Last week I had the opportunity to watch a bit of the American Freestyle Bull Fighting Championships on Outdoor Life Network. I’ve played a lot of tough guy sports. I have lifted a lot of very heavy things. Things that most people are afraid to try. I have been a fighter and that is a difficult issue. But these guys could take the cake.
I will briefly explain what they do. Many of them work as rodeo clowns, which means their job is to protect bull riders from being killed by distracting a 2,000-pound bull. One of the biggest, baddest, and possibly deadliest animals on the planet. In free bullfighting there is no cowboy to protect, only the bullfighter in the ring with the bull alone. In freestyle bullfighting, they use smaller Mexican fighting bulls, probably 800 pounds or more. It is bloodless. They don’t kill the bulls like the Mexican matadors. The bullfighter gets points for cleverly dodging the bull around the ring for about a minute. The closer and more dangerously you dance with the bull, the higher score you get.
Things like jumping over the bull while running towards him, “pass through”, where you sidestep the bull while your back is turned, grab the bull by the horn and jump with it, etc. A bullfighter absolutely amazed me. To start his round, he turned his back on the bullpen, as the bull came roaring out, he jumped on purpose allowing the bull to hit him in the calves and had him back somersault over the bull’s body as he ran under him. No fear at all. Think about that the next time you get a little nervous trying to pull off a good PR campaign or do a little sparring. Talk about tough. One guy broke his wrist during the first part of his round in a little close encounter with the bull. He didn’t even consider calling the round short, he just kept going. Think about that the next time you have discomfort and pain.
These are guys whose lives depend on their body’s ability to move. Their conditioning and agility, as well as nerves of titanium and they’re probably tougher than smart (I know a lot of us who are guilty of that), so we’re going to dedicate a little training routine to them.
One of the things they did during the show to demonstrate the different moves was to grab a small two-wheeled pushcart or wheelbarrow and pretend they were the bull. This allowed them to use an implement that moved like a bull (the butt has to turn to turn the front), and slowly demonstrate the different dodges the bullfighter makes. I was struck by how cool it would be to have that kind of agility in real life. Excellent for fighters and athletes because it is very applicable to what you do, that is, moving in the ring or on the field of football or self defense, basketball, baseball… or whatever. Also how could this be combined into a routine to help build those qualities of quickness, balance, coordination, control, agility, along with conditioning and strength.
This is how we will do it. We’re going to combine heavy weight lifting, an alternate conditioner, and the “bullfighter” agility drill. So the first part of this training; choose a heavy barbell exercise that you would like to do for singles. This could be squats, presses, deadlifts, whatever. You’re going to do a warm-up set or two, as well as some light jogging, general movement to warm up and work up a sweat. From there, you’ll do 5-10 progressively heavier singles. Between each one you do 30 to 60 seconds of the bullfighter’s agility drill. Move back and forth as fast as possible. If you have a small dolly and a partner, you can do this by simply having your partner chase you with the dolly. Now dodge, but stay close. Don’t run out of it. Work on your lateral agility, being able to change direction, body positions and the feet you launch with. Kind of like a sprint, but just a few steps in each direction and then change directions immediately. If you don’t have a pushcart but have a partner, you can improvise this by simply having the partner chase you or chase you with a stick. (I guess the bigger the stick, the faster you move. LOL), don’t go out and hit yourself, just get a good move. If you don’t have a partner, imagine being chased and move on.
End the routine by choosing an alternate conditioner, i.e. a bodyweight exercise, a kettlebell exercise, a Indian stick move or mallets or cable pulls, etc., and do 5 sets of that combined with 5 rounds of the exercise of agility of the bullfighter.
In this workout you’ve lifted weights, done a lot of reps, and developed some athletic qualities. You should be sweating like a horse and desperately out of breath if you’re doing it right.
Have fun and no complaints. Sometimes we all need to toughen up a bit.
As a side note, this routine might seem a bit funny, especially for you powerlifting guys. I can hear you now, “What kind of silly routine is this?! Do you want us to pretend WHAT!? I only do heavy lifting… I’m too macho to do anything else.” Well, try it. The drill itself is really a sprint-type agility drill based on a simple movement. See how much you can lift when you’ve just run back and forth for 45 seconds and your heart is beating at 180 beats per minute. The good thing, though, is that if you do this a few times, you can lift quite a bit when you get used to it and your heart becomes efficient. This conditioning continues. You will feel it. The whole routine shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes and you get strength and cardio at the same time.
