Fitness in a pack: getting more movement with your dog

I've been spending a lot of time around dogs as of late and (as one does) thinking about how to integrate strength and physical wellness into time with our furry four legged angels.

Some are obvious. Go for a walk with your dog, bike while your dog runs on a trail, play tug of war, play tag/keep away, and so forth. Here are a few more inventive ideas.

For walks:

1. Turn it into a ruck by wearing a weighted vest

This one's pretty simple, but it'll give you a little more aerobic work for your money if you're just going around the neighborhood for 30-40 minutes. Depending on terrain, you could drag a light sled or even just some chains behind you instead.

2. Mix loaded carries into your walk

Carry a light kettlebell, club, sandbag, or shot put with you. Don't put it down for the entire walk. Even if your buddy is on a leash the entire time, you can still do single arm overhead, racked, and suitcase carries. With a sandbag it can go over one or both shoulders, or under your arm. With a club, you can do X number of leverage lifts or around-the-head casts with one arm before switching.

A shot can be used for swings as well; but doing curls, wrist curls, and palm-down carries in various positions will give you a ton of grip endurance. If you have a 5lb dumbbell, you can do heavy hands type movements as you walk. It doesn't work as well without a load in both hands, but it's still something to get your heartrate up.

If you don't have any of those implements, just take a cloth bag and pack it with sand. Hold it by the end (no tying or wrapping it around your hand) and carry it the entire way. You can do this with a brick or cinderblock, too.

3. The heavyhands/isometric approach

If you can get two hands free (say, with a waist leash) you can do any sort of self resisted isometric as you walk. Or, exercises with light dumbbells, indian clubs, or hand weights. Same idea as the last one but you can be a bit more complex if you don't have to have a hand on the leash at all times.

4. Mix strength or mobility type movements into your walk

This one is fun. Every time (s)he stops to sniff, do something. 5 pushups, a few cossack squats, one deep squat and shift around until they get going again. On a longer walk this can be a nice little GTG effect with randomized rest intervals.

5. (If you live in the right place)

Same as the last one, but pick up some heavy stones or branches whenever they stop to check something out. Even if a stone is on the smaller side, maybe it's oddly shaped and difficult to grab. How many different ways can you pick it up off the ground? Or put it overhead?

Games of fetch:

6. Fetch + balance/coordination

As your better half (come on, we both know it) returns the ball or frisbee, how are you going to reach down to get it? Generally it doesn't end up right by your feet. Could you jump to it? You can jump off of one or both legs, and land on one or both legs. You can throw the ball underhand or overhand or with both hands as well.

The simple way to start is by doing a single leg deadlift or lateral lunge to get to the ball. Then you can throw it with the same side hand and leg, or use the opposite hand (contralateral). But you can get way more complex. Promise yourself that you won't pick up or throw the ball the same way twice in a row!

Imagine jumping forward off your left foot to land leaning sideways into your right foot, reaching across with both arms to grab the ball and throwing it underhand all without losing your balance. Or jumping backward to land in a split lunge just on the balls of your feet and hinging sideways to pick up the ball. There are so many ways you can do this and make it a great game. If you trust your lawn, you can do rolls/tumbling/crawls to get to the ball as well.

6. Fetch + endurance intervals

You can get a workout similar to Lassie as you go. Right after you throw, start repping out until they touch the ball. Rest until they get back to you. Maybe do a different movement each throw in a circuit.

Throw

pushups

Rest as they pick it up

Throw

lunges

Rest as they pick it up and come back

And so on, and so forth. Fast paced movements like basic calisthenics and kettlebell ballistics work best here.

7. Fetch + heavy stuff

Maybe your canine isn't the type to go all day without stopping. Well, pick a number of throws, perhaps 5 or 6. In between all of these, do some sort of mobility or activation drill if you want. Every 5 throws hit your major movement (squat, press, weightlifting movements, whatever). You could also do a strength circuit and do a set every 2-3 throws. Not as fast paced as the others on this list, but you both get a bit of a rest and it's still an engaging activity for you both.

Let me know how it goes! If you enjoy quality time with your companion, this could be a pretty easy way to encourage yourself to move more with them.