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4 workouts that test the limits of your fitness and strength
Summary
If you have set yourself certain fitness goals for 2025, then you need to do these workouts to find out what your current levels are.
It’s the first month of the year, so all those fitness goals need to be put to the test. Not just a test of how far you can go, but also as a test of how strong you are, so that you can tailor your approach to reach your goals.
Everyone has a pet peeve in their workout routine, and that could range from a whole branch of training, like cardio, or the exercises involved in training a particular muscle group, like the pull-up.
Knowing weaknesses will eventually lead you to maximise your strengths. And these five workouts are carefully curated for you to find out exactly that. Follow along for the right metric.
Balance
In a story I wrote for Lounge nearly five years ago, I stressed on the importance of balance work. Titled, What Your Balance Can Tell You About Your Life Expectancy, it was mainly about how this is one of the most important parts of fitness that people avoid.
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Bad balance means a higher chance of falling and a lower chance of saving yourself when falling, and this is not something that is based just on reflexes or strength, but also on how well you can handle your body when it tumbles.
Jason and Lauren are a relatively new YouTube channel but you should try the very simple list of five exercises in the video above to test your strength and balance. Doing these exercises will reveal your muscle imbalances—which side is stronger, which is not. Which knee is better than the other and which glute needs more opening. This includes some light jumping work, some split squats and a single leg deadlift as well.
Hanging grip strength
Grip strength is extremely important for your training, and even general life activities. While there is still that is not known about the correlation between grip strength and longevity, it is surely a marker of strength and how good your pulling workouts will be.
A Godsofgrip.com article titled, The Surprising Benefits Of Developing A Strong Grip, states that, “having a strong grip can help to reduce the risk of developing injuries, such as tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other repetitive strain injuries. This is because a strong grip helps to improve the stability of the hand and wrist, reducing the likelihood of injury during repetitive or high-impact activities."
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Hand grippers are a great way to start off but there is nothing better than just hanging off a pull-up bar to make sure you increase your grip. Time yourself. Start small with 5-8 second hangs and work yourself up to as long as you can.
Speed work without running
Speed and explosive strength can make your workouts better. It’s even more appealing when you can work on these without running all the time. Eventually, you will have to, but speed’s advantages go beyond a sprint. It will help you make those ab workouts better, by adding exercises like clapping pushups and jumping squats.
A YouTube channel called The Sprint Project are masters at this. They employ six exercises to make you run faster and increase the twitch muscle ability to spring into action.
Their six minute video is extremely useful if you want to know which exercises have an effect on these metrics, and will allow you to find out how far you can push yourself when it comes to increasing the speed on the treadmill. Some of these are quite fun, like sled pushes, and some will work your technique as well, like Romanian dead lifts.
Flexibility
We are not entering the realm of raw strength in this set of workouts. Increasing loads will come with lithe and agile muscles and it happens over time. But it’s important to know how much your muscles can move, before you move enough weight with them. With nearly 900,000 views, Strength Side has an 11-minute follow along drill to test your stretching abilities and even increase them.
It is mainly a mobility routine which also incorporates some hangs, a couple of holds along a wall, and some yoga in a perfect routine for post workout. A quick cooldown with some basic stretches are not enough if you have a long-term plan. You can also do this before a workout with some cardio work to set the body up for what is to come.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator, podcaster and writer.
