Grip Training On A Budget

There are those in the world that can't afford a gym or specific equipment that costs an arm and a leg but still want to become strong and fit. I love having a strong grip but I don't have that big of money for stones, a power rack, drag sled or Battling ropes; I believe in being simple and minimal of what is used for my best interest and benefit. Plus I don't have any room for all that stuff but I do have some things that you can get at a hardware store, towels and a pull-up bar for under 30 bucks. Just because something costs a big deal doesn't always mean its a big deal.

My secret to grip strength on a budget is to do things that the only weight it requires is your own. I did thick bar pull-ups by wrapping my bath towel around the bar, built up my fingers from doing gorilla exercises and fingertip push-ups to the point where I can do them explosively off the ground, hook my fat gripz to a bar and have at it yet still made progress with my grip strength. Not everyone has the ability to get expensive stuff to make themselves better and even if they could, don't take it for granted. I believe in the art of using your brain and using your money for things that matter most to you. Here's a list of what you can use for under a few bucks....

Left over tires for Hammer striking

Your towels to build pulling power

Removable Doorway Pull-up Bar

Step Stool for elevated Push-ups

Fat Gripz

DIY Sandbags

Buckets to fill water and carry

Many ways to build grip power without needing to spend a ton of money, one of the greatest arm wrestlers of the 20th century Mac Batchelor used bottle caps between his fingers and other things that made his grip so powerful, no one was able to beat him. Use your imagination, be willing to do what you can without needing a whole lot for very little. Use your brain, not always your wallet.

Apeing Up My Conditioning

Yes the first word in the title isn't in the dictionary or a full on word but you know what, it sums up what I've been doing lately. Becoming an ape is no easy feat, it takes focus, commitment, a little imagination and being oblivious to looking like a goof. People can say what they want and depict how to train like a gorilla but to truly get down to the nitty gritty, you have to move like one in order to become one. Animals in the wild don't lift weights or use machines to gain their strength; they rely on nothing but their body and instincts in order to survive. Granted if they had to move anything it be boulders, knocking down trees and carrying large specs of nature.

Nothing in the world can give you the functional strength, agility, flexibility and power more than the true animalized movements of bodyweight conditioning. Sure weights, medicine balls, jump rope, stones and dumbbells can give you great conditioning and can take you far if you use it properly and with real intentions but in all my years of training nothing compares to animal exercises; maybe its because of the way i'm drawn to them or because they give me real sense of purpose to train for life against myself and nothing else. Training this way teaches me how to handle my body from really awkward positions and strengthen my tendons from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. Its so powerful, very few understand its true source of untapped energy and fundamental strength that is useful, realistic and functional.

The gorilla is my inner animal, its been within me ever since I was a little boy and only up until about 10 years ago or so I started to truly embrace it and train in it. Other animals have their perks and all are very valuable but the ape is the king of them all. You may think differently because your inner animal is different and you can go on and on about the scientific stuff and that its truly impossible to be as strong as a gorilla or to even move like one yet, I have in my mind the belief and the personal experience and participation that when you set your mind to something and adapt it to make it work for you, possibilities are endless. Gorillas are in fact stronger than humans period but we can learn from what they have done their entire lives. Not in complete entirety because there just a great deal of things that we can't do because it wasn't meant for us to do however, when we break down the movements and put in things that are more realistic and practical it can take us to levels of strength we didn't think existed in the human body.

For the past week, I've basically done nothing but hanging, walking, jumping, running and playing like a Gorilla or Primate in my workouts. Due to lack of space and the structure of my body I can't do brachiating movements on my pull-up bar so I have to just do hanging from different grips and isometric pull-ups for now until I can find a much longer bar to work on at a park or somewhere. The ground work however will be more suited to what I'm doing but to keep the equality of pulling and pushing as best as possible. To learn more about true Ape movements get the Animal Kingdom Courses 1 & 2 to have you training like a true ape. If that's not in your budget, get either Animal Flow 2.0 or The Animal Workout DVD to get an idea of what to do to unleash your inner ape. That's all for today. Have fun and go be wild.

Why Is It Important To Be Creative?

Why is it important to be creative? Is it to become someone more than the rest, is it about being better and more reliable on your imagination than to do someone else's style? In my mind, being creative in fitness is the toughest thing you can ever be. Doing someone else's style makes you lower than your true potential is. That is not to say you can't learn or be taught a specific way so you can learn your own style later; it just means what you want to do can be learned through your interest, will to commit and the idea to find yourself in what you believe works.

Throughout my life, I never liked being told what works and what doesn't, I made the choice to be creative because my brain operates differently than the majority of people. I learn from a lot of people all the time but that doesn't change the fact that when it comes down to fitness, i'm very self reliant. I feel alive and focused as I create my workouts or my own style of training. My soul is free and I'm able to generate greater inner strength through my creativity. In nearly 20 years I've learned how to lift, hold a handstand, put up heavy weight, bend bars, bend backwards into a bridge, struck a tire with a Thor Hammer and a near 60 pound sledgehammer, I've hung onto pull-up bars with one arm and taken on some amazing lessons from very gifted and stupid strong individuals that believed in what I'm capable of.

Going from one program to another time to time is fun because you're constantly picking your own brain and seeing something new that you may have not seen or felt before. The truth is, I always go back to one particular style of training that keeps me in shape like a lightweight at around 270 and that's the Animal Movements more specifically Ape Training by hanging, moving like a wild gorilla or chimp. I found out that basically I was destined to be an ape like person. My mother jokingly told me that my father got a card for either my birthday or he got it for father's day who knows but she said that in it, it had talked about a chimp and apparently my father seemed to believe that was what I was going to be because I somehow to him acted like one; now I move and train like one and didn't even realize until I got so into it it became natural to me. My creativity is natural for me because if I ever tried exactly what others do, I become disoriented, uninterested and I shut down. I can't do someone else's system to the T very well because my brain isn't programmed for that.

Some people find it difficult to be creative and so they become followers and be more like sheep or soldiers, follow a leader and let him lead you the way, go down their path because that's what they feel is right. Truth is, anyone that is remotely creative in any shape or form are the scariest people on the planet because not only do they think for themselves, they can free themselves without thinking twice about it. Creativity also brings ridicule, attacks on your self-esteem and its a pain in the ass to make people understand what you want to create. People want to suppress those that have critical thinking and shut down what may bring them hell but all in all, they're jealous of what you have the potential to be successful in. Marketing gimmicks, commercials, the news, endless stupid reality shows and magazines that print bullshit that really has no relevance to your true self.

When you train, learn what the mechanics are and make it into your own style that fits your goals and what you decide to accomplish not what others feel is better for you. Do I believe in certain people when it comes to programs and various systems yes wholeheartedly but I do not follow they're rules or believe in everything they do. They're different in their own ways and not all have the same philosophy. I learn what I want to learn and I pay attention to things that interest me, I have never been able to learn by what someone tells me to do so one of two things go down; I either have someone show me up close and personal the mechanics and I go from there or I observe in a book or DVD and learn if it works for me, if its not exactly what they do then I make it my own until I have mastered it. That's how my brain works, I'm not some little puppy who rolls over when I'm told to, I do my own damn rolling. It is important to be creative because in reality good or bad, its the only way to survive at times; not everything goes according to plan and you're never the same person everyday. Be creative because its who you are, learn what's important and make it your own otherwise you're just another dog mastering commands.