Practical Physical Preparation
Broletariat
We have seen an escalation of racist attacks and police violence directed, as always, against the working class. In response, there have been numerous demonstrations mobilized against these attacks. Because these mobilizations and attacks are necessarily physical events, it would be reckless to proceed without physically preparing ourselves for conflict with capital's armed goons. I am not speaking of any macho strength training regime to beat up cops or racist thugs. On the contrary, since labor wages a guerrilla war against capital, I will be speaking on the immense value of quickly running away. You may be a woman that has managed to briefly incapacitate your would-be assailant, a freedom fighter in the middle of re-appropriating capital when the cops show up in force, a black man noticing the sheeted figures approaching, or an undocumented worker hard at work when ICE rolls up, in any case, an immediate threat has appeared, and it is time to run. Now, of course, you can't just jog away hoping that your cardiovascular endurance is greater than your also jogging assailant, you are going to instinctively break out in an adrenaline fueled, Olympic time qualifying sprint. You will likely find cover, rest briefly and sprint to the best exit plan you can think of.
Broletariat
We have seen an escalation of racist attacks and police violence directed, as always, against the working class. In response, there have been numerous demonstrations mobilized against these attacks. Because these mobilizations and attacks are necessarily physical events, it would be reckless to proceed without physically preparing ourselves for conflict with capital's armed goons. I am not speaking of any macho strength training regime to beat up cops or racist thugs. On the contrary, since labor wages a guerrilla war against capital, I will be speaking on the immense value of quickly running away. You may be a woman that has managed to briefly incapacitate your would-be assailant, a freedom fighter in the middle of re-appropriating capital when the cops show up in force, a black man noticing the sheeted figures approaching, or an undocumented worker hard at work when ICE rolls up, in any case, an immediate threat has appeared, and it is time to run. Now, of course, you can't just jog away hoping that your cardiovascular endurance is greater than your also jogging assailant, you are going to instinctively break out in an adrenaline fueled, Olympic time qualifying sprint. You will likely find cover, rest briefly and sprint to the best exit plan you can think of.
Training for this eventuality is
relatively simple and requires only some open space inside or out.
What you are going to do is sprint, as hard and as fast as humanly
possible between two points you mentally or physically mark off for
20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat this 8 times. Before
this, of course, you should warm-up. No, that does not mean
stretching, it means jogging back and forth between the two points
you've chosen once or twice. There is an app that has this timing
protocol built in called Tabata Stopwatch that is free. If you don't
have a smartphone you can go old fashion and use some form of a stop
watch hopefully along with a friend to call out when to start and
stop.
Before I begin addressing some
anticipated questions, allow me to describe the actual 4 minutes of
exercise and how it feels. The first cycle is a breeze, you can
easily reach full sprint and transition from running to and running
fro, during the first rest period you probably won't even be gasping
for air. The second cycle should see no real change from the first
aside from the fact that you have very likely begun gasping for air
by the time the rest period comes around. By the third cycle you have
begun to realize just how miserable the next five cycles are going to
be. The fourth and fifth cycles will start to become more and more
difficult to transition quickly from running to and fro, the amount
of time it takes you to reach full sprint will have increased
significantly. The last three cycles will be, if you aren't someone
who is very physically active, the most physically miserable you have
likely ever been in your life barring some kind of traumatic
experience. Your vision may go fuzzy and black by the end of the last
cycle if you were pushing yourself the entire time.
Once you have finished the routine,
you are going to want three things in order of importance, to get off
your feet, air, and water. Each of the three interferes with
at least one of the others. I typically sit or lay down for a few
minutes before very slowly getting up to get some water. If you get
up too quickly you are probably going to pass out after the sheer
amount of physical exertion your body has just experienced. You will
very likely spend the next 30 minutes or so, depending on how
physically active you were before this, recovering from this 4 minute
exercise.
Now that we understand a little bit
more about the nitty-gritty of doing this sprint training, lets ask
ourselves. What is the point? Primarily, this exercise is meant to
improve your ability to quickly recover. In addition to this, it
gives you practice sprinting, getting up to a full sprint as soon as
possible, and transitioning from running in one direction to running in
another.
How far apart should the two points
be? I would use three different distances to be cycled through on
different days, one that leaves you running a short distance, one
that leaves you running a medium distance, and one that leaves you
running a long distance. For the long distance one, the point is to
try and increase your maximum speed. The distance should be long
enough for you to comfortably achieve a full-sprint and maintain it
for a few seconds so that you can try to exceed it. For the medium
distance one, the point is to try and achieve full-sprint more
quickly. The distance should be long enough to just barely be able to
achieve full-sprint. For the short distance one, the point is to
practice transitioning from running one direction to running in the
opposite direction. The distance should be so short that you are more
challenged by changing your direction than you are by sprinting, you
should, of course, still be trying to achieve a full-sprint here
though.
So how about some numbers for what
qualifies as “long,” “medium,” and “short?” Sorry, you
don't get them. Instead of trying to focus on specific metrics in
advance, it is far more useful to understand what the goal to be
achieved is. For the “long” distance sprinting, the goal is to
improve your maximum speed, so you need at least enough space to
achieve a sprint. How much space do you, the reader, need to achieve
this space is something I can't answer, and if you're new to fitness
you likely can't either. So instead, I simply recommend working with
the space you have available to you and marking off distances that
makes sense for the goal at hand. Once you have established your own
set of baseline distances, you can work towards increasing or
decreasing the distances as the case may be.
FAQ Section.
Should I do this exercise? If you have
some kind of heart condition probably not, if you have some sort of
health concern, ask your doctor. You should make no mistake-- this
is a very intense exercise regime. The intensity makes up for the
lack of time we have to prepare.
What should I wear to do this
exercise? I wouldn't wear anything that might break while doing the
exercise, but let me ask you a question that you should consider.
What do you anticipate wearing when you get attacked by racist thugs?
How often should I do this exercise? I
personally run it twice a week, but I also lift weights three times a
week. If you aren't doing anything else you should be able to do it
three days a week and be fine.
How long will it take to see results?
Pretty quickly actually, give it about a month and you will have
significantly improved your ability to recover.
What time should I do this exercise
with respect to eating? I'm glad you asked. If you try this exercise
immediately after eating, you are probably going to throw up
everywhere. On the flip-side, if you haven't eaten in a while you are
probably going to experience low blood-sugar. I usually do this
exercise without having eaten in a while so I keep a single “fun”
sized candy with me. That is all the sugar you need.
How do I run? Stand up from your
chair, right now, and start jogging in place. Notice that you are
essentially bouncing off of the balls of your feet, using the arch of
your foot as a spring to transmit energy to the next “step.” This
is how you run. If, instead, you run with your heel landing on the
ground first and leaping the next step off with your toes, you are
going to develop shin splints which will hurt badly the next day.
I didn't listen and now I have shin
splints and they hurt really bad, how do I fix it? There is a simple
stretch you can do to help fix shin splints. Find a wall or some sort
of vertical surface to prop the front half of your foot on, then lean
in to it. You should feel the stretch at the back of your calves.
Please direct all comments to this Red Marx thread
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