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Outside Magazine May 2004

Bodywork Special
Fitness Is an Adventure
Here's the deal: Ten breakthrough workouts from the best fitness experts and coaching pros around. Great tips for nutrition, gear, and fine-tuning your form. Killer ideas to keep you motivated. Ten high-performance meals you can prepare in less than ten minutes. It's everything you need to start fresh, keep your options wide open, and realize your fitness dreams.

By Paul Scott

It's all about freedom.

Been chained to a one-dimensional training plan? Has your adventure prowess devolved into a plodding routine of joyless duty? Friends, it's time for a regimen change in America; it's time to set yourself free. "To be prepared to do a variety of activities, you need to be athletic and variable in your training," says Scott Bennett, trainer to Olympic track-and-field athletes. "You need to keep the body challenged and not get locked into one static method of exercise. That way, you'll be able to explode when you want to."

Whether that means trail running, climbing, biking, kayaking, or whipping yourself into beach-worthy shape, we've laid out the tools to make it happen. Give credit to the Outside Fitness Brain Trust—the very best trainers, coaches, and athletes, all with decades of experience in their fields—who helped us compile the ten essential systems of athleticism and ten corresponding workouts to improve your strength, skill, and stamina. This team isn't just blowing smoke up your shorts; the exercises, drills, and techniques are athlete-tested and field-proven, whether your goals are endurance, speed, power, flexibility, recovery, or all of the above. We present them in optimal order—for instance, it helps to train smaller support muscles before maximizing your bigger power centers—but you can mix and match these workouts in any arrangement to meet your needs.

Gimme 20
Want to learn more about adventure-sport conditioning? Ask Paul Scott, author of Outside's award-winning "The Shape of Your Life." Scott answers readers' exercise, nutrition, and injury-prevention questions in his weekly Fitness Q&A column.
What—you just wanna get buff? Please note world champion surfer Andy Irons, our fitness adviser and cover icon: ripped, yes, but also in the kind of shape that lets him play hard every day. "And going out every day is one of the best ways to stay motivated," Irons says. Cantaloupe biceps and cobblestone abs are great, but they don't mean much if they don't open the door to a lifetime of fun. Think of it as your freedom physique. Now, let's get started.

#1] Endurance: Widen Your Horizon

#2] Core Strength: Stay Centered

#3] Flexibility: Bend, Don't Break

#4] Integrated Strength: Stand your Ground

#5] Classic Strength: The Big Push

#6] Explosive Power: The Crux Move

#7] Speed: The Rush

#8] Eccentric Strength: Take Total Control

#9] Agility: The Light Fantastic

#10] Recovery: Downtime

PLUS: Ten-minute meals and DO IT LIKE THIS: An online-exclusive exercise glossary, featuring photo demonstrations of workout essentials.