Me lugging a propane tank into the town center of Savusavu, Fiji.
“Hey! *YOU* should be protecting *US*!” ~ Group of NYPD Officers to Me in NYC, Circa a Long Time Ago
Back in the day I was a bodybuilder.
I have the fitness bug.
Always have.
I started playing basketball as a 5 year old.
I played through the junior college level.
So the fitness thing has always been in me, and the strength obsession began budding rapidly when I was in college.
I have since slimmed down to Olive Oil like proportions – at times – during my world travels compared to TOM (The Old Me) but can still put on a halfway decent feat of strength.
Especially when I NEED TO put on a feat of strength, for survival purposes.
Without further delay…..
1: Carrying the Week’s Groceries 3 miles into the Jungle in Buena Vista, Costa Rica
My hamstrings screamed at me.
I was on the verge of puking.
Sweat poured down my entire body, forming a torrential slick reminiscent of Niagara Falls.
My forearms were on fire, burning from the immense weight I lugged around like a Gringo Pack Mule.
Sans groceries. Starting the mile long downhill hike in Buena Vista. Yeah. The Easy Stuff.
Kelli called me her Gringo Sherpa.
I’d carried our grocery for the week – approximately 6 bag’s worth – through:
- 4 jungle streams
- 90 degree temperatures
- 90 percent humidity
- mud that sunk knee deep in some areas
AND…..I had to carry the bags up a mile high hill with a 30% grade in some spots.
After abusing the piss out of my body as a physique model and bodybuilder this feat is far and away the most brutal, ass-busting, excruciating thing I’ve ever done in my life.
It’s one thing to walk with a shit load of groceries for 3 miles.
It’s quite another to walk 1 of those miles up a hill that rose at a 30% grade in the most steep, brutal, devastating spots.
Thank God I only had to do this once weekly.
2: Carrying 2 Full Sized Suitcases Up a 40% Grade Mountain for 20 Minutes then Carrying 1 of the Cases 2 and a Half Hours into Town in Buena Vista, Costa Rica
I almost blacked out.
After my back went out the prior week and my body completely broke down I spent the entire week laying down in a hammock.
I walked for roughly 2 minutes each day.
To visit the outhouse.
I literally spent every waking and sleeping minute gaining my strength for this monumental task during the prior 7 day stretch.
My nutrition had been poor.
No fridge = dry food, water, some spinach from the grounds.
I’d lost 15 pounds.
No real protein.
So when I hit the 40% grade slope, with rocks, tree roots, mud and bullet ants, having to CARRY both big old, 44 pound suitcases in each hand, my body and mind screamed at me to STOP STOP STOP YOU MORON!!!!!!
I carried on.
My lungs were on fire, feeling like they’d been seared white hot inside of an industrial furnace.
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My legs burned up so much I teared up in agony, thinking Satan himself fanned the flames of the unbelievably intense fire burning in my sticks.
After this 20 minute savagery I carried and rolled my suitcase for the remaining 2 hours into town through jungle terrain that made the Amazon Basin look like Route 66.
That’s a 44 pound piece of luggage.
And in some spots – like through those jungle streams – I had to carry Kelli’s 44 pound suit case too.
3: Lugging a 70 Pound Propane Tank 3 Miles into Town Savusavu, Fiji
The picture up top explains.
We could have called a cab.
Or I could get a vigorous Fijian workout.
I went with the latter.
Note how I crammed said propane tank into a liliputian backpack.
Standing in a Nicosia, Cyprus alley. Not looking strong or weak. Just right?
Like a stuffed sausage.
My shoulders were ablaze, burning with a white hot intensity usually observed during nuclear blasts.
I made it.
I pussed out on the return trip, hailing a cab to bring the full propane tank home.
How have you taken it to the limit on the road?
What feats of strength can you share with us?
