improvements in mental wellbeing, depression severity, and perceived stress compared to non-active controls, and small improvements in mental wellbeing compared to active controls.”

Translation: hard exercise doesn’t just beat doing nothing (duh). It often beats doing only moderate exercise.

Intense exercise also comes with physical upsides.

It has an edge over less intense exercise for increasing VO2 max—one of the strongest predictors we have for longevity and disease resistance. A rule of thumb: the higher your VO2 max, the farther you are from death, disease, and decay.

In sum: All exercise helps. But going hard—sometimes—matters.

What’s “sometimes?”

The smartest trainers I regularly speak with suggest that one tough workout a week is the sweet spot for health and performance (info on that here).

More than that, and we tend to get burned out and beat down. Less than that, and we miss out on some health and performance upsides.

Enter Burn the Ships.

This month’s workout: The Legs Feed the Wolf

Equipment needed

• One kettlebell (or two dumbbells)

• Optional: A sandbag or ruck

Time commitment

• This workout should take you 30-60 minutes, depending on how many rounds you choose.

• I’ve also included ways to shorten the workout in the Questions and Substitutions section.

What I’m listening to as I do this workout

• The Killers, Las Vegas’ greatest band and the musical heartbeat of the Golden Knights. Also: The favorite band of the uber-wise Brett McKay, who shines whether or not you do.

How to do it

From here, you’ll learn:

• Exactly how to do The Legs Feed the Wolf workout.

• The full breakdown of reps and rounds for your fitness level and time.

• Substitutions and scaled versions of the workout so anyone can do it, no matter your equipment or fitness level.

The Warmup

Start with the Two Percent Warmup (or a warmup of your choice).

The Workout

Now move on to the workout. Do the exercises in the following order, moving from one to the other.