Warning: if you have a heart condition, consult your physician before watching this video.

This past September, I turned 51.  (By the way, you forgot to send me a present).

And here at the High Intensity Nation, we practice a birthday tradition.  You’re actually not allowed to be part of the Nation unless you observe and practice this ritual.

It’s called the “Birthday Workout”.

The idea is to perform, on each exercise, the same number of reps as your age.  I’m 51, so that means on each exercise in the workout, I had to do 51 total reps.  Obviously, the older you are, the more potential danger there is to this-provided you select weights that will really test you (see the formula we use below). 

In case you’re new around here, here’s how it works:

1. You select 3 exercises, which together more or less cover your whole body.  (For mine, I chose leg press, incline press, and pulldowns).

2. You take your age and divide it by 2, then round up to the next highest whole number.  This is your “target number”.  (51 divided by 2 = 25.5, rounded up = 26 is my target number).

3. You select a weight for each exercise that you think will allow you to just barely reach your “target number” of reps. (For the leg press, I chose 450).

4. You perform as many reps as you possibly can, then rest 30 seconds, then do as many as you can again, then rest 30 seconds, and continue like that until your total number of reps equals your age.  (On the leg press, my workout went like this: 19 reps, then 7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, and 2, with 30 seconds rest between each, for a total of 51.  That’s just an example, each exercise goes a little differently).

5. You follow this protocol for each exercise in the workout.

6. You try not to die at any point during the workout.

7. You do not schedule anything  that requires a lot of movement, or remotely resembles exertion, for the next 5-7 days-because if you did this right, you won’t be able to do it.

After the leg press, I had extreme difficulty getting off the machine, let alone walking to the next exercise, the incline press.

After the incline press, I had to lean backwards to drink my gatorade, because my arms wouldn’t work right.

By the time I finished my last exercise, the pulldown, I was breathing like somebody had just pulled the plug on my respirator, the back of my neck was throbbing, my arms were numb from the elbows down, and I was pretty sure I saw Santa Claus in the gym.

Check out my near-death experience:

(The incline press didn’t come out right on the video, so it’s not shown-sorry, but I wasn’t about to do it again).

Now don’t think I don’t know that you owe me a birthday workout from your last birthday.  You know you didn’t do it.  And I know it too.  The leader of the High Intensity Nation knows all.

Your challenge, if you’re man (or woman) enough to accept it:

Perform your make-up ”Birthday Workout” the next time you go to the gym, and then post a comment here telling us how it went.

Happy belated birthday,

Dave Durell, MS, CCS, PTA

Author of High Intensity Muscle Building