When I was in Marine Corps boot camp back in 1995, I had this drill instructor Sgt. Keihle. This was the hardest soldier or man for that matter that I’ve ever met. He was Force Recon. If you’re not familiar with the term it’s the equivalent to Navy Seals (in fact, they often times train with them).

One day when we were having a PFT, (physical fitness test) Sgt. Keihle ran the three mile run with us, but he was wearing full cami’s with boots, a back pack with an ammo can filled with rocks, and a gas mask. He still ran the three miles in 19.10. That’s 19 minutes and 10 seconds. I beat him by  a minute on the dot but I was just wearing shorts, t-shirt, and gym shoes.

He said two things that I’ll never forget. “Pain is just weakness leaving the body”, and “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter”.

What he was getting at is your mind will quit before your body.

If you play a sport competitively or train athletes for a living you probably know what I mean. I certainly know this feeling when I train Jiu-Jitsu. One of my jiu-jitsu professors (professor means you’re a black belt and teacher in jiu-jitsu) and closest friends is always pushing you to keep training when you’re gassing out. 

Professor Adem Redzovic

In the last post I mentioned that we just got the prowler, the hardest conditioning tool I think I’ve ever used.

Today we took it out to the soccer field a few blocks behind my jiu-jitsu facility. There was six of us so we decided to have two groups of three people roughly 40 yards apart. One guy would push it down to where the other guys were then stay down there. A guy in the other group would then push it back to the other side and stay down there. This way, we were pushing it on the low handles one way and the next time pushing it with the high handles.

I’m probably not explaining this that well so just check out the quick video.

It was a little cold out, around 40 degrees. One guy showed up wearing a freakin parka. He’s the guy that accosted me while I was holding the camera.

Once I handed the camera off cause I was up, you can hear the heavy breathing from Nate. That was after only one push and we did a total of 10. I planned on filming more but everyone including forgot about the camera once the pain started to set in.

I got a huge lactic acid pump on my eighth push and embarrassingly fell out. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, these workouts can be brutal.

Anyone at the GB facility that wants to come on out for these, just let me know. Or anyone in the Chicago area that wants to escape the regular chrome and carpet gyms doing the same boring not producing any results workouts just post a comment showing interest.

Have you ever had a Sgt. Keihle in your life that motivated the hell out of you. If so, I’d love to hear. Post a comment.