Years ago, I read a story about a strange event in Spain that I was pretty sure. If I am wrong about the place, we will still say Spain. Let's face it, it sounds like something to happen in Spain. There is something called a cow lift. This is an event where males raise a fully grown cow on their shoulders. I guess you could say it's a pretty impressive trick when you think about it. Let's face it, cows are not light. But then he went on to explain how these men lifted these cows. They start when the cow is still a calf. On the first day, the males go to the barn, put the calves on their shoulders and crouch several times.
They come back the next day and repeat the same activity. This continues every day. I think you can say there are two things. First of all, the young calf gets used to someone every day. They become familiar with the routine. The heavier the cows, the stronger the males. When the cow reaches 500 or even 800 pounds, the human can crouch and lift the cow off the ground. Since I am in the healthcare field, I thought it was fascinating when I read the story. I wanted to test this. It was the late 1970s then. Although I live in the country and there are cows that can be lifted, I had to find one right after I was born.
The other problem was that I had to explain to the farmer what I was doing in their field. I had two problems that were very difficult to overcome, especially since I was in school and exercised. So I thought I could do a simple test to prove the theory. So I lay on the ground and did 45 push-ups. I was in good shape. I could have done five more. I didn't want to force myself, so I left some gas in the tank.
Every evening after dinner, I told myself that I would go to my room and take one more push-ups than I had done before. I did. Before long, I was well over 50. Another week passed and I was over 60. My goal was to do 100 correct push-ups without stopping. I wanted to use the military form. Using the cow lift method introduced by the Spanish (or anyone), I easily reached 100. Then I went to 110, then 120. I went up to 130. Once, as part of a $ 20 bet, I made 140 plus steadily. At that point I lost interest in doing push-ups.
But there was no end in sight. In a way, it went from anaerobic exercise to aerobic exercise. It was cut off a few years after my football days in Tulane. Weight loss has become a priority. I wanted to get my six pack back. Instead of tons of sit-ups, I knew from my work in anatomy and physiology that any simple hip flexor exercise that would cause my rectus abdominis to stretch and lengthen repeatedly would give me the desired results when all the fat is gone. So I was doing 100 shuttles every two days.
