JUDO: Body weight workouts and the late Woody Strode

The Body weight exercises have left me sore but I was up again this morning and knocking out more Hindu Squats along with other body weight exercises. I used these exercises to help get back in shape after an illness I suffered from a couple of years ago. (A story I will share at a later time) I have also started a push up training program which I have incorporated into my work out. There is nothing like bodyweight exercises to boost confidence, motivation, and improve athleticism.

A proponent of body weight exercise was athlete turned actor, Woody Strode, who was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. During his time in high school/junior college Strode began doing pushups, knee squats, and situps daily. Strode worked up to 1000 reps of each exercise. The situps and squats were done continuously and the pushups were done in sets of 100 and was done everyday, that would take an incredible level of concentration. He tapered back his workouts as he got older, although 500 pushups a day for the most part is not tapering back, but he continued to train hard the rest of his life.

"I’m an old man, but life will never make an old man out of me. As long as you look like you can run on Santa Anita’s race track, even if you take last, you’ve still made the field. People see that horse and wonder what it is doing out there. They don’t know its 100 years old. Well, this is how nature has left me, so it is good." - Woody Strode