10-Day Original Strength + Bodyweight Hybrid Challenge

By Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin

 Disclaimer!
You must get your physicians approval before beginning this or any exercise program. These
recommendations are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult
your physician prior to starting this program or if you have any medical condition or injury that
contraindicates physical activity.

See your physician before starting any exercise or nutritional program. If you are taking any
medications, you must talk to your physician before starting any exercise program, including The
Crawling Challenge. If you experience any lightheadedness, dizziness, or shortness of breath while
exercising, stop the movement and consult a physician.

It is strongly recommended that you have a complete physical examination if you are sedentary, if you
have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, if you are overweight, or if you are over 30 years
old. Please discuss all nutritional changes with your physician or a registered dietician. If your physician
recommends that you NOT use these movements, please follow your doctor’s orders.

All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The editors and publishers advise readers to take full
responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this program, be
sure that your equipment is well maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience,
aptitude, training, and fitness. The exercises and dietary programs in this program are not intended as a
substitute for any exercise routine, treatment, or dietary regimen that may have been prescribed by
your physician.

Don’t lift heavy weights if you are alone, inexperienced, injured, or fatigued. Don’t perform any exercise
without proper instruction. Always perform a warm up before all forms of training.
“How the mighty have fallen!”

- 2 Samuel 1:27
Every generation thinks the coming generation is filled with naught but weak, spoiled sissies.

Ask just about anyone from the Great Depression era or World War II what they think about the modern
generation and odds are you’ll hear “This generation is soft; they don’t know how good they have it”.

The thing is, they’re absolutely right – and on more than one level.

It’s not just the mental toughness wrought from the hard work and constant struggle that typified the
lives of most people from time immemorial to the modern age. As far as physical performance is
concerned, modern men and women are a far cry from our hardcore forbears.

For example:

 Research on the tendon insertions in the bones of the ancient Greeks shows that their tendons
were, on average, 2-3 times thicker than those of modern humans – no doubt due to the daily
hard labor and intense physical culture they subjected themselves to.

 A multi-disciplinary collaborative study between exercise physiologists, historians, and ship

building experts showed that even today’s modern Olympic level rowers couldn’t row a Viking
longship for the time, speed, and distance that ancient Vikings did.

 A study published in 2003 showed that the average caveman had muscularity similar to that of
today’s super athletes. These are not athletes from some pre-historic version of the Olympic
games we’re talking about here. That was the AVERAGE caveman.

The inscription reads “Bybon son of Phola has lifted me over his head with one hand”

Weight of the stone: 316 lbs (143.5 kg)

What happened?

Well, to be fair, a lot of great stuff happened. Our civilization has brought modern conveniences to each
and every one of us, and in the process we simply don’t have to fight to survive on a daily basis
anymore.

Because we’re less physically active now than ever before, some of the nice side effects of a not-so-nice
existence – such as a tough, resilient body wrought from years of hard work – have reversed. We now
have an extremely nice existence with some not-so-nice side effects to go along with it – for example:

 Diseases of luxury, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease run rampant

 According to a recent study in the Journal of Hand Therapy, the average millennial’s grip
strength in their right hand is down by nearly 20 lbs, from 117 lbs to 98 lbs, since 1985 – a 19 lb
(8.6 kg) difference. And since grip strength is a good indicator of other types of strength as well
as other markers of health, this is pretty significant.

In fact, according to another study published in the Lancet, “After adjustment for other factors,
every 5-kg decrease in grip strength was linked to a 16% increase in death overall, a 17%
increase in both cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality, a 7% increase in the risk of
myocardial infarction, and a 9% increase in the risk of stroke”.

So, your parents – who may very well be stronger than you – might actually have an advantage
over you in their health and longevity. And given the rates of obesity, heart disease, and a litany
of other preventable medical issues in our parents’ generation, that does not spell good things
for you!

I’ve even heard it noted that ours is the first generation in memory where we are NOT expected to
outlive our parents.

Naturally, there are a number of factors involved in this, but for all the attention paid to diet, stress
levels, and lifestyle in general, I’m still a big believer in the importance of a rigorous, repeatable daily
exercise routine to fight off the creeping decay we face no matter what. I’m particularly partial to using
plenty of calisthenics.

Why?

Many of the roughest, toughest people throughout history have relied on a steady diet of daily or near
daily high-rep calisthenics movements to give them the winning edge in their strength and conditioning
for their sport. This includes:

 Former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Mike Tyson

 The greatest wrestler who ever lived, The Great Gama

  “The King of Kettlebells” Pyotr Kryloff

 American wrestling legend Dan Gable

The list could go on and on, but you get the picture.

Because working your way up to high-rep sets of calisthenics exercises takes time to do easily – just like
lifting heavy weights – one great way to bridge the gap is to take advantage of the Original Strength
resets and the powerful impact they have on your muscles, joints, soft tissues, and ability to express
your strength while building resilience.

And most importantly, your ability to do them daily with almost nothing but upside.

The OS resets manage to make a powerful impact on how your body moves and channels your strength
WITHOUT interrupting your training with high levels of systemic fatigue (i.e. a feeling of being “burned
out”) like you get with other forms of training.

Seeing as how you already have a basic understanding of the importance of the OS resets, I won’t dig
into too much detail on why they work so well for a challenge like this. We have work to do.

Now, the way this challenge will work is threefold:

1. Modifying existing resets.

Rocking is a great example of this.

By bending the arms as we rock forward and adding a pushup motion to it, you will not only take
advantage of the myriad benefits of rocking – such as improved posture, greater scapular
stability, full-body muscular coordination, mobilization of the wrists, shoulders, hips, knees,
ankles, and feet, but you will also gently add tons of volume to your pressing muscles (triceps,
pecs, and shoulders) while teaching your upper back muscles to come along for the ride.

2. Repurposing existing resets.

Some resets are already genuinely tough, such as hard rolls and dead bugs. In this case, you
don’t need to make much by way of modifications; you just need to aim to do them for high
reps!

3. Adding resets to foundational calisthenics movements.

Certain calisthenics movements can – and arguably SHOULD – be done daily. Among these are
movements such as hip bridges and lunges.

Because the legs often grow stronger with less volume, but still profit from daily attention, you
can take advantage of movements such as hip bridges and lunges by alternating the days on
 which you do them, AND add some bonus benefits to them by adding cross crawls.

Because cross crawls – and indeed all contralateral and midline-crossing movements – help your
body better understand where it is in space, help the two hemispheres of the brain work
together better, and improve your eye-hand coordination and reaction speed, it’s almost a
shame that more people don’t do them as often as possible – including by adding them into
existing movements.

The above 3 methods will work wonders at bridging the gap between the OS resets as simply a
“movement” system designed to free your body to do what you want, and using it as your sword and
shield against weakness and physical decay while simultaneously providing the fuel necessary for you to
more easily call in the “big guns”…

…Namely tougher and more challenging kettlebell and bodyweight workouts!

With all that said, let’s take a look at a few simple rules for this challenge:

 Breathe in and out through your nose ONLY!

And be sure you’re breathing into your belly and letting your air work its way up, rather than the
reverse.

If you get to the point where you can’t do this – i.e. stop breathing in and out through the nose
and into the belly – you must stop your set, catch your breath, and continue only when you’ve
regained your composure.

 Consistency

The resets can (and should) be done consistently – ideally daily, but if you can’t fit it into your
schedule, every other day is still better than nothing.

No matter what, don’t skip workouts you schedule for yourself, and strive to complete every
workout as written.

 Push yourself

Keep in mind – this IS a challenge! So you’ll want to push yourself.

 Stay as relaxed as possible

The tension you feel in your muscles should occur naturally and should not be the result of
conscious effort. This means you won’t want to brace your body as you would before doing a
hard set of heavy kettlebell or calisthenics work.
  Same but different

You’ll be doing the same movements daily, which brings up two issues: monotony and overuse.

Both can be overcome by intelligently applying the “same but different” mentality. An example
of this in the world of kettlebell training is the swing. Let’s say in one workout you do two-hand
swings. In the next one you do one-arm swings. In yet another you do double swings.

In all cases, you are doing swings and are thus getting the benefits of swings – stronger hips and
hamstrings, improved conditioning, and explosive strength.

The same applies to these resets. As you’ll see momentarily, you’ll be alternating them
regardless in any case, but you always have the option of doing the particular reset variation of
the day in a new and challenging way. More on that momentarily.

Before we start the challenge, let’s keep in mind what it is for:

To increase your strength while improving your ability to express the strength you currently have.

To better accomplish this, you’ll want to see where you currently are, and then later test to see how far
you’ve come.

Step 1: Find some metrics

- Test movements that you’re already practicing (ex: presses, rows/pullups/squats, etc)

- Test movements that you’ve not been practicing (ex: Turkish get ups, pushups, leg raises, etc)

The above are only examples, of course – you’ll want to individualize them to yourself based on the
movements you’re currently doing.

Step 2: Commit to the days you’ll practice

Ideally, you’ll want to do this 5 days per week for the next two weeks.

To do this, I would recommend either:

a. Doing it as a stand-alone program

b. Doing it as a finisher to your existing program

My personal recommendation for you would be option B.

If neither of these options is possible, however, you’re welcome to do them on in-between days on your
current program, which may mean a 2-3-day-per-week regimen. I can live with that, and you can still
make big gains from it.
Whatever route you choose, PUT THESE DAYS IN YOUR CALENDAR. Approaching this or any other
challenge haphazardly will give you haphazard results at best. Use your time wisely and set aside the
time to do the moves.

With that said, let’s look at the moves for the challenge.

To watch the whole video end-to-end, click here => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE

Daily warm up

The warm up will be a way of addressing a few things that we all need a bit more of but get very little of.

 Scapular activation

 Shoulder extension (such as seen in the table top drill)

 Hip stability (1 leg rock. This will help you with the lunges and hip thrusts, too)

 Hip mobility (split squat holds help open up the hip flexors a bit)

Click here to watch the warm up demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=11

Rolling movements

It’s been pointed out that rolling is like “neck nods on steroids”. Because there is a strong head and
neck-driven component to each and every rolling variation, make sure that this remains your primary
focus while doing them: leading with the head and neck.

Not only will this make the movements easier, it will make you stronger.

Movements of the head and neck are very strongly connected to movements of the core and back –
hence, the better you drive the movement with your head, the stronger and easier the contraction will
be in your core and back muscles.

 Elevated rolls (there are 4 levels, and some will be more accessible to you than others. Choose
the 1-2 that you can do with no problem while still being challenged)

Video demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=297

 Frog rolls (not everyone’s spinal mobility will allow for these, but at least give them a shot. If
they are not for you, replace them with hard rolls)

Video demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=372

 Hard rolls (the head-driven nature of these are more apparent than in any other rolling variation
– so don’t hold back!)
 Video demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=392

Rocking movements

In the Original Strength workshops, we always like to point out that rocking is where a lot of great stuff
starts happening. Not only is the entire body – from the tips of your fingers to the tips of your toes –
being utilized all at once, but it starts gently (but powerfully) adding real-world strength to your pressing
muscles as well as your back, core, and legs.

There are two basic rocking variations we’ll be using: rocking pushups and Hindu pushups

 Rocking pushup variations demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=441

 Hindu pushup variations demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=483

Core movements

A strong and stable core is like the gatekeeper for strength and athleticism. If you are weak in your
midsection, you will find it harder to transfer forces from your feet to your upper body, which can
torpedo not just lower body movements, but also upper body movements such as military presses, and
athletic activities, such as running, kicking, throwing, and so on – all of which require a smooth and
stable transfer of force from the ground up.

The core is meant to do a number of things, but can be narrowed down to two: stabilize and move.

For stability, you’ll be doing a variation of dead bugs called gait bugs, which more closely replicates the
gait pattern than regular dead bugs.

For movement, you’ll be twisting – namely by doing windshield wipers.

Between the two, you’ll cover a lot of ground.

 Gait bug variations demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=133

 Windshield wiper variations demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=167

Legs/Cross Crawl movements

The #1 thing that stands out to most people about Original Strength is the crawling. But as founder Tim
Anderson has pointed out, life is meant to be lived on two feet.

With that in mind, you should be prepared to be strong on those two feet!

One way to do that is standard OS movements such as marching, skipping, etc.

Another is to inject cross crawls into foundational calisthenics leg movements, such as hip bridges and
lunges.
An added bonus to these movements is that they enforce rock solid technique and get you twisting
more with your upper body – one of the most important movements we as humans can make.

 Hip thrust variations demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=213

 Lunge variations demo => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=587

 BONUS: cross crawl shin box => https://youtu.be/57dwb_XfrnE?t=540

(Odds are the last one will be a little tough for you unless you already have reasonably good hip
mobility. If you do and you want to replace your hip thrust variations with this, you may)

The days will be divided in two ways: Exercise selection and difficulty.

As you’ve seen from the above, there are at least two options in each category. For maximal results,
you will cycle between these two options on a daily basis.

You’ll also have some days where you’ll go light, others that will be medium, and still others that will be
hard.

- For light days, choose a very easy version (or manner of practicing the movement) that will
allow you to do one unbroken set (or close)

- For medium days, choose a variation (or manner of practicing the movement) that will require a
break or two

- For hard days, choose a variation (or manner of practicing the movement) that is difficult for you
and may require more rest breaks.

This approach has multiple advantages, namely by breaking up the monotony, ensuring that you push
yourself in some way each and every workout, but without approaching physical or mental
fatigue/burnout, and also by encouraging your body to adapt and recovery more quickly.

Final important note!

Write down in a journal – either a paper one or in a document on your computer

 Number of sets to completion for each movement

 Amount of time to complete the workout

This will provide invaluable information about the speed of your progress.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

 Day 1 – ‘A’ day – HARD for all movements

 Elevated roll – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Hindu pushups – 50 total reps

 Gait Bug – 50 total reps

 Cross crawl lunge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 2 – ‘B’ day – EASY for all movements

 Frog roll (or hard roll) – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Rocking pushups – 50 total reps

 Windshield wiper – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Cross crawl hip bridge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 3 – ‘A’ day – MEDIUM for all movements

 Elevated roll – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Hindu pushups – 50 total reps

 Gait Bug – 50 total reps

 Cross crawl lunge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 4 – ‘B’ day – HARD for all movements

 Frog roll (or hard roll) – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Rocking pushups – 50 total reps

 Windshield wiper – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Cross crawl hip bridge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 5 – ‘A’ day – LIGHT for all movements

 Elevated roll – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Hindu pushups – 50 total reps

 Gait Bug – 50 total reps

 Cross crawl lunge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Day 6 – ‘B’ day – HARD for all movements

 Frog roll (or hard roll) – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Rocking pushups – 50 total reps

 Windshield wiper – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Cross crawl hip bridge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 7 – ‘A’ day – LIGHT for all movements

 Elevated roll – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Hindu pushups – 50 total reps

 Gait Bug – 50 total reps

 Cross crawl lunge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 8 – ‘B’ day – MEDIUM for all movements

 Frog roll (or hard roll) – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Rocking pushups – 50 total reps

 Windshield wiper – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Cross crawl hip bridge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 9 – ‘A’ day – HARD for all movements

 Elevated roll – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Hindu pushups – 50 total reps

 Gait Bug – 50 total reps

 Cross crawl lunge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Day 10 – ‘B’ day – LIGHT for all movements

 Frog roll (or hard roll) – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Rocking pushups – 50 total reps

 Windshield wiper – 50 total reps (25 per side)

 Cross crawl hip bridge – 50 total reps (25 per side)

Once you have completed all of the above workouts – whether it takes you 10 business days or you do
2-3 of these workouts per week – take a day or two of rest, and when you’re feeling good, re-test your
movements.

First re-test the movements you haven’t practiced in a while. Write down the results.

Then, rest for 10 to 15 minutes and re-test the movements you’ve been practicing more regularly. As
before, write down the results.

I eagerly await your emails about your progress, insights, and recommendations for future participants
in the challenge.

Have fun and happy training!

Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin