Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Old Time Wrestling & How It Can Turn You Into A Machine

When it comes to conditioning for wrestling there are many ways to do it. Look at how Dan Gable conditioned the most dominant team at University Of Iowa for 21 seasons with 15 National Titles. His methods were second to none and should be learned by any type of coach for the sport or athlete for that matter. At the same time there was a man who took conditioning to a very unique level and because of his teachings he conditioned a wrestler by the name of Frank Gotch. His name was Martin “Farmer” Burns.

In his course Lessons In Wrestling & Physical Culture he uses a form of deep breathing to help regain and maintain health, strength and fitness. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything in this course and I highly recommend you check it out at http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Burns/lessons/lesson01.htm.

 Without question he was one of the most unorthodox wrestlers/teachers there was at the turn of the 20th century. He developed techniques in both fitness and wrestling to create the ultimate package to see who is tough enough and who is willing to take his training to a whole new level. Farmer himself had wrestled sense he was very young and had a staggering number of victories losing in only 7 matches. At age 50 he can still take down and mangle an opponent within seconds. At that time being 50 was ancient and the average age wouldn’t go beyond 60 let alone 50. So that should tell you how powerful this small man was and weighed no more then 175 pounds. The techniques he taught not only gave a wrestler a chance to win matches but also to save his own life. This was important for the common man of that period when survival was needed the most.

 Another key factor that he taught was very important and that’s pacing ones self. For a wrestler it’s a game of chess and you must be steps ahead of your opponent but it must not be quick nor faster then needed. When you get accustomed to the conditioning it teaches you to pace yourself and conserve your energy while your opponent wears out his. This became very complex and effective that it still stands today for MMA Fighters. Its no wonder the Farmer was ahead of his time.

Because of these effective strategies it was passed on from generation to generation. One of them was a wrestler who took the name Gotch and made a name for himself in Europe, Japan and a stint in America. His name was Karl Istaz (Gotch). Like the Farmer himself Karl took conditioning to a degree far beyond what most would consider today as insane or brutal. Either way it became apparent that if you want to wrestle your conditioning comes first. This goes hand and hand like a horse and carriage, one without the other is worthless.

If you want to see Gotch & his students in action then go to Scientific Wrestling and pick up a copy of Conditioning For Combat Sports 1 & 2. There might be a Interview DVD in there as well which in my opinion is treasure among treasures as Karl sits with Scientific Wrestling Owner Jake Shannon as they discuss the old-timers, a bit of Karl’s Career and his fond of conditioning. If you choose to do so I would also recommend you pick up the Authoritive  Encyclopedia Of Scientific Wrestling series. It’s a series of books filled with interviews, wrestling techniques and definitions of wrestlers and holds. It even has some on the Farmer. As a man of history and Physical Culture I encourage you to find your own history and learn from the best in the game. 100 years ago Burns helped carry on a wrestling tradition that still stands today and his techniques are not only more unique but even more effective today but yet is becoming a lost art. Help carry on a tradition that is sacred and willing to fight for.   

Monday, June 27, 2011

Becoming Tarzan

Can that really happen? I mean come on who the hell wants to be like the ape man? Well it turns out more people then you know. The fitness on this guy is incredible. He can swing through the trees and climb with the best of them and is strong as hell. It’s no secret that Tarzan is the type of athlete some of us wish to be. Have a great physique, profound strength & stamina and the natural functional ability to handle everything thrown at him. To me he’s a mans man.


If we want to try to imitate the conditioning of Tarzan we must first observe his behavior. He learned what he can do by observing the only family he knows and that was the Gorillas of the jungle. He learned how they walked, climbed and swung through the vines of the forest. He learned to understand their strength and power through fierce battles and studied their anatomy. Contrary to popular belief Tarzan was pure genius. He learned how to survive by learning from possible one of the strongest species on the planet.



Now that you have observed what he does its time to put that into play by practicing the movements. Now before I go any further I just want to state that yes Gorillas have different body structures then we do and have a advantage that we can never imitate but it’s not a bad thing to get really strong in the areas that we can work on. Practice how they walk and how they hang on trees (a pull-up bar or a soccer goal would be better suited). Learn to move the best way you can. Focus on the whole body and not just the muscles but the tendons as well. I know you’re probably sick and tired of reading about tendon strength by me but the fact of the matter is if your tendons aren’t strong enough you won’t get very far in your quest to be super strong.



Doing a workout like this alone can be very rewarding in terms of building strength, stamina, flexibility and not to mention muscle building from having HGH levels shoot through the roof. Moving like an ape can be the ultimate jungle workout for you because you don’t have to spend a lot of time doing it and it gets you out in the open air like the Ape Man himself. Is there really a course on this particular type of training? I believe so and its in Ed Baran’s Animal Kingdom Conditioning Courses: Animal Kingdom Conditioning & Animal Kingdom Conditioning 2: Call Of The Wild. These 2 courses alone can create the ultimate jungle workouts and I believe the Ape/Monkey Exercises are well worth the price for both courses. You can still do the other animals but the Ape Exercises are closer to us humans and its time we start getting into shape.



Why not get a course for the kids with Wild Animal FitnessFor Kids? I’m sure you’ll find some ape training in there for your little ones and it won’t look like training but playing and having fun because that’s what real training is about is having fun. Do you need the strength of Tarzan? No, but you can become stronger then the average human and dominate your life by becoming the strongest you can be.


Saturday, June 25, 2011

Creating Your Own Style Of Training

Its difficult to realize that you can in-fact become your own personal trainer. The first thing to do this is to learn as much exercise as possible. The more you learn and observe your own physiology; you will find your own routine. Another goal to keep in mind is keep track of your workouts and a journal is the perfect tool for this. Whether you want to workout 3X a week or 7X a week keep track of what you do.

Anybody can learn to be their own trainer. It took me a few years to finally understand it but now I can create any workout I want with the amount of exercises I know. Now you don’t need to build years to understand it. Having a personal trainer isn’t a bad thing but the problem is a lot of people get discouraged and many trainers don’t teach the value of your own experience and train for you. Very few can and I happen to know some. The easy part is exercising the hard part is learning on your own. Observe yourself and learn the movement of an exercise you want to master. Really you don’t need to do 20 exercises in one workout just do no more then 8-10. I train 7 days a week up to 3 times a day because that’s what I’m comfortable with and it makes me happy. For you once a day 3 times a week is doable.

Nothing in fitness is more enjoyable in knowing your own style of exercise and my best advice is to learn everything you can. Do what you can learn what you want to learn. Becoming your own trainer can bring you a lot of benefits in your life. You don’t need to pay for a gym/trainer, you save money which you can use for other things that are important in your life like your family. I have learned well over 500 exercises in my lifetime maybe even more but do I need to do all the time? Hell no I don’t even like some of them. That’s another beauty about being your own trainer you pick the exercises you want to accomplish a goal. If you don’t know where to go to learn then you’re in luck because these are the best that I know of that will take you to great heights and they all give you something you want to accomplish. Go click on the links below and find what interests you.


























Friday, June 24, 2011

Superhuman Pull-ups For Powerful Upper Body Strength

Pull-ups by any means are one of the difficult forms of training because not many people train on them and those that do know very little about progressive safe training to get higher reps and get stronger in the entire upper body. That’s where Dutch National Champion Gymnast Cees De Kok & Concert Pianist extraordinaire Garin Bader come into play.



They will teach you like they have taught me the 5 key ingredients to gain super strength in your pull-ups. Now what are the 5 secrets to super strength in Pull-ups?



  1. Grip Strength:



Not many people realize how important your grip is in doing pull-ups. You can grab the bar and try to do as many as you can but if your grip can’t handle it what makes you think you’ll be able to do great numbers. Garin & Cees will show you the proper ways to grip the bar and not just grab and hold but using alignment and proper gripping. Also they will show you exercises that not only are essential for pull-ups but how to develop powerful hands.



  1. Shoulder & Back Isolation/Synergy



This secret will reveal what you need to combine the strength & flexibility of the shoulders and back in different components. Lets face it pull-ups are for mainly back strength so if you can’t strengthen the back how are you going to do pull-ups. Again you will find some interesting concepts on properly isolating the back.

           

  1. Optimal Arm Training & Positioning



Without proper positioning of the arms not only will pull-ups be that much more difficult but can result in injury. Arms are one a main key to doing pull-ups so if you want to get good at them then you need to strengthen your arms as best as possible. When you do pull-ups the biceps have a major role because with the pulling muscle it flexes the muscle and creates a powerful surge of muscle fibers just like triceps are for push-ups with the exception of extending so it’s important to have good arm training & Garin/Cees will show you how. You’ll be impressed.



  1. Isolation Exercises For Chain Of Strength



Now they say isolating isn’t for overall body strength but in this case I think we can make an exception. The reason why I’m saying this is because for pull-ups you want to have the strength in your upper body from your grip to your abdominal muscles. Developing the areas needed will set off a chain reaction when you do get to the actual pull-up training. Learning proper isolation wouldn’t be a bad thing in this case because the exercises you learn in this segment don’t look like isolated exercises that much anyway but they will help you in the long run to having great strength in the pull-ups.



  1. Mindset & Putting It All Together



The mindset for pull-ups is quite different from what most people think. Do you do better at pull-ups counting up or counting down? This answer will blow you away. I tried it for the first time comparing the two and I found which one was easier and I kept it ever since. That’s just a piece of what you will find out but when you start putting these secrets together you will find that your strength has more meaning and can accelerate your reps if you find the proper usage.



My best number in chin-ups was 21 and my best in pull-ups was 17. I’m also over 235 lbs. My average however wasn’t that great until I got this course. Now my average in chin-ups is around 12 and pull-ups around 10-12 as well but before that in workouts I wouldn’t go higher then 7-9 either way. As an athlete and strongman I need proper back and grip strength for the feats I perform but you don’t have to be an athlete or strongman to use this course. It can be used by anyone who is willing to give pull-ups a chance and build a powerful upper body. Once you learn the 5 secrets to Superhuman Pull-ups, there’s no turning back.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Indian Clubs: From Wood To Steel For A Fierce Grip

For centuries wrestlers of the Middle East have been known for a number of things but the two main ones are wrestling and swinging different objects. The Clubs have been a stable point for wrestlers as long as the sport and for good reason. They train the body in neither ways nor weights or bodyweight exercise can touch. Sure the athletes used some weights and almost exclusively bodyweight but the clubs give a different advantage, one a wrestler needs for stable conditioning and that’s the grip.



Have you heard of the Great Gama or WWE Hall Of Famer The Iron Sheik? These two in my opinion are the biggest names in Middle Eastern wrestling. Gama is from what is now Pakistan and the Sheik is from Iran but yet both countries carry the sport of wrestling as the major sport almost to the equivalent to what America is to Baseball. The clubs were played a big role for how they trained and wrestled. Gama is said to have wrestled in 5000 matches and never lost once. That should tell you what kind of condition and how strong he was. The most important picture of the true great one is of him holding a 80lb. club which is the representation of the world title.



The Sheik is of a totally different realm to wrestling but similar in some ways. He was once an Olympic wrestler who was once a bodyguard for the Shah Of Iran. He became a professional wrestler and was trained by Wrestling Legend Verne Gagne at his training camp in Minnesota. He went on to become of the most charismatic villains in the history of Professional wrestling and held Tag Team Championships and even the WWE Title at time or 2 and rivaled with two of some of the most popular wrestlers in history and that was Hulk Hogan & Sergeant Slaughter. He can wrestle with the best of them and a trademark challenge he made was none other then the clubs. He challenged anyone who can keep up with him swinging heavy clubs or the Middle Eastern term Jori and no one was able to keep up. Now that may have been for storyline purposes but without a doubt the clubs are no joke.



I have played around with the Jori myself and I can safely say they will kick your ass one was or another. Start out 5 min. with these things sounds easy right? Think again. Yeah you can keep swinging for a bit but your grip will start to tire and when that happens your form becomes sloppy and you will need to rest. Yet without question this will help your grip in ways you can’t imagine. Remember my post about building tendons? Well the clubs are no exception. You can get fit with these bad boys pretty quick and it doesn’t matter if they 2 lb. or 50 lb. you will get an awesome workout out of it and its fun. If a workout can’t be fun then what’s the point?



Now for those who are paying attention you will find that the clubs that I have been mentioning are mostly made of wood. What kind it’s hard to say. Nowadays you can get clubs made out of wood, rubber and steel. You can find the wooden clubs at a few places such as http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/indian_clubs.html or at http://www.indianclubs.com/. Now for the steel patented clubs you can get those at Stronger Grip ran by my bud and grip master Ryan Pitts. He’s plenty of variations for the clubs including a hybrid of Thor’s Hammer. You can use it as club swinging for training or use it in your hammer training. That to me is genius. Feel the power in your hands as you help continue a tradition for the last millennium and how you can help it grow by training these implements to how you see fit to your training.

When you swing these clubs I want you to picture for a moment as if you were back in time where you were training in the pits of Indian wrestling ring and you are warming up with clubs getting ready for battle and then you just man handle your opponent. Now are these specific to wrestlers? No they can be used for strength, flexibility, stamina, and rehab and to help gain an advantage in whatever you do. I have friends who are strongmen and they use them. It’s important we help restore time honored program that has been used as long as the culture. Put yourself into the hands of these powerful tools and become a fitness machine.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Psychotic Strength Turns Into Monstrous Gains



When most people put together a strength & endurance program they end up failing and why? Because nobody really teaches them the right way to bring up their levels of conditioning they could never imagined. It’s not right to feel limited to what can have unlimited potential and create a sufficient system that can give you strength & endurance at the same time. Ok did I just say that right at the same time?



When it comes down to it most people believe that Strength & Endurance can’t be done at the same time. Well then try telling that to strongman Bud Jeffries. Believe it or not this man as a super-heavyweight now at 270 can go to levels that most guys can’t even comprehend he is just bad to the bone strong and durable. Also he’s not the only one if you’ve been playing the home game here. In the eras of the 20’s, 30’s & 40’s you will find strongmen who were not just strong but had incredible stamina, speed and energy that almost nobody in the commercial gyms can do today. Call me old fashion but I much rather rely on these guys then some dude who plays around with a machine and calls himself strong.



Lets just say for safe keeping if you want to become a super athlete you will need to work on a variety of different things but that’s not the same thing as isolating no it means you find exercises that are compound movements (working multiple muscle groups for those who are keeping up) and building foundations for what you can achieve. Why not bring all of them into play and create the ultimate workout. Take a long & hard look at Twisted Conditioning 1 and its Sequel Twisted Conditioning 2. These two courses alone can help you achieve a level of strength that would make an old-timer proud. Becoming superhuman is what we all strive to be. For us guys we want to be strong and keep our loved ones safe and protect them from harm. We also want to be the strongest and most effective athlete we can be and being a bit rugged wouldn’t be too bad either because lets face it, functional muscle can take you farther then as a bodybuilder whose best achievement is standing on stage looking pretty. For the women they want to be able to defend themselves against attackers and have that lean and mean body that not only looks awesome but at the same time can take on a guy. For you ladies unless you’re on steroids you will not get big huge muscles like us guys so stop being afraid of putting on too muscle cause it won’t happen.



Taking a chance to become strong has been the vocal point for men and women as long as civilization and even the caveman era. Being strong doesn’t always mean big muscles but it means having self confidence and being functionally fit to do whatever you please. Being strong has its benefits and when you have just as much stamina as you do have strength, its even sweeter then cherry pie. Take a look at what you will find in these 2 bad boys have to offer…..



Learn the Three Levels Of Conditioning. Not doing one level will ruin your chance at success



Train With Kettlebells



Tips For Gaining or Losing weight



Getting strong with Odd Objects



Building Strength Without Losing Endurance



Finding ways to Bend Steel



Getting good at different movements without being complicated



Building Your Maximum in Strongman Training



Learn the best bodyweight exercise for functional fitness Including Push-ups, Squats, Sit-ups & Bridging for optimal health an strength



Learn how to train with Water.



& Many More……



Just looking at what you will find should give you an idea that not only will you learn from the best but how to keep things fresh and new for every training session you do and I don’t want to imagine the level of strength you will achieve because whatever I come up with you have more of it. This is powerful, powerful stuff my friend and only Bud can deliver this kind of training system to you. Take a chance and create yourself the ultimate athlete with no strings attached, no catches, just plain hard work and the will to successful.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Lifting Odd Objects For Optimal Strength & Power

When you add Odd Object  lifting into your routine you will find that it can accelerate your strength to levels that are just surreal man. I have played around with odd objects myself (like my very wide and long 100 lb. barrel) and from the looks of things they’re not easy to do in the same sense as barbells and dumbbells. I normally don’t do BB’s & DB’s anymore but if you gave a keg or log to try I’d be right on it brother.



The real secret for this particular type of training is that unlike straight handle equipment Odd Objects reflect on needing to move at different angles in one shot. There’s no way in hell you can lift a rock the same way you lift a barbell it’s just the way it is. Now would a thick bar be considered an odd object? That’s tough to say but in my opinion in a twisted way yes I feel it is and for good reason….Its thick and your grip is going to be different and it takes your tendon strength to a whole different dimension. With Odd Objects you won’t find a boring workout because it teaches you to lift differently and grip from odd angles.



In Bud Jeffries' Odd Object Lifting Series you will find a variety of ways to take your strength to a level that could make a strongman competitor proud. It offers different ways to handle the objects themselves such as….



Barbells



Rocks



Logs



& Barrels



All of these are in a series of DVDs that will show you first hand how you can learn to lift properly, be safe and also offers you the opportunity to handle things you thought you can never do. Bud is a true expert on Odd Objects and for good reason….He is just flat out STRONG!!!! The things he manhandles are just a piece of what you will find in the video on the site. Take a peak of what you can become if you incorporate Odd Objects. Learn the secrets of the Old-time Strongmen such as Louis Cyr, George Jowett, Thomas Inch, Arthur Saxon & many more. If you’re a fanatic on strength this series is for you. If you want to gain strength to advance your way through competition this series is for you. If you want to take your grip to a whole new level, well my friend you know what to do.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Get A On Move On For The Moving Sale

Guys and Gals,

 My friend Logan is moving away on a secret mission to tackle an art that is out of this world, I'm a good friend of his and even I can't know the full details thats how secretive this is. So for your benefit he's having a Moving Sale that is just off the charts low-priced material that he most likely will never do again. You will get low-priced products that are worth far more then what he's charging and just about any of this material is some of the best work i've ever seen and men like Dennis Rogers, Bud Jeffries, Ryan Pitts, Adam Glass and others will agree with me. You will find stuff thats on......

Bodyweight

Kettlebell Snatching

Bridging

Hand Balancing

Strongman

Radiant Health

Keys To Super Strength & Fitness

Tumbling

Trampoline Fitness

& Many More

You can either purchase them seperatly or buy the whole package for a low price (I recommend getting them all...You will never need to find a workout again when you can learn everything.)

Because of this Moving Sale it won't last very long so get right on it before they're all gone and trust me you won't see another sale like this again. You will find everything you need to know about strength and conditioning to the highest degree.

Building Strong Tendons

Unlike muscle building, if you want to increase the strength in your tendons you need specific type training. Wrist curls and things of that sort will not cut it unless you have a thick bar but not too many commercial gyms have them so what do you do? Well for a weightlifter you might want to consider Training With Partials. The reason why I say this is because with partial lifts you’re hitting the body from a certain angle and the tendons actually go into play more then muscles do plus with partials you can lift heavier and heavier weight then you can with full range.



Now we all heard that building a great body means you need to build/tone muscles but nobody really talks about the tendons and if they did, most of the time the exercises to build them aren’t really good for you (trust me I’ve been there). One thing I learned from York Barbell Hall Of Famer Slim The Hammerman Farman in his DVD was that exercising the tendons are a key to developing great strength. Muscle building is great in many ways but building muscles may not be quite enough. Slim’s mentor The Mighty Atom was an avid explorer in building tendon strength and for good reason. He was and still is the World’s Strongest Little Man.



If you want to build great tendon strength, there are many ways to do them and a favorite of mine is through isometrics. Even though I love doing that I still need specific type work on them and I want to feed the energy in my hands in order to accomplish my training. When you can do that and build a solid foundation your tendons will be supple, strong and healthy all at the same time. However you do not want to do exercises that can damage your hands. There are exercises out there that do more harm then good in your hands because of the way angles are made and how many repetitions and all that crap. You want to have vital strength and vibrant health in your tendons because the more you develop it the healthier your hands will be and it can even save your life.



One such guy I know has been building his tendons since he was a little boy and now is one of the best pianists the world has ever seen. His name is Garin Bader and seeing him up-close I can tell you first hand he is one of the strongest dudes I’ve ever met. At his size of 6’ over 200 lbs. he can do 2 finger superman push-ups and that’s just an appetizer of what he can do. Because of that he has developed a system that not only works but has kept him from getting injured because some of the stunts he does are extremely dangerous and he has no safety net if he fell doing certain things. That’s where Finger Gymnastics come into play. It’s a simple system that can help you turn your tendons from jello to solid steel with a touch of flexibility. We all have suffered carpal tunnel in our lives at sometime.



Its no fun wearing those casts on your wrists and not being able to move your hands without them hurting. I’ve been there a time or 2 and I’m younger then most people who have/had it. With this system you don’t have to go through complicated exercises or do this or that to get results, the results come from working what you can and making a little fun out of it. You learn to use energy and relaxed strength to build a solid program of building the strongest tendons possible. I may look big at 242 lbs. but I don’t rely on my muscle building training to get where I want to be, I rely on my tendons and when I have built them up to a degree, my muscles will come in automagically (sorry had to go biz Markey on ya). The same can happen for you and it costs far less then a doctor’s visit. Have Garin share his story and how you can develop strong and supple wrists and lower to the degree where if you’re a martial artist, your grip will go through the roof, if you’re a musician your playing will become much greater and if you’re a strongman (like yours truly) you will be doing things far better then you ever thought before. Get yourself some powerful tendons my friend.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Strongmen Vs. Bodybuilders

One of the deceiving myths about Bodybuilding today is that they are functionally strong. Back in the day when you had guys like John Grimek, Bill Pearl, Reg Park and Steve Stanko these guys weren’t just awesome in the physique department they were also incredibly strong in quite a few areas such as heavy weight lifting, can do strength stunts and were some of the greatest hybrids of the strongman bodybuilder. Unlike today where you have guys who isolate every single muscle in the body and spend a long period of time in the gym and very few make it to the top and even fewer are in good health.



The mental aspects of these different athletes are just that they are very different but yet they have a common goal and that is to be the best at what they do. For strongmen, they’re goal is to lift the heaviest weight possible, show different bends, tearing thick phonebooks, rip license plates, hell some even lever heavy sledgehammers but yet the mental training to get to those stunts relies on what they need to break through past the governor that resides within us to stop if there is going to pain. Bodybuilders’ mental game is picturing the perfect physique, hitting those last few torturing reps and blasting their bodies to the point where their veins look to pop out.



For the most part lets face it unless you’re superhuman there isn’t a way to put on 30-40 pounds of muscle in a month without the need of some “help.” Bodybuilders today do use steroids like a lot of other athletes but for entirely different reason. I’m not saying all of them do but there are a high number of them. Unlike sports athletes, bodybuilders relied on getting bigger and more muscular other then performing on stage better. Strongmen in certain areas of strength do use steroids and again not saying all but some do. Back in the day before the 50’s and 60’s most bodybuilders relied on strength and power and a few ended up developing great musculature. Take for example John Grimek the muscle god from New Jersey who won every single bodybuilding competition he entered in but yet to him it wasn’t as important as being strong. He was one of the very few bodybuilders at the time who competed in Olympic Weightlifting and was apart of one of the greatest clubs in weightlifting and that was the York Barbell Company. Now lets take a guy like Ronnie Colman who won Mr. Olympia titles as many as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lee Haney. He is without question one of the greats but for him it came with a price. His body was so overdeveloped you can clearly see as bright as day he can’t move his upper boy very well and his legs look like they’re set up to be injured.



This brings to my point about injuries. Injuries happen often in both areas of the strongman and the bodybuilder but who gets the most injuries? For obvious reasons, bodybuilders today rely on building as much muscle as possible but they’re neglecting the tendons which help hold the muscles together and if you build too much muscle tissue the tendons can rupture and tear. Strongmen do get injured as well but probably not as much as bodybuilders but it does happen. Unlike bodybuilders, some strongmen rely on tendon training to do some of the craziest stunts there are. Any other reason to debate these athletes is that no matter what people say about them, these guys go all out for the thing they drive on to become the best.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Bending Steel: A Documentary

Films come and go, some take your breath away, some make you cry, even some make you think. A documentary however is different. It shows real life as we know it or may not know it. Look at Pumping Iron. Yes it was considered a documentary but under certain scopes it really was a docudrama. Really a great film in of itself and showed the power and strain and drama of bodybuilding. Now how many documentaries are there for strongmen? Not too many but one film seems to want to take that obstacle and take it to another level.

This film is about the journey of one such strongman. Small in body structure but big in will power and the will to succeed. His name is Chris Shoeck and he's learning the craft of the old-time strongmen from the vaudeville era of the early 20th century at the historic American boardwalk Coney Island, NY. Along this journey you will see what this man at 5'7 155 pounds does when he bends incredibly tough steel bars and such other great feats of strength, you will find very rare Photos of one of Coney Island's Strongest men Joseph Greenstein AKA The Mighty Atom who wasn't that much smaller or bigger then Shoeck is today. You will also see very rare footage of the strongman's protege' Slim The Hammerman Farman who was recently inducted into the York Barbell Hall Of Fame.

While you will see a heartfelt and surprising journey unfold it wouldn't be possible without the help of Chris' mentor. Professional Performing Strongman Chris Rider is also in the film as well. He's a protege' of World's Strongest Man Dennis Rogers. Rider has become famous in his own right being one of the top guys in his field at a relatively short span of only a few years. He's one of the fastest rising strongmen in the world and for good reason. The man is a monster at 6'4 290 pounds of pure solid rock. He's known to bend tough horseshoes, rip decks of cards in halves, rip license plates in quarters and bend wrenches unbraced (not using the lower body as leverage).

As you will see in the film which is set to be out as of summer 2012, Rider helps Shoeck learn the ropes of the audience, bend certain things within periods of time and also see Rider at his best as he bend and tears whats infront of him. This film is one that needs exposure because the Old-time Strongman are starting to fade if it hasn't already and this film is helping bring back what was the glory days of the Strongmen of that era. With Shoeck on his way to performing, does he have a bit of the Atom in him? Will he perform unlike other times he has before? We shall see and if you take a look at the trailer http://www.bendingsteelmovie.com/ you will get a peice of the journey but will you find the destination once you see it?

I'm proud to get to help get this film going. While the crew is finishing up, me and Chris Rider will be helping spread the word of this film and I hope YOU will as well. Nothing in the Iron Game is more sacred then being apart of some of the strongest people on the planet and nothing is more sacred in this business then to help restore what is now a memory in the eyes of those came before us. Join me and Chris to bring this film to life nationwide and around the world.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Pre WWE vs. WWE Now

Before you had pyrotechnics and the big spectacle of drama and soap opera that is WWE today, there was a time when wrestling was meaningful. At the time once wrestlers like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt were long gone (once the 30’s rolled around) you still had some great wrestlers who drew in crowds but then it started rooting in the ground of what was to become a heavy national spotlight and the start of sports-entertainment.



Back in the days of wrestling where they were guys like Bruno Sammartino, “Superstar” Billy Graham, Buddy Rogers, Crusher & The Bruiser and even wrestling greats Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne there wasn’t a big boss of the biggest corporation to go to until Vince McMahon sr. came into the spotlight in the late 60’s and 70’s. You had territories where promoters held their ground in certain states across the country, in Canada & abroad. There were champions in every territory but the biggest Company at the time next to what used to be the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was the NWA ( National Wrestling Alliance.



Wrestling camps back then were scarce and since there was no internet, cell phones hell a wrestling camp wasn’t even in the god damn phonebooks. They were through word of mouth. Back then up-coming wrestlers got the shit kicked out of them and some of those camps made Tough Enough look like a cake-walk. Ask guys like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Paul Orndorff, and Randy Savage even the greatest good guy of them all, Ricky Steamboat. If you got into a camp it wasn’t easy and being in a camp wasn’t the hard part, it was being on the road and practically having wrestlers as your family. A wrestling camp in those days meant that if you didn’t come back for more and make just a tad more then 100% effort you didn’t belong there. Wrestling Legend Vern Gagne had a camp in Minnesota where he took up to 12-16 guys to see how tough they were and put through training that just didn’t seem to be human. I mean you have guys do 500 squats, 100’s of push-ups, ran stairs up and down then carrying a guy on your back and then you’d get in the ring to learn a few moves and that was just a daily routine for these guys. I don’t know the real details about this camp but I can assure you I have put myself through some workouts but I would not want to mess with guys who made it through that camp.



Other trainers like Eddy Sharkey, Killer Kowalski, Hiro Matsuda and even the late Karl Gotch would train some of the biggest names that went to NWA, Japan, WWF/E and Vern’s near 30yr stint Organization the AWA in Minnesota. The big time names that came out of these camps went on to have some of the most famous matches in the history of wrestling. Once the 80’s rolled around you had Mega Stars making huge bank and some of the matches these guys did lasted close to or even over a whole hour. Win/Lose/Draw those matches pitted wrestlers at the peak of sport to entertainment before those 2 words were put together by WWE owner Vince McMahon jr.



Wrestling Camps today are very open to business and the training of wrestlers. Some camps are rip offs, very few give an up-coming wrestler what he needs to have Charisma, Ring Work, Conditioning, Mic Work, Working The Crowd and Ring Psychology. For the most part camps today are expensive as hell and usually from what I read far more wrestlers quit after a couple months then wrestlers who train their asses off and actually make it to the WWE. In my opinion, if most of these gyms had a synch of a Vern Gagne or a Hiro Matsuda Attitude I wouldn’t doubt some of the wrestlers would be far tougher then some guys today. Wrestlers in WWE are tough in their own right, they did a lot to get where they’re at but the training today is nothing like yesteryear.



For my opinion on WWE’s future, I would say it’ll make more money in 10 years then it did 30 years ago its really that huge and most likely already made that much bank as a company. A lot of people have their opinions about pro wrestlers and how much its more drama then physicality but the truth of the matter is these guys are some of the greatest athletes around and ya outside the ring some do drugs, drink and take certain things but in that ring when they wrestle they really are some of the best storytellers and some of the physicality they bring is just incredible. So the next time you give a wrestler shit try training like one and you’ll see how brutal some of these guys can really be. Even though it’s a spectacle and has characters that are just not that normal you have to give them props from where they came from and how they got there.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Taking A Page Out Of George Hackenshmidt

Back in the early 20th century, GH was considered by many to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time. Still do to this day. He was a champion in both weightlifting and wrestling plus had a string of strongman performances. As an athlete he trained with the best of them and trained rather uniquely at the time and that was integrating both weights and bodyweight exercises. Now even back then plenty of athletes did this but he did in a way that became legendary. So much so he wrote a few books on the subject including his biggest seller The Way To Live which I highly recommend you check out it’s a wonderful book.



He became very popular in his time that today he was considered as a turning of the century equivalent to Hulk Hogan. In his later years he kept on training and writing up until his 90’s. In a time where you were considered an old man at 50 George broke the mold and went past what is considered old today. That’s quite an accomplishment.



If you want to become the athlete you want to be then you need to find your own unique style of training like Hackenshmidt did. Your workouts need to be different then anybody else and in some cases some people use weight, some use just bodyweight (like yours truly) and even some use both at the same time which ideally is a good thing because you get to balance out the best of both worlds. A good idea to use in this pursuit is to also use Odd Objects which means you move something heavy that can be used to lift in odd places unlike a straight barbell or dumbbell.



One such a guy has taken that mold and created what I would like to say is the ultimate physical culture courses on integrating both weights and bodyweight exercise and that’s Bud Jeffries. This man by many in the Iron Game to be one of the strongest super heavyweights in the world (Drug Free) and I’m in no position to argue with them. I’ve seen first hand in person how powerful he is and it’s just unbelievable. His strength is just surreal and anybody who says otherwise is a bullshitter. He has lifted some of the heaviest weight around but can also do high repetition squats and push-ups. In his courses Twisted Conditioning and Twisted Conditioning 2 they are considered to be in my opinion one of the best works in the iron game like the Godfather films are to movies. They are that good.



When you learn to integrate these conditioning elements you’ll find that learning a unique style of training is how you can start becoming your own trainer. Me personally have done so many exercises in my lifetime that I know what works and what doesn’t for me and Bud is one of many guys I have known to teach me those things. Let him do the same thing for you and give you the chance to become a much stronger person both inside and out and vise versa. Once you start finding what works for you, you will become your own ultimate athlete.

The Most Feared Position In Football & How You Can Condition Like One

Lambert, Taylor, Butkus, Lewis….What do these names have in common? These are the last names of some of the feared Linebackers in the History of the NFL and for good reason. They were tough, vicious and some of the most conditioned athletes on the planet. Believe it or not a Linebacker in my opinion is second to the quarterback because he has to keep a sharp eye on where the ball and the players are going and once someone has the ball near them bam he pounces like a wild tiger going for the prey. A linebacker needs the speed of a running back, the strength of a lineman and a keen eye of a quarterback.



If you’re going to train like one you need to hit your workouts fast and hard. There’s no need to do hour long marathon workouts because those are for more moderate workouts in most cases. Hitting your workouts with a vengeance for a few minutes a day can take you far beyond what you normally consider training.

Now you may not start out fast and hard but with a will and the ability to get better you will get stronger, faster and more agile. Vince Palko has such a way to get you to the top as a conditioned athlete and for good reason. He’s been there himself personally.



As a college and pro football player, he was taught by some of the best coaches this world has ever known and he was never apart of a losing season and has won many titles in his career. He’s also one of the most knowledgeable guys on the subject. You want to get hammered to the ground, let him get you to those heights and make you want more. He has a plethora of courses on how to get in condition unlike you have ever seen before. Whether you’re in football, sports or just want to get in better shape here is one of the best places to go.



Helping Bring Back Catch Wrestling

My wrestling studying started when I saw Wrestlemania XII in March of 1996. I was 11 years old a few months shy of being 12 and I was captivated by the main event and that was the WWE Championship Match between HBK Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart. This was an Iron Man match which lasted an hour long and in this particular type match whoever scored the most pins/submissions wins the match. These 2 guys went at it and I didn’t know it at the time until I learned later on that at the beginning of the match they started doing what’s called in the business Chain Wrestling which was a sequence a moves that was fast-paced and timed correctly. After that match I was hooked into wrestling and went to events at the time was The San Jose Arena (Now HP Pavilion) and the San Francisco Cow Palace which also was a big time wrestling venue for many years since the 60’s I think. I even met and had my picture taken with WWE Superstar the dead man himself The Undertaker.



Once I got into the circus-like atmosphere of the business I wanted to learn more about it so I recorded a show on A&E one night that had the topic of wrestling called The Unreal Story Of Professional Wrestling. In this film it gave insights into the roots of professional wrestling beginning with the cavemen, Egyptians, Japanese and the best of them all Catch Wrestling that was apart of the Civil War and how guys in the ACT shows (Athletic Shows) and carnivals would take on all-comers.  It talked about guys like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt, Otto Arco & Farmer Burns. Those were the guys that seemed the most cool looking to me and they weren’t bodybuilding type dudes they were far smaller but a lot more into wrestling the way it was as oppose to today.



As far as I was concerned Wrestling was the most brutal sport and the most scientific sport there is and that was at the time my introduction to physical culture and that’s when I became a fan of history and culture. This is where I tell you that if you haven’t figured it out was that if you’re a true fan of something and make a positive way for you to be enthralled by it that’s when you’re the ultimate fan. You learn it you practice, you study and you want to make a positive impact on it. Now I know what you’re thinking “Well what about those obsessed fans that have pictures and have a shrine to pro wrestlers?” Those types of fans are just plain psychotic and in desperate need of help.



When you really get into the sport of wrestling its not just how you study it, its how you talk to people who were wrestlers, what’s their training like, where did they train, who trained and who do they know to be experts. I have talked to guys who have a vast knowledge in catch wrestling and have studied and learned from the very best in the world. If you’re a true fan you would learn what techniques are used, how you condition and what you can find to help it be more applicable to other martial arts systems.



I have studied wrestling for little over 15 years and have gotten on the mat a time or 2 and have made it a quest to be in the best condition I can possibly be. A true fan goes old school, he doesn’t find the latest gadgetry or learns from guys who don’t know a god damn thing about wrestling. I have learned so much yet I still have a long way to go. You don’t stop after hitting a plateau you keep driving and finding the best sources. Wrestling is my fav. Sport period. Its fascinating to me I want to spread the word about it. Take it from me if you want to be a true fan to the sport of wrestling you’ll find the best sources about it and you can have that opportunity here…….Scientific Wrestling

Animalize Your Body

Most training programs have set and rep schemes where you’re set up on a fixed type workout and a lot of people get discouraged sometimes because they don’t make it through them which would really suck. Forget the set and rep schemes for a while and have fun when you exercise because that’s what it’s supposed to be right? You have fun, you enjoy yourself and in the end you feel good.



When it comes to human training it can be boring at times, doing certain exercises in one position and needing to do rep after rep after rep and for some people they will get bored after a while. Why not learn how to be a kid again and go the park and have fun moving around and not worry about what to do next. That’s the beauty of Animal Exercises.



As you learn to move like an animal visualize yourself as that animal. Feel the fury of being in the jungle and have the burning desire to be one powerful looking beast. You’re working out and if you learn to imagine yourself as that animal believe it or not your results will become much quicker and faster.



So for the most part its safe to say that animal exercises can be the most fun training systems around and learning to be a wild beast can have a big impact on your life outside of fitness. You’ll be more confident, vibrant, alive and have an animalized body that have people turning their heads. Go check out my man Ed Baran’s Animal Courses and you’ll learn first hand how to become the king/queen of your jungle.

Animal Kingdom Conditioning

Animal Kingdom Conditioning II: Call Of The Wild

Wild Animal Fitness For Kids

Taking The Handstand To A Whole New Level

Hand Balancing is without question one of the most fascinating feats of bodyweight strength there is. You see gymnasts, acrobats and the men and women of Circ De Solei who all do a form of hand balancing. Now they’re awesome to watch but they didn’t start that way. They built a foundation so they can get on the path to holding the perfect handstand.



Like any other program you want to build your way up in order to go from basics to intermediate to advanced stages and that’s the starting point of building a solid foundation. I for one had to start at a level before the basics because unlike a gymnast or a light weight I’m a big dude at 240+ lbs. I had to start in the headstand on the wall because I’d fall on my ass if I just kicked up from standing. From there I worked my way up to holding a handstand against the wall for more then a minute. I may never get to the perfect handstand but again if I ever pursued it I would probably do much better and plus I like handstand push-ups. That shouldn’t stop you from building a great handstand. If you’re passionate about Hand Balancing then by god go do it brother.



I must give some of you guys a heads up and tell you that Hand Balancing isn’t just an exercise for the upper body; it’s a whole body exercise. Believe it or just because you’re on your hands doesn’t mean your legs don’t do any work because the legs are more involved then what you would believe. You have to work your body as a unit in order to create the best Handstand you can make.



When you create the perfect handstand its not just how you hold it or where the body needs to be but in order to have such a handstand you have to set your mind with your body on how it all ties together. Whether its on the wall or free handed you must practice keeping your body in great alignment so it doesn’t just look good but it won’t hurt your body and won’t set up to get injured.



If you want to build a solid program you need to go to the best places to find it and you don’t need to go to a gym or have special equipment, just use your own bodyweight and find a good amount of space to practice in. For free Handed Handstands I recommend NOT YOUR ROOM!!!! Trust me on this I’ve done it and it hurt like a mother. I would suggest either your yard or a park and until you have significant training the only time you should do it indoors is when you have done a full fledged handstand.



Here are a few ideas of what you can learn to develop your own beautiful handstand……



Learning the correct hand positions



Building Superior Balance



Step By Step Instructions to create a straight handstand



Gain Amazing Body Awareness



How To Stay In The Zone Vs. Going through the motions



And Many More……



It takes practice to build a superior exercise but if you took a look at these two great Physical Culturists I personally believe you will find your ticket to Hand Balancing Success.












&


Ultimate Guide To Handstand Push-ups

Electrical Energy In CoreForce Energy Training

Like a car to an engine your mind and body are the same thing. One will not work without the other and vise versa. Creating energy is not easy but there are simple solutions to it. Your body has a ton of strength & power within but if your mind isn’t up to the task you won’t last very long. Same with the mind, you have tons and tons of electrical cords that keep the brain intact but if the body doesn’t respond then how the hell are you going to get around let alone be strong and enduring.



To get a better analogy, look at Star Wars, specifically the Jedi. They use the Force to generate their power and how it intertwines with everything around them. It’s the same thing with CoreForce Energy; you learn to intertwine your mind/body together to create the ultimate power within you as it is. Now I’m not saying you’ll move objects without touching them or mindfully control somebody but what you will learn is how you integrate that power that you can harness whenever you want.



The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. That’s pretty damn fast. Will you be able to go that fast? Hell no, its not possible no matter how hard you try but with imagination and the will to integrate with your body you can become much faster then you have normally known. Look at the cheetah, its literally the fastest animal on the planet that reach up to speeds as fast 67 miles per hour in one swoop. How the hell can a cat/animal be that fast other then any other animal? Mostly for survival but it also brings forth how it needs to be fast to catch its prey. Think about it for a second, taking the power of your imagination and using it to amp your muscles to create huge amounts of strength and thinking like a cheetah and burst out like a wild cat.



Like the force, energy is all around us and how we harness it can help you bring in strength you never knew yet you had all along. When you fuse the power of your mind and body you can become a more powerful being. I have witnessed it in myself, my friends and my mentor. My friend Garin Bader can help you achieve the power within you to come out of the darkness and shed some light into a greater being inside you. Build up to it and you will find power that you will have and harness whenever you wish to use it. Its not difficult but you will need to put a little work into it like anything else.

Come check out........CoreForce Energy

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Power Of The Animals Part Three

Now we all have seen in the gym or doing our training at home that we have to have set/rep schemes. We do this for cardio, this for strength and this for flexibility. For the record I’m not dissing this notion because its organized, done for specific reasons and its got you covered for what needs to be done. What I’ am saying however is that at times this can also take the fun out of exercise and you don’t enjoy it as much.


How about you open your mind up and try something a little different. Forget sets and reps and just go out and have fun. Seriously have fun. That’s one of the keys to fitness success is that you look forward to your workouts and also you want to enjoy them. That’s how I feel about Animalized Training. It takes away the complicated timing of writing down or setting up a workout when you can just take it for what it is and have a ball.



Animal Fitness can make you feel better about yourself because you get to act like a little kid at the playground. It’s not a secret that Animals are far more conditioned then us and there’s no way in hell we can top what they possess. So why not imitate them and get much stronger then the guy who sits on his ass eating chips and watching hours of TV everyday. For real a animal workout doesn’t need to be more then 20 minutes long period. The exercises are compound movements which mean it works multiple muscle groups which you need to burn fat and gain functional muscle. What they also do is generate HGH a.k.a Human Growth Hormone which helps you stay young, burn fat, build muscle and gives you energy beyond belief.



I practice Animal Exercises quite often because of the fun in how I can train without needing a strict workout and needing only a few minutes a day is just great and I feel like a million bucks. So why not you? I know it tends to look stupid at times because there are exercises that can make you look silly but who can really care?



Lets face it, kids today are becoming overweight because of bad eating habits and they never get fully into doing exercise and it’s a damn shame. There are even some schools in this country that are taking away P.E because kids aren’t just into it and its really sad. Hell not everyone likes to exercise, shit I train 7 days a week and have been for over 6 years and I sometimes feel its crazy and a waste of time on some levels but I do it anyway because I always end up getting something out of it.



So come on people. Wouldn’t it be fun just for a few minutes a day to be like a kid again and build up your energy to do the things that can make your life a little easier? God damn I want to feel that way all the time. If you also worked out as a family, it can lead to better happiness in your relationships as a family and work together and bond, it will go a long way to not only be better for yourselves but for the kids as well. Remember the game tag as a young boy/girl? Well how about you and your son/daughter pick your favorite animal and as that animal you play tag. You might want to compromise being the same animal cause I don’t think a bear can outrun a lion or tiger LOL……



Take up Animal Kingdom Conditioning & Wild Animal Fitness For Kids and if you’re a real stud check out my man Eddie Baran’s new course Animal Kingdom Conditioning II: Call Of The Wild. Get off the couch and start moving yourself into a wild beast in the jungle.

Become A Wild Beast & Become Much Stronger Then The Average Human

Have you seen the animals in the wild? The real power in these jungle creatures are far beyond any human strength that’s possessed. Take a look at the strength of a gorilla. At a bodyweight that can reach up to 400+ lbs. it can practically climb with ease and the power in his hands are just as strong if not more then a lifter’s legs. What about the speed of a cheetah? Runs up to speeds at best 65+ miles an hour to catch its prey. Now we will never become that fast but we can most certainly increase our speed.


What I’m getting at here is if we want to build solid strength and power and develop great endurance and stamina then look no further then Animal Exercises. Because of the compound movements being used you’re using both muscular strength and muscular endurance all at the same time. Not a lot of exercises do that. Plus with animal type training you’re developing the body the way it was meant to. Being functional and not isolating one group of muscles. Also you’re not just building muscle and burning fat but the strength in your tendons and ligaments are one of the true keys to overall strength and power.



Take a look at the tendons of a chimpanzee. Now its not very muscular in the same sense as a gorilla but they’re strength is nothing short of surreal as in if you let him squeeze your finger it can most likely break it. Tendons are actually more important then muscle building in my opinion because with strong tendons you can develop strength in ways build muscles can’t. If you build too much muscle it can wear down the tendons and that’s how you see injuries in the knees, ankles, shoulders and lower arms. Building bone density is keen to having a healthy life. For Astronauts they need to build their bone density when they go into space because with no gravity you aren’t using the body very much and you lose muscle mass. So its safe to say building tendons is important.



Muscle Building however is also important because you need those muscles for specific things and getting around. I’m not talking about bodybuilding in the sense you’re building so much muscle you can’t walk right no I’m talking about the muscle building that is functional and can have you do things you normally wouldn’t do. It takes strength to hold heavy objects or lifting groceries and whatnot so functional muscle building is a must. That’s why animal exercises are so complex and simple. You’re moving your body in different directions and using muscles you normally don’t use which in terms helps build the strength you need.



When you get into the habit of moving like an animal in your workout you’re working the body that can lead to a healthy one and create an inner power within you that is confident, vibrant and alive. Some animal exercises look a little weird but what’s wrong with that? I don’t see anything wrong with it and I practice it quite often. You don’t need to set up a workout hell don’t even look at it as work it’s a little fun thing to do for a few minutes a day. Go to the park and play with your kids or just do it yourself either way its going to be a great experience. Check out Ed Baran’s Animal Kingdom Conditioning Courses and get yourself on track to being a wild beast in the jungle and become more powerful then you ever thought possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re skinny or overweight, young or old these exercises will give you the power to be a new you and engulf yourself into the jungle.


Animal Kingdom Conditioning






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