Herschel Walker - 48 year old badass

Simple living, extreme early retirement, becoming and being wealthy, wisdom, praxis, personal growth,...
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Jeremy
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Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:16 pm

Post by Jeremy »

He eats once a day, is vegetarian, and wakes up at 5:30 am to do 750 to 1500 push-ups and 2000 sit-ups. Now he's fighting mixed martial arts
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/1 ... tml?hpt=C2


gibberade
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Post by gibberade »

Quite an accomplished (and unique) man.
I can attest that his one meal a day pattern is both healthy and energizing.
His workout routine/sleep looks very tough, but very rewarding.


OurLifeInc.
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Post by OurLifeInc. »

For anyone who is interested in more in depth information about fasting, or intermittent fasting, Martin Berkhan has a very good blog at www.leangains.com. I have read a lot about it from him and now generally only eat between 5 and 11 at night. Close to the same amount of calories as normal, perhaps a little less. Anyways, the site gives a little more science behind the fasting protocol.


Mo
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Post by Mo »

That dude is a beast. I've seen video of his ballet performances. He should stick to beating people up, or playing football.


hickchick
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Post by hickchick »

I can't respect any Cowboys after the Landry era except Emmitt Smith.


mikeBOS
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Post by mikeBOS »

Wow. I wouldn't get out of bed at 5:30am for a happy-ending massage and a 5-star breakfast, never mind to do 750 push-ups. Yikes!


Freedom_2018
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Post by Freedom_2018 »

I am happy if I can do like 20/30 push-ups a day...takes about 20 seconds..so for 1500 push-ups it is like 1500/60 = 25 minutes. I guess the question is does he do them all together (which would be total killer) or spaced out so that there is ample time for recovery from muscle fatigue.
Actually come to think of it, I wonder how many total push ups in a day I could do if I spread it our all over the day...might be a few hundred..will have to try some weekend and report back :-)
Not in any way to undermine his effort, ability and talent (all of which are amazing) but I think the 750/1500 push-ups a day number sounds more intimidating upfront than it might be once you break it down.


tac
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:54 am

Post by tac »

Doing 100 pushups broken up into several sets (say as 4 sets of 25-30) can be worked up to relatively quickly, within a month for most people who are already capable of doing at least a couple of pushups. However, 750-1500 I think would take quite a bit more effort! I am in pretty good (not elite athlete, but way above average) shape and I've noticed that anytime I've tried to increase my pushup ability I begin to hit a real wall around 40 pushups/set or in trying to exceed 6 sets/day, even if those sets are spread out over the day.
Personally I'm not sure I would want to do 750 pushups/day (nevermind 1500) because I like to do other activities to maintain/increase fitness as well and it seems like doing that many pushups properly would start to take quite a while!


Matt
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 3:00 pm

Post by Matt »

I'd be worthless for the day after all that. I'm assuming that's just a warm-up for the rest of his daily workout.


tjt
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Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 6:06 pm

Post by tjt »

Excellent post. I've been a fan of Herschel since I read an SI article while he was in college - he never lifted weights, only push-ups and sit-ups.
His NFL career wasn't quite as awesome, but then he got into ballet, was on an olympic bobsled team, then got into MMA after he was 50 years old. Now THAT is a renaissance man!


Chad
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Post by Chad »

If his workout stories are true, and I have always doubted them ever since he was in college (some of his football peers have joked that the 1000's of pushups/situps are just for publicity), he must have the top 1% of 1% genetics, as that is a terrible workout for sports. There isn't one professional trainer (I'm talking about the people who train professional athletes not the "trainer" at your local gym) who would recommend doing situps or any exercise with that many reps.
Plus, the article states he only eats bread, vegetables, and doesn't care about protein...that is just BS for a professional athlete.
@bigato

High reps do not build size. If they did the Tour de France would look like body builders from the waist down, and they are the exact opposite. Either Walker is a genetic freak or he lies about his workout and eating habits.
Also, machines are about the worst way to exercise.


Chad
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Post by Chad »

I'm not saying he is lying as much as not telling us everything. I'm sure he does all those hundreds of rather worthless pushups and situps, but he probably also does a significant amount of sport specific work he never talks about. The 1000's of reps is a better story.
It's kind of like Deion Sanders. Per all accounts the guy invented the "Prime Time" persona at Florida State to get more attention. I think that is what Walker is doing witht the 1000 rep stories (on a smaller scale).
I would also lean towards Walker being a genetic freak and him not fighting true professional MMA fighters. It is kind of like the Kimbo Slice experiment. He looked like a world beater on youtube videos and against a couple very low end MMA guyes. But, was basically handled by a group of fighters who couldn't get into the UFC on the Ultimate Fighter.


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