A True Measure of Real World Fitness Obstacle Course Races

DVRT Master, Ian Vaughn

The reason Obstacle Course Races (OCR) has become such a phenomenon today is because it truly embraces in conquering our fears. Simply turning that insecure “I can’t” to a confident “ I CAN do this!” Remember Obstacle Course Races are very military inspired (a lot of OCR events are even designed by Navy Seals). So that mindset to conquer and dominate while facing obstacles is very natural way to think during that race. However it’s NOT how we think in our daily lives and especially in our fitness routines.

We’ve all seen it. A friend of yours gets into something fitness orientated and goes a bit over the top, to point where injury is evident. This happens with people getting that first high off Obstacle Course Races. Here’s usually people’s thought process after their first race, keeping the next one in mind:

“I want a faster finish time”
“ I want to step the miles going a 3 mile OCR to a 13 mile”
“ I want to get ALL the obstacles next time”
“ I want to do 5 races by the end of the year”

While these all are very normal responses, it is the actions taken in the workouts that go too far:

-Training with no rest days
-Running on treadmills for hours
-Not focusing on performance
-Rushing into advanced exercises you have no business doing
-Following “fitness models” on social media (trying not to rant on this one)
-No direction, with no experienced coaching and programming

Sound familiar? Our wants can sometimes blind our needs. We need more quality, not quantity with a solid direction of what the goal IS. If you’re marathon type runner and suck at obstacles…you need strength; the last thing needed is more running. If you’re a big guy whole can lift, but can’t climb or crawl…you need strong mobility/stability drills to challenge those positions with your body. A good example of this is a Ultimate Sandbag Bear Crawl rolling into a Leg Thread from the DVRT Obstacle Course Races Training Program.

Bear crawls with a Ultimate Sandbag Training  Drag are one of best exercises for a Obstacle Course Racing athlete. Think of it as a mobile bird dog; which is Dr. Stuart McGill’s favorite exercises from his book Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance (5th edition pgs.224-225).

Keep your spine neutral, core braced, and pulling the USB left to right engages the lats. This is a powerful movement to add to your programming that adds more total body strength and does not compromise your low back. A Stronger core means a stronger a performance in climbing, rolling, carrying, and jumping over obstacles. So even if you’re not into OCRs (at least not yet), you’ll highly benefit these various types of exercises in your daily hobbies.

A big reason I created the DVRT Obstacle Course Races Program is to bring more awareness to our movement patterns. Obstacle Course Races are very well known for athletes getting way too caught up in numbers and how long they can go.

Far too many people think that the best way to train for Obstacle Course Races is either to simply run, or do insanely difficult conditioning (often way too random) workouts. However, like ANY other fitness goal, you need a plan. You need to know how to improve your weaknesses and focus on learning to move better. It is the desire to give the modern OCR athlete that edge and same plan that we would for any fitness success that this program exists and I know you will find it the most thoughtful and well rounded OCR program around. See how you can build a form of real world strength and confidence that you never thought possible before!

And NOW you can get this great NEW DVRT program for 25% off with coupon code “stronger” HERE