Post summary
We’re partnering with MTNTOUGH for an epic October Burn the Ships workout. Join us.
Housekeeping
Full access to our Burn the Ships workouts is for Members of Two Percent.
Burn the Ships with us. Become a Member to get full access to Two Percent and accessible workouts you can do anywhere in the time you have.
Thanks to our partners:
Jaspr air purifiers. Air quality is a massively overlooked health metric. I consider Jaspr my #1 home health tool. Most health-promoting things require effort—but Jaspr is an exception. Just plug it in and remember to breathe. Get a discount through this link.
GOREWEAR. I’ll be using the hell out of GOREWEAR gear on the trails this fall. The CONCURVE WINDSTOPPER insulated jacket is perfect for chilly fall hikes and runs. Check it out. EASTER gets you 30% off your first GOREWEAR purchase. It’s pure Gear Not Stuff.
The post
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, then these Burn the Ships workouts are our Kool-Aid.
Members of the Two Percent community do the workout every weekend—a bunch of us satellites, all sweating and improving together as one extensive network.
Burn the Ships workouts are safe and effective. They improve your strength, cardio, movement quality, mindset, and—in turn—your life.
We’ve provided scaled versions and exercise swaps, so anyone and everyone can do them. That is to say, you.
Every fall hunting season, Two Percent partners with MTNTOUGH for a Burn the Ships workout.
MTNTOUGH specializes in training men and women for the outdoors. Their programs are tough, but they build exceedingly fit humans who thrive in averse conditions.
In my mind, training for the outdoors is the best path to health and fitness. Humans evolved in the wilderness. Natural environments require an ability to carry loads over rough terrain, extensive endurance, durability, and being strong enough.
That’s what this workout will give you. It’ll make you ready for anything you do outdoors or in life this fall. You’ll also slowly progress the workout over the weeks, which, as we learned on Monday, is critical for sustainable fitness.
Plus, you’ll burn a whole hell of a lot of calories in the process.
The case for one tough weekly workout
Section summary: Doing one challenging workout a week is ideal for health and fitness.
I started doing one tough workout every Friday after reporting inside Gym Jones roughly 14 years ago.
There’s something purifying about doing a challenging workout on Friday. It wipes the workweek off the books and makes me feel like I’m riding high into the weekend.
There’s also some magic in pushing it once a week.
First, there are the brain benefits. The practice makes me less insane.
Scientists at King’s College in London analyzed 53 studies on how intense exercise impacts mental health.
They found that it 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.”
In other words, intense exercise has a mental edge compared not only to not exercising (duh), but also to regular-paced exercise.
Intense exercise also—obviously!—comes with physical upsides.
It has a slight edge over less intense exercise for increasing VO2 max, which is associated with all sorts of good physical outcomes. A rule of thumb: the higher your VO2 max, the farther you are from death, disease, and decay.
TL;DR: All exercise helps. But it makes sense to go hard sometimes.
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: Headwind
Why the name
When you’re covering ground outdoors, a headwind makes each step harder—but you build your strength and endurance in the process.
This workout feels like a severe headwind.
It’ll make you far more capable when you face actual headwinds—both outdoors and in life. And that challenge will make you fitter and more capable.
Thanks to Sarah Maschino for another incredible workout.
Equipment needed
A backpack loaded with some weight.
A box, bench, step, or sturdy cooler (like a Yeti cooler).
Time commitment
This should take you between 30 and 60 minutes if you do it as prescribed.
You can always cut the workout in half if you’re crunched for time.
If this workout were an animal, it would be a:
Grizzly bear, because MTNTOUGH is based out of grizzly country.
How to do it
Note: In full MTNTOUGH fashion, this workout is hard!
We’re running the weights they prescribe.
We have, as always, included information in the Substitutes section that will help you adapt the workout to your fitness level.
Anyone can do this workout—but we won’t all use the same weight or reps.
Watch the video at the top of this post, where Sarah will walk you through the workout.
Here’s the standard version of Headwind. Load a pack (or not) and get a step, box, bench, or sturdy cooler and do the following:
From here you’ll learn:
-The workout and exactly how to do it.
-How to progress the workout over time.
-How to adapt the workout to your fitness level to get the most from it.
-Swaps that will help you do the workout better.
