Harnessing Your Individuality When It Comes To Training

We all had a hero in some form or another growing up as kids and we admire certain people as we get older but as time goes on and we learn a thing or two, harnessing our own individuality can be a tough gig yet it's part of a necessity that many loathe and can't stand. Some will go to extremes to be like somebody else (HOLLYWOOD wink wink) whether it be in business, fitness, movies, sports or whatever. We tend to promote ourselves as one of a kind but also put too much emphasis on who we are expected to be instead of putting emphasis of who we are and what makes us a unique person.

The reason many can't stand or loathe people being their true selves because mainly they're afraid of their own soul and that being an individual with a single point of unique traits is very hard to achieve. Almost anyone can act out or program themselves to be somebody else because it's easier than building yourself from the ground up. Fitness is right up there with that kind of approach.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be like Michael Jordan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry Sanders and other cool actors and athletes that looked larger than life. In reality, I was short, stocky and about as unathletic and uncoordinated as can be. I wasn't that good at Basketball, couldn't look like a bodybuilder if I tried and I didn't have the aggressiveness to play football. Those traits prevented me from doing a lot of what I wanted to be. As I grew up and learning what my strengths and weaknesses were, little by little things fell into place of what I expected and accepted of myself as opposed to what I was told to be and how to do things by others' standards and expectations.

Once fitness became a part of my very existence, I made a vow to myself to learn everything possible and focus on creating my own style from the things I learned. I've mastered many exercises but don't follow a trainer or guru to the T, I learned how to strengthen my body without the aid of Physical Therapy and never once used a Personal Trainer to show me the ropes. I learned to harness my individuality and continuing to evolve. Is it perfect and is my way meant for everyone? Hell no. Once you understand the value of not trying to be exactly like a Michael Jordan or Arnold or Barry Sanders, you learn the true meaning of being able to strengthen yourself inside and out. Another is, these people are the GOATs of their chosen sport or acting, you can't have the same exact accolades or try to be the way they were. There are people out there with better skills and have more titles to their name but don't have the same recognition. 

We train to better ourselves, not to showoff and try to be better than somebody else. We win, we lose and we're human with different capabilities, traits and fortitude. You can make it known what you're capable of and have a great level of strength, conditioning and a powerful will but in the end, you and you alone are the very best at what's happening right now. Certain things will fade and adjust to what comes next but never underestimate the power of your own individuality. Learn to progress and grab a hold of what makes you the best version of you. You can be a great wrestler and do all sorts of moves and submissions, you can be a great powerlifter that sets records and have strength beyond belief or you can develop an all around level of anything you set your mind to. Your training is what you develop to do something great later on no matter how big or small, victories come in all shapes and sizes. 

Be an individual of your own accord and make the most of what makes you great. It's a long journey but it doesn't have to be boring or so extreme that it becomes unrealistic. It can be interesting and you'd be surprised what you're capable of if you just open up your soul and become something you were meant to be because it's you and no one else. 

Different Conditioning Styles By Wrestlers

If anyone laid the foundation for wrestlers and how they condition themselves in the sport, it was arguably Wrestlers from the Middle East & India hands down. They taught the fundamentals of how to utilize the body to such a degree that stamina was inexhaustible, strength lasted for hours on end and being explosive was inevitable at any given time. They created what is still being used today just through certain variations.

The thing is, not every wrestler or coach uses the same exact exercises or even principles of their training to be successful in the sport. Some conditioned according to their size and what gave them the tools to be successful. Now in modern times when it comes to conditioning or even more specific, bodyweight conditioning, there were the three main forms of exercises that were the ground work; the pushups, the squats and the bridges. Those were the pinnacle aside from actual wrestling but there was more to them or in better terms, what other wrestlers and coaches took into consideration that honed the skills and the ideal training methods. 

Every culture since ancient times has their hand in wrestling in some form or another and formed their own ideas on how to condition the men to fight in order to be dominant in a tribe, kingdom or just a village for that matter. In Mongolia you didn't see wrestlers do Hindu Pushups or do Hindu Squats in order to condition, yet some of these were so powerful, it was unbelievable. There were cultures that if you look throughout history, probably didn't do a single supplemental exercise and just wrestled and were just as strong and dominant. Look up how Senegalese Wrestlers sometime and check out their methods.

In America, you had some of the best wrestlers in the world that came from everywhere and took their skills to places that just baffled onlookers. Some of the greatest in history utilized more of a weight training approach, some used a mixture of bodyweight and weights, bodyweight alone and some either ran or just wrestled in order to get in condition. The fact of the matter is, regardless of how you wrestled, you used basic exercises and often times compound movements to be successful. Once Karl Gotch came into the picture, his use of the Hindu Style became a requirement in most wrestling gyms since the 60's or even as far back as the 50's when he was being groomed but if you look at the ideals of conditioning the body for the sport, at least from an American point of view, the Hindu Style wasn't written up as much if at all.

Although many exercises can be traced back to the Hindu Style, you didn't see their version of the pushups & squats along with others in the old Physical Culture courses from the likes of Farmer Burns, George Hackenshmidt, Bernarr McFadden, Earle Liederman and others. At least two of these guys were very successful wrestlers in their time but you never saw the Hindu Style of conditioning. Also with that in mind, wrestling styles vary from culture to culture. Mongolia had more of a Greco-Roman/Judo type style, Senegal was grappling mixed with boxing or bare-knuckle type fighting, Hindus were a close relationship to our modern Amateur Wrestling and today's Catch Wrestling is utilized with Submissions and overall base of takedowns, suplexes and throws. Then you have styles from Turkey, Brazil, Japan and Russia that vary the rules of combat. 

Is the Hindu Style the very best? That all depends on the coach and what they're willing to teach students of the art. It certainly works in many aspects but if it was the very best, every wrestler since the dawn of man would do it but they don't. Today's aspect of conditioning for MMA still has its roots that trace back to India but with the concept of utilizing more explosive based conditioning than just stamina and strength based, there are countless ways to be a successful combat athlete or even a wrestler for that matter. The Hindu Style works without a doubt but there should be options to how we base our training according to the needs of the athlete. Look at the success of Dan Gable and the University Of Iowa, their style of conditioning wasn't like the Hindu Style but what did they produce? Some of the greatest wrestlers that went on to Olympic glory. 

Last thing, there are wrestlers out there that are so fanatical on conditioning they base their livelihood on it. I do believe the better condition you are, the higher chances of being successful but it's not always the supplemental stuff that will get you there, hell even Ed Strangler Lewis had said that wrestling was the best conditioner and despite the fact that he wasn't shredded or had the body of a Greek god, his stamina was the stuff of legends. The man in his prime just didn't know the meaning of the word "tired", he can go for hours and be practically just as efficient towards the end of a match as much as the beginning. 

You be the judge, what do you feel makes a successful wrestler?    

Rippers & Hookers

Sounds like a bad serial killer novel involving the world's oldest profession doesn't it? The funny thing is, it's far from what you might actually think. Back in the day, wrestlers who were known to literally break and tear people apart were called Hookers where they would hook or put an opponent in a dangerous hold where they could if given the chance cripple the guy and be one feared motherfucker. You would not want to get on the bad side of these guys.

These days, nobody would use the term hooker to describe a wrestler, now the word ripper is another story. Like the Hookers of yesteryear, a ripper can be used to describe a wrestler or grappler who could handle himself and tear limbs, tendons or ligaments. Some of the most feared wrestlers of the day were guys like Farmer Burns, George Tragos, Ad Santel, Tom Jenkins and even the legendary Robert Fredrick aka Ed "Strangler" Lewis. These days, the last of the Hookers or Rippers of the old school were men like Karl Gotch & Billy Robinson. 

The men I mentioned above were specialists in knowing the dark side to physical anatomy and could make you tap before you really had a chance to take a breath. These were WRESTLERS and had levels of stamina and mind that they were considered inexhaustible geniuses of their time. Catch Wrestling has it's roots mainly in England for the last 150 years but long before that, you had other cultures that would showcase styles of wrestling that were brought to other countries and became a molded sculpture in today's world. The old timers are long gone and quite a bit of their style of Catch has been left in the dust. 

Now in today's world, Catch Wrestling isn't as big as it used to be and other arts such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing and Amateur Wrestling dominated the landscape in how we see today's MMA. If BJJ is considered the "gentle" art, Catch is considered the violent aspect according to Former MMA champ and current Catch Teacher Josh Barnett. There are competitions purely on Catch and has taken extremely small steps to becoming a larger form of fighting since the early 1900's. You can arguably say the last known competitor in the art was Billy Robinson. The man would be considered the Einstein or Steven Hawking of Catch Wrestling. 

Although the hookers and the rippers don't have that fear factor today, you can still learn some form of that old school style with a small group of fighters, teachers and students of the old art. It's used more of a competition but can it be used in the streets? Afterall, street fights are very unpredictable and sometimes what you may think you know could get you killed or be sent to the hospital but if you were able to not necessarily make a shmuck tap but to save your life using techniques that won't kill the man but put a damper on the limbs he uses would it be worth it? Would it be worth it to save a loved one, defend yourself against attackers or send a message telling them not to fuck with you (in the sense of not upping up somebody like a douchebag but making sure you're not some weak punk). 

Now if you're in law enforcement, would certain techniques help restraining a suspect or defending a fellow officer? Catch can be used in many ways and possibly lifesaving if it came down to it. There are people out there who may understand Catch but wouldn't know how to use it, others have incredible knowledge and have great success, it just depends on whom you learn it from. There isn't a one-way of learning this art and everybody who teaches it especially today can be a gamble as opposed to back in the day where you could go just about anywhere and learn from the masters. All in all, whether a competitor or someone going down on the wrong side of town, Catch can be beneficial.   

 

Layers Of Strength Like Super Saiyan Transformations

For years now, I've been a Dragon Ball fan of the Saga. It's really the only anime I like that didn't include Street Fighter as a kid. Similar story to Superman with a twist and has Martial Arts, powerful warriors, rivals, match-ups, foes become friends, Vegeta always wanted to be ahead of Goku but never really does and the training clips are just bad ass especially in the Gravity Chamber. It's one of the inspirations for my own training and finding some cool things to try out.

 One of the cool aspects of the Shows is the transformations guys like Goku and Vegeta go through to become more powerful than usual. The levels of Super Saiyan are just an awesome blend of animation and the fighting internally they go through to achieve their transformations and making them effortless later on. It's a way of looking at strength progressions in fitness, there are several layers and as you get stronger, there's always another layer coming your way to push through. 

Yeah it's corny and has some off the wall characters (Master Roshi anyone) along with situations that may not be suitable for even today's generation unless you watch the uncensored versions. The fact remains, with each transformations the Saiyans generate, it's a progression that at first takes a lot out of them and as they master them, they become effortless and doesn't take on a ton of energy or in their case strength. With each time you master a weight or a certain exercise, you would progress to a heavier weight or version of an exercise that's harder in order to become your strongest. 

Yeah it's a cartoon and we can't look exactly look like Goku or even withstand a Gravity Chamber that goes up to 400x the gravity of earth (if you were to calculate that, it be walking into a room and you weighing hundreds of times your bodyweight) but we can build strength and muscle using things like weighted vests to do our bodyweight exercises or do exercises with greater control and slower. Guys like Matt Schifferle & The Bioneer are awesome at teaching progressions in order for someone to build their strength on and guys like Brooks Kubik utilizing old school weight training and bodyweight exercise to build a great deal of muscle using progressions on a consistent basis. 

Although Goku & Vegeta have completely different views on life and progressive training, they still become stronger in their own way and format different purposes. That's what it's like in the real world where you can progress in your own way but still reach levels of strength beyond belief. Now what they do is obviously exaggerated and very fictional but it doesn't take away the fact that it is possible to build strength and muscle with the right tools and training programs. Many struggle especially with the consistency and discipline but it's not impossible. Like a transformation, you can also transform your level of strength and physique. The old time strongmen who were no more than on average 165-190 lbs were some of the most muscular people on the planet yet had strength that baffles by even today's standards. It's incredible what you can achieve when you give yourself the time and dedication.

Look past some of the silliness and dialogue and understand what some of these guys do in that Saga that gives them abilities that just seem to go higher and higher each time. When you thought one of the transformations made them crazy powerful, another one comes along and just becomes even more mind boggling. Even the transformations become God-like later on; you can have some crazy strength as well (without the need of steroids of course) and harness the ability to find out what the body is truly capable of. Of course I believe in safety and doing things without getting injured as much as possible but we are capable of things we didn't think were possible. In a weird way, we have a bit of Super Saiyan strength where each progression is another step to being the strongest we can be as a individual. 

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How Do I Keep My Lower Arms, Hands & Wrists Strong

 As a human being, we are responsible for what types of strength we develop whether it be physical, mental, emotional and/or spiritual. Some don't always get to even choose that responsibility because of either birth defects or other things but if you're compelled and learn to work with what's possible, there are many ways to strengthen yourself.

Strength is not always measured by a cannonball shaped bicep or having washboard abs that look good in a magazine, it really is measured what the body can handle and be able to do things that require sometimes a great deal of effort in order to provide the strength needed in life. The hands for one is probably, arguably one of the most prominent aspects of strength that we don't always understand the true meaning of it. We build things with our hands, we can clip hair like it's electric with such precision and speed, we destroy things, we test a man's grip with a simple shake, we lift and hold onto things as if our lives depended on it. Our hands are the ones that turn the knob to a world of possibilities.

When I was in my teens, I didn't have thick forearms or crazy strong hands and wrists even though I threw the shot put and the discus along with some mediocre weight training. I didn't understand the value of grip strength and hand health until I started learning feats of the old time strongmen. The first people to show me this were Logan Christopher & Tyler Bramlett. They showed me how these small guys like Dennis Rogers & Mighty Atom were able to bend, twist, break and shape steel with such power it looked effortless yet impossible to look at. They were the first men to teach me steel bending short and long along with leverage work and utilizing the flexion and extension of the hands. If these small dudes can teach me how to do things that men twice their size can barely even touch, that gave me the reason to be able to do it too.

For years, I've bent hundreds of spikes, tore through dozens upon dozens of phonebooks, levered sledgehammers and shaped flat bars and rebar till my hands bled (literally) and those were the foundation of making my hands crazy strong, durable and powerful. My fingers would feel like bone, my forearms were hard as stones and my wrists had strength yet were flexible and limber. As time went on in the midst of doing these crazy feats, I started studying more on how to keep the lower arms healthy and as pain-free as possible. When I was learning the unorthodox and strange ways to train using Garin Bader's CoreForce Energy, he also had a course specifically for the hands called Finger Gymnastics. You've all read about my dealings with the meningitis and how it shaped my nerves to the point where dexterity in my right hand is almost impossible with using individual fingers. With FG, it gave me tools that I never was able to learn before as a child and it showed how I can use my hands differently than what I was attempting during therapy sessions. It opened up a new world to me that was unbelievable.

As I got older and shifting away from the strength feats, (is a comeback in the works?) I had put my effort into a more movement based type training and for the last 10 years or so, working with sledgehammers has been my go to for hand strength and conditioning. I also found the Fat Gripz useful as I use them from time to time with my resistance cables to really dig into the muscles and build grip strength at the same time. I've used them also on machines, barbells and dumbbells. Slowly but surely overtime, my hands just kept getting stronger and rarely if ever got injured. 

Because of the sledgehammer work, it has even helped me in arm wrestling; faced all three generations of my wife's family (father, brother and grandfather) as they all challenged me and I won. This family also comes from several generations of loggers and heavy laborers so they have incredible strength in their blood. Neither of them were easy either especially her grandfather who tried to pull my arm off for a second or two but to didn't let up. That was a defining moment where they were like "ok this guy is good for the girl in our lives" in my opinion. Gramps still has that "old man strength."

In a nutshell these days, hammers, fat gripz, occassional fingertip pushups and walking like a gorilla has kept my hands pretty damn strong and healthy. Keeping the wrists limber as much as possible and fingers just keep getting stronger. I have also kept an eye doing joint loosening exercises especially in the hands and wrists for a while now because as we age, we won't always be able to do the crazy shit we did but if we kept our joints healthy, that's what makes living the more important. Be strong, build strong hands and be amazingly awesome. 

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More To Exercise Than Just Stationary Movements

When you have a certain amount of knowledge about exercise and fitness along with the understanding of what works and what is useful, you have the ability to train anywhere you want and not be restricted to a building full of people who can be nasty as hell (verbally and physically). Stationary movements are basically exercises where you're in the same spot working on something and not going anywhere else. If it's just bodyweight, you can switch from one exercise to the next in the blink of an eye. 

It's great to do pushups, deadlifts, squats, curls, weights, bodyweight, machines and suspension training; they're all great in their own way and should be used for the goals people want to achieve and/or maintain throughout their lives, however; there's more to training than just staying in one spot. There's freedom in moving from one thing to another but the true freedom is being able to harness the body's capabilities beyond the stationary aspect of fitness.

The majority of fitness is training in a single spot on the floor or only a stupid short amount of space. Now with Animal Movement training or Primal style training, you have the freedom to move wherever you want, however you want. This is where you are truly open to using your imagination and not be confined to a such a short amount of space that you can't crawl, jump forward or backwards, sideways and under a magic carpet ride. It's about letting go of the caged up mentality. Do stationary movements have their place, of course they do, they're another aspect of training. It's not the full picture though.

Animal Exercises are a form of expression. Yes it's true we can't move 100% exactly like wild animals but as a human, we have the creativity to express ourselves in a different format than typical conventional training. We can crawl, jump, kick, punch, roll, lift, carry, hell we're practically a Wonkavator where we can go up, down, sideways, longways, shortways, bend, twist, go east, west, north, south and everything else in between. Indigenous tribes don't necessarily work out in the sense of recreation but when they hunt or go out to find food, they climb, crawl through the jungle, run, walk, utilize their body's abilities to take down trees, carve boats, fish with nothing more than a stick and string. They're expressing their bodies the way nature intended in order to survive. Fitness is just a recreational version of expressing our human nature and Animal Type Movements is to me the pinnacle of that. 

Some will look at Animal Movements as silly and "make believe" and that humans were only meant to stand up right and crawling and all that stuff is meant for babies in development. It is a huge part of our evolution to be upright and to lift, carry and be able to orchestrate movements based on human evolution but mimicking animals to a small degree is part of that as well. We've studied animals for countless millennia even when we didn't realize it and we partake in how we can move utilizing what we can do. Although Animal Movements can be considered a "gimmick" form of exercise, it's the freedom of expression that gets to the heart of it. 

Is it natural to move like an animal in the wild? Well, you are using your own body as resistance and it's not alien like formalities so you tell me. It's just different, that's all it is when you break it down. It's using the mind and body's ability to express a near exaggerated format of what we as humans are capable of doing. Some of the most basic movements can be done by just about anybody if you're in good health. The more advanced stuff is for the "crazy ones" which is a much lower percentage of people capable of doing. Even basic movements are still freedom of expression and be able to showcase your abilities to train in just about any length of space. 

So, when you practice your training, realize there's more to it than just being in a single spot. Utilize both to really become universal in your fitness journey. Your goals are yours and what you do to get better is what you're willing to do whether through Primal Movements or stationary, they're more valuable than we have been led to believe. Be strong, be wild and be amazingly awesome.

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The Twilight Of Fitness Fanatics

In fitness, there's always going to be critics, cynics, "experts" and some downright dumb motherfuckers that will tell you what's the best, what's the worst, how you should do things according to certain statistics and trends are crap and this and that. Where do you go to get the best really? What makes them the actual experts?

Sometimes I wonder if some of these fanatics or at times "extremists" have ever realized they're leading people on the Twilight effect: Are they team Jacob or team Edward (Weights vs. Bodyweight, Rubber Cables vs. Machines, Crossfit vs. Bodybuilding). Where does it end? The truth is, there's only so much someone can tell you before you make a decision for yourself. Will you be the wolf or the vampire for the title of "King of the Monster." 

We follow sometimes the old school ways of doing things and/or we try to keep up with the times and not try to get overwhelmed by the fast pacing world we live in. Some just prefer old school because that's how they grew up and what they knew best. Some of the old school ways weren't that great and sure as hell some of it should not be a part of today's world but there are lessons in them that we can learn in our world today. Keeping up with the times can be a royal pain in the ass and focusing on too many things especially with the crap we see, hear and talk about, it could put us in the nuthouse (if it hasn't already for some).

When it comes to fitness, being objective can be a bitch but we only know what we know and understand by trial and error. However; there are are those out there who only know a certain method but have no clue what other methods are about and yet try to convince people how terrible they are when they themselves never did them. When you start to look at things objectively and seeing both sides of the coin, you'll realize that it's not always Black and White (again Team Jacob or Team Edward) and both sides have their strong and weak points. The fact is, both sides of the coin have strong points you can take and mold them to create a stronger version of yourself. 

Throughout these last 17 years of training every single day, you know that my love is always bodyweight but yet will do things that suit the strong points of different styles to create a variety for myself. I don't preach one specific method and shun everything else, that's not what life's about. My approach is helping others find the best of whatever they want to do and focus on finding the best resources so they can achieve their goals, the same way I do for myself. Constantly finding exciting things to do to get better, changing things up to stay interested and enthusiastic. I'm not a team Jacob or team Edward (I'm more of the Blade, Underworld & Lost Boys variety LOL) yet both have their strong points. 

There is no one way to do things, you move, you lift, you carry, you transition, you build muscle and whatever, they all are part of a path that leads to somewhere. One method will never 100% cut it. If it did, where does that leave anything else for someone? Choose what you love and stick with it but don't be afraid to test out new things and doing so without going to extremes and getting hurt along the way. Be strong, be safe and be amazingly awesome. 

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Sprint 8 And Hammers

Being aggressive can be a good thing when you need to just let it out. Now we do need to control our aggression because we don't want to go as far as hurting someone or worse. Being productive in that is finding an outlet that will get shit out of your system safely and with good intentions. You can get into a fight but unless it's a last resort, we don't need to put anybody either the other person or ourselves in the hospital and regret getting that bill. 

Hammer Work is about as old school as you can get and there's a reason why it's one of the manliest things you can do. It builds Testosterone, it strengthens the tendons and ligaments, it's productive training and it freaks out Mormons (that last one was a joke). Let me give you a side story about the Mormon joke:

A while ago during a workout, I was using a deck of cards as my reps. Around the 5th card or so, these Mormon kids (one was in his mid 20's, the other was roughly a late teen) parked their car across the street and proceeded to go about their route to convert and spread the gospel of the Church Of Latter Day Saints (the church is literally right next to the complex). I was the first person they approached and one of them wanted to try out the hammer I was using (Big Barry 25 lbs). He liked it and gave a good critique on it as he did a couple swings (now remember, these guys are in nice shirt and ties with slacks on). I figured, I'd mess with them for a bit and brought out Big Bertha the 73 lb Hammer. The older of the two widened his eyes and said "you've got a bigger hammer than this thing" and I had him try it out. Didn't tell him how much it weighed, could barely even pick it up and couldn't swing it. He asked if I could do it and I did about 6-8 reps without breaking a sweat and he literally shouts out "HOLY CRAP" and the other kid whispered "holy shit" or something like that. Now imagine making two guys who are spreading Mormonism who've learned not to say certain aspects of language in their religion saying two aspects of words that would get them in trouble for saying them yet it took one big ass hammer to make them do that. That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen happen. That hammer freaked them out that much to resort to that.

Back to the article at hand....

Regardless of the rep/set scheme you use, hammers can do wonders for your conditioning and building muscle. Today I wanted to try out the Sprint 8 Protocol which was rep out something for 30 seconds on, 90 seconds off for 8 rounds. It was a pretty damn good workout and got me breathing hard and I can feel it in my forearms. The pump feels awesome. I've tried various styles of exercise with this method of training from animals to burpees to sprinting in place and others but the Hammer version felt great and was well rested and would go hard as I can each set. You get so many benefits out of it than just firing up the lungs, you build strength, grip, speed, conditioning, cardio and other kick ass things. 

The Sprint 8 Program in this day and age is more on the use of machines like treadmills, ellipticals and other things of that sorts and the course promotes mainly on those to help sell machines. Now does this mean the program isn't useful? Of course it is, you don't need a machine to kick your ass with this workout. Hell from what I understand Dr. Laurence Moorhouse created a similar program decades ago and worked for a lot of people. This program is done no more than 3x a week in my opinion but this method has people going up to almost 5x a week and I don't find that practical or safe because depending on the exercises you use and speed regardless of the rest period, you still need to recover from it. You can do other stuff on the off days for sure just not as intense. Recovery is what promotes growth and I'm talking optimal, not to the degree where you bust your ass on this workout than not do a damn thing for a month. 

Using hammers for this method, use a hammer that gives you the right amount of speed that will get you breathing hard, I would say anywhere from 10-30 lbs would be good for most. If you got the strength to use a heavier hammer than the weights I just mentioned and the speed of it is there, use it if you wish but the heavier you go, the slower the movement will be. Be wise and don't hurt yourself.

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Be strong, get conditioned and be Amazingly Awesome.

Flow Through Your Workouts

Going hardcore in a workout isn't always a bad thing and people just push themselves to the brink of collapse is the boost to their ego; but going hardcore doesn't always mean you should a lot of the time unless it "may be" a micro workout of some sorts. Flowing through a workout where you're challenging yourself but it feels to you almost effortless is one of the coolest things you can do.

These days because of the inspiration from Vahva Fitness, my brain has been fiddling with ideas and coming up with flows and combos, learning the flow routines from Vahva and developing better flexibility and agility with great energy and enthusiasm. It's almost like the excitement never stops and have used specific flows for my flexibility, conditioning and coordination. Taking a few exercises and putting them together to create something fun to do is what is keeping me coming back.

My favorite exercises to use in my flow training are the Over Reach, 180 Degree Jumps and the Scorpion. Utilizing these three with other exercises and you've got a hell of a foundation. I even will use them in a freestyle manner where they randomly go with other exercises in a workout where I come up with exercises on the spot. This routine I do here, would be considered freestyle since I didn't have the exercises in a specific order and was coming up with stuff at the top of my head.

Some workouts I'll just do a couple moves and just switch from one to the other like this demo of the Scorpion & Over Reach Combo to work my flexibility and coordination. One exercise I've learned lately that I'm still figuring out how to do properly is called in Vahva Fitness the King Crab. It's not an impossible move but to coordinate it and move in the manner can challenging since you're up off your heels and walk sideways. I did a video of just Holding The Position in an Isometric format to build strength so when I do more of the movement, I'm use to being in that position. I like to use themes every now and then and this move made me think of a scene in Fantastic Beasts: The Secret Of Dumbledore where the main protagonist has to go through a cave and these "Fire Crabs" are ready to strike him and he has to move like them to distract them. 

 When it comes to conditioning, flows can have a profound impact depending on how you do them. When you use jumping movements or crawls in a sprint like fashion while quickly switching from one thing to another can really fire up the lungs. A workout I did yesterday was a combo of the Scorpion, Over Reach and Bear Crawling. Do the first two moves than do a 5-10 yard crawl and walk back and repeat for as many rounds as possible. I did about 10 and that was enough. When you get out of breath, walk it off until it has subsided and keep going, don't sit down or bend over and heave, breathe deeply and keep things flowing. Vahva also has great workouts that target various muscle groups but also shows you step by step how to do a flow properly and progress by adding speed and smoothness. 

Another great combo that will get you out of breath is just crawling and jumping as in Crawl for a distance, get into a squat and do a 180 degree jump or just a regular frog jump and crawl back. Do that for 30 seconds to a minute and you'll be panting like crazy. You can see the video of that below. Workouts should never be boring and moving from one thing to another fast is a great way to get you going. Bodyweight Training is more than just simple pushups, squats, pullups and lunges; you can create things and open up a whole other door to exercising that is limitless and full of curiosity. 

If you really want the complete package and take on a whole plethora of challenges, flows, athletic specialization and conditioning programs, check out the Trinity Bundle from Vahva and combine them for workout regimens that will test even the most elite athletes. Be strong, get conditioned and be amazingly awesome. 

In The Words Of Karl Gotch Regarding Bodyweight Training And The Evolution Of Animal Movement Training

"Go back to nature and you'll find that animals in the wild are in the greatest of shape because they use their own bodyweight and stretching." That's what the old man said in Conditioning For Combat Sports as he narrates while his student Tom Puckett demonstrates the squats, jumpers and rope skipping. Although he preferred conditioning exercises from the wrestlers in the Middle East, it still doesn't take away how profound his words were to how animals are as strong, conditioned and powerful as they are. 

The profound impact knowing that the greatest teacher when it comes to natural exercise is nature itself. After studying and training on the teachings of Gotch and those that came after, it become an evolutionary transition from the pushups, squats, bridges, handstands and pulling exercises to the animal movements that have shaped my philosophy on fitness and it's history through physical application. It wasn't about moving away 100% from those exercises I learned at first but to generate interest and going down a path that led me to my all time favorite form of training. 

Sometimes words in a complete sentence are more than just letters put together or phrasing something that is simple. What I took from Gotch's words after really hearing them and interpretating them to my own goals and journey, it became clear that this is what I was meant to learn. I didn't really get into the animal stuff till I was 23-24 which was around 2008 and getting Ed Baran's Animal Kingdom Conditioning course at the time. This gave me the foundation for what these last 14 years of doing this specific style of training. Sure I did other things along the way and always experimenting but animal movement always pulls me back in and I can't help but do it. 

The more I got sucked into the physicality of animal moves, the more I wanted to learn from other places and how they interpret this style of fitness. Some of it is weird and some seemed like a rip off or taking one thing and morphing it into something else but the one place that takes those exercises and shaped them into an all-around athletic endeavor was Vahva Fitness. Eero Westerberg & Samuli T. Jyrkinen have taken bits and pieces of some of the very best teachings and molded them into their style that just keeps evolving. When you learn the true aspects of the course Movement 20XX there are similarities with the style of Animal Flow, Gold Medal Bodies, Primal Movement, MovNat but Vahva took them and shaped them to create something beautiful and incredible to watch and learn. 

Eero is a Finnish Trainer that's roughly in his 30's I believe. Although young and has a model type look, his enthusiasm and incredible athleticism is just unbelievable and can move with such power yet limberness. He's a poster boy for the current ideas on animal movement training but I say that with great sincerity. He can do some incredible things and have learned quite a bit from him by observing and testing out his style of training. Some of it is way to advanced for me and can't jump even 20% of what he can do (100% chance knowing that we're about 60-80 lbs apart and our way of moving is different) but I take in what he teaches and experiment with my knowledge and physicality. He utilizes old school methods in a modern setting that blends the two worlds together. 

Like him, I've taken bits and pieces of things and shaped them to my goals and have done pretty well with them. Is he the end-all-be-all? Hell no, nobody is but I love his passion for this stuff and continues to work hard on making the most of what the human body is capable of doing. Of course not everyone is able to move like him or be able to do everything he's capable of, fuck I wish I had half of his ability and I'd be happy but we all come in different shapes and sizes, move and train differently and go at different speeds of progression. As we age, we may not even move 65-70% of what we use to do but we can make a difference in how we shape ourselves physically and mentally. Train in ways that aren't the norm and explore our capabilities without risking our health. 

The quote in the first sentence of this article for me has evolved to exploring my body in ways I wasn't doing even in my teens and my 20's. At 38, I'm finding more and more ways to move like a beast in the wild or even format my own flexibility and agility. I'm losing weight, gaining strength through awkward movements, progressing little by little with my coordination and everyday is a chance to have fun and play. From a fitness stand point, there's no way of knowing what will happen and what will come next. All I know is, there's a whole universe to explore and the road just keeps going on.  

Be strong, get wild and be amazingly awesome.