Training in the Caribbean

By Jamie Hale

For www.EliteFTS.com

Trying to kill some time before our next flight into Cancun, we visited a bookstore. I was looking at the magazines when Kaz walked in and stood beside me. He stood there looking at the magazines so I now had the opportunity to talk to him. I looked at him and said, “You’re likely to be on one of these magazine covers.” He smiled and replied, “Not anymore.” We talked about a variety of subjects including Barry Bonds; Kaz’s current diet (he said he’s trying to drop his weight to less than three hundred pounds); Pudianawski, a protein supplement that he’s involved with; and his trip to China, where he was hosting World Strongman. In fact, that was why he was at the airport. He was catching a plane to China. Kaz was very talkative and friendly. He also agreed to do an interview for my site. I hope to have that up in the near future. It was looking like it would be a great trip, I told myself. Things were starting off well.


Day 1

When we arrived at the Sunscape Resort, we took our bags to the room and then went down to the beach. We walked around the beach for a while and then checked out the restaurants and other nearby shops surrounding our resort. We came back to the room and ordered room service. Brooke (my wife) ordered three taquitos and a cheeseburger for the two of us. When they brought the food to the room, they brought three taquito dinners and a cheeseburger dinner. They mistakenly thought that she had ordered three dinners when she really had meant three taquitos. Now, the question was should I eat all three dinners. I ate all three taquito dinners with the exception of two individual taquitos. In total, I ate ten taquitos, some black beans, lettuce, sour cream, and tortillas. I noticed that the food wasn’t as spicy as the Mexican food I was accustomed. However, I enjoyed the food very much. We watched television for a couple of hours and went to bed.


Day 2

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. Our first stop was the World Café. The café had a huge buffet with all of the foods that I was used to seeing for breakfast as well as some unfamiliar breakfast items including black beans, red chicken, tortillas, pork, sour cream, wraps, and a few other things. I think I tried everything on the buffet and was very happy with the restaurant’s service. I’m not used to eating a huge breakfast so I was stuffed.

Next, we headed to the beach. We laid on the beach for about 3o minutes, but I was getting bored. I decided to swim out to the ocean rock climbing wall. The wall was about 10–12 feet tall, and it had three different sides for climbing and one side for sliding. I climbed the wall and then jumped off of the top. This wasn’t a good idea because the water surrounding the wall was only about five and a half feet deep. Each time I climbed the wall from that point on I used the slide to come down. The first time that I climbed the wall it was slightly difficult, but with each additional climb, it became easier. It was actually very fun. The wall was anchored, but it did move as you climbed.

My next stop was the ocean trampoline, which was located approximately 30 yards from the rock climbing wall. The trampoline was surprisingly difficult to stand on. It was easier to maintain your balance while bouncing. After about 10–15 minutes, I was pretty good on the trampoline. I liked both the wall and the trampoline, but I probably enjoyed the wall a little more.

I took a temporary break from my ocean workout and walked back to the room to get my wife a bottle of water. On my way back from the room, I decided to check out the resort’s gym. Even though I had already told myself that I was going to stay away from the gym (I was trying to take a break because, after all, I live in a gym), I was curious. It was a small gym but nicely equipped (for a resort gym). The equipment included dumbbells, Swiss balls, bikes, elliptical machines, a lat pull-down, chest press, leg press, and triceps pushdown.

My workout:

·        Incline dumbbell bench

·        Lat pulldown

·        Dumbbell swings

·        Dumbbell snatches

·        Weighted crunches

·        Dumbbell push press

·        Dumbbell power jerk

·        Dumbbell speed shrugs

I performed two sets on each movement with repetitions ranging from 6–15 reps. At the end, I Thai shadowboxed for a few rounds (there was no one in the gym at that time). I got many looks while doing dumbbell snatches. I forgot what it felt like to be in a regular commercialized facility. I was used to training in my personal facility or a similar facility where things such as dumbbell snatches are common practice.

I finally made it back to the beach with my wife’s water. As I returned, she had got up from her chair and was coming to look for me. I apologized and told her I got a little sidetracked. We went to eat lunch at a grill on the beach. The meal was awesome. I won’t go into details about what I ate, but let’s just say that it was a bunch of food and the service was great. While on the subject of meals, I’ll summarize my food experience right now and won’t mention food anymore.

Food summary

I ate approximately 7000–8000 calories per day (I generally eat 2700–3000 cals per day). I ate whatever I felt like while making sure that my fiber and protein intake was adequate (not much of a problem considering my massive consumption of calories). I ate the best fruit that I’ve ever eaten and had a big bowl of fruit with every meal

The foods that I tried for the first time included red chicken, calamari (Mexican style), various desserts, homemade coconut ice cream, steak marinating sauce, and a few other things. After each workout, I had two ice cream cones (there was an ice cream machine on the beach so I could get ice cream anytime I wanted).

I ordered room service at least once per day and ate a buffet at least once per day. I seemed to never get full no matter how much I ate. I drank a bunch of espresso (which really shot up my energy levels).

After we ate lunch, we laid on the beach some more. Then we went back to the room to get out of the sun for awhile. I went back to the gym for my second workout of the day, and my wife rested.

My second workout was basically like my first workout of the day (although I reduced the volume). I spoke to a couple from England about training, and I discussed my regular philosophies about training and nutrition with them. After a few minutes, I figured that they had really lost interest so I stopped bothering them. I finished my workout and retired to my room.  


Day 3

It was another beautiful day, and I basically followed a similar routine as the day before. I conducted two training sessions in the gym. (They were similar to day 1 with a few different exercises such as a low volume, full body workout.) It didn’t take me as long as normal to get warmed up. I had just come from the beach where it was 95 degrees. I was able to jump into my work sets with a very low volume of warm-up sets preceding.

I almost made it out of the gym without going off on one of my preaching episodes. I really couldn’t help it though because I had noticed a large man using the elliptical. He had been on this thing for over an hour. I knew this because I had seen him earlier that day when I was visiting the spa (checking on services for my wife). I talked to him, and he told me why it was important to do cardio. He told me it enhanced fat burning and was a must for bodybuilders who were trying to get lean. Without going into detail about our conversation, I informed him of how wrong he was (in a nice manner). I think my explanation was a waste of time though because he nodded and agreed with most of what I said but still came to the conclusion that bodybuilders needed long durations of aerobic activity to get lean. Obviously, he didn’t grasp what I was saying or he wouldn’t have agreed and then contradicted himself.


My snorkeling adventure was the highlight of my day. I had always been against snorkeling up until then. However, I had seen all of these people snorkeling and thought if they can do it, I’m sure that I can. Brooke and I snorkeled for about an hour. We saw all kinds of fish and different plants. I never thought that I would snorkel, but I was glad I did. As the day went on, we ate some more, watched a show from our balcony, and ate again.


Day 4

On day 4, we were blessed with another beautiful day. I stayed away from the gym on this day. My workout included a rock carrying session and kayaking. The rock carrying was exhausting. I called the workout “100 stone carry.” I moved 100 stones into a pre-determined pile. The stones weighed anywhere from 20–120 lbs and came in all shapes and forms. The heat was exhausting (over 100 degrees). I noticed as I started the workout that I had drawn a small audience. Three girls sat and watched my entire workout. They were speaking to each other in a language that I didn’t understand so I had no idea what they were saying. They probably thought I was a little crazy because everyone else was relaxing while I was putting myself through this grueling work.

I was barefoot while carrying the stones so I had to walk quickly (the ground and rocks were hot) and carefully because I didn’t want to lose a toe. After I finished the workout, I was tired. I laid on the beach for about an hour and then went kayaking. I enjoyed the kayaking, especially when we started moving fast. I always thought it would be easy to turn over in a kayak, however, from my new experience it would probably be rather hard to actually turn over. We kayaked for about 35 minutes and then retired to the beach for more relaxation time. That night we watched a very unique show from our balcony that featured exotic dancing, flame throwing, and entertaining stunt work.


Day 5

We had to leave on our fifth day. Before we had even departed, I was already missing the place. We walked one last time on the beach, took some photos, jumped on the shuttle bus, and headed back to the airport. I was anxious to get home and see my son, Reece. I couldn’t wait to tell him about all of the things that we had done and show him what I had bought him while in Mexico (sombrero, skateboard magazine, shells and rocks from the ocean, and some pesos).


As far as training went, I felt very strong and energetic while in Mexico. It might have had something to do with the high calorie intake and my positive mental state (nothing to worry about, no time schedules, and being there with Brooke). Although I was fatigued for the next couple of days after the 100 stone carry, the travel also probably contributed to the fatigue.

Jamie Hale is a sports conditioning coach, author, gym owner, and fitness and nutrition consultant. He has contributed to numerous exercise and sports publications (nationally and internationally) and has authored four books. He is currently working on his fifth book titled, Protein Essentials: What Every Athlete Needs to Know. Jamie is a member of the World Marital Arts Hall of Fame in recognition of his conditioning work with martial artists. He is considered by most in the industry as a specialist in agility and sledgehammer training and is also known for his ability to get bodybuilders as lean and dry as bone for competition. To learn more about Jamie, visit his website at www.maxcondition.com or contact him by phone at (859) 737-2753. He is available for seminars and camps as well.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.