Today is Save the Elephant Day. Since this month I am dedicating all my workouts to Conservation Heroes, today’s workout is titled “Life, Love, and Elephants” in honor of Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick.
Daphne Sheldrick was most recognized for her work with orphaned elephants in Kenya. Working with wildlife her entire life, she gained the experience and expertise to open the most successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation center in the world.
Dr. Sheldrick passed away in April, 2018 from breast cancer. In her lifetime, she helped raise over 150 orphaned elephants and return them to the wild. Her life is commemorated in her book titled Life, Love, and Elephants, and the Disney Nature movie Born to be Wild.
Just One More
This workout is known in CrossFit circles as “Death By”. It means you keep adding repetitions until you “die”. But I like to think positively, and encourage us to add “just one more” repetition. So, I call this style of workout “Just One More”.
Each exercise is a whole new round of Just One More. For the first exercise, start by doing one repetition in the first minute. Rest the remainder of the minute. The second minute, staying with the first exercise, you increase to two repetitions. After two, rest the remainder of the minute. Each minute add one repetition, and rest the remainder of the minute. Continue progressing until you cannot complete the number of repetitions in that minute. So, if you completed the 9th minute, but only got 9 reps in the 10th minute, you are finished with that round.
Move onto the next exercise, starting over at your base- 1 repetition the first minute, 2 the second minute, and so on. Finish that round and move onto the third and final exercise.
The beauty of Just One More is the better you get, the longer the workout takes.
Life, Love, and Elephants
Most ZooFit workouts are designed to be bodyweight exercises. But I felt honoring the strength of a true elephant hero, I would create this workout to use with equipment. You can use any equipment you have available to you- dumbbells, milk or water jugs, homemade medicine balls, or sandbags. Have fun and be creative.
Exercise 1 – Crane Lifts
(each side- so, both sides equals one repetition)
Stand tall with weight on one leg. Keep your legs straight, but knees soft, with a slight bend in them. Hold your weight in the same arm as the leg that is off the ground. Hinging only at the hips (keeping chest and back straight), swing the elevated leg back behind you until you feel a good stretch in the hamstrings of your standing leg. Hold your free hand out to the side for balance and lower the weight to the ground. Aim to bring your elevated leg up high enough to draw a straight line across your back to your leg. Once you reach that deep stretch, return the outstretched leg to standing, relax and and change sides, repeating on the opposite leg.
Exercise 2 – Butterfly Sit-ups with Overhead Press
Sit with feet together and knees touching ground. Keeping legs in position, lay down to touch back to ground, holding the weight to your chest. Sit up, straightening back and bringing weight over your head.
Exercise 3 – Zoo-makers
Start by standing with a weight (works best with a ball, but you can modify for any weight). Squat down, like you are doing a burpee and place ball on ground. Jump feet back to plank position. Do an uneven push-up on your ball, or a renegade row with a dumbbell weight. Switch arms and do another on the other side. Jump back to a crouch, pick up your weight, and bring it to your shoulder in a squat (called a squat clean). Stand up and bring your weight over your head. Keeping your elbows close to your ears, bend the elbows to bring the weight behind the head in a tricep move called a skull-crusher.
I’m going to love doing this workout in honor of an awesome conservation hero!