Archive for the ‘BodyBuilding’ Category

The soul of Primitive Man

Primitive man was tasked with survival in the “real” world. I assume that as an alpha male a true primitive man lived alone in the wilderness.

Killing all other males upon contact & mating with females. His time tasked to survival and migration. I’m sure in prehistory there were many such primitives.

The environment of the primitive survivor put him into a deeper contact with reality. Morphology is the study of shape and form. The morphology of the primitives world was much more ancient than ours in the modern world.

The night sky for example is 15 billion years old, the ocean and shore also billions of years old, the clouds and wind just as they were 2 billion years ago. The trees and vegetation hundreds of millions of years old. This is the morphology primitive man was tasked with surviving in. He was challenged to survive in the raw universe with his flesh, blood and imagination.

Today modern man has been trapped into a morphological environment only tens or hundreds of years old. He has become weak, dependent, blind. While the machine that has entrapped him has grown man himself has diminished.

Primitive man was far stronger and fitter, his senses were sharp and he had inner vision, imagination.

Our modern society to him would be seen as a man trap, a death trap to ensnare the weak prey that men today have become. Ultimately to face slaughter of some kind as modern history has proven to often be the case.

You can walk away from the modern world when ever you want. Take a walk into the wilderness and discover your true purpose. To survive in the stars, the mountains and the ocean.

Just as it was a billion years ago before man.

To survive in the wild is the ultimate test of physical & mental fitness. Greater than even the test of war for the worst that war can do is send us back to the stone age.

If you can not just survive but flourish in this “real” world you will have found your true human potential. You will know that the modern world is no longer your master. No longer will it dictate your survival.

So there is a great opportunity for greater balance & perspective.

With this in mind I intend to undertake pure survival training in the wilderness. Alone without supplies for extended periods is the ultimate goal but I will build up to it sequentially.

This will require extreme strength & endurance plus many other skills. Its going to be a lot of fun.

If flickr is working you will see the picture above. That was a painful cavity – felt like a hornet sting at times but usually felt nothing.

I got it pulled 3 weeks back now for $40. The dentist just gave me a local & yanked it. No cleaning the hole or stitches. It was meant to have healed by now.

Well I took pain killers for 4 days afterward and the pain subsided. It wasn’t as bad as the cavity anyway. Then the gums began to regrow.
At some point about a week back the gum got infected. No pain just swelling and pus so I called the dentist yesterday & he said to go in today.

He immediately gave me a shot and started sucking bits of infected gum out. There was blood all over the place & I could feel it scraping the bone. I expected to be right back to square one after.

Well thank heavens the anaesthetic wore off and there is zero pain at all – none. So its nothing like the extraction.

He cleaned the wound properly and gave it stitches. I am on antibiotics too. My only fear now is the dreaded dry socket. That would be the icing on the fricken cake.

All along I cant eat a decent steak or lift real heavy – its a son of a bitch.

Consider this as it is how a great genius trained…

E = The number of days you have cycled (or other) more than E number of miles (or other)

Now the great genius was Eddington & his cycling E = 87

But you could do this with Kettlebell swings, snatches, hindu squats, any number of things. You could substitute weight vest hiking for cycling for example.

So E is your Endurance personal best.

Click for larger image.

You may be familiar with the training programs from OTS Optimum Training Systems. These are based upon research into bulgarian & Russian weight training. There is a website where you can get the ebook Big Beyond Belief” Big Beyond Belief

I recommend this ebook and basically it will give you a framework around which to structure your training.

They have a couple of older programs floating around too, titan training & bulgarian power burst.

Basically compound exercises that require maximum neurological response are used – hence heavy kettlebells are ideal for many exercises. Training is more frequent than you may be used to – I have nearly completed the first week of preliminary training & feel quite fatigued.

But I can tell a good program after 28 years of lifting & this is good – I think I could quite easily get up to 250 lbs on this system.

I’m actually training more like a wrestler than a bodybuilder these days.

I need to get some shots done flexed – will ask a young lady to help out with that.

I had never touched a sandbag until yesterday.

Had no idea how much the damn thing would weigh but I did know how to use it & make it thanks to the video from Ross Enamait & various places online.

So my plan was to go to the beach & load my first bag, haul it home & repeat with the other two. I visualized myself doing this before hand carrying the heavy bag home on my shoulder.

Well off I set on the bus to Okahu bay in Auckland to get my sand. Its winter here now but it was a fine enough day for there to be an inch of dry sand on the surface.

This was a pain as I couldn’t just scoop it up & it was full of shells which I needed to remove too. For these reasons I recommend just buying clean dry sand.

OK so then things got interesting. The sandbag was so damned heavy I could only carry it 100 yards at a time but I was 3.5 KM from home.

Obviously I would need a cab or bus to get it home. It took me half an hour to get it to the bus stop right next to the beach. I swear I nearly passed out.

I then hauled it on the bus into the city. Once there it was another 40 minutes to haul it to the next bus stop barely around the corner. By this stage my arms were beginning to die & I must have deadlifted the thing 40 times.

Finally the second bus took me to within 350m of my home. That took another 1-2 hours to carry it from there to my home.

It took all I had – it is a beast.

So I was guessing it had to be 150-180 lbs maybe even more.

Finally after a rest I got it on the scales – 120 lbs only. And I can bench 400 lbs on a machine for reps so that proves that sandbags are pure killer.

Today I am a bit sore & fatigued after yesterdays 4 hour sandbag ordeal.

I’m sure in six months I will be a damn sight stronger all over.

Here is my new sandbag & two soon to be military surplus bags…

Well I have been an advocate of manuka honey in the past because of its natural antibiotic properties.

But those properties were linked to an unknown substance. It turns out the antimicrobial substance is methylglyoxal.

Methylglyoxal is unfortunately a genotoxin than causes irreversible damage to your genes & chromosomes.

So I can no longer encourage the use of this honey for its antibiotic properties.

This list is courtesy of http://bar-barians.forumotions.net/t4039-calisthetic-books

Bodyweight Exercise Revolution by Adam Steer (digitial product)
Tacfit Commando by Scott Sonnon (digital product)
Tacfit Warrior by Scott Sonnon (digital product)
Tactical Gymnastics by Scott Sonnon (digital product)
No Gym Necessary by Virgil Aponte (digital product)
The Muscle Experiment by Mike Thiga (digital product)
Solitary Fitness by Charles Bronson
Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade
The Weightless Workout by Health for Life
Hardcore Fitness by Steve Hansen
Never Gymless by Ross Enamait
Gymless by Alistair Ramsay (digital product)
Dinosaur Bodyweight Training by Brooks Kubik
Building The Gymnastic Body by Christopher Sommer
7 Weeks to 100 Push-Ups by Steve Speirs
7 Weeks To 50 Pull-Ups by Brett Stewart
You Are Your Own Gym By Mark Lauren
Bodyweight Exercises For Extraordinary Strength by Brad Johnson
The Power of Push-Ups by Rodney C. Womack III
Animal Workouts by David Nordmark
Natural Fitness by David Nordmark
The Ultimate Guide To Push-Ups by David Nordmark
The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline
Weight-Free Workout by Men’s Health Magazine
The Essence of Bodyweight Training by Juan Carlos Santana
Max Capacity Training by Samy Peyret
Body Sculpting Bodyweight Exercises for Women by Eddie Baran
Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne (multiple digital products)
Monkey Fit: 21 Functional Bodyweight Drills & Exercises by Tim Jones
Grinder Strength Pull-Ups by Brad McLeod (digital product)
Fitness On A Swing Set by Karen M. Goeller
Hand-Balancing for Muscular Development by Bill Hinbern
The Ultimate Guide To Handstand Push-Ups by Christopher Logan
Maximum Muscular Fitness by Dan Riley
The Gravity Advantage by Paul Zaichik
The Gravity Advantage Max by Paul Zaichik
The Power of One by Paul Zaichik
Ultimate Wrestling Power by Steve Preston (digital product)
Workout Without Weights by Eddie Lomax (digital product)
Parallettes One (P1) by Ryan Hurst & Gold Medal Bodies (digital product)
Rings One (R1) by Ryan Hurst & Gold Medal Bodies (digital product)
Lean Hybrid Muscle- Bodyweight Edition by Elliot Hulse (digital product)
Final Phase Fat Loss- Bodyweight Edition by Adam Steer (digital product)
Primal Blueprint Fitness by Mark Sisson (digital product)
Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey
Working Out Without Weights by Chuck Gaylord
NHB Strength Training by Lloyd Irving
Wildman Training Manual & Course by John Grube
The Body Weight Solution by Tim Bell (digital product)
The Silverback Program by Tim Bell (digital product)
The Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss by Adam Steer (digital product)
Ultimate Gymless Workout by Eddie Lomax (digital product)
Lightning Speed Fitness by Roger Haeske (digital product)
Death, Taxes, & Push-Ups by Ted Skup
Fit by Nature by John Colver
The Navy Seal Workout by Mark De Lisle
The Backyard Workout by Rhadi Ferguson (digital product)
The Bodyweight Blitz by Brian & Shawn Fitzmaurice (digital product)
TBK Fitness Program Tamir Katz
Lose The Weights! by Erik Boudreau
Gym-Free and Ripped by Nathan Kendrick
Bodyweight Power by Bryce Lane
Fitness Secrets of the Road Ninja by Bryce Lane
Bodyweight Bodybuilding Secrets by Zach Even-Esh (digital product)
Zen Martinoli’s 5 Minute Fitness by Zen Martinoli
Convict Conditioning 2 by Paul Wade
A Mighty River of Steel by Bryce Lane
Bodyweight Blast X by Ryan Cooper (digital product)
Overcoming Gravity by Steven Low
Felon Fitness by William Kroger & Trey Teufel
Free Machine Workout Push-Up Report by Stan Hersk (digital product)
7 Weeks To getting Ripped by Brett Stewart
The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness by Stew Smith
The Special Ops Workout by Stew Smith & Mike Mejia
Hillfit by Chris Highcock
The Official Guide To Mastering Handstand & Handstand Push-Ups by HIT Richards

I have trained with conventional weights – barbells, dumbbells & machines at a gym for over 27 years. A year or so back I got into kettlebells & have trained mostly with those in the past 12 months. I have also done extensive weighted vest training in the past couple of years.

Recently I have been looking at diversifying my functional strength training. What I deeply miss from the conventional weights are the 3 basic lifts, squat, deadlift & bench having gotten my bench up to 400 lbs without a gym with barbells or a press machine how can you duplicate this?

Well this has led me to a few ideas for gear I will be setting up here at home with minimal costs.

First up is Sandbags…

Lets look at the “bulgarian bag” first. To buy a quality leather bag from suples will set you back a few hundred. If you are overseas like me it could cost you up to $1000 – clearly out of the question.

here is the site http://www.suples.com/

As you can see these are very well crafted and attractive but also extremely expensive.

Well the very simple solution is to make one from a car inner tube.

Now I wont go into the details here on how to make one – its all over the net already. There are knock off brands that are much cheaper than suples & chinese brands are available in real leather too.

Next up are actual sandbags. The beauty of sandbags is that you can use them for most exercises you can use a barbell for, including squats, deadlifts & benches. Plus a whole lot more of course.

The best thing to do is to go down to army surplus & pick up some heavy canvas bags. Fill these with a liner plastic garbage bag then fill multiple smaller freezer bags with the actual sand. Only fill them to 75% so the sand can still squish & move around. Seal it all up with duct tape. You can also use steel shot if you want an extra heavy sandbag.

Rosstraining.com has a great & cheap course on sandbag training.

With sandbags you can have a tonne of weight to train with for $100 worth of army surplus gear.

Next I’ll talk about weight vests briefly. I do not recommend training with a pack or making your own vest. The whole point of weight vest training is that it is ergonomic.

The problem for those of us outside the US is the cost of shipping a super heavy vest. For my MIR 140 lb vest it would have cost nearly $1000 to ship the thing here. I bought it without weight for $89.

I am buying $280 worth of steel bar which when cut down will fit perfectly into the vest to the full 140 lb weight. So a major saving.

next KEGS. Yep beer kegs filled with water, gravel or sand. Buy them of an auction site or from a local supplier.

You also want to google for home made suspension trainer. There are multiple sites & videos showing how to make these.

Finally the dragging sled.

Basically a heavy tire will do but the important thing is the harness. There are several configurations for harnessing. There are different options for the actual sled too.

Just have a good google & you will find a variation to suit you.

I personally will just use a tire but may have several configurations for the harness to maximize functionality.

So there we have it – a total functional gym for next to nothing. Hundreds of pounds of weight.