Finish Him!

This industry has to be one of the few where folks are actually looking for pain. Some people think that if they aren’t writhing on the floor covered in sweat and cursing the Gods at the end of their workout that it wasn’t good enough. While I don’t necessarily agree with this sentiment, what kind of mean ‘ol Scrooge would I be if I didn’t give them what they want?

Enter The Finisher

Doesn’t that just sound like the name of some 300 pound rock solid guy fresh out of the joint ready to shank you? But I digress.

So, Rog Law, what exactly is a finisher? I thought you’d never ask! A finisher is a great way of topping off your workout with a little special treat at the end, all while bumping up the intensity and building some mental toughness during the process. If you find yourself ending your workout looking just as purty as you did when you started it, then adding a finisher from time to time is something you want to consider.

Submitted for your viewing pleasure, below you’ll find footage documenting my near death experience with a finisher as well as the reason behind my current stance on them.

Now some might watch these videos and get all hyped up, imaging how fun it must have been to do something like this. Me? Not so much. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that this finisher took at least 7.6 years off of my life as well as about 100 points away from my street cred on the internet. My point is this: match the finisher up with your current level of fitness, and make sure that you like it enough to want to do it again at some point in your life.

Here are a few ways different ways I like to approach them.

Timed Sets

This is one of my favorite methods to use with my clients. All you do here is pick 2-4 exercises and perform them in circuit style fashion, with minimal rest between each exercise, for a specific time limit (say 10min).

I enjoy these because they bring out the competative side of me. The first time you perform one of these, it’s to get the hang of it and set the benchmark. The second time though? Oh it’s on like Donkey Kong in a purple thong running a telethon because your goal is to do more work in the same amount of time than you did before. Here is an example finisher that follows these guidelines:

A1) Dumbbell or Kettlebell Swings – 5 reps per arm
A2) Medicine Ball Slams – 10 slams
A3) Pushups – 5 reps
A4) Jumping Jacks – 25 reps

Say that you managed to complete 6 rounds of every exercise in this circuit – great. Now the next time you perform this same workout, anything over 6 rounds is considered an improvement. If you want to progress, simply add more reps, more resistance, less rest time, or a combination of all of these.

Straight Sets

For this type of finisher, you go in knowing exactly how many sets of an exercise (or series of them) you are doing, so on those days where you just aren’t up to the task of pushing yourself these would serve as a good option. Here is me dropping some knowledge on you:

A)  Farmer’s Walks – 3 x 50 yards
B) Bear Crawls – 3 x 50 yards
C) Sprints – 3 x 100 yards

With this, you would perform all 3 sets of an exercise before moving on to the next one.

So, have you done any finishers lately? If so, what have you done? Share your experiences in the comments section and let’s see what kind of ideas we can come up with together.