Strength Training in Uzushio

"97..98...99...100." Shin grunted as he dangled from the branch of tree. He was doing pull-ups by using the branch as a bar. "I have to get stronger" he told himself as he hung there, trying to catch his breath. Attached to his legs were his sets of shin weights with his forearm weights strapped around them. He was also wearing a weighted vest to make the total amount of weight about 200lbs. Below him about 3ft was a dried puddle of Shin's own sweat. He panted a bit as he forced his arms to continue pulling. He dropped his chin to his chest as he pulled the back of his neck up to touch the bottom of the branch. This would cause the muscles of his back to work harder than before. "109..110..111" he counted loudly. The speed of his repetitions slowed as he felt his muscles beginning to wear out. He sighed heavily as he let go with his left hand and began to switch grips into a chin-up position. His second hand followed quickly behind as he gripped the branch and began to pull again. "112..113...114...115...116" His biceps and shoulders began to burn more and more as he was now struggling to hold his own weight up let alone continue his chin-ups. He tightened his core as he brought his legs up, simultaneously pulling with his arms as he kipped with his legs to gain momentum "117...118...119...120" he said in a huff of air as he let go of the branch, his heavy feet crashing onto the ground as he shook his arms. "God that burns" he said aloud to himself as he paced around in a circle. His legs had gotten slightly used to the weights but his upper body still needed work. "Gotta keep working..gotta keep getting better" he told himself as he prepared to continue his training.

He shook his arms out as he looked up at the branch again. He jumped up towards the branch again, grabbing it and just hanging there for a moment. He inhaled and exhaled sharply as he tightened his core and lifted his legs up until his feet were about waist level before dropping them. He continued this motion, grunting with each repetition as he worked his core. At the 40th rep he stopped and took another deep breathe and let his legs dangle freely before he hoped down. He needed to let is core rest as he focus on his breathing, bent to the side to stretch his core a bit before he hoped back up on the branch. He grunted as he tightened his arms and his core, bending his legs as he brought them up and bent backwards, getting his feet to touch the branch before dropping back to the idle position. Once again he repeated this, pushing his body to keep going as he felt the burning throughout his core. He paused once more. Sighing and taking another deep breathe before doing a few scissor kicks, making sure to constantly keep his core tight as he finished out his work out. At this point he didn’t care about repetitions, he was just going with the flow until he felt a decent burn in his muscles. Pretty soon he found himself unable to even lift one leg above his waist. He hopped down and immediately fell to his butt. He laid down on his back and gave his body time to rest and he tried to control his heavy breathing. The sweat on his back caused the mud dirt to stick to him. He sighed in a annoyed way. “I need to take a shower or something…” He said as he forced himself to get up as he left the tree to rest and train another day.