Routine of DEATH

Today I literally did one of the hardest exercise routines I have ever completed. Upon some discussion with 24 Hour Fitness Manager and Cross Fit guru Scott Dumas, he recommended trying what he called "The Triplet". It was quite possibly the worst twenty minutes of my life and it goes a little something like this:

Perform a countdown from 10 to 1 of the following movements with as little rest as possible. Run through one set of all the exercises, then come back through again taking one rep off each time.

Barbell Deadlift with 1 1/2 times your body weight.

Barbell Bench with your body weight.

Hang Clean with 3/4 your body weight.

Weighing in at 193lbs today, my numbers shook out to a 285lb deadlift, 195lb bench and 145lb clean. I got through my 10 and 9 rounds using these weights. At this point I was already cursing Scott, sweating profusely and suffering some serious arm pump. By number 8, I dropped 10 pounds off my deadlift because my grip was already wrecked and it was screwing up my form. After back to back to back heavy sets of deadlifts coupled with the hang cleans, my low back was already on fire and my glutes were trying to figure out what I was doing to them. When I got to 7 I could barely hold onto the bar, so I dropped down to a 225lb deadlift half way through the set. I completed my 7 and 6 reps with 225lb deadlift, 195lb bench and 145lb hang clean.

Then came the glorious 5 rep set. Barely able to close my own hand, I picked up the 225lb bar, performed two reps and then "rrrippp" there goes a nice little callous ripping off of my left ring finger. Shocked and sort of irritated by the whole routine's difficulty, I sucked it up and finished my set. I stepped up to set four trying to put the idea of an open wound and the potential of staff infection in the back of my mind so I could finish my workout. When I grabbed the bar there was another tearing of skin! This time it was a huge callous on my right hand nearly coming clean off under the weight of the bar. I shook it out and dropped the weight to 135lbs because I didn't want to lose anymore skin. I grabbed my towel and wrapped the hand up to finish the deadlifts and bench all the way to 1. I decided to forgo the cleans since my hands were falling apart, so I performed tuck jumps to keep my explosive work going.

After that fun little adventure I spent some time in the bathroom cleaning up the skin and disinfecting my little battle wounds. Despite falling apart like the black knight (for you Monty Python fans) and completely destroying my body with three exercises in twenty minutes, I sadistically enjoyed my time with the Triplet. There are three points to this story:

One, try this nasty triplet but with some lighter weight at first and work up to being a complete BEAST.

Two, it is going to be the worst 15-20 minutes of your life whether you tear off callouses or not, so just prep yourself mentally and put on some hardcore metal to get you through the grind.

Three, anything can be accomplished with a little blood and sweat.

Have fun.