Years ago, I read a story about a strange event that I’m pretty sure went on in Spain. If I’m wrong about the place, we’ll say Spain anyway. Let’s face it, this sounds like something that would happen in Spain. There’s a thing called cow lifting. This is an event where men actually lift on their shoulders a full grown cow. I guess you could say it’s a pretty impressive trick when you think about it. Come on, let’s face it, cows ain’t light. But then the piece went on to explain how these men lift these cows. They start off when the cow is still a calf. The men walk into the barn on day one, put the calves on their shoulders and squat up and down several times. The next day, they go back in and repeat the same activity. This goes on day in and day out. I guess you could say two things happen. First off, the young calf gets used to someone handling it every day. They get familiar with the routine. As the cows get heavier, the men become stronger. Once the cow reaches 500, or even 800 pounds, the human can squat down and lift the cow off the ground. Being in the health field, I thought the story was fascinating back when I read it. I wanted to put it to the test. It was the late 1970s at the time. Though I lived out in the country and there were cows available for lifting, I would have to find one right after it was born. The other problem was I would have to explain to the farmer what I was doing in their field. I had two problems too difficult to overcome, especially since I was in school and playing sports. So I figured I could come up with a simple test to prove the theory. So I got on the floor and did 45 pushups. I was in good shape. I could have done another five. I didn’t want to strain myself, so I left some gas in the tank. I told myself every evening after dinner I would go into my room and do one more pushup than I had done before. That I did. Before long I was well over 50. Another week passed, and I was over 60. My goal was to do 100 correct pushups without stopping. I wanted to use the military form. I reached 100 with ease using the cow lifting method set forth by the Spaniards (or whoever it was). Next I went to 110, then 120. I made it all the way to 130. Once, as part of a $20 bet, I did 140-plus without stopping. At that point I lost interest in doing pushups. But there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. It went from anaerobic to aerobic exercise in a way. Cut to several years later, after my football days at Tulane. Weight loss became a priority. I wanted to get my six pack back. Instead of tons of situps, I knew from my study in anatomy and physiology that any simple hip flexor exercise that would cause my rectus abdominis to flex and lengthen over and over would give me the desired results once all the fat was gone. So once every other day I would do 100 situps. Once I lost most of the subcutaneous fat, I began to see the fruit of my labor. Then it happened again. I started reading something. It was in a magazine that talked about a guy who did 2,000 situps. I can’t remember how often he did it. But that was his magical number. I thought back to the Spaniards and their bovine practice. I also thought about my own laboratory back in my bedroom, where I put the theory to the test. Could I possibly use the same approach? Could I do 2,000 nonstop situps? I was willing to try. On day one, I did 100 situps. On day two, I did 110. I added 10 situps every day without fail. Before long I was at 500 situps a day. With ease I made it to 1,000, then 1,500. Soon I was at 2,000 with no problem. Well, there was one problem. Once I got into the high numbers I would often wear a brush burn into my tailbone. That was always fun, especially taking a shower after I was done. Nothing like fresh water on a brush burn. I told you that to tell you this. I was having lunch today with one of the greatest authors this country has ever known. He’s also a new contributor to this blog. He’s my good friend, Dean Lorey. By the way, I have a funny story about Dean. He’s lost so much weight that he was visiting a celebrity friend, Damon Wayans, and the star noticed Dean had lost a lot of weight. Dean told him he lost the weight by eating lots of vegetables. He showed up at his house days later, and found vegetables everywhere. That’s right, he went on a Dean Lorey diet. But I digress. Dean was telling me over lunch about this new app called Two Hundred Situps. Put in the words Two Hundred, not 200, if you’re looking for it (Or check out the previous link on the Apple iTunes Store). From what I can tell from the app, it’s like lifting a cow. And that ain’t no bull.
