Every once in a while, someone sends me a workout challenge that I love so I much I have to steal it. Reader Ed, wrote in about his recent “coin flip” workout bonus. It’s basically Two-Face’s challenge with the Joker in the dark night, but with fitness.
In the words of the Joker, its a way to “introduce a little anarchy” into your workout.
Here it is:
An example: I was in Greece in April, with my wife’s family, it’s warm but the Med is cold, after alot of wine/ouzo and food I insisted on an evening dip in the sea, it wasn’t warm! I went back to the in law’s house and took an unheated outside shower. after 5 minutes, I tossed a coin, I lost, I stayed under for another 5 minutes, I tossed a coin, I lost, I stayed under for another 5 minutes.
I tossed the coin again. I lost again. Luckily I recognised I was now borderline hypothermic and got out. I wrapped up and went to bed, my body was seriously cold several hours later, my wife was not happy!
Joel’s note: please don’t die of hypothermia.
I use the coin toss with all my workouts now, if I have 4 sets planned , I toss a coin at the end, it’s it is heads, I win a bonus extra set, if it is tails, I lose and go home.
I think it important to accept discomfort and unpredictability as normal and accept “unfairness”. I wasn’t particularly happy at 0445hrs today after 4 sets, when the coin was “Heads”, but I got that shit done and now today’s 4 set base line is tomorrow’s 5 set base line. The body is stronger than the mind but the mind is easier to f*ck with.
The thing I liked the most about this is that by the end of this, Ed had made the flip. Getting the bonus set was a win. Going home is a loss.
What do you think?
I’ve incorporated this into my sprint workouts recently. It sucks. So naturally, you should give it a shot.
I liked it when Ed said “I wasn’t particularly happy at 0445hrs today”!
It reminded me of Jocko Willink and his habit of waking up “before the enemy”, which is usually somewhere around 4:30 AM.
I’ve been doing something similar to this. If I start a workout and I have a predefined number of reps and sets in mind, for every “cheat” I allow myself to take I have to do an extra set next time. Needless to say that I have to reset this rule a few times during a full month.