Natty Power

If you want to become really tough, go work with timber.

Training as a lumberjack will be hard, but very effective. Handling heavy logs is similar to handling heavy stones in previously explained caveman style. There are lots of fake and wrongly named “lumberjack workouts” on the Internet, but this is the real deal, with no fancy stuff whatsoever. Just remember, you must always wear thick sturdy clothes, safety boots and leather gloves in the forest.

• Impact: Wood chopping is an excellent activity for development of explosive power. It will also build toughness throughout the whole body. Just be very careful if you decide to actually chop wood with a real axe. To play safe, rather use a sledge hammer to hit logs.
• Olympic Lift: Find a long heavy log and lift one end in style of Olympic weightlifting. The other end should stay on the ground all the time for stability and to achieve that, the log should be longer then height of your fully extended arms upwards. If you can’t find a log of sufficient length, use smaller one and lift it in Olympic style, just like you would lift a sandbag.
• Carry: Pick up a heavy log and carry it for time or distance. Change holds for variety, switch between Zercher hold, bear hug, shoulder hold and overhead hold.
• Push-Pull: Take a big crosscut saw or folding hand saw and start sawing logs energetically. Push and pull the saw over full range of motion. Regularly alternate arms to achieve balance. For example, you can count strokes and switch arms at some fixed number, like 20 strokes with left arm, then 20 strokes with right arm and so on.
• Jump: Try to reach a low horizontal branch by jumping up and then pull yourself up. If pullup is too hard for you, just hang on the branch for time. Repeat these jumps several times. If you feel energized, you can continue climbing the tree. Never go up too high, because it could be dangerous. Then go down and climb again few times.

Congratulations, now you can offer your newly acquired lumberjack skills to old people in the neighborhood. Chop some firewood for them and expect cookies in return.