Today's Menu: Count-up

Today is actually a rest day, but I wanted to throw in a workout I did last Friday so that it can be remembered for posterity, and so that I may kick the crap out of it next time I need an idea for a workout to do.

A count-up is another simple but sadistic (the theme of my program) workout. All you need is one stopwatch and a compound exercise. A compound exercise is one that works the body across multiple joints. A bench press is a compound exercise because it works the muscles across the shoulders (pecs, delts,) and across the elbow (tri's and bi's), plus you use your legs and abs for stability. A bicep curl is a simple exercise in that you are only working one muscle group across one joint. Quite frankly, unless you're starring in the latest rendition of Pumping Iron, doing simple exercises are a waste of your time. A Pull-up or a heavy bent over row will do more for your biceps than isolation curls.

I digress. To run the count-up, pick a compound movement (I choose my favorite, the deadlift, for this round). Take a stopwatch and hang it where you can see it. After warming up, start the stopwatch. When it gets to the one minute mark, do one rep of your compound movement. Rest. When it gets to the two minute mark, do two reps. Rest. When it gets to three minutes, do three reps, rest, etc. As the minutes go up, the reps go up and the rest goes down. It sounds easy, but by the twelve minute mark with the deadlifts I was almost crying, and failed to complete the 12th round, so I scored at an 11.

Score: 11