Opening Your Own Pandora’s Box

          

What are you really afraid of? Are you scared of finding your true potential, something holding you back or do you have something to hide and you don’t know how to come out of your shell? Many people have some of these and some have all of them but in the end it’s all about what you want out of it. Your true potential is within yourself and whatever influence got you to open up it gets you into a world you didn't realize was out there.

            In your mind there’s a million things going on but what happens to the most important thing that you forget to use, your ability to use your mind as if it will give you opportunities you didn't think had. It’s really all in the mind, we all have it, some of us overuse it, some hardly use it and some just know how to use it and make it work for them. If you stay in the same spot, you won’t move forward. It takes practice and progression, it’s not like you go from a weak runner to a marathoner overnight or go from someone who’s afraid of heights to climbing Mount Everest. Open up gradually.

            To really unlock your true potential, you have to go outside of your comfort zone but again be gradual, give yourself time and push it and give yourself a chance to go a little further each time and before you know it you're doing things you didn't realize you didn't know you could do. I know what it’s like to be afraid. When I broke my legs, for a period I never thought I'd walk again, I was scared and felt depressed for a bit but I went out of comfort zone and slowly changed my thinking and built myself up without having a thought or care in the world, I fought my way back even when I didn't want to because if I stopped completely, I would be like most people who didn't care anymore. The true secrets are within your soul and not from a book/cd/dvd or always a seminar.

            The real secrets to unlocking your own Pandora’s Box are found within all of us. We have levels of potential that even ourselves can’t grasp but how we choose to use it is up to us and if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to make it work for you and have it work for the rest of your life. It’s a box full of things you've never thought were there and if you knew what was in it, you most likely kept it hidden and tossed the key somewhere and never wanted to come back. It could be anything, your past, your development to becoming strong, your style of writing or ability to handle stress whatever is in there, you can use it in a positive manner and learn from your mistakes and take control of your life on your own terms.

            Give yourself a chance to become the person you want to be, nobody knows your body, your soul, your livelihood and the way you think more than you do and when you have a hold on it, nobody can take it away from you and you have more power and fierce strength than you've ever had before or since. See what’s inside or keep it locked up, up to you but you always have a choice.

Ultimate Kings & Queens Of Bodyweight Exercise

 Usually most people look at bodyweight exercise as a waste of time and don’t hold any real value for fitness. Even many trainers would say that if you want to get strong you advance onto weights and machines. The problem with this notion is that many people don’t know how to handle their own bodyweight. When you learn the real styles of Bodyweight Exercise, you’re learning how to use your body from multiple angles, work more muscles one exercise at a time and you burn more fat. Those who tell you it doesn't do anything either can’t do it themselves or they’re trying to make a buck and don’t really give a damn who they hurt to get by.

 To be a stronger person physically, you can and should learn to build strength from multiple angles, the more muscles you work at one time the better. In Gymnastics, strength is built all over the place from your neck to your toes. Now I never said you needed to be like a gymnast to have that kind of power but learning certain basics won’t hurt very much either. It does take practice but with time, your strength can skyrocket to levels you never imagined before. Think about it, what it would be like to hold a perfect handstand, be able to switch from exercise to exercise without pain or fatigue or better yet, have the strength to hold even the most basic positions and still look good doing it. It could happen if you just believe and take action.

 Gymnasts and even Acrobats have the most fluid and graceful movements that are strong and cunning. Even a ballet dancer is very strong once you start paying attention. The power of a movement even in basic positions isn't how it looks; it’s how it’s presented, straight and tight. The best way to describe those straight and tight movements is how you are flexed in that position. In other words, you’re looking at Isometrics. Think of a guy on the Rings in the Iron Cross or in a Handstand, that is a form of isometrics. Isometrics is the form of strength training where you’re throwing all your strength in a fixed position.

 Have you noticed that one of the key components if not the key component to a gymnast is their powerful abdominals? It has been said that Gymnasts have the strongest abs in the world, why? Because without strong and powerful abs, they can’t move or better yet hold the most powerful looking positions. A lot of us look to having strong abs, but the majority just want abs to look which is not a bad thing but I’ll say it won’t look good on your resume if you’re trying to do certain things. Your Core is the center of your whole body, the key that holds everything together, from the lower chest down to near your pelvis, that’s the Core that holds it all. Building strong abs= A strong body.

 Every time you watch Gymnastics, Acrobatics, Ballet or anything that has nothing but their own body moving through the air or holding some pretty awesome positions, you’re in awe and think “how the hell do they get like that?”, besides years of training, they all started somewhere, some of them had natural ability, others were terrible but with practice got better and better. We all start somewhere, I didn't get into Gymnastics till I was in my 20’s when that’s the retirement age for most gymnasts, a good friend of mine didn't start till he was in his mid 30’s when most would say he was too late and won’t be able to withstand those exercises. No matter how old you are or what your current fitness is, beginning an exercise program is a great way to go up that latter, it’s like learning math, you start with arithmetic and work your way up to calculus. Start with where you’re at and progress to the best of your abilities.

 One of the coolest ways to look at training with Bodyweight Exercises is that it doesn't take up a lot of time, hell no more than 15-20 minutes a day is all you need and if you don’t have time, start just doing a few seconds, work up to a minute. You can even do separate exercises throughout the day. It’s all about making it work for you. Those who say you need 30 minutes of cardio and an hour of weights don’t know a damn thing about your lifestyle, the majority don’t have that amount of time to do all that but its not impossible to do something during your day. Doing a few minutes of training is really all you need, you used many muscle groups, you don’t need to do more than a few exercises and best of all, you can make them fun and exciting, not dull and used as a punishment. Do what you can, your body will thank you for it.

 Getting stronger is not far out of reach but you got to want it bad enough, not to the point where you’re taking short cuts that’s the cheating way. The true value of being strong and healthy is practice, practice, practice. Consistency is a key and whether you exercise for one minute or one hour it still counts. Make it happen for you, you can think all you want and nothing will come of it, it’s the action that gets the job done. Your body is what you make of it, don’t let certain things or people get in the way of what you want to do. You can have a beautiful, powerful and strong body if you believe in yourself and find the right resources for you to develop what you want to achieve. It’s not that far away but it’s up to you to reach out and grab it by the horns and run with it. 

Wizardry By The Beach

 It’s one thing to be apart of something that sparks your interest, it’s another that when you’re interested in something and you’re near the sandy beaches of San Diego it’s a whole different ball game. Strength Training is a tough thing to do once you get a hold of it but at the same time when you’re having fun with the guys that will push you and maybe make you laugh, it’s all that much sweeter. The presenters at the Wizard Of StrengthWorkshop will blow you maybe literally out of the water down at the 619.

 Now contrary to popular belief, a heavyweight or super-heavyweight athlete is said to have not very much endurance and if he’s strong, he’s one strong S.O.B but in reality those myths are not only not true one man has both and it’s off the charts. That man is my friend Bud Jeffries. At this workshop he will teach you the much hidden secrets of how to achieve superhuman strength and endurance at the same time. I know what you’re thinking “how the hell is that possible and why should I listen to a guy who looks like he can’t even run a lap let alone a mile?” Well I thought the very same things, till I witnessed first hand what this beast of a southern man can do. His strength is well known throughout the Physical Culture world but his endurance is even more impressive as he can swing a kettlebell more than an hour at a time, do presses like nobody’s business and does it all with a smile on his face. Endurance is a key for long sessions in a workout and in life and he’ll give you a hell of a way to do both, I guarantee it.

 

 

 

 You know in the sci-fi fantasy world, there are aliens, flying ships that are the size of a major city and my personal favorite, there are the Jedi. The Jedi are a peaceful set of warriors that help bring the knowledge of the force, oh I’m sorry you already knew that forgive me but again, maybe you think it’s just make believe and no one has real knowledge of a force-like concept. Wrong again. The one man I can think of that has the ability to achieve super levels of strength and speed in the blink of an eye and can knock you on your ass from a few inches away is the man known as GarinBader. It’s not surprising you might be skeptical about a man like that, but once you learn his journey and understand what he believes works it’s pretty much listening to Obiwan Kenobi in a sense. He has made his living soaring through stages across the glob, dazzle with magic and spectacular music that will make your jaw drop but his true calling is teaching YOU how to build super strength and blazing speed within minutes.

 

 

 Physical Culturists come and go and they have their purpose and leave you with things from a different perspective but one man that has revolutionized Physical Culture in the last few years is a man I’ve known for a long time and every time he comes up with something or training something fierce with him, he just makes it all look awesome, even when he throws back his hair every and now and then and that’s The Renaissance Man Of Physical Culture Logan Christopher. His ideal for mind power and conditioning has been proven by top experts in the field of Kettlebell Training, Hypnosis, Superfoods, Hand Balancing, Bodyweight Training and Feats Of Strength. Not many guys can claim all these attributes but he has and what he offers at this workshop will make you think twice about what you’re already doing and giving you the tools to become something beyond your own capabilities.

 

 

 Being mobile is a element of training that many neglect and don’t always see it as a way to train for strength, health, flexibility and agility but yet it’s one of the top keys to achieve all these levels and more in your life not just physical training. Chuck Halbakken is the man that will teach you the insider secrets for powerful mobility and strength in the tendons and ligaments that will help achieve a level of power you have never imagined before. A former Motorcross rider and a authority in the strength feat of Card Tearing, he knows what it takes to have great mobility and flexibility to build strength even the smallest of places, he understands that even the little things make a huge impact and he will give you ways to create all of that. I have witnessed what he does and to me it’s nothing short of incredible. It’s never too late get a hold of great flexibility and movement that won’t tire you or hurt you. It’s that damn good.

 

 

 All of these presenters have a way of teaching you the very foundations of having levels of strength and power from every possible angle and they give it in ways no one can teach. No matter what you have learned, take it with power and vigor and let them help you achieve what you always wanted. Being open minded is a key to learn things from a different perspective and if you’re one of those close-minded people who think nothing of this than stop reading this right now. Use your mind like a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as possible because you never know when you’ll be able to use it and be prepared for it. These are the best in the world at what they do and it’s very unlikely you’ll see this group of guys again in the same room presenting, grab your seat and be sure to bring a friend with you, he/she’ll get a kick out of it too. You will leave that workshop a changed person and for the better.

The Unknown Benefits Of Handstand Training

In the world of Physical Culture, a lot of things come and go, some things work, some don’t and others just have a way of taking things to a whole new level and one way to look at is looking at the world upside down. In training of the handstands, this teaches you to look at things from a different perspective and I mean this literally, when you hold a handstand either up against the wall or free-handed, you have to teach your body how to use it from a very different light. Think about it while you read this.

 It’s not easy at first to get into a handstand, believe me I know how you feel. At first it seems scary, like waking up in a different place and don’t understand where you’re at. With practice, you learn to shut that off and become comfortable in your new surroundings. Eventually when you hold a handstand, you will find out right away that you can’t be very loose otherwise you’ll fall. Keeping the body tight is essential to your progress. Holding the position isn’t just an exercise, it’s a test of will.

 Tighten up the body in a handstand is the foundation for Hand Balancing and when you hold it for a period of time, you’ll find out about the benefit of increased blood flow to your body especially in the brain. Flex your body in every position, point your toes, flex the calves, squeeze the legs together, tighten your torso and press your hands into the ground as if you’re going right through it. What this teaches is to use the body as a complete unit, powerful, strong and tight like a steel rod.

 Practicing on the wall is a start and whether or not you aspire to be a gymnast or an acrobat but the most important thing is to keep your body relaxed while in a flexed position. I realize that sounds like an oxymoron but yet you will soon understand the concept that holding the position itself brings great benefits to your body, making it strong and shrinking fat and building muscle while increasing strength in your tendons and ligaments.

 I’m giving you this tip not to progress to handstand push-ups which you should eventually progress to but to teach you the value of Internal Power meaning you’re strengthening the body from the inside out. Isometric Handstands bring blood flow into the body meaning stronger organs, increased flow to the muscles and strengthening the very things that help hold the body together meaning bones, tendons and again ligaments. This is what I like to call Isometric Practice, fusing the mind/body connection to build strength in every form of your body both internally and externally.

 I realize I have repeated a few things here but a lot of people don’t see how certain things work and a lot of people think that if you want to get stronger, lift weights, ok let’s test this theory, you picked a few barbells and dumbbells and you worked them hard, now test yourself in the handstand and see how strong you still are. I bet you, you won’t last more than a few seconds. Strength does not always mean picking up the most weight or how big your guns are and it certainly doesn’t matter how you look. Strength in different arenas gives the body variety of what it can do, it’s not just meant to pick up a weight, hell even in the old days of Physical Culture men and women didn’t just lift, they wrestled, did gymnastics, were circus performers, entertaining strongmen all these things and yet were strong and many different areas and sometimes lifting weights had nothing to do with it.

 It’s all about looking outside the box and using your body in ways that other things can’t transfer over. If you’re interested in Hand Balancing, practice it not just to hold a handstand but hold it and move it with intense will from your mind and your body together, you will see things from a new light you never thought of and find some unknown benefits that they didn’t teach in the course. You’ll know once you experience it, it’s a feeling you can’t get from anything else.

Muscle Control For Arm Wrestling

You’re on the table, arm is locked and loaded for the match of your life, muscles contract and you’re ready for battle, ready, set and go.Muscle Control is one of the best forms of conditioning your body to contract and relax whenever you want. You can use Muscle Control for just about anything, even lifting an imaginary weight. In an arm wrestling match, it’s not just how strong you are or if you have the biggest arms on the planet, it’s the ability to contract the muscles needed and the strength of your tendons to keep your opponent at bay. Imagine yourself in a match and you’re teaching your body to use the specific muscles needed and eventually it becomes a full body contraction.

 The key thing to understand about Muscle Control is using the Mind/Muscle Connection that incorporates your ability to think into the muscles you want to use for whatever you want to do, in this case learning to Arm Wrestle. Now it’s important to do some Arm Wrestling training while working on Muscle Control but for now I want to teach you how to think so you can train smarter, not harder. Practicing various tension levels gives your body an opportunity to learn how to contract, the harder you contract, the less reps needed to move, the lighter, you can move more.

 

 

 Another key ingredient to using Muscle Control is another version called Isometrics. This gives your body something to learn on how to contract from different positions. In Arm Wrestling, you need to pull down from different spots in order to increase strength for that position. Pulling power is the thing that separates the men from the boys in an arm wrestling match and you have to be able to use your body from all sorts of directions. Whether for 6 seconds or for 3 minutes an isometric contraction brings in that powerful energy that keeps you strong and tight.

 Contracting on commend can be one of your biggest assets because if you’re in a match and you’ve used up enough power to where he’s about to go down, you bring in that extra source of power that just blasts his arm into the table. Practice this when you train, whether with cables or weights or even just on Muscle Control alone, learn to use your mind to find the right timing to contract and relax when needed to. Don’t always waste energy contracting so hard that you’ll pull a muscle or rip your arms out of your socket; Muscle Control takes practice and listen to your body.  You are strong both inside and outside and with practice, you can get stronger, learn to focus and imagine how strong you want to get, you’d be surprised what will come out of it.

Hammer Conditioning

 

 There are many ways to get in awesome shape, you can use your bodyweight, work with weights or better yet use cool tools that are not only awesome looking but you’re getting more bang for your buck than you can imagine. Ever heard of training with a Hammer? Of course you don’t, you’re either one of those people that goes to a gym, play around with a few machines, work very light weight and call yourself in shape or you’re one of those guys or gals that doesn’t get anywhere no matter what you do and you just quit at the drop of a hat. I’m here to tell you that getting fit is not only a cool thing to do but it also keeps you energized and have a zest for life you didn’t think existed. The best fitness advice anyone can ever give you is to have fun with what you do. Training with a hammer, better yet a Thor Hammer gives you that mystical feeling that you’re training like the warriors of generations past.

 

 

 Training with this particular tool can give you great possibilities to train with, most of them involve swinging but the main point is when you work different areas while consuming your exercise using your whole body as a unit, you will find yourself having off the charts strength and conditioning that only a few ever know about. Even training with a sledgehammer is a cardio workout that will have you gasping for air if you do the exercise right. One of my heroes named Slim worked in a Rock Quarry for many years, doing labor for as long as 12-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week cutting and destroying rock with a 16 pound sledgehammer. Now 16 pounds doesn’t seem like a lot of weight but when you’re smashing things for hours on end, you’re using your whole body and it makes cardio machines look like a cake walk. If you had a tire or half tire, along with a hammer, try hitting it like a guy working at the Quarry, do it for 5 minutes and tell me if you’re not breathing harder than you would doing 30 minutes on a cardio machine.

 I would bet if you had just a hammer and a tire, which would be the only equipment you need to get a cardio workout that will leave you with sweat, strength and overall fitness in ways that can only be explained by experience. A great course I have practiced off and on is to me one of the only if not the only course out there that gives you tips specifically using hammers is my man Bud Jeffries’ DVD Hammers and Maces from his Alternative Conditioning series that has a plethora of different ways to work your body into the ground. Hammer training is another look at what you can do to get in awesome shape, up until a few years ago, there weren’t many places to learn this kind of stuff, now guys in the NFL, MMA, WWE and even in Olympic training have found the Hammer swinging style are using it to get their athletes in incredible world-class shape.

 

 

 

 

 Ever seen the movie Thor? Ever wondered what it would be like to have that much power and strength using that cool ass looking Hammer? Well you can get your hands on your own Mjölnir and feel what it’s like to swing that little son of a bitch and learn the golden keys to Super Muscle and Superhuman Strength. Conditioning this way is a lot more fun than just pulling down a machine that really won’t do much movement wise and just going for a stroll on the cardio machine, this way teaches you how to use your stabilizing muscles in other words your Core and work your whole body as a whole. Look at it this way, because of it’s structure it helps you figure out how to stay balanced and helps you learn certain muscles needed for certain swinging movements. Hell one of the best exercises I’ve done for a few hundred reps is using it like the Kettlebell swing and I think it’s much harder than the regular KB swing because the hammer is longer and the handle is thicker. Also if you had a tire, you can have a glimpse of what a blacksmith feels like by whacking the hammer. If you don’t have the movie Thor, I suggest you get yourself a copy which you can find on the right hand side of this blog under Physical Culture links below the Incredible Hulk series and film.

 Another side of training with a Sledgehammer and Thor’s Hammer is using them in the old tradition of India’s training program which dates back hundreds of years using them in the style of Wrestling called Kushti. This traditional style of training consisted of the Mace (which you can use with the Sledgehammer) and the Gadas (you can use with two sets of Thor’s hammer) which they swung and worked different muscles to get in shape for Wrestling. Now you don’t have to be a wrestler I’m just giving you a history lesson along with a perspective of what you can do with these tools.

 

 

 Having fun with your exercise is a golden key to great fitness and strength training and nothing looks cooler than a hammer, it represents strength and even having one in your hands just has a mystical feel to it, like you’re apart of something special. It’s not just a workout, it’s an adventure, and you can even pick exercises out of your own imagination. Think of some of the workouts you can think and imagine in a time where you had the power to destroy anything you wanted, in one workout, you’re John Henry and pounding spikes into the train tracks, the next workout, you’re in India over 100 years ago, exercising outside in the wrestling pits before your match and destroying your opponent, another workout would be you’re working at a gold mine in the old west, smashing rock to find that treasure of gold and after so many powerful whacks, you have found that gold and you’re jumping for joy and even you can imagine being Thor smashing the Frost Giants and conquering a battle over monsters and demons.

 These are things to think about when you’re training and you should never walk into a workout thinking it’s going to suck, be creative and use your imagination; it’s one of the biggest keys of all time. Make it interesting and use it to your full advantage and give it everything you have, it could last a few minutes or last over an hour, hell you’d get so into the workout that you lost track of time because you had fun doing it, that’s the beauty of it. Give yourself a chance to shine and Hammer your way to glory on your terms.

Muscle Reminders, Vampire Strength

Here's the second Guest Article for the week by my good friend and former European, World & Olympic Gymnast Cees De Kok giving you the chance to find your inner Vampire. Enjoy everyone....

Hi,

My name is Cees and I am the creator of Muscle Reminders.

All my life I have been a gymnast and as Dutch National Gymnastics Champion I competed in many competitions, including European, Worlds and Olympics. After gymnastics I became an entertainer and traveled the world showing of my unique skills as an aerialist. I have always been conscious of my body, shape and condition. It has been and still is a big part of my life. Being fit is so important to a person. For the last 7 1/2 years I have been working in a vampire show in Las Vegas where I play the role of a flying vampire.

For those interested, here is a little clip.

http://musclereminders.com/evp/?seed=ceesflying

 It involves playing a drunk guy that gets picked out of the audience and is bitten and turns into a vampire, I fly, I act and also have a fight scene where I have to tumble twist and swing big sticks and fire around. I am so absorbed in my role that I “become” the animal vampire I am portraying. Every small little movement I make is controlled and full of energy and passion. As a vampire you are always alert and you always know what is happening in front and behind you. You are ready for anything. Your body is ready to jump up, make a flip and land comfortably back on your feet ready for your next move.

 And that is the way I am behaving myself during my normal life in the daytime as well. While going about my daily busy life and constantly doing my exercises my body does not sink in. I perform small effective exercises that keep me alert and awake. At the end of the day I have done a full body workout, am energized and still ready for more action.

 Look at the world we are living in and the hectic lifestyle we lead,.... trying to get or stay in shape comes with a lot of hurdles. Our lives are being made comfortable and convenient and society is pushing us in the direction of the easy way out. Remote controls for everything, escalators, electric toothbrushes, etc, etc. And on top of that are we are so busy with everything that our good intentions of going to do a workout are being placed on the back burner. We delay our healthy plans and promise to go the next day, but have to reschedule again and again and finally we give up. There is just not enough time in the day to get to it.

 Vampire Power is known as electrical power consumed by electrical appliances while they are switched off.I use this Vampire Technique to develop Vampire Strength with no gym in minutes a day.While my work-out mode is switched off or on standby I activate the Vampire within me and suck out little bits of energy at a time to do small but effective exercises. The energy used does not drain nor fatigue me. Instead it will feed my Vampire within and generate the used power into strong and powerful muscles without interrupting the course of my daily routine. Many of my exercises are about engaging and controlling my muscles in a way that fit in my daily life but will ultimately give me the strength of a vampire.

 Even in this hectic world we all have an enormous untouched wealth of time that we can use to get a full body workout without changing a thing we do. I use this method already for years but did not know the importance and impact it made on other people. So, I decided to share my experience and expertise and created this series of DVD's. Small effective exercises make my body strong, tight and ready for everything. It does not drain me but instead gives me extra power. Physically and Mentally.

 Do you have a Vampire inside?

Learning From The Man Himself

I have been good friends with Logan Christopher for roughly over seven years. He alongside Tyler Bramlett aka Duke T McB are the top two men that let me in the Physical Culture world and taught me everything I know and have learned from some of the best teachers in the game both personally and through courses plus over the phone conversations. If there’s one thing I’m grateful in the world of fitness it’s from them.

 When you have training partners that are also good friends, your training will push you beyond your own abilities. Just because they’re friends has never meant taking it easy on me. Every time I’m around them or Logan in particular, he always has me try some crazy thing like when he had me over at his house when I was in Cali recently he gave a grade 5 hex bolt to bend which I have never even made a kink in my life, since Logan was there to guide me a bit within moments I bent that little monster about ¾ of the way or near full bend and I was shocked.

 Training alongside Logan has been an honor since day one. Believe it or not, he’s seen some of my firsts and possibly some of my only feats such as….

 

First 60 penny nail bend

 

First Grade 5 Bend

 

Falling Back Into A Bridge, Kick over and back

 

Holding a 125 lb. dumbbell with a 2 inch thick handle for ten seconds

 

My one and only time doing 83 reps in 5 min. 53 lb. KB snatch test (never attempted before or since)

 So as you can see, he’s a true coach to me and one of the coolest cats on earth. One of the best things I’ve learned from him and others is how we all help each other get better, its not always who’s better or badder, it’s how we help each other advance in our own training. Personally I know how good I’am but lets face facts, I wouldn’t be that damn good without the Renaissance Man watching my back. I will always be indebted to him for helping me find my own path in Physical Culture.

 Last thing before I brag too much about the Ponytailed freak of nature, when you have good friends to train with, things are a lot more fun and more interesting because you learn new things from one another and teach each other different styles, hell as great the man is, I even taught a couple things but that’s the beauty of it. Having fun is what it’s all about, trust me its better to go through life having fun than being serious and dull. If you have friends out there that you train with, help each other and learn from one another but never forget that the one person you need to train with is not one of your buddies but yourself. Have fun and make things interesting.   

A Whole Gym In The Palm Of Your Hands

How cool would it be to workout anywhere you wanted, at the beach, the park, your backyard, garage, house, even at the top of a mountain? Having a gym is way overrated. I’m not saying going to one is a bad thing but if you wanted to train anywhere you wanted, what can you do? One way to do it is getting a device that could have endless ways of strengthening everything from your neck to your toes and that’s my dear friend, the Chest Expander.

 This little bitty rubber cable apparatus can work your body from more angles than weights never could and you need to strengthen those areas for overall functional strength and fitness. There are many types of cables to progress with ranging from the easiest to nearly impossible to expand. Weights can hit many muscle groups but the cables hit muscles that aren’t reached by any other method except this. Unlike weights that use gravity, you are fighting the cables because they don’t want you to expand them and you need that kind of power as if you’re fighting a person.

 The cool thing about this bad boy is that you can go from one exercise to the next in a snap, go from a curl to a press or from a row to a lateral raise; this is great for circuit training to help bring that conditioning element. Dumbbells are fun to use if you’re into them but it takes you a little bit to put down the thing, grab another and go through the cycle again, with the cables you can put as many as three on there and if its too much for you than take one off to ease the resistance, I find that more fun than taking the time to switch plates or dumbbells. When you see that you’re working from odd angles, you’re building odd strength and flexibility which can aid you in almost anything from lifting to bodyweight exercise to cardio or even to help rebuild injuries and heal old wounds to get that functional strength back for the things you want to accomplish whether it be sports, your job or helping out your family.

 One of my favorite things to do is use this thing for Arm Wrestling. This sport is one of the toughest forms of strength there is, period and you need well developed grip, wrist arm overall body strength to take even the toughest of opponents. Read about my article about Arm Wrestling Training to learn more details to get an idea of how strong you can get just using cables and never needing a machine or weights to get the job done. This is where it gets even prettier by the second where you can go from using it as a rehab tool to taking it to a superhuman level that even the strongest forces in strength athletics can appreciate.

 If you want to take it even further my man Bud Jeffries has a DVD course that specifies in Alternate Conditioning Methods which one of them is based on Cable Training and the things he has in stored on there will blow you away and just when you thought you only had a few basic ideas, he takes beyond another level. An extreme few courses out there on this type of training so that should tell you that there are secrets out there that can take your fitness to levels never imagined before. Being fit is awesome, being strong is great but being functionally fit and strong is the most gratifying thing you can achieve and becoming superhuman is that much sweeter.

Train With Love, Not A Necessity

Feeling forced to workout is a sure sign you aren’t getting your mindset in the right place. Training by making it an adventure is a whole different experience and it’s never the same after every workout. Loving what you do instead of making it a necessity is a better understanding of what makes you get the results you truly desire.

 A lot of people who exercise feel obligated to train because they feel they have to instead of want to. They feel if they don’t something bad will happen and they’ll never get the results they want. In a way that’s true but the real truth is that, if you make it an experience that makes you happy and you bust your ass the way you want to do it than there should be no problem for you then.

 There is a difference between training for no apparent reason vs. just going through the motions, the difference between the two is that training without reason can be a good or bad thing by that I mean, training because you just feel like doing it is a better idea than training just for the hell of it and not really give a damn yet just going through the motions just makes you weak minded and not have all the right tools in place. Exercise is not about doing stuff and working different muscles it’s much more than that. It’s about freedom and learning to go beyond just the exercises, it’s learning to use all your potential attributes in your exercise physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

 Any one of us with half a brain can use a machine at the gym and although there are some pros to those things it doesn’t seem like the same as to actually go out and run your ass off or sprint like a cheetah catching its prey. Back when machines didn’t exist, you had to really work to get the results you wanted, if you wanted to run, you sprint, if you wanted to lift heavier, you lifted barbells and dumbbells, you wanted cardio, you either boxed or wrestled or played a specific sport and if you wanted beautiful looking muscles, you didn’t take pills or protein shakes you did Muscle Control and ate with a purpose. If you want the body you always dreamed of, don’t always look to modern high tech crap that can only do a fraction of real functional training can do. Look to basic exercises that are rich in history and that’s presses, pulls, squats and grip work which consist of barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, muscle control, push-ups, pull-ups and the squat either with or without weight.

 Some of us want to forget the past and move on towards the future but what if we took that from a different perspective? In exercise, the past was proven time and time again that basic elements gave you the most result producing methods that still stand to this day but lost in time. Some of the things today are good but if you added just a bit of old fashioned with its own modern day twist, you can make your workouts a very entertaining experience with real results and real functional muscle.

 Equipment has become a billion dollar industry and it’s usually the wrong equipment that is sold, not the ones that give you superior results. In reality, you don’t have to pay for a damn thing; training using just your body is really all you’ll ever need. If you truly want to get something that’s your choice but don’t buy a certain gadget that’ll cost you thousands of dollars and have it be in your closet the rest of your life. Certain equipment is good because there are methods that bodyweight, barbells and dumbbells can’t touch like the Indian clubs, the mace, Rocks, logs and sledgehammers all have qualities that will get you in shape much faster than a treadmill or a machine that only hits isolated muscles.

 Love what you do and make it fun, it takes one change in your mindset and your whole thinking will go into the stratosphere. Make it an adventure, never an obligation because if it’s not adventurous, it’s not worth doing.

Die Hard Pull-ups

Pull-ups are one of the most difficult forms of strength and conditioning because it’s the one basic exercise most people have trouble doing. It doesn’t have to be a burden to learn how to do pull-ups. Once you learn the basics an can do a few reps what’s next? Just doing a few reps alone makes you a strong person at that exercise but it’s really the quality of the reps that count and not so much the quantity. Repetitions in any exercise up to a point can be boring like the 500 push-ups or the 1000 Hindu squats or even the military goal of 20 or more pull-ups to get 100 points on your PT Test. I like doing reps but I get bored easily so to enhance my interest I change grips and do them as best as possible. To get the greatest benefit in your reps, work different parts of the pull-up and try different tempos in speed and precise movement.

 One of the most common neglected parts of the human body is training your grip. Without grip strength, how will you hold onto something such as a baseball bat, opening a jar of pickles, picking up heavy weights or squeezing a Captains Of Crush hand gripper? Working your grip has more of an impact on your training than doing a bicep curl, a press or swinging/juggling a kettlebell, think about it, how would you be able to do those exercises if your grip can’t even hold on? Grip strength is essential to your training and the more likely your grip strength is the better your lifts and feats will become easier. If you don’t believe me than learn from two warriors of pure unadulterated gripping power and that’s Arthur Saxon and Slim The Hammer Man.

 A lot of people have this notion that pull-ups and chin-ups are just for the Biceps and Back, obviously they haven’t done much research because when you really get into doing this exercise, the back and arms are just the tip of the iceberg. You are working the upper body in ways not many other things can do and eventually you’ll be working the whole body. When you use certain tools to put more into your pull-up training, you’re learning the key secrets to challenging your grip, mind, body and your coordination to keep tight and tough in order to make the quality reps.

 If I had to pick one of the strongest pound for pound athletes in the world, it’s a guy you don’t hear of quite often unless you live in Vegas and know something in Gymnastics and that is Dutch Gymnastics Champion and Performer Cees De Kok. I once saw this old school gymnast do a show in Vegas called Bite, a vampire type production where heavy metal is blasting and a Circ De Soleil type action styled performance happened. In one of the epic scenes of the show, Cees wrapped a chain around his wrist and started flying around the audience and out of nowhere grabs his wife in mid air and twirls around the stage like a figure skater in space, it was unbelievable and one of the most awesome displays of strength and agility I’ve ever witnessed. This guy was just incredible and he has the mastery to even teach you the secret andmost impressive ways to build pull-up strength.

 Who are the strongest climbers in the world? Not humans sorry guys it’s the mighty Apes. Animals like Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimps and Gibbons are the most powerful species of this caliber because the way they need to move either on the ground or in the trees takes grip strength to a level only rock climbers have come the closest to and yet we still can’t match their strength and agility. Training like an Ape however is a key to opening a new door of strength and fitness that can only be explained by experience and experimenting. I’m not a climber nor am I a tree swinging jungle man but I have practiced brachiating, hanging and pull-ups from many different angles and at 240+ lbs. I’m surprised I can actually do it. Training this way works your tendons and muscles to their very brink and if you truly want to feel real gripping strength, hold onto a pull-up bar with one arm and see how long you last.

 In many areas of fitness today, we don’t do much in the way of pulling movements unless it was a curl or pulling on a cable and deadlifts aren’t really that big anymore but yet pulling movements that work major muscle groups even out the front and back portions of the upper body since most gym rats focus on what they can see in the mirror as oppose to neglecting the back. If you can’t pull yourself up than you’re in trouble my friend. It is important to work your body from as many angles as possible while working as many muscles in one or more motions as possible and when you work on your pulling strength, it’s going to help you in other parts of your life you may have not realized and I’ll let you figure that out on your own.  

11 Reasons You Must Do Isometrics By Bud Jeffries

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Prepared as a Gift for Friends

of Ben Bergman

11 Reasons You

Must Do Isometrics

if You Desire

Strength, Speed and

to be Super Human

By Bud Jeffries

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #1

Help you fix holes in your strength

One thing that’s very important to me is to have a complete strength. When I say that I mean a complete range of strength and endurance, ranging from long term cardiovascular endurance, to short intense endurance, to high maximum strength, to real world strength, to individual muscular strength, to strongman based or non linear type exercises, to flowing exercises, to odd angle strength and everything in between.

 One of the things I found as I began to experiment and look at isometrics more closely is that I was extremely strong in most of these places, but I didn’t feel that my ability to hold weight, especially a heavy weight still. Or even just to hold my body in certain isometric positions wasn’t as strong as it should be. I certainly didn’t have the strength or strength endurance to hold it for long periods of time in those positions.

Hello, I’m Bud Jeffries and I’ve probably done more with isometrics then just about anyone else alive.

I felt like that was a hole or a weakness in my strength, that was something I should correct. That’s one of those things that if you leave gaps it comes back to haunt you. The ability to pick something up once is fine, but what if you have to pick up something heavy and hold it to save yourself or someone else or simply to test yourself for true strength? It is a mental toughness builder, but it’s an actual physical skill that most of us are somewhat lacking in comparatively.

Unless you’ve done a tremendous amount of isometric training you won’t know or be able to express every bit of power that you have in that particular way without this training. Don’t let there be holes in your strength, because it’s easy to have them and miss them and

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it’s easy to not understand that they’re there unless you’ve experimented with all different kinds of strength. This ranges from moving heavy weights fast or slow, to moving extremely light weights fast, to holding light or heavy weights or body positions in absolute still or isometric style training. Isometrics are a great way to train your body and you should be doing it.

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Reason #2

Isometrics add muscle to even me!

Everybody has genetic advantages and disadvantages and I admittedly grow muscle fairly easily, but I’ve been training a long time. I’m a grizzled veteran. I’m not somebody who at the drop of a hat, no matter how hard they train, grows an excessive amount of muscle. Plus, I keep my nutrition fairly lean these days and I’m constantly keeping my weight down and cutting more weight. It’s not easy to put muscle on a frame that’s been through every possible type of strength training war that there is in trying to add muscle. Yet I find it amazing that muscle is adding to my frame and to other parts of my body from using the isometrics training that I’d never conceived of and it’s happening very quickly.

The more and deeper I experiment with some of the weighted variations of isometrics and play with the time period we hold the position, the faster the muscle seems to grow. This is pretty amazing considering it’s happening to a guy with 24 years of training experience who has already trained as hard and heavy as anyone else living and is already a big person. With isometrics training you can quickly add muscle, because of the depth of stimulation you get and at the same time, without a tremendous amount of muscle soreness. I found that it’s extremely effective, much more effective than many of the things I’ve tried in the past, such as exceptionally heavy negatives or certain brutal rep schemes, to really add muscle quickly without much damage or wear and tear. I believe the concentration of effort, for instance one 30-second heavy held isometric is equivalent to very high repetition sets with that same heavy weight, because you can work in multiple range of motions and in strong and weak ranges of motion, you can add muscle extremely quickly.

Both professional strongmen, Dennis Rogers and

Mike “The Machine” Bruce are big fans of isometrics.

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Why not fill out your frame and its useable muscle? Muscle that’s conditioned and functional at the same time, which is another huge portion behind the training concepts of what we do. There’s no point in adding muscle that doesn’t have the horsepower to back it up. However these isometrics, especially the weighted ones for heavy and extended holds, grow amazing functional muscles quickly. Experience isometric muscle growth now by making sure you get Extreme Power Isometric Training DVDs today!

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #3

Isometrics turn your strength on

One of the crazy benefits of isometric training especially in the experiments we’ve been doing and the way we apply it is an immediate boost of strength. I’ve been able to demonstrate this with myself as well as in a workshop format and other trainees that I use, in getting an immediate boost in strength.

Why does this happen? I’m not sure you can explain every factor, but here are several. I believe it teaches the body to work in the exact groove that you want to get strong in and it teaches the body to work as hard as possible in that groove either in a specific sticking point or to simply contract harder than normal because you can push through a weight or non-moving isometric style contraction harder than you can with a normal implement. It teaches you to unify your body behind an implement or behind a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell or whatever you wish to lift and it teaches you to actually use every bit of fiber that you have by being able to forcibly contract.

There are many isometric press variations that can instantly

increase your pressing power.

It’s essentially the same thing you’d get from an overload by turning your neurological system on or opening up the synapses and nerve firing pathways to a much higher level except it can be applied with other implements and very specific patterns. This does some amazing stuff. I’ve watched people press barbells, kettlebells and dumbbells they’ve never been able to lift or press them faster and easier than they’ve ever done. Snatch faster than they’ve ever done, curl faster and stronger, be stronger in jumping, running motions, squatting motions, pulling motions.

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It’s a pretty amazing thing because you can apply it to any specific pattern you wish to get better up and you turn the volume up to your muscles messages to how hard they can contract. Once you do that you get stronger, once you get that strength, you can train harder and you get perpetually stronger. It’s a build on top of each other type of exercise. It’s simple and quick to do and can be applied to multiple types of training paradigms for a basic lift or for a totally unusual angle of strength that people have never seen that you can quickly get an immediate strength boost by training them if you just learn how.

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #4

Isometrics make you Faster!

This is a pretty amazing benefit of isometrics that I had known about for a while, but never really deeply explored until I decided to delve into every venue and every possibility that there was in training. It’s convinced me more and more that this is a lacking type of training for many sports and specific activities. Isometrics has gotten a bad rap from a sad historic overview that really didn’t take into consideration the advantage of how powerful this training could be.

I had an experience where I tried to pull a bus, and this is explained extensively in our Extreme Power for Isometrics DVDs, but I tried to pull the bus, however could not move it because of a crazy situation with the ground. I spent a large amount of time pulling isometrically, trying to move what was essentially an immoveable object. We then moved the bus to where I could actually pull the vehicle and I moved it faster than I had ever moved it as though it were literally made of air.

Why? Because I had gained absolute, 100% contraction in the very specific pattern I was using for the feat. I essentially then got stronger, my nerves got stronger, my firing pattern got better and my speed went up. I believe this was because of the nervous stimulation and the total ability for my muscles to reach a higher level of contraction, therefore both strength and speed almost immediately increased.

One isometric drill increased Adrienne’s sled push speed immediately afterwards

I demonstrated this with multiple people at the workshop in Tallahassee and it’s all shown on the DVDs. I’ve done this with other people who train with me privately, with myself and with my son. It’s pretty amazing to immediately be able to get faster in a lift, in a bodyweight movement, in your hand speed for punching power, in grappling, to get faster

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

in strongman movements, to get faster in sprinting and running movements, all with an almost immediate response. It’s a great way to jump start your speed for other events, for strongman, or for just general training or for competition. There are amazing ways to achieve gains plus its super simple and quick to do.

You owe it to yourself to get the Extreme Power for Isometrics DVDs and it’s something with which you can make yourself lightening fast. I believe it’s one of the secrets to Bruce Lee’s and the Shaolin training with their extreme speed and explosiveness with the ability to jump high, punch psychotically fast. This isometric training for speed is all explored in the DVDs as well. I know it made me much faster than normal with my hand speed. You can achieve this too if you simply learn how to apply it. It’s a simple technique. You just need to watch it done a few times till you understand how to do it and then apply it to yourself. It’s an amazing benefit you can get very quickly.

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #5

It’s probably the only truly sport specific strength work

There’s been an argument within the Olympic lifting, HIT and sports communities, martial arts and weightlifting groups about the efficiency of lifting or training for sport: If you do a specific movement that mimics a sport are you actually going to get a weighted movement or are you going to get better at that sport or is it going to mess up your nerve patterns or your specific technical pattern?

It’s been relatively established that there are a few movements that, because they are similar in nature but not exactly in the sport specific pattern, that they give you a better general ability but not more specific to the sport. It is believed that you must play the specific sport to gain the nerve patterns and ability. That’s why people who grapple or box can hit very hard or wrestle and be very strong in those positions, even if they don’t train much in other strength movements, because they spend so much time at high-level contraction in those specific moves.

They can’t, however, generally transfer that to other arenas. It’s also why some people who’ve gained strength in certain types of strength, especially if it’s done in an isolated training fashion or machine based training, in the weight room but haven’t gotten good on the field or playing mat to improve their performance during the sport. It’s the reason that martial artists, for quite some time, didn’t really believe in lifting weights, because they didn’t see actual improvement in their art.

I believe isometrics can solve much of this problem. It may be, and if you really look at the martial arts from around the world and certain sport training, you’ll see that isometrics are the only way to duplicate a sport specific pattern without messing that pattern up and actually become stronger in that specific range of motion while you get better at your sport in that particular way.

Let me elaborate – If you take a baseball pitcher, and this is a classic example of this specific training pattern, and have him throw heavier weighted baseballs, you do not create a better, faster pitcher. All you do is create a messed up nerve pattern, becoming slower and losing control in the pitching.

If you were to take that same pitcher and train each individual phase of his pitching pattern in the exact motion that he uses with a ball, but in an isometric contraction, not with a weight, but against an immoveable object or force – you can exactly mimic that pattern and force for the body to contract at 100%. Lay every bit of leverage into every piece of that pattern without messing up the pattern, because it doesn’t work at off speeds, you’d only actually be pitching with a regular baseball so there’s no slow down – It’s only actually teaching the body to contract at the very nerve pattern, ranges and speeds without throwing it off.

The same applies to kicking, punching, specific strongman movements, or running

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

movements. They don’t always get better if you try to mimic them with weights, but if you want to get better at sport specific patterns, figuring out an isometric training program and exercise that exactly mimics those patterns and movement without interfering with the speed of the movement or trying to hold weight in an awkward fashion, can create an amazing sport specific gain.

Yes, with isometrics you could train this exact move without the detrimental slowing

effects of throwing a weighted ball.

This has huge implications for football, throwers, grapplers, boxers, martial artists and in fact has been done for centuries in martial arts. You can get some pretty amazing ideas in how to train this in our Extreme Power for Isometrics DVDs and it’s explained further where can see, first hand, how to do it.

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #6

Isometrics give real world strength

One of the primary experimenters and I believe proponents, as well as someone who has been pushing isometrics forward in the last 30 years is a guy named Steve Justa. In the ad copy for Extreme Power for Isometrics, my business partner Logan wrote, “Learn what the Nebraska Wildman taught Bud about isometrics.” He did teach me quite a bit. I have learned from him and he has done some amazing personal level research and experimentation in that capacity.

Steve Justa, author of Rock, Iron, Steel, is insanely strong and

has done isometrics of all variations over his lifetime.

One of the things he talked about was having a real-world job bucking hay/custom hay baling for farmers in the Nebraska area. If you’ve never worked with hay – it can be tough job, especially if you’re not used to lifting things, lifting and throwing things in weird ways– it’s a very awkward job. Most of the strength in the real world means exactly that – picking things up in an awkward manner, things that aren’t meant to be picked up by humans. It’s why we do strongman training. Steve talked about the very specificity of this job: Picking up different shapes, weights and size bales on unstable surfaces, moving it for longer periods of time all day long.

A man he worked with there had incredible muscular development and muscular hardness from this type of work. Steve was training and doing a lot of heavy lifting at the time and thought he should be able to really man-handle these bales. On a one-to-one basis he could throw a bale as good as anyone else, but he became tired quickly and he just wasn’t able to translate it as powerfully as he thought, considering the power he could apply to balanced lifting exercises. He began to experiment with what he would call “power aerobic

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

isometrics.” It’s one of the types of isometrics we talk about and one that I’ve experimented with, which is an extended series of time, angles and efforts over a long period of time, moving from body part to body part and muscle to muscle to create both an aerobic effect, as well as a muscular one. Suddenly the hay baling became easy.

Why? Most of the work you do in the real world requires that extended muscular contraction. The task may not be a simple half-second muscular contraction. It requires it in odd angles. It may not be a balanced lifting environment. It may be against something that doesn’t want to be lifted or at a totally disadvantageous angle, but when you learn to apply full power to those angles for extended periods of time you’ll get the amazing aerobic benefit of the right type of isometric. Also if you do it within the way this course is put together, by mixing them with aerobic or other strength exercises making it at least as, if not more than aerobically challenging.

Isometrics is one of the best and easiest ways to build unique, real world strength. It’s the kind of strength that translates to grappling, striking or lifting at many angles, in a way that most people don’t ever have. You see most of the angles you use in grappling are odd angles. That’s why grapplers attack at odd angles to keep you out of your strength and off balance. You can get strong in many different directions.

I had experiences in my life like Steve’s that lead me to strongman training and now to isometrics to being able to conquer a level and angle or a type of strength that I didn’t feel was good enough. That’s why we do this and why you should be using isometrics as well. It’s why you should be learning about them and training them. Make sure you pick up Extreme Power for Isometrics and learn how to get real world strong, to train in angles that no one else does, to train in ways no one else does to have something no one else has which is unconquerable real world strength.

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #7

Great strongmen use isometrics today and have used it in the past

One of the amazing things people don’t really know about, because they don’t truly study the methods of the old time strongman, is their use of isometrics. Strongman has come back into popularity, but even most of the materials that push the old time strongmen today don’t really delve into some of the most awesome methods they used. Most of the old time strongmen were true showmen and they did amazing feats of steel bending and they often trained in very Spartan environments. The effectiveness of the exercises of isometrics lead them to the use of this training method to be a massive part of their regimens.

Alexander Zass was one of the major proponents of this and was considered the “Iron bar bending King.” He escaped from prison camp four times. He used the bars and chains he was in to train isometrically to maintain and even build his strength when he was a prisoner and was really a pretty amazing human being, able to do some ridiculous steel bending feats. He’s just one of the great examples as there are many others inclusive of the Mighty Atom, who is probably one of the best well known today of the old time strongman along with guys like Arthur Saxon and Herman Goerner.

Alexander Zass, the Amazing Samson, supports an steel beam by his mouth. He was one

of the biggest proponents of isometrics and his results speak for themselves.

Many modern strongmen use them today. Dennis Rogers, one of the most well known

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

strongmen in the world today, is a big proponent of isometrics for steel bending and the type of strength necessary to do strength feats which is also real world strength. I don’t care what anyone says – If you can bend a 12” crescent wrench as easily as a wire coat hanger, you’re freakin’ strong in a very real sense of the expression. One of the things that Dennis has done and teaches to others who want to learn his craft, is isometrics for that kind of training.

Isometrics are used still in the training of powerlifting. I’ve seen Louis Simmons recommend certain isometrics movements such as abdominal isos for improving your squat and deadlift. It’s massively well received in martial arts and grappling circles today and many of the other strongmen you don’t even know do quite a bit. Strongmen such as Aaron MacKenzie, who is in the old time strongman performing world and is known by the nickname, “Mighty Mac.” Aaron is probably one of the closest successors to Dennis from being a smaller guy, but being incredibly powerful and talented at the feats such as wrench bending, card tearing, short steel bending, etc. Aaron told me very specifically once how he trained to be able to do 100 reps of handstand pushups in one day which was one of his goals, by doing 3 positions isometrics of handstand pushups. I’ll share more about that with you at another time possibly in upcoming book on isometrics. Then there’s the man I spoke of already, Steve Justa, who does his own brand of strongman inclusive of the old time stuff and is a massive proponent of isometrics.

That’s just a few and I would name myself in that group. The more I experiment with it the more impressed I get with the isometrics as far as the development and power you can get. If the best people in the world, the strongest guys around, use a technique and it’s pretty wide spread it’s probably pretty smart. That’s why you should be studying about and learning about isometrics. If you want the strength of the best guys in the world, then you have to train in at least some of things that they do. That’s what they do, that’s how they get awesome and that’s how you can too. Make sure you pick up Extreme Power for Isometrics.

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Reason #8

Isometrics are a great fat burning exercise.

This is something that most people have never thought about with isometrics, because they haven’t experimented with the right type or style and they haven’t really been in contact with someone who’s done a lot with isometrics because it’s not a widely known technique anymore. It’s something that was relegated to the past or to simplistic exercises that are for amateurs, but actually it’s a very advanced technique when you do it the right way. The first person I ever heard talk about this is someone we’ve already spoken off who’s had a huge influence in this work – Steve Justa.

When I met Steve in person I was shocked by his leanness and hardness that he displayed for someone who does no conventional bodybuilding, and even though he’s moved toward eating a more natural diet, doesn’t eat anything special at all. However he, like me, was a huge guy, 360+ pounds and rehabbed his body from Type 2 diabetes, back to healthy again with a massive use of isometrics. There’s more to know about this story which you can learn about in the DVDs and Steve’s interview on our site.

He began to talk about it in his book and I never really paid much attention until I started to experiment it for myself. I noticed this fat loss and found it to be an amazing thing. I noticed the other people who really did a lot of isometrics and the parts of their bodies they really hammered with isometrics was very ripped, lean and hardened beyond measure. You can see this demonstrated in Dennis Rogers’ forearms, or Eric Vining’s sides or Slim Farman’s arms or the Shaolin monks’ legs, Steve Justa and now me. You see incredible development in the areas that they really work thoroughly with isometrics and a significant part of it is fat burning. In fact this may be the only style of fat burning exercise that might literally potentially burn sight specific fat.

Are isometrics better then this for fat burning? My answer is YES!

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

Almost all fat burning is a systemic issue. In other words, when you do exercises, it burns fat preferentially to the areas of your body that are hormonally geared to burn fat and it burns it in an all-over body basis. However if you do isometrics, you will see, and I can wake up and demonstrate this day after day, that the part of the body I really hammered with isometrics would immediately look leaner for the next day and days after. Plus the muscular development would be phenomenal. Steve talked about it being impossible for fat to stay on a muscle that was thoroughly exercised with isometrics and he’s a very lean guy considering what he does! Bruce Lee, as an example, is basically the epitome of super ripped and was a huge proponent of isometrics and I’m beginning to see why.

In this real experiment with myself I’m leaning out more than I ever have, at a higher bodyweight with some amazing results! I think one of the things necessary to do this that people don’t talk about is in an extended isometric. The old school isometrics were often very short and they were great for building power and if you pile up a lot of them it becomes a similar volume effect and does burn quite a bit of fat, but an extended isometric that goes for 30 seconds or 60 seconds or longer or for multiple sets of those seems to have a tremendous fat burning effect.

I believe it’s possible, and I can’t back this up scientifically, but this is my theory – The density of an isometric exercise held for a long period of time is so incredibly demanding on the muscle and so likened to extremely high repetitions, quickly passing through the energy cycles faster than normal exercise into an area that pulls fat directly from a muscle as well as systemically. Nothing is truly isolated or systemic in a fat burning or muscle building standpoint and I don’t mean that, but I believe that the absolute, locked down extended contractions may access fat out of a muscle and pure fat burning for energy hormones, especially because of the differing aerobic pathways it may take as well in a more effective way than other types of training. Whatever the case may be as to “why,” you can demonstrate 100% in the real world that it is a killer fat burner.

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Reason #9

They’re easily adapted for strength and endurance.

Isometric training may be the most easily adaptable exercise you ever do. You can adapt it for specific groove, sticking point or for any particular exercise or any angle you may need strength in. So what do you do to train this? You simply apply a couple of different uses. One of the primary ways I like to do isometrics is in a power rack. It’s one of the only pieces of equipment every actually designed to be used for isometrics, so if you use a power rack you can immediately adapt the weight up and down, set the pins to confine your range of motion to do one of the several types of yielding, holding or extended or max isometrics. You can also change that very quickly, adding weight up and down or changing the range of motion or the time period.

You want to get strong? You do a very hard lock down isometric for short periods of time with as much weight as possible. If you’re not going to use weight, if you use a different exercise, use the maximum amount of exertion you can possibly do. If you want to train better for endurance you extend the time period by adjusting the weight down, extending the time or extending the angle.

Here are a couple of things to think about: Dennis Rogers advocates a 6-10 second isometric with a couple of seconds ramping up, 6-5 seconds at 100% max effort isometric and then another 3-4 seconds at 50% isometric afterward to get the most benefit out of your steel bending isometric or your pure strength builder. That’s close to the all time recommendations from both York and other people who’ve done research on isometrics in regards to the, “how.” 6-12 seconds seems to be the time period for maximum power.

That can be with weight or applying intensity. You can adjust that up and down with the percent of intensity especially if you’re not using a weighted isometric. An amazing thing we’ve been experimenting with is light weight in a power rack isometric, but maintained at max intensity for extended period of time. You literally push away off the pin or hold it and push away to a 2nd pin with a moderate to light weight, driving it as hard as you can and continue that as long as possible. If you do that with a max weight you’ll limit yourself to that 6-10 second phase, but if you do it with a lighter weight you may get into the 30-60 second phase. Then you can mix that with other conditioning exercises or move from isometric to isometric without stopping, going for either long holds or repetitive stacked up short holds that can easily build massive levels of muscular and aerobic levels of endurance. Don’t kid yourself, even though you’re not moving, the aerobics are much more intense than you think both from an actual pathway standpoint and from a lung and heart rate, breathing standpoint.

Another way to jump into this is a the way John Brookfield has used it in hand training styles – To use a non-moving exercise and adjust the weight up and down by changing how you grip or the lever you use on the exercise to go from heavier or lighter in your effort. If you’re using a non-weighted isometric simply go from 50% to 100% effort back and forth, but not stopping the isometric, always maintaining some level of tension just

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

going back and forth. This is a great way to adapt quickly for both strength and endurance

and it pays in off massive dividends.

John Brookfield, another legendary strongman and proponent of isometric movements.

Are you detecting a pattern here?

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Reason #10

You can work at angles you just can’t reach any other way

One of the things I learned about in strength and have trained, is that there are multiple types of strength and most of the training that most people do, especially in the weight lifting world, is a very balanced type of training. Even if you use implements that have an odd balance such as the kettlebell, it generally tends to be a whole body unified straight up and down, or linear, or an efficient angle. One of the things you learn while experimenting with strength is that in the real world it doesn’t always come at those angles. It pulls you out of line, pulls you into your worst center of gravity, your worst leverage. It’s very hard to train those things safely. Isometrics gives you the ability to do that very quickly, easily and safely.

Bud shows Ryan Pitts of Strongergrip how to build very odd

angle strength. This exercise has to be felt to understand the power.

Its one thing to deadlift and an orthodox deadlift done the right way should be kept close to the body, close to the center of gravity. It’s another thing to lift the weight or actually bring the weight far away from the body such as 6-12” away from the body as you begin to pull it up or further. You may not be able to lift much weight this way, but you can quickly and easily train angles like that with almost no extra set up time or effort by simply pulling against a bar that won’t move, set at different ranges of motion or height to do that. You can also train in a million quick and easy changes to go in and out of your strongest ranges to get those tough to reach angles – The kind of things that are trained in grappling and martial arts all over the world to give you strength in ways where you are generally vulnerable.

You can also train by pushing your arms and legs out to different directions that they don’t normally get pushed to give yourself that protective type of strength. Not something that would hurt you or something you could load safely with other weight, but something that will allow your body to maximize its ability to use its

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

strength as well as to build its strength in other directions. It’s a simple, quick, easy way to build amazing strength in angles most people never thought of. That’s one of the keys to building super strength. Steve Justa talked about building strength in those minor muscles that you may have no other way of reaching. When you can strengthen every little muscle along the chain then you’ve made those big prime mover muscles stronger. They’re normally limited by the weakness of those smaller muscles and you may not find those in conventional exercises and they’ll limit you in your other array of possible strength quests. He believed it’s why, after extended isometric training, he was able to lift things heavier than normal even though he hadn’t lifted a heavy weight because he’d found a way to strengthen muscles that were rarely or never touched in a regular lifting motion. In strengthening those he opened the gate and strengthened the chain for the big muscles to play. You can get super strong with these isometrics and do it in amazing ways. Make sure you pick up Extreme Power with Isometrics.

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Reason #11

Isometrics are Easy On and Can Rehab Your Joints

I spent 16 years trying to squat 1,000lbs and after I finally succeeded I decided to lose weight and get back to a leaner version of myself. I began to experiment with different exercises and started running. Running at 300lbs may not be the greatest thing you can do, but everyone should have that skill. I simply took a mis-step one day and ended up with an injury that has plagued me for several years. I experimented with multiple things to bring it back to health and finally just in the last bit have regained the ability to squat from the bottom position, having all my muscles fire in sequence and feel comfortable about not further damaging the joint.

Two of the exercises I spent an extensive time period working on for rehabbing my knee are isometric holds done in yoga style from Eischen’s yoga (such as front warrior held for extended time), and wall sit isometrics held with both bodyweight and weight. Both of these seemed to build my joints and knee back to where it doesn’t hurt, it stays in line on a regular basis and I can lift things I haven’t been able to for the last three years, because things became stronger.

The isometric exercises don’t bother my knee, which is crucial. I’ve got a lot of miles on me and even though I function better than much of the world, having engaged in thousands of hours of crazy and possibly damaging training, I have little to no damage, because I’ve found ways to stop the problems.

Isometrics are great for dealing with previous injuries.

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The isometrics seem to be developing muscle in me in a way that’s extremely joint friendly, to help me get back to full squats that helped me in other ways, such as upper body muscles and working around sore spots or injuries from grappling and other things I’ve done that build those muscles in a way that doesn’t cause pain. Isometrics can be some of the best rehab and pre-hab you can do with many ways to do it and you can train a massive amount of strain, strength, endurance and volume with little or no joint damage and always getting them perfectly aligned for the exercises you want to do. It’s very joint friendly with very little problem for a tremendous amount of pay off in what you can possible get out of the training.

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this special report. If you’d like a whole lot more information on isometrics including hundreds of exercises, drills and variations to train with be sure to check out my newest 3 DVD set at the link below.

God bless,

Bud Jeffries

www.strongerman.com/go/isometrics-bb/

Copyright © 2012 Legendary Strength. All Rights Reserved.

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