Most difficult athletic exercise you've ever done?

[Coeur]

Difficult can mean most work overall/most strenuous work.

For me it was what I did today. I swam over a mile in the ocean and ran over two miles on both soft and hard sand. They alternated- so I'd swim however far, and then run and then swim again. It was the hardest 58 minutes of my life.

 

[scantilyclad]

riding bikes uphill is always pretty hard to me.

but i can imagine i'd probably die after what you did. I'm not in very good shape.

 

[metaphours]

your mother

 

[wolfy]

One hour of Barbell squats with the band through the belt.

 

[professor goodstain]

a 15lb rubber jump rope for maybe 5mins tops.

 

[Coeur]

One hour of Barbell squats with the band through the belt.

That looks like a torture device.

your mother

 

[INA]

Some serious yoga.

 

[metaphours]

^ i've heard yoga get's really intense at some points and you actually start sweating and stuff lawl

 

[Coeur]

^ i've heard yoga get's really intense at some points and you actually start sweating and stuff lawl

True! I'm lazy and do relaxation yoga that's less intense. I'm just a beginner.

 

[Feops]

The most grueling exercise I've ever performed was back in high school. They established two lines, and your goal was to get from one line to the other before a tone sounded. Then you would run back before it sounded again. If you missed two in a row you were 'out'.

At first the pace was very casual. You could walk the distance. Rather slowly it shortened the intervals, to slow jogs, then a brisk jog, then a run, then a sprint. By the end you were sprinting full out with no breaks to make each interval until it finally outpaced you.

I'm not unfamiliar with exhaustion, but the feedback from this particular exercise was something else. My legs felt like hot lead, almost boiling up from the inside, I was nausiated, and my lungs felt unable to pull enough air. It was a type of fatigue a level beyond what I can normally push myself to.

 

[metaphours]

The most grueling exercise I've ever performed was back in high school. They established two lines, and your goal was to get from one line to the other before a tone sounded. Then you would run back before it sounded again. If you missed two in a row you were 'out'.

At first the pace was very casual. You could walk the distance. Rather slowly it shortened the intervals, to slow jogs, then a brisk jog, then a run, then a sprint. By the end you were sprinting full out with no breaks to make each interval until it finally outpaced you.

I'm not unfamiliar with exhaustion, but the feedback from this particular exercise was something else. My legs felt like hot lead, almost boiling up from the inside, I was nausiated, and my lungs felt unable to pull enough air. It was a type of fatigue a level beyond what I can normally push myself to.

pretty much all high schools do this

 

[scantilyclad]

honestly i never had to do that. and i'm very happy about that.

 

[A Schnitzel]

Most difficult? A matter of perspective. I was watching a show about a 600lb woman who had to deal with getting inside a van so that she could get driven to gastric bypass surgery. She was crying, complaining, telling the cameraman she couldn't do it. She even did a few prayers. It took so long that I changed the channel. I still don't know if she was able to get inside the van.

I don't know what would have been considered my most difficult, but possibly my 8th place at the 112km provincial road race championships where it was 5C and pouring rain. I was able to stay near the front of the pack most of the day and cover attacks. I had some cramps 80km into it, but was able to soft pedal for a minute or two and the cramps went away. I would have been able to do better than 8th in the sprint, but all I needed was a top 10 to upgrade to the next category and didn't want to risk cramping. There weren't any mountains to climb, but there were large rolling hills most of the way through. When I finished the race I was almost hypothermic. We averaged 41km/hr.

 

[Sniffles]

I guess that'd be running up and down stairs every minute for 8 hours straight for several months in a row at my last job. My legs were so swollen I got barely could stand or walk.

 

[Wiley45]

Plyometrics was difficult for me.

 

[Halla74]

Wow. What a question for me.
Oh boy.

I guess the two that stick out most in my mind immediately upon asking are:

(1) High School Wrestling Practice (Oh my GAWD! They kicked our asses!)

(2) My Leg Workouts at the Gym - I can't walk straight for days after I work my legs, sometimes (maybe twice per year) I even end up barfing during the workout I am so completely hacked out and over-exerted. I don't screw around.

 

[Usehername]

[YOUTUBE="T9AajQn7b18"]Miracle[/YOUTUBE]

(The ending scenes where they're all throwing up from the physical exertion... I've never been pushed that far, but I've experienced (distinctly lesser) forms of this while participating on sports teams.) It's all about the repetitiveness of the drills, and it sucks when people start vomiting.

 

[A Schnitzel]

Oh yeah. I've had vomiting during training rides. It's not a direct product of physical exertion, but has more to do with how strong your digestive system is and what you ate before the workout.

 

[FDG]

I would have said that it was certain parts of mountain climbing, because other than the physical fatigue, there was mental fatigue due to paying a lot of attention where to put your feet. However:

I don't know what would have been considered my most difficult, but possibly my 8th place at the 112km provincial road race championships where it was 5C and pouring rain. I was able to stay near the front of the pack most of the day and cover attacks. I had some cramps 80km into it, but was able to soft pedal for a minute or two and the cramps went away. I would have been able to do better than 8th in the sprint, but all I needed was a top 10 to upgrade to the next category and didn't want to risk cramping. There weren't any mountains to climb, but there were large rolling hills most of the way through. When I finished the race I was almost hypothermic. We averaged 41km/hr.

If we also consider weather conditions as a part of difficulty, the worst day of my life was when I climbed a pass in the dolomites up to 2200 metres during a race (hardest race of the year, 210 kms and over 4000 metres of uphill); it was raining at the start (500 metres) and 12° C; near 1500 it started to light snow, but as long as we were going uphill it wasn't so bad. At the top, I had to descend for 25 km with the first 12 under snow and freezing rain. Most people risked falling simply because were were all trembling really hard (it was the end of june, so this weather was quite unexpected). After that, I didn't touch my bike for 1 month.

 

[Feops]

honestly i never had to do that. and i'm very happy about that.

To be fair to my teachers I was under no pressure to push myself that hard. I was having a very "on" day and decided to see how far I could take the exercise. It was only after finishing and winding down that I felt the nasty feedback.


In a more general sense, I wonder if soldiers and athletes experience that particular sensation. I can certainly see soldiers being repeatedly pushed beyond their normal limits of fatigue.