Turning Imagination Into Reality

Throughout history, creativity has been a cornerstone for what has become civilization and the people that have made things happen, from the pyramids to Mickey Mouse, creativity and vision became a reality. As humans we have built monolithic structures, ruled and conquered civilizations, made sportsmen warriors, became heroes in battle and we used our minds and our imagination to create theme parks that started with a cartoon character. 

Throughout all of this, we have also tackled areas of physical fitness that have stood the test of time. From weightlifting to yoga, bodyweight conditioning, sports training and bodybuilding. All of these have turned men and women into athletic specimens. Now granted some areas of fitness have been lost or have changed gears due to decades of practice, trial and error and the formation of scientific inquiries and studies, we still use creativity to utilize what has been done and make it greater or more interesting.

Primal Training isn't a new concept, it's been around a while but in recent years, we have taken movements based on Animals & Gymnastics to create formulas of incredible athleticism and conditioning programming. From MMA Fighters to everyday Joe's, doing Primal Movements is a powerful idea that shows amazing creativity. The Flow, the Sequences, the coordination and the strength & agility is just phenomenal to watch. Once you understand the movements and practice the transitions, you can come up with some crazy athletic moves that are just phenomenal. Sticking to the basics is key, but never underestimate the power of imagination and creating your own style to create your reality.

Some movements are not for everyone especially those who have severe injuries but the majority can do some awesome stuff with the right tools to cater to their individual needs. It's that evolutionary need to move the way we were meant to and conquer our own selves in order to become the best version of our selves. Move like you were a young kid, become Athletic using building blocks that help reduce injuries and develop that Warrior from within to become the best YOU. Training can be fun and exciting the way it should be and learn things about yourself through physical movement that showcases what the human body is capable of. 

Turn your imagination into reality and get creative in your fitness endeavors. Don't ever let yourself get bored and do kick ass workouts that keeps you strong and healthy well into your golden years. Feel the fire in your veins whether you're 25 or 75 and bring something to life that makes you feel like you can do anything. Be strong, move with vim and vigor and be amazingly awesome.

Is Sledgehammer Training A Key To Youthfulness?

The simplest things tend to be the most overlooked or the most underrated because it's not shiny or extraordinary but yet when they happen, the simple things become incredible to do. We're always looking for that fountain of youth and finding ways to feel and look younger, have energy like we did as a teenager or be able to recover quick. One of the simplest forms of training is using a sledgehammer.

In most cases, working with a hammer is about as old school as you can get. The swing, the thrust and the smashing is all taken back to the days of hard labor, men like Lawrence Farman whom made his living smashing up rock and stone, fighters that smash a tire in order to develop their explosiveness and conditioning, boxers like the late Earnie Shavers used Sledge Training & Wood Chopping in order to develop his punching power which he said himself increased as much as 25%; Muhammad Ali himself had said Shavers had one of the hardest punches he ever faced. 

A great perk of Sledge Training is the maintaining or increasing testosterone naturally. Chopping Wood has been known to give us guys that feeling of manhood and being able to last in the bedroom, now think of a sledgehammer. That surge of power, hormones coursing through your blood and having strength that could kill. It's that feeling like you're a god among men. Youthfulness can have many factors such as testosterone, looking rugged, energy that lasts and being almost injury-proof. Sledge Work can be back breaking but there is a progression in the recreational style and reduce injuries along with keeping the back and spine healthy. 

Another perk is the development of your grip. Working with even a 25 lb sledge over the course of a workout will tax your grip like a motherfucker. You don't have to squeeze the handle as hard as an Ironmind Gripper but you do need to grip hard enough to control the hammer as you're training. Over time, that grip strength can carryover to other things and somebody will feel it when you shake hands with them. The heavier the hammer, the stronger your grip has to be and your body is in control because one wrong move and you can really hurt your yourself. 

Most of the average Sledge Strikers work with hammers ranging from 10-25 lbs. This isn't a knock to anyone and even those weights can turn someone into a machine. Some of us like to go a little higher and testing our strength mainly to see what our bodies are capable of. So far my highest weight and repping it is around 73 lbs. Guys like Nick Nilsson (The Mad Scientist) aren't even human and has repped out a 100 lb hammer and he's roughly 10-15 lbs lighter than me. Bud Jeffries had done 1000 rep workouts with a 40 lb. hammer and we all know the type of strength and conditioning that beast of a man had. Doing reps with a really heavy hammer is a whole other ball game and the amount of power you generate from it, just gives off incredible production of strength.

With lighter hammers, you can go for quite a while and still get incredible results. This is a great training tool to really pack on some muscle and get in cardio shape at the same time. Be strong, slam hard and be amazingly awesome. 

Should You Count Your Steps Or Reps In Animal Workouts?

During workouts, we utilize a set/rep scheme to determine our fitness levels whether for strength, conditioning, endurance or how much we can handle during a certain set. In most circles, this can be good to figure out where you are and how you progress but sometimes, reps don't really seem to matter because the main focus is improving your technique, utilizing tension or using timed sets. Red Delta Project emphasizes those three methods together to help you get the most out of a workout.

When it comes to Animal Workouts, most of the time, rep counts don't really matter but more how long can you last before you start breathing hard. In many cases, a few seconds is all it takes. When I play my Animal Dice Game, it consists of using a step method to count how many times you move throughout an exercise. It can be used as a rep count as well but you don't always have to keep a record of how many steps or reps you do during rounds. In some workouts, you can time it and just play around until the time is up or you can just go until you can't move anymore; either one will get you results fast. 

For a period or ever so often, I do keep a record of how many steps/reps I do in a workout especially if the amount is doubled per animal. I kept a record for a month to see how many I can do and during that month, I recorded over 10,000 Steps/Reps of Animal Exercises. The most I ever recorded in a day was around 2000. Consider that some of those rounds have you doing up to a hundred reps or more depending on if you multiply the dice and you keep going. The highest multiplier I did during certain workouts was around 5 times of what the round called for, so if let's say I rolled a 20 for the bear crawl, I would have to take 100 steps and they can be either fast paced or just "walking" it for that amount. In most workouts, I don't do more than doubled the amount which can still kick your ass in less than a few minutes.

Considering that you don't count your reps and do timed rounds for different animals, you can still end up doing up to several hundred to a thousand or more in a workout. That can be brutal but effective training and developing levels of strength and conditioning that would just astound people. When it comes to the ADG, you never know when you'll start to fatigue, it can happen in one round or 30, you never know. I'll always say that's the beauty of it, no workout is ever the same twice and you never know what you'll have to prepare for cause it can be a breeze one minute and stupid exhausting the next. The bear crawl is considered the foundation for Animal Movements and the easiest to start with; with that in mind, if you had to do even 20 steps of the bear crawl, the next one could be 20 Frog Jumps and you can wear out your legs and be huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf needing oxygen after trying to blow the brickhouse down. 

The thing to remember with this specific Animal Workout is that the more times you multiply the amount per animal, the less rounds you'll end up doing. In one sense if you just did the regular numbers and went for 15-25 rounds or rolls, doubling the amount can take you down to less than 10 and you'll be done. Doing multiple rounds or rolls with a 5 times multiplier can be considered a superhuman feat but until you actually do it, you'll never understand the feeling of it. 

One of the perks of the ADG is that you can do this with a partner and do all sorts of games like Tag, Medley, how many yards you can go for and so on. If you're playing tag, roll for an animal and whatever comes up, both parties have to do that animal. If you're doing distance like a race, roll for an animal, next roll is how long the distance is and it can be feet, yards and if you're insane, go for kilometers. Imagine the amount of reps/steps you take with those kind of games. If you were to do these games for a week, the numbers can rack up in the tens of thousands possibly, talk about being in shape or getting in shape pretty damn quick. 

So with that in mind, should you really be counting? IMO, that's up to you but it's also not entirely necessary unless you have a specific goal in mind like doing 5000 Reps in let's say ten days or you want to average out a certain amount per workout. Regardless of what you do, with consistent training using animal movements, results will come fast and you'll develop skills and other attributes that other methods are obsolete to. Get strong, be wild and be amazingly awesome.