Cairo, Egypt. Summer of 1985.
I had been in the Middle East a few weeks, picked up a parasite and went on the “Egyptian Weightloss Special.” I was hurting, but still did what I had to do each day.
After a few weeks, I started feeling miles better (although I would have health issues for about three more years) and decided that I needed to start working out. We had been doing a lot of tours…not just the sites, but lots of schools and ministry things…and so I felt that I was getting my walking in. I also discovered that 120 degree heat seems to encourage me to swim a lot.
A year or so before, I had been at Portland State for studies and I had done some O lifting in their gym, a great place at the time, but on weekends and many weekdays, I simply couldn’t get to lift. So, I started doing these long “horse stance sits,” basically a wall sit or isometric squat, lots of ab work (you can invent thousands of things) and a far amount of old fashioned pushups.
In Egypt, I started doing the same thing. Pushups have the ability to make you work anywhere, any time. Soon, I did a dip variation with my corner table and a chair and, honestly, in a few days I could see nice things happening.
Pavel has a book, “Naked Warrior,” simply about the one legged squat (Pistol) and the Pushup…one handed. His point is that you can get a lot done with very, very little. I found the same thing. You know, most of us “live in Egypt.” We think that because we don’t have bumper plates, the best O bar, a platform and the world’s greatest coach…we can’t learn to do a Power Clean.
I say you can.
So, when on the road, either: take a few days off, or, make do. Some of the best workouts I have ever had have been in the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas with a 50 dumbbell. Just keep doing swings, snatches and presses without putting it down for as long as you can…