Enamait - Budget Training

With a large population moving away from the commercial gym setting, there is always a demand for training ideas while on a budget. Ross Enamait has pulled together a lot of his personal resources and indexed many of his great articles and tips into one resource for budget training. Here's the article: Ross Enamait: Budget Training

Bridging Part I: Releasing the Parking Break

Strong and flexible hip flexors are a necessity in today’s growing "functional" fitness market. As more and more people are finding the value in dynamic fitness movements, it is essential that you spend some time on your own personal powerhouse - your hips. Jeff Martone has written another excellent article on how to do just that. Check it out! Bridging Part 1

Jump Stretch Band Articles

Here are a bunch of nice articles for those who use JS Bands in their training. I ran across this site the other day and found some useful information that I have never seen before. PerformMax JS Band Library

The “88lb. Pull-Up Challenge”

Here is a link to an article by Jeff Martone's about the “88lb. Pull-Up Challenge.” The article shows how he worked up to the event despite a hectic work schedule and little time to train and prepare. If you keep it simple you can make gains even when life is stressful. 88lb Pullup Challenge

Bodyweight Exercise Library

Here is an excellent post from Fighting Arts Forum that indexes a lot of the bodyweight exercise tutorials on the internet. It's quite long but worth the read. "A lot of people have been asking about exercises that can be done with no equipment or with minimal equipment. In the absence of a really good website listing such exercises, I figured we need a list of exercises here, which will hopefully answer most of the questions people have about such training. There are those who think that bodyweight alone cannot offer enough resistance to give strength gains in most people. The fact is that although the weight of the body is constant, the resistance applied to the target muscles can still be made very great by loading the weight onto limbs (e.g. moving to a one-limbed version of a standard bodyweight exercise like push-ups, or by elevating the feet in a push-up so that a greater fraction of the body's weight is being pressed), by manipulating leverage (e.g. extending the legs in front during a pull-up) or by pausing in the middle of a rep to eliminate momentum. The next time you hear somebody tell you that bodyweight alone is not enough for strength gains, ask them if they can do a Maltese cross. An interesting read about bodyweight strength training is T-nation's interview with gymnastics coach Cristhopher Sommer. (Christopher Sommer will have a book coming out on bodyweight training at some unspecified date. I, for one, am greatly looking forward to it.) Another good read about the theory and practise of bodyweight strength training is Pavel Tsatsouline's The Naked Warrior. It is gymnasts who make the best use of sophisticated bodyweight training methods. (By the way, gymnastic rings are about the best upper-body conditioning tool there is, but as this thread is intended for people who don't have the use of weights, I'm guessing you won't have those either.) The game of gymnastics is the game of controlling one's body through space. For this reason, I think it's beneficial for most athletes and martial artists to try to master the basics of gymnastics, not to mention that the performance of the skills themselves will build strength and power and can be considered a form of bodyweight conditioning. It is because gymnastic and bodyweight exercises teach you to control your body that I prefer them to exercises with weights where I have the choice between the two. On the other hand, as TimBlack said in another thread, "While it may theoretically be possible to keep increasing the effective load on your muscles by bending yourself into all kinds of painful and weird positions, it is just plain easier to use weights to increase resistance." Quite right. Before I get on to the usual methods of lifting your bodyweight from different positions, let me mention a form of strength training requiring no equipment whatever that I feel has been overlooked: Anything that's written on flexibility these days (rightly) touts isometric stretching as the best method for gaining flexibility, and will usually give a brief mention to the fact that it simultaneously improves strength. I think the efficacy of this type of training at building strength has been understated. Hettinger and Maller showed in 1953 that you can increase strength by 5% in a week by holding a static contraction against a fixed object for only six seconds a day. Isometric strength training became popular during the 60s and 70s, but then mysteriously dropped out of fashion. Conventional isometric training had two big drawbacks: Firstly, your nervous system will respond to contractions in a shortened position by resetting the limit of the range of motion nearer to that point. In other words, isometrics decrease flexibility. Secondly, the strength gains, though significant in themselves, are angle-specific. So pressing forwards isometrically will increase your strength at pressing forwards, but not pressing outwards, overhead, or at any angle more than 15 or 20 degrees to either side of the angle trained. Isometric stretching overcomes both these problems. Not only does it rapidly increase your flexibility, rather than decrease it, it also gives strength gains across a full range of motion for the muscles trained. There are different schools of thought on how long contractions should be held. It appears that the total time under tension (i.e. across all reps and sets) is the key variable in strength gains, and that longer contractions (more than six seconds) are more likely to cause increases in muscle size. I find that four tensions or 6-8 seconds works well for me, but I advise you to experiment. It should be noted that isometrics are not recommended for children and teenagers whose bones are still growing. Note also that you will get the best results if you rest a muscle group for a day between isometric stretching sessions. Any attempt to gain strength through isometrics alone will invariably lead to a plateau after 6-8 weeks. Normal, dynamic strength training is also needed. You can find out more about isometric stretching in the stretching forum. Part of my aim in this thread is to dispel the view of bodyweight exercises as high-rep, endurance work that can't build strength. To that end, I've included some outrageously hard exercises that no one here will be able to do. A lot of the exercises below do involves quite low resistance, but I think I've included enough difficult ones to keep just about anyone challenged. Needless to say, this list is by no means exhaustive, but I think it should contain enough to develop anyone's strength, endurance and power. I have categorised the exercises under the body part they seem to target, but many work other body parts as well. For example, push-ups require the muscles of the core for stability, handstands stress the whole of the torso etc. LEGS The legs are designed to move the bodyweight around, so it can be difficult to put them at a disadvantaged enough position to really challenge their strength. The glute-ham raise and the more difficult variations of the one-legged squat are probably the only ones that will challenge most people here. See plyometric drills at the bottom of the page for explosive speed drills for the legs. Master the basic squat first of all; it will teach you proper knee alignment which is needed to do many of these drills safely. Remember that the human knee is designed only to flex and extend, not to bow from side to side. Squats. If you're interested in conditioning, bodyweight or otherwise, you must learn how to squat perfectly, as you are guaranteed to damage your knees otherwise, so I'll give quite a bit of detail on the form of this exercise. Crouch down and experiment with the distance between your feet and the outward turn of the ankle until you've found a position in which you can sit for several minutes without any discomfort. Now, without moving your feet, stand up. Crouch down again. Repeat. For the duration of the exercise, keep your spine straight and your head held as high as possible. Look slightly up. Keep your midsection tensed. Don't let your knees bow in or out; they should move along the lines of the feet. The body moves straight up and down, never forward or back. One very useful, though somewhat odd, tip is to try and elongate an imaginary line running from the bottom of the kneecap to the bottom to the quadriceps as you squat. One-legged squat (pistols). These are a great exercise for strength. Not only do they work the thighs and hip flexion and extension, as does any squatting movement, but hip adductors and abductors are also needed to keep balance. Here is a great article on how to do them. Read it. To make pistols more difficult, pause halfway through the rep. A really difficult bodyweight leg drill is to squat rock-bottom as in a normal pistol, then jump up from the bottom position rather than standing up slowly. Christopher Sommer writes, "The goal here is to try to explode out of the bottom; not to 3/4s stand and then hop." If you still feel you're not challenged, try to jump in this way onto a box in front of you, for distance or height or both. Be very careful about knee alignment with pistols. Everything above about knee alignment for squats applies here too. It is worth sitting in the bottom position for a few minutes until you find the comfortable alignment. The fact that you have to balance on one leg causes a lot of people to wobble from side to side; this can be damaging to the knee. Bootstrappers. http://www.trainforstrength.com/ex-2.shtml. Essentially a squat in which some of the bodyweight is taken on the hands. These can also be done on one leg. Bleacher squats. Elevate one foot on a chair or box and squat down from that position. Wall sits. An endurance exercise for the thighs and glutes. Sit like this with your thighs parallel to the ground, your shins vertical and your back against a wall. Make sure there are right angles between the floor, your shins, your thighs and your body. You should feel a burn in your thighs and buttocks, but if you feel it in your knees, you're doing it wrong. When you can't take no more, stand up out of it; do not slump to the ground. Hindu squats. These work the calves, thighs and hips. Here is an animation of the exercise. It is more difficult to maintain proper knee alignment for these than for regular squats. If you allow your knees to wobble from side to side during the movement, you are damaging your knees. Lunges. http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/hl/fit/demo/lunges.jsp. Don't rotate your hips; keep them facing forward. Off-bench lunges. http://ronjones.org/Coach&Train/ExercisePhotos/Legs/Lunge-OffBench.html Renegade lunges. An excellent movement for training lateral movement, which is very useful to the martial artist. Stand with a bar or something beside you at waist height. Squat down and push sideways off the foot furthest from the bar to come up on the other side. The lower you set the bar, the more difficult the drill is. Dragon twisting. http://fullkontact.com/a_dragon.html Backward lunges. The same as regular lunges, except stepping backwards instead of forwards. Make sure the hips stay pointed forward. One-legged deadlift. Stand on one leg with the other bent slightly behind you. Leaning forward for balance, bend the knee of the supporting leg until the knee of theother leg touches the ground. Mountain climbers. The starting position resembles a push-up position, except that one leg is tucked in so that the knee is near the chest like this. Switch legs quickly. Squat thrusts. Similar to mountain climbers, except both legs come in and out together. It's like switching explosively between squatting and push-ups positions. Burpees. A squat thrust with a jump. An explosive drill for the whole body and great for endurance work (both muscular and cardiorespiratory). http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rossboxing2.htm Glute-ham sit-up. A very difficult exercise. Lie face down with your feet anchored. Pull yourself into a kneeling position by bending your knees. Calf raises. From standing, simply rise up onto the ball of your foot. Can be done with one foot or two. It's a good idea to elevate the toes on a book in order to increase the range of motion. CORE The word 'core' is a catch-all term for the muscles of the midsection, including the rectus abdominis, oblique abdominis externis, oblique abdominis internus, transverse abdominis and spinal erectae. Bodyweight core conditioning is notorious for low-intensity exercises like crunches. While I have listed these for the sake of completeness, I don't consider them to be of much value. The only core conditioning I do these days is gymnastic-style body tension work like manna and planche progressions, dragon flags and levers, along with occasional Janda sit-ups or ab wheel rollouts. These provide the high resistance needed to build strength. Planche progressions. http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/229/. These also work the arms, shoulders, legs, pretty much everything. One progression not mentioned on the linked page is the frog stance with one leg extended behind, which breakdancers call a two-handed airbaby. Manna progressions. L-sit > V-sit - legs are perpindicular to the floor > Manna - legs are parallel to the floor. When you can hold one position for 60 seconds, try the next progression. Front lever. You'll need a pull-up bar or something else to hang from. http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/229/ Back lever. http://beastskills.com/Back%20lever.htm Dragon flags. The flag, also called Dragon flag after Bruce Lee, has been called the best abdominal exercise of all, with good cause. The pictures here describe it better than I can. (It's the one halfway down the page involving the bench.) It has an advantage over the gymnastic holds above because it works the core dynamically through a range of angles. You can work up to this by doing negatives, i.e. Get into the top position by tucking your knees to your chest and extending them upwards, then lower your legs slowly. Even this will be beyond the reach of many. Rainbows. Starting in a planche, rotate your body upwards into a handstand, then down into an upward-facing planche and back. It has been done. Sit-ups/ crunches. The aim in sit-ups should be to roll the spine up like a mat, not to bend from the hips. Consciously try to maximise the contraction of the abs. Crunches are different in that the lower back stays on the ground. Either movement can be made harder by extending the arms above the head or by elevating the feet. Air bike. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Air+Bike Janda sit-ups. Get into a normal sit-up position with the knees bent at a right angle. Secure something under your knees (I use a doorframe pull-up bar) or else have a partner put their hands under your knees and pull. Now drive your feet into the ground and pull your calves back against whatever's under your knees. Hold this tension throughout the exercise. Now perform a sit-up. It should be much harder than a regular sit-up; if it's not, you're not tensing hard enough. This exercise works by eliminating the hip flexors from the sit-up movement by tensing its antagonists - the hamstrings and glutes. This means the rectus abdominis must do all the work. You can work the obliques more by putting more pressure on one foot than the other. Hanging leg raises. http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/329/ Lying leg thrust. Lie on the floor face up. Flatten your lower back into the floor. Now bring one leg or both (the two-legged version is harder) up to point to the ceiling. Your lower back must remain pressed to the ground at all times; it should not be possible for you to slide a hand between your back and the floor. Keep you midsection tight and hold your breath throughout the exercise. Wheel roll-out. http://www.bronzebowpublishing.com/Superman.gif. An easier variation is to start with the knees on the ground instead of the feet. Ab wheels can be purchased very cheaply, or you can use a barbell, dumbbell, a chair with wheels, rollerskates, or make your own wheel. Pike pull-in with wheel. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/clark1_2.jpg. Hollow rock. Video and slideshow here Chinnies. Lie flat on the ground with your hands held lightly behind your head. Bring your left knee and your right elbow together, relax, bring your right knee and your left elbow together. Repeat. Russian twists. Holding the middle position of a crunch, with your hands together in front of you, twist your body and arms from side to side. V-ups. Lie flat on the ground. Now simultaneously lift your back and legs off the floor to come to this position Farmer Burns' stomach flattener. Inhale deeply. Now try to push the air out of your lungs with your abdominal muscles, but keep your glottis closed so the air is held in. Hold for a few seconds. Isometric tension. The simplest way to strengthen the abs is to just tense them as if you were bracing for a punch. Vacuum. Exhale maximally. Suck in your abdomen and hold for six seconds or so, while holding your breath. Inhale, relax and get your breath back before repeating. This exercise works the transverse abdominis. Shoulderstand. Lie on the floor and raise your legs into this position. Do not tuck your knees in to your chest at any point. Twisting sit-up or crunch. Twist to the side whil performing a sit-up or crunch. This variation works the obliques. Frog kick. Hanging from a pull-up bar or something similar, bring your knees to your chest. Back hyperextensions. Lie face down and bring your chest, legs and hips off the ground. Knee hugs. Lie on the ground face up and bring your upper back off the ground as in a crunch while tucking in your knees. Scissor kicks. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Scissor+Kick Plank. Hold the position at the top of a push-up for several minutes, without letting your hips sag. An endurance exercise. Side plank. Hold this position Lying hip swings. Lie face up and lift your hips and legs off the ground with your feet together. Now swing your legs from side to side. Flutter kick. Video Bridge. Hold this position. Wall Walking. Stand with your back to a wall. You'll need to experiment to find the right distance. Lean backwards and put your hands on the wall. Now walk your hands down the wall (ideally all the way down to the floor) and walk them back up. Side bends. Stand with your hands overhead and bend sideways. Keep facing forward; do not twist. Waist twists. Stand with your feet about twice your shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees slightly and twist from the waist. Your hips should stay facing forward. Side crunches. Lie on your side and bring your shoulder, hips and legs off the floor. PRESSING These exercises target the upper body pressing muscles - triceps, pectorals, anterior deltoids. Note that for these, and any exercise that involves supporting all or some of the bodyweight on the hands, a variety of hand positions are possible. You can do them on your fists to strengthen the wrists or to condition your knuckles; you can do them on all 10 of your fingertips, or on as few fingertips as your strength will allow. This is a great way of building strength in the hands. Doing them on the backs of your hands in an attempt to strengthen the wrists is not a good idea and will likely lead to tendon damage. The further apart your hands are, the more the pectorals are worked, whereas having your hands close together shifts the focus to the triceps. Push-ups. http://www.ehow.com/how_3190_proper-push-.html. Try them with only one leg on the ground to work the stabilizer muscles more. Try them with only one arm. Elevating the feet will make them harder; elevating the hands will make them easier. (This applies to all variations.) Elevated push-up. Put your feet on a chair and each of your hands on a chair and perform push-ups so that your head dips down between the chairs at the bottom of the movement. This allows for a full range of motion, which makes the exercise more difficult rep-for-rep and is important if your martial art requires a good degree of shoulder flexibility. Twisting push-ups. http://ronjones.org/Coach&Train/ExercisePhotos/PushUps/PushUp-LateralTwist.html Jack LaLanne push-up. What better way to illustrate what a Jack LaLanne push-up is than a picture of Jack LaLanne doing a push-up? (On his fingertips! At age 90!) It's essentially a regular push-up with the arms extended out in front. The other kind of Jack LaLanne push-up. Confusingly enough, there are two distinct exercises called Jack LaLanne push-ups. This one involves standing on a chair (or a box, or whatever) with the body piked so that the hands are on the ground near the chair. (The nearer the hands are to the chair, the more difficult the exercise is.) Now bend and straighten your arms. Planche push-ups. See here for planche training. When you can do a planche (or even a tuck planche), try a push-up from that position. Handstand holds. http://beastskills.com/Handstand.htm. Also try one arm handstand holds, pirouettes from a handstand, and walking on your hands. Handstand push-ups. From a handstand, bend your arms until your head touches the ground, and then straighten them again. You can work up to this by doing negatives (i.e. lowering yourself down without pushing back up) or by bending your arms as far as you can and pushing back up, and gradually increasing the depth of the push-up. When you can do a full, head-to-ground handstand push-up, you're still a long way off pushing through the full range of motion of your shoulders. Elevate your hands on chairs or whatever so that you can dip your head down between them. The next progression is the one-arm handstand push-up. Handstand shrugs. From the handstand position, shrug your shoulders up and down. The focus is on the trapezius muscles. Press into handstand. http://beastskills.com/Handstand%20press.htm Dips. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Dips+-+Triceps+Version. (You don't need parallel bars, any two objects of the appropriate height, like two tables, will do.) Dip swings. Execute a dip while swinging the body and legs forwards and backwards. This works the back, hips and torso as well. Tiger bend. http://www.bronzebowpublishing.com/TigerBend.gif. Also try it with one arm, or from a handstand position. Divebomber/ Hindu push-ups. In the divebomber push-up, you go from this starting position, to the bottom position of a normal push-up, to this position, then back into the bottom position of a push-up, then back to the starting position. In a Hindu push-up, on the other hand, when you reach this position, you push back directly to the starting position without lowering yourself back down. Also try it with only one arm or one leg. T-pushups. Go down as in a normal push-up, and when coming up, turn your body sideways and bring one hand off the ground to point to the ceiling Reverse push-up. http://www.jeremymarkum.com/fitness/fitportal/full-entry-exercise/how-to-perform-a-reverse-pushup/ PULLING These exercises target the upper-body pulling muscles - biceps, latissimus dorsi, posterior deltoids. You can do most of these from a tree branch or monkey bars, but I strongly advise getting a telescoping pull-up bar that fits into a doorway. These can be got very cheaply and can be used for a wide variety of exercises. For all these pull-up variations, having your hands closer together will put more emphasis on the biceps, whereas having them further apart will put more emphasis on the lats. Pull-ups/ chin-ups. If you want to get technical, pull-ups are done with your palms facing you, whereas chin-ups are done with the palms facing away from you, though most people use the terms interchangeably. Pull-ups put more emphasis on the biceps than chin-ups. Another option is to have one hand facing you, and the other hand facing away from you. If you do this, make sure to switch grips so that both sides are worked equally. I've listed the following variations as 'pull-ups'; this is merely for the sake of convenience and should not be taken to imply that a certain kind of grip must be used. L-pull-up. A pull up from an L-hang position. Video and slideshow here. Not only are your hip flexors and abdominal muscles challenged by the L-hang, but the pull-up itself becomes more difficult as the bodyweight is pulling down at a greater leverage. One hand pull-up. Not to be confused with the one-arm pull-up. This is a pull-up in which one hand is on the bar and the other grasps this hand at the wrist like so. This challenges the stabilizers more. 1 arm pull-up. http://beastskills.com/OneArmPull.htm Fingertip pull-ups. Instead of gripping the bar in your hand, remove the thumb and hang by your fingertips. This variation is imposed by necessity if you don't have a pull-up bar, as you can hang off the top of a door. If you're looking for goals, Eugen Sandow could do pull-ups hanging by just one finger! Towel pull-ups. Loop a towel (or something similar) around a pull-up bar and grab the hanging towel like this. This will work your grip strength and endurance. 'Commando' pull-ups. Hang from the bar facing sideways, and pull yourself up so that your right shoulder touches the bar. Lower yourself down and pull back up so that your left shoulder touches the bar. http://www.trainforstrength.com/images/mctop.jpg Lever pull-ups. Try pull-ups from the front and back levers described under core exercises. Kipping pull-ups. You'll find a video of it here under 'Pull-up (kipping)'. These are not as hard rep for rep as regular pull-ups, but involve far more of the musculature of the back and hips. Pull-up hold. Pause half-way through a standard pull-up or chin-up. Hold. Climbing stuff! Climb trees, fences, monkey bars at playgrounds, poles, ropes, rockfaces, mountains, whatever. Climbing trees is great because it requires you to pull your bodyweight up from an unpredictable variety of angles and leverages. HANDS Spider-ups. From a push-up position (or any position in which some of your weight is resting on your palms e.g. leaning against the wall, most of the pressing movements above) curl your fingers up into something resembling a crane beak hand position. Tiger claw. This is an isometric hand-strengthening exercise borrowed from kung fu. Simply crook your fingers in this position as hard as you can for as long as you can. It takes some mental focus to maximise tension in all ten fingers, but it's a handy drill as it can be done anywhere at any time. Note again that any exercise involving taking weight on your hands - from push-ups to handstands to planches - can be done on the fingertips, or on the tips of only a few fingers. This is an excellent way of strengthening your hands. NECK Wrestlers' bridge. Either hold this position or else roll from the forehead to the top of the head and back. Front bridge on neck. http://img115.echo.cx/img115/956/wb24dm.jpg. Can also be done either statically or rolling from the forehead to the tip of the head. Another version is to roll between the front bridge and wrestlers' bridge positions. Self-resisting isometrics. By far the safest way of strengthening your neck. Just place your hands on your head and push against them with your neck. Repeat in six directions - looking down, looking up, looking left, looking right, tiliting the head right, tilting it left. Headstand. http://www.pess.nie.edu.sg/ppt/image/Headstand.gif PLYOMETRICS Plyometrics are exercises without a decelerative phase, the part where you slow down to come to a stop at the end of the movement. They teach your nervous system to act explosively, and to utilise the force stored in an eccentric stretch, such as the wind-up for a punch, or the ducking motion before a jump. When training for power, reps should generally be limited to 6, as any fatigue will be detrimental. It is easy to overtrain on plyometrics; it's normally recommended to do them 1-4 days a week, 15-40 exercises per session (i.e. across all sets), depending on your level of development. There are many lower-body plyometric drills, but they're mostly just slight variations on jumping, with no special benefits over simply jumping into the air, so I've thought it necessary to list only a few of the most important here. These should be all you need for a complete plyometric routine. This page describes them well and gives internal links to lists of exercises. Depth jumps and shock jumps were the two original plyometric drills devised by Soviet sports scientist Prof. Yuri Verkhoshansky, who feels that much of what passes for plyometrics now - i.e. any jumping exercise - misses the point of the original plyometrics, namely to teach your nervous system to store compressed energy in the muscle tendon unit and release it explosively in the opposite direction. I feel that depth jumps and shock jumps should form the core of any lower-body plyometric routine. They are extremely effective exercises for increasing jumping ability, which is very important in wushu and some other martial arts. Plyometric push-ups. From the bottom position of a push-up, push explosively off the ground to throw your upper body off the ground. An important exercise for anyone training in a martial art that punches with the power of the arm. Plyometric pull-ups. Hang from a pull-up bar and pull yourself up explosively, letting go of the bar as you ascend, so that your hands come up above the bar. Depth jumps. Drop (don't jump) from a height and, as soon as you hit the ground, jump up as high as possible. Your heels should not touch the ground. The height you drop from depends on your level of development. 45-70cm will do for most people, though advanced athletes use heights of up to 125cm. The horizontal distance you travel as you drop should be equal to the height you drop from. Shock jumps. Drop from a height of 100-125cm and land as softly as possible, without your heels touching the ground. This exercise teaches you to absorb forces in your Achilles' tendon. As with depth jumps, the distance you land away from the object should be roughly equal to its height. Jumps. Practise jumping straight up into the air and landing softly. Try it tucking your knees into your chest, bringing your feet behind you, or from one leg only. Ankle bounces. Jump as high as you can without bending the knee, using only the ankle. LINKS www.drillsandskills.com - Gymnastics page including a list of floor skills, some basic conditioning info and a good links section. www.beastskills.com - Well-written tutorials on advanced gymnastic and bodyweight conditioning skills. http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode2/Workouts - Bodyweight conditioning articles on Dragon Door. www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?MainMuscle=&Equip=BodyOnly - Bodybuilding.com's list of bodyweight exercises. www.ronjones.org/Coach&Train/ExercisePhotos/index.html - A list of bodyweight exercises, included many varieties of push-up. http://www.trainforstrength.com/exercises.shtml - Guides to performing some bodyweight exercises www.trickstutorials.com - Guides to basic acrobatic moves and an outstanding section on flexibility and stretching. www.gymnasticsrevolution.com/GymInteractive-Index.htm - Animations demonstrating gymnastic techniques. www.mspt47.com/gymnastics/index.php?Floor_Exercise - Guides to basic gymnastic techniques. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler57.htm - Mike Mahler gives instructions for a few bodyweight exercises."

Turkish Get-Up: Functional & Fun

TGUs are great for grapplers and just about everyone else since we all need shoulder strength and stability. Jeff Martone gives practical tips for performing the perfect Get-up and demonstrates the Kettlebell armbar, which is an awesome shoulder stretch. The Turkish Get-up

Ross Enamait - Sledge Hammer Training

Ross has put together another article on an ever growing popular tool - the sledge hammer. Check it out: Ross Enamait: Sledge Hammer Training

Tactical Athlete

I've added Jeff Martone's site to the Fitness Links on your left. I believe Martone has several unique products that would be a great addition to any fitness library. His "outside the box" thinking is what originally attracted me to his style of training and why I am now marketing his products. You are missing out on some great workouts if you aren't using Martone's H2H drills. Check out Jeff Martone's impressive resume on his WEBSITE under bios in the About us tab. If you ever get bored with your current routine, check out some of Martone's material. His H2H drills and SHOT Training will provide you will a never ending supply of fun and varied routines. If you don't think a 18 lb shot can give you a work out try it and see. Remember, a lot of people do not believe swinging around a 35 lb kettlebell is such a big deal. Those in the know, know otherwise. If you are just looking for a challenge... toss on a weight vest and give the SHOT training a run through. I'll be posting some product reviews in the future when I get around to reviewing the material. Stay tuned.

Make Your Own Medicine Ball

I've tried out several different methods for making medicine balls. All seem to work great. My first attempt was simply taking an old basketball that I had sitting around and cutting a small 'X' shaped slit with a box cutter. I put a funnel into the slit and opened up a $3 bag of sand and started filling. I then took a roll of duct tape and taped the hell out of it. I was left with a silver ball, which weighed in at 23 lbs. I finished up by writing the weight on the ball with a Sharpie. The ball has lasted a couple years, and I still use it from time to time. Browsing the Internet I found an article that showed how to make a medicine ball that you could pump air back into to retain its shape and give it more bounce if you wanted. This way produced a ball that rivals the expensive Dynamax balls. Here are the plans: THE SLAMMER: A How to Guide to Making Your Own Medicine Balls

Bryce Lane's Articles

Bryce Lane's site with a ton of interesting articles on strength, endurance and flexibility training. There are some good ideas here: Articles

My Cubicle

I know some of you can relate.

From the Blob to Captain of Crush - A Bender's Story

To the left in the Grip links, I have indexed the site of Eric "Bender" Godfrey who is a certified Captain of Crush (CoC) and a bending fanatic. Instead of taking the traditional route to certifying on the #3 CoC, Eric to a page from John Brookfield -"Blockweights equal hand strength." Eric became addicted to bending and lifting blockweights. As his strength continued to grow, he would occasionally test himself on the grippers, "for fun." The hard work paid off, and Eric certified on the #3 Captain of Crush official list. Check it out. There are a ton of good things going on at Bender's Page And start pulling on those Blobs!

The Tactical Ten: Burning the butter in 10 minutes

Jeff Martone gives us a couple of bodyweight + kettlebell complexes that anyone can use to get a killer 10 minute workout. These are similar to some of the complexes that Martone shows in his TAPS dvd. You think that you can't get a good workout in 10 minutes? Try these and get back to us. Everyone has at least 10 minutes a day to spare. The Tactical Ten

More on Soft Tissue Work

Some of you may have caught a recent post on Self-myofascial Release and have found some benefit in applying it to your routine. Are you looking for more? Tony Gentilcore has written an article for T-Nation on soft tissue work that he sees as a progression for those using the foam roller. Nothing ground shaking, but a good summary of the information that is out there. Soft Tissue Work for Tough Guys If you feel like spending some money here is a highly recommended book on trigger point therapy: The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief and if you like the idea of using tennis balls for therapy, here is a book I have pulled information from since the '90s: The Acupressure Warmup: For Fitness, Athletic Preparation and Injury Management

DIY Fitness Equipment Update

For those of you who read my post on Building Your Own Fitness Equipment and are interested in bringing some of the ideas to life; take a look at McMaster.com for a lot of the harder to find materials. They carry a ton of items that you will not be able to find at most Lowes or Home Depots and will probably beat other local parts suppliers in prices. I've ordered from them several times, and the service was excellent and the shipping was very fast. A great resource for your homemade projects. Highly recommended. I've added a link in the DIY section on the left.

Crossfit: Forging Elite Fitness

Forging Elite Fitness. Well, it is unlikely Crossfit will take you to elite status, but it is a pretty good general physical preparation (GPP) program. Taking a look at the Athletic Skill Standards provided by Crossfit North, anyone who makes it to the top will truly be a well-rounded, multifaceted athlete - no one trick ponies here. Yet, I don't really see anyone making it to the top. Well, not performing all of the skills at the same time. There are just too many markers that would require specialized training to achieve. Don't take my word for it, look for yourself at the standards: Crossfit North's Athletic Skill Standards. The skill standards go from Level 1 Beginner status up to Level IV Elite Athlete status. It is a good list to give you plenty of goals to shoot for but don't bank on being able to do them all at one when you get into the top tiers. Anyways, back to Crossfit. Many people have convoluted notions on the definition of fitness simply because there are so many different definitions. Everyone has an opinion; like Clint Eastwood says, "Opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one." Crossfit has formulated its own opinions on the methodology of developing balanced and "total" fitness. Taking into account numerous modalities like gymnastics, bodyweight exercise, Olympic lifting and so on, Crossfit emerges as a great set of principles for top shelf GPP. You can follow the workout of the day on the main webpage of Crossfit's site, or you can take the initiative and use the principles of the Crossfit program that suit your training needs and tailor a program around you own individual goals. Check out Crossfit journal 6 for a nice breakdown of the Crossfit template. For more information on Crossfit, and the Crossfit definition of fitness, browse their free article from the Crossfit Journal, which can be accessed at Crossfit Journal: What is Fitness?. If the article peaks your interest and you want to know more about the Crossfit methodology be sure to check out the following article provided by Crossfit: Crossfit Foundations

Sandow Plus - York Hand Balancing Course

Sandow Plus.UK has two excellent resources for anyone interested in training for free-standing handstands and beyond. The old York Handbalancing courses from the late 1940s offers practical suggestions that remain relevant to this day. The York Handbalancing Course #1 The York Handbalancing Course #2 I'd give anything to be able to do some of the movements in the second course; The 1-Arm balancing is just plain sick. I may have to start practicing the material in the first pamphlet. Either way, it is great information on displays of athleticism.

Build Your Own Fitness Equipment

I have always been a do-it-yourself type of guy - an acquired taste from years in the construction industry. Luckily for me, I discovered several Internet gems that will no doubt save you some money and give you a sense of accomplishment. Just don't do like me and turn a hobby into an obsession, building equipment just for the sake of building it. Your spouse will kill you. My personal favorite: Grunt & Shen's Workshop This site has a ton of useful ideas that will save you a lot of money from buying commercially built equipment. I've used numerous ideas from this site to construct some pretty functional fitness tools. Other useful homemade equipment sites: Brian Long's Site Aptdwler's Site

The Seal Quest: BUD/S Preparation

I have not visited the The Seal Quest Website for a while now. It seems like they have made a lot of changes and added a lot of new material. They have adopted a Crossfit style training program with their Seal Quest Daily Workout, mirroring Crossfit's Workout of the Day. This would be a wise decision given current military PT protocols. There are also some pretty good articles. If you have read my blog entry on Self-Myofascial Release, there is related article on the Seal Quest that can be accessed through this link - The Seal Quest: Self-Myofascial Release Article

Ross Enamait - Hardcore Training

Check out the article on a recent experiment by Ross Enamait: Hardcore Training Ross Enamait's no bullshit, no nonsense, no misconceptions approach to fitness is steadily growing an almost cult following. I'm not normally one to so easily admit my admiration for anyone, especially anyone in the overly saturated fitness industry, but Ross Enamait is someone that is to be admired. As a family man and recent father, who spends his days training athletes, I find it hard to imagine the energy Ross has to put into his pet projects like Rosstraining.com. He routinely answers the same questions that are asked ad nauseam on his forum with a grace and patience that I've long forgotten. He is readily available to answer emails and provides answers to questions without the obscure nonsense of other fitness charlatans who try to sign you up with their "Inner-Circles." Enamait's site is definitely one to check on regularly.

EliteFTS

I was just reading through some of the recent articles over at EliteFTS.com and am absolutely amazed at the quality of information that the contributors to EliteFTS put out there. It is a one of a kind resource for anyone interested in overall athletic and sports performance, and I am more than happy to pass this along to all of you that have not had a chance to check it out: EliteFTS Articles

Breath Awareness: Connecting Mind-Body

Many people do not give much thought to breathing. It is an involuntary process that happens at birth. Something that occurs and then is forgotten, detached from our own self-awareness. Yet, breathing is important to how we live our lives - If we never breathe, we never live. Our breath and how we consume oxygen dictates our moods, emotions, and overall states of wellbeing. Notice how your breathing changes when you are sad, angry, stressed, or relaxed. It is through our breathing patterns that our body is giving us clues to our current state of wellbeing. If we choose to listen to these clues, many of life's problems can be diffused as we step away to collect ourselves before pursuing any judgments in error. The fact is we all know how to breathe and breathe correctly. If you don't, I doubt you will be reading much further. Everyone has breathed slowly, deeply, and effortlessly at some point in their lives. It's from the simple experience of living life that has left many of us blind to the natural breathing patterns of our early childhood. The good new is, breathing is just like riding a bike - once you learn, you never forget. Luckily for us, breathing is a natural condition of the human experience. We all know how to breathe; it just takes a little practice and patience to relearn how to breathe efficiently. I believe it was through a program during grade school, when I initially began a conscious effort towards ineffective breathing. An instructor suggested to us that we breathe by sucking in the stomach and pushing the chest out as a means of maintaining a slim midsection. I erroneously took the advice and spent years following a shallow breathing pattern. It wasn't until I became a student of the Martial Arts that I became interested in correct and efficient breathing. We used breathing exercises as a means to calm our thoughts, and to become in-tune with our bodies and the moment. As I became more educated on the subject, I began to understand that proper breathing is essential to living a healthy lifestyle. The way I was originally taught to breath with the stomach in, chest out was most likely a prime mover in the stress-related problems of my early adolescence. Mindful breathing has been shown to benefit a wide array of symptoms; from asthmatic complications to high blood pressure. Having trouble sleeping at night? Concentrate on your breathing and you will be counting sheep in no time. Suffering a panic attack? Be mindful of your breath and diffuse the stressful situation. Having trouble understanding and digesting new information? Give breathing a try, the appropriate intake of oxygen into the human body is essential for proper brain functioning. I could spend all day writing about the healthy benefits of mindful breathing, but somehow I think you get the point. Personally, I would much rather work on breathing than taking some prescription medication with a long list of side effects. If I have peaked your interest, and you are ready to travel deep within and liberate your naturally given right to proper breathing, follow the simple guideline I have provided below. Find a time and place where you will not be disturbed - Somewhere quiet and peaceful. Make this your personal haven for when you need to step away from things. At first you may want to sit in a comfortable position, but over time you will want to attempt your breathing practice in various positions; sitting, standing, lying down, and while moving. In the beginning, practice with your eyes closed. This will cut out one less distraction. As you become more proficient, you may begin experimenting with soft opening and closing of the eyes. Breathe in and out softly through your nose, never straining at any point, and never holding your breath at any time. Follow your breath and notice where it flows within your body. Do you breathe shallow, filling your upper chest, or is it a deep breath that penetrates your lower abdomen? If your breath stops at your upper chest, you are not breathing to your fullest potential. Begin allowing the air to flow into your lower abdomen. Work that diaphragm, it's there for a purpose. To get a feel for this, try placing one hand over your belly and one hand over your chest. When you inhale, you should only feel the hand that is on your belly moving. Many people suggest counting on the inhale and the exhale. I tend to think that this takes away from the mind-body experience since you are focusing on the number not the breath or the sensations of your body. I would suggest to not count, but simply focus on the breath. How does it feel entering your nose, the back of your throat, and so on all the way into your abdomen? Do you feel any areas of tension or stress? If you find any tense areas, focus your awareness on them and feel (not visualize) their contours. Continue to breath while focusing your awareness on these points of tension, one-by-one, until they start to peel away like the layers of an onion. Peel away the layers until you feel that you can peel no more and then move on to the next point. Day by day, you will continue to strip away layers until eventually there is nothing left and the area is relaxed. Begin by practicing for however long you are able. 5-15 minutes is a good starting point. Adjust your sessions as you find appropriate. If you discover your mind wandering while in practice; acknowledge the thought, let it float away, and return to following your breath and feeling your body with your mind's awareness. You may also decide to end the session, and come back to it at a later time. The choice remains with you. As you continue to practice the gap between disturbing thoughts will continue to get larger and larger. Remember, the ultimate goal is a relaxed and comfortable state of being, never strain to continue a session. I hope you enjoy the information as you begin to awaken a dormant part of your being that will have profound effects on your lives.

Golden Age of Iron Men - Eugen Sandow

I highly encourage everyone to take a moment and browse The Sandow Plus Website - a site dedicated to the late Eugen Sandow (1986-1925), "The Father of Modern Bodybuilding." Sandow's time was long before the drug-imbued mess that pro bodybuilding has evolved into today. Unlike the trend of recent times, Sandow did not just look strong - he WAS strong. Also on The Sandow Plus Website, there is information on other incredibly strong men who lived around the Sandow era. From Sandow Plus: "Full reproductions of Sandow's Books. Articles about him and a comprehensive album of his most famous photographs. Important Bodybuilding books written before,during and after the Sandow era. Some of the leading Bodybuilding, Strength and Health books and courses that followed from the 1900s through to the 1950s and later. Plus much, much more." Enjoy the history.

Ross Enamait - Strength Training For Fighters

Ross just posted up this new article on strength training for combat athletes. Ross Enamait - Strength Training for Fighters: 15 Random Thoughts Impressive as always.

Foam Performance Enhancers - Self-Myofascial Release

For the price of a cheap bottle of wine you can: relieve stressful joints while increasing their mobility, correct muscle imbalances while improving athletic performance, rehabilitate injuries and prevent future occurrences, and reduce muscle soreness. What? You've got to be kidding, what sort of snake oil is this? Although similar illusory claims run rampant in today's capitalist market, fortunately for us, every bit of it is true and then some. Self-Myofascial Release (SMR) has been around for years, but is just now starting to reach mainstream awareness. SMR is a process by which tension, applied to a muscle past a certain limit, causes the Golgi Tendon Organs (GTO) to reduce muscle spindle activity and decrease muscle tension by a process called autogenic inhibition. This is the human body's natural response to injury-causing tension applied to a muscle. With regular use of foam rollers, stimulating the GTOs and the resulting autogenic inhibition can lead to greater neuromuscular efficiency. So, what do I do next? If you are ready to begin adding SMR to your daily routine, you will first need a foam roller. There are plenty of options available through a simple Google Search. Two other highly recommended suppliers are Elite FTS and Power-Systems. You will want to start with a 1-3 foot long 6" roller. You can purchase these fairly cheaply, and for a little extra money there are also higher density rollers available. The minor increase in investment will give you a product that is less prone to break down as quickly as your standard foam roller. The smaller and harder the roller the better, but a typical 6" foam roller is the best place to start. Trust me, rolling over the IT band is truly a mind-over-matter experience, but you will feel great afterwards. Personally, I chose a low-tech option with materials I had sitting around the house. I cut a 3 foot section of 2 inch PVC pipe and tightly rolled around it one of the thousands of yoga mats that has made their way into my home. Secure it with duct tape and you are good to go. It has just enough give to make the movements bearable yet still provide the necessary tension. This option can get the job done, but I eventually caved in and ordered a Pro Roller from EliteFTS. Next, you will want to learn some of the more standard rolling movements. Below is a suggested reading section where I have provided links to several articles that will further your understanding of SMR and provide illustrated descriptions of the movements. You will want to spend a few minutes on each movement for each side of the body, making sure that when you roll onto a painful area (you'll know for sure when you reach one) to stop rolling and rest on the roller while targeting that area for 30-60 seconds. Resting on the painful areas stimulates the GTOs mentioned earlier, giving you the benefits of SMR. From the recommendations in the links provided below, I have been performing SMR with my homemade roller daily and have found it to be a highly effective technique to use for recovery and overall relaxation. Well, to be truthful, SMR hurts like hell. It may even bring you to tears. Well maybe not, but the relaxation and after effects are great. Suggested Reading: Article: T-Nation - Feel Better for 10 Bucks Article: Self-Myofascial Release Exercises Enjoy the pain... Er, no, I mean massage.

The Next Time You Think of Quitting...

or think of giving up on "impossible" goals, remember that there will always be individuals less fortunate than you who never quit, who never give up, and who always strive to reach their goals. This video has been making the rounds for some time now. A powerful portrayal of dedication, determination, courage and most importantly love. For more info on the accomplishments of the father-son duo, check out http://www.teamhoyt.com/

Stretching & Flexibility

There seems to be a lot of confusion on the topic of stretching and flexibility. Many people continue to follow outdated advice and end up frustrated with the lack of progress in their current routine. A free, comprehensive, resource put together by Brad Appleton contains just about everything you need to know about stretching and flexibility: Stretching & Flexibility: Everything you never wanted to know A not-so-free guide that I found to be very helpful and informative in my own understanding of flexibility training came from the folks over at DragonDoor: Relax Into Stretch. I'm always impressed with Pavel's work - the information on why "stretching" is not the best way to become flexible is worth the price of admission alone. The section on Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) will quickly skyrocket your progress in flexibility and have you reaching your goals in no time. Another mainstay in flexibility training that I have used as a reference for many years is Thomas Kurz's Stretching Scientifically: A Guide to Flexibility Training

Garage Gym Shopping List

The good people at Crossfit San Diego have provided us with an excellent resource for creating your own home gym: Garage Gym Shopping List. It has everything from what you will need, where to get it, and price comparisons to reviews, recommendations, and discount information. Please keep in mind that this list is geared towards a CrossFit ready gym, but don't let it stop you from getting ideas for creating a home gym that will suit your individual needs. Just because it is on this list doesn't mean that you need it to succeed. Be sure to check out the DIY links to the left before purchasing any equipment. You can save yourself a lot of money with minimal effort.

The Diesel Crew's New Site

The strong guys over at the Diesel Crew, the leaders in grip strength, have a new site in the works: The Grip Authority. If you have any interest in hand strength whatsoever, you will not want to miss this site. They will show you how to grind those Captain of Crush gripper handles and how to toss around Blobs like they were tennis balls. You may even learn how to bend a little steel. In the mean time, be sure to check out the original home of the Diesel Crew for excellent videos to keep you motivated. Be sure not to miss out on the free info in the article section, which has some of the best training material around.