Isometrics And Quarantine Part II

Calisthenics are essential to developing real world conditioning for sure but there are certain things or areas they don't hit and that's where Isometrics come in. I bet by now you've got Cabin Fever and if you're stuck with the kids, thank the universe you haven't gone completely insane. Isometric Exercise hits the little spots that other methods don't and for strength, it can come in handy.

With the Isometric Power Belt I have and the Wooden Dowel I use, I've been coming up with all sorts of different Isometrics to work with since Calisthenics and Animal Moves have burned me out lately, I'm just trying to keep things flowing by doing different things, test out different angles, strengthening areas that needed some work and develop better definition while still being a big guy.

It does suck that grown ass people are in a subtle way forced to stay home unless you're an ESSENTIAL EMPLOYEE and can barely make ends meet as it is at times. Yes staying home is better safe than getting sick but what most don't get especially fucked up politicians is that not everyone is meant to stay at home and if there's abuse at home, you're basically adding gasoline on engulfed flames. It's basically like locking a beast in a cage and you're aiding that animal-like instinct to where if it's not treated, someone will fucking lose it.

I want to help as much as I can, even if it's helping someone have a light bulb go on in their head and they get a cool idea to exercise. There are plenty of assholes out there who want to cash in on "Quarantine Workouts" but if you look hard enough, there's plenty of people who want to help and they don't charge a dime. Plenty of youtube videos of various workouts you can do, people like Melody Schoenfeld, Kristen Tulloch, Bud Jeffries and others that share workouts during this tough time and make it a mission to make sure you don't only stick to your goals but you'll have a blast doing it too because they make them interesting and throw in some humor because in these dark times, they are the light at the end of the tunnel.

Let's get back to Isometrics shall we. Because you don't have any movement, you have virtually limitless exercises to choose from especially in the house; you can use your kitchen table, your doorways, the walls, a dowel, a towel, the doors themselves, your bed, your pillows, your couch, a chair, the stairs, I can go on and on but I think you get the point. Exercise doesn't always involve the gym, it doesn't always involve being outside and you can come up with all the excuses you want but just by sitting and running off the excuses, you could've done more than 10 exercises in the process. Isometrics can be done by practically anyone at any age, the simplest Isometrics would be to just stand there for 5 minutes or hold a push-up in a variety of ways.

Being stuck in the house sucks, we all know that but it doesn't mean we can't make the best of what we have at the moment. Just as an experiment, for 5 minutes, do some Isometrics while you're sitting on the couch like holding your legs straight out for up to 10 seconds, press your hands together in a prayer-like fashion, flex every muscle in your body for 7 seconds, hold bicep curl positions, make a fist and squeeze as hard as you can for a few seconds, press your feet into the ground as if you can go through it, make your hands like claws and squeeze your fingers as if gripping flesh like a Tiger. You have just been given a free workout that doesn't take a ton of time and gets your blood flowing.

Be safe, take care of one another, do everything you can to not lose your shit and get fit without ever having to move a muscle.

STICK To Isometrics

Do you remember as a kid playing with a stick and pretending its a gun, a baseball bat, a lever, a sword, a paton, an oar or whatever your imagination conjured up? Was it fun, exciting and full of creative ways to play or practice an art? What if you could do that again but add in fitness to it, better yet, Isometrics?

Being creative is part of the fun when exercising. I'm talking about the kind of creativity that keeps you interested, makes you fit with long term abilities and strengthen the body without ever moving. Since we're in quarantine, might as well make the best of it right? What if you could strengthen not just the muscles, but your tendons and ligaments just by doing Isometrics with a stick by creating exercises based on only your imagination. Be able to strengthen the swing of a bat, be faster with a sword, quicker reflexes with a hockey stick or if you're a sadist, have crazy strength in your submission game in MMA/Catch Wrestling.

Yesterday, I made up a video of doing Isometrics with a stick from various angles where you're pushing, pulling, gripping, squatting and even squeezing using leverage. From sword play to a submission hold to pulling, bending, angling, holding the squat and more in less than than a couple minutes. Just an idea of developing world class strength without moving a damn muscle. One Isometric that I loved doing in this video was practicing the Catch Wrestling submission, the Double Wrist Lock or the Kimura for BJJ guys. This isometric can make your forearms feel like crazy strong pipes when you apply the hold; the hardening of the bones will make an opponent want to scream bloody murder. I learned this Isometric from Don Powers' book Catch Wrestling For Cops. Just this exercise alone can possibly tear an opponent's arm and put them in the hospital.

Isometrics go beyond just exercise and getting stronger. It's putting in work that can enhance your physical abilities and possibly reduce osteoporosis and reduce injury. A lot of injuries tend to be more on the tendons and ligaments, muscles heal much faster than a torn ligament. Old school Karate and Kung Fu masters did similar Isometric exercises to hardened the bones of their elbows, shins, wrists, fists and ankles. Although small, these guys were freakishly strong and deadly (Bruce Lee anybody?) and if they hit you, it could be fatal. In MMA or in other sports, not only Isometrics reduce injury but create an insane amount of durability and longevity that can aid a team or in a fight and if you happen to get into one on the streets, it can come in handy.

Muscles can only do so much and since so many people focus on the muscles, they forget that an overload wears down the tendons and ligaments so you're having a greater chance of tearing something and having to rehab for a fucking insane amount of time. After my accident, I was determined to be the strongest I can be without always resorting to or relying on the weights, so when I started practicing Isometrics along with the bodyweight exercises, my injury rate as opposed to when I was in high school and going to the gym went down incredibly and only got injured maybe once or twice but never anything severe.

A stick to some people is just a stick, to me and others with an incredible imagination, it's lifesaving and makes us stupid strong for the things we do in our lives. Get a hold of a stick and see what Isometrics you can come up with.

Can You Stand It?

Throughout the chaos of the Coronavirus, it is important to still stay calm as possible because when you get frustrated, angry and/or sad, people can sense it around you whether it's through body language or the way the energy is felt. As an empath, I understand how mental and emotional energy can be felt on another person and it can be draining. Let me ask you this....Have you ever walked into a room or walked by someone and something just felt off? It may not be the room or the person themselves but the energy or that feeling you get when something just isn't right. Some people are empaths, some aren't and others can be very intuitive while others don't know what the hell their sensing.

One of my biggest focuses lately is through meditation in various ways. The last few days I've done the Wu Ji Standing Posture for up to 20 minutes at a time, sometimes with my eyes open, sometimes with my eyes closed but all in all it just looks like i'm standing there. Things aren't always what they seem, you see just standing in a posture becomes more than what others see. It's like a restart for your body that creates internal energy from within and commanding the body to relax and let things sink. Now that doesn't mean you become so loose there's no strength, with the right mindset and the way your posture is, you're gaining strength from another point of view and energizing your system through breathing, mental imagery, relaxing the muscles and letting everything be.

It takes a lot of patience and coming from someone who has a form of ADD, it becomes a mental game more than anything. Can you stand still for 20 minutes? It's not easy lol, but if you allow yourself to program your mind, take command of your body and empty the garbage can of your brain of thoughts and fears, things will start to unravel. It's like feeling the Force or the universe speaking to you and teaching you things about yourself. That's within the deep levels of meditation and although I have felt things and learned some things, it still needs practice and haven't hit seafloor deep yet but still deep.

Meditation through this time is a hell of a way to keep yourself focused, recover mentally and physically, enhance your breathing capacity and feel more collected and staying cool. Recovery is just as important as physical training and one cannot exist without the other, if you do nothing but physical things, when will you rest or give yourself a break but if you just meditate and do nothing physical, your body won't function the way it needs to. Some need more physical activity than others and some need more time to recover. There should always be a balance. If one is thrown off, the other has to pick up the slack.

Some of the things I've experienced in my meditations whether they were standing or sitting have been somewhat of a wake up call. Without actually trying, I have seen myself in my mind wrestling (or doing the style of Catch As Catch Can) the relaxed version of myself and the tense and anxious version of myself and it was a battle, non stop fight and trying to break one another. Watching that in my mind was an experience. Other things were like a voice telling me flat out my addictions and causes of my anxiety and telling me how to handle them. It wasn't screaming or anything like that but it came at me head on with no filter and gave me something to reflect on. I wasn't mad or frustrated, I just listened and felt the energy I was feeling and accepting what was and not resisting what was going on.

Most of the time, the biggest fear we have is ourselves and not accepting who we are and resisting help even from within. Right now, we are living in constant fear, anxiety, worry, desperation and letting the outside world dictate our way of being. Yes it sucks that businesses are closing down and the only things standing is the Essential Employees and the news is telling us one thing after another about the research, the symptoms, the methods of treatment, being told to stay home, it really does fucking suck but a lot of the things that are happening are not within our control and we want to think we are. We can only control so many things and a couple of them is controlling our emotions and our reactions. We can't help that a business can't use its employees, it's not our fault that this virus popped up and it sure as hell isn't a child's fault he/she can't be in school because of the fear and super cautious people keep them from having an education.

The biggest things we can do right now is make this as positive as possible like meditating, making a person smile when it's been hard, donate to a charity, hugging and loving our loved ones, read a fun book, watch a favorite movie, buy what we need and get the fuck back home lol, there are some things we can control but it is up to us to do what is possible. One of the biggest problems we have is acceptance, we have trouble accepting the fact that this won't last forever, accepting the fact that kids being home is the safest thing even though they can be annoying and extremely patience-testing and accepting that working from home is a far better option than not working at all and not being able to afford the needs for your family or just yourself.

Practice meditation, learn to accept what is and what will be, take care of yourselves and each other and for the love of the god damn universe, laugh it up and smile when the opportunity arises. Can you stand it?

Having Cabin Fever Can Be A Struggle

It's getting worse before it's getting better with this fucked up Coronavirus thing. Being basically told to stay home while trying to live a regular life. Not being able to stand more than 6ft away from somebody or even shake a hand when making a new friend, physical contact has become scarce because of the potential of getting sick. It's almost becoming like a futuristic version of Demolition Man where you can't even high five somebody and physical contact is basically against the law.

Even with working from home, I get Cabin Fever myself and I will admit, it has gotten the best of me at times. The frustration, the inability to go out where you'd like to go, not be able to even eat at a decent restaurant because of the shutdowns, not being able to go to a freaking library or the movies, for real going to a movie now is nearly considered dangerous. If you have kids at home from schools being shut down, that's got to be a total pain in the ass and you have y sympathy, luckily I'm glad that kids are at least safe and some parents love having their kids around but that still takes a patience that tests that sanity. One of my sisters has three boys at home (10, 4 and a 17 year old stepson) and I wish I could help her out, my other sister has a 17 year old High School senior doing school on a laptop and having a teenager quarantined with you can't be easy.

Although we are "saving lives" and practicing Social Distancing during these hard times, it can't be good when a newborn is coming into the world in this state and possibly growing up not knowing what a freaking hug feels like. I know this virus won't last forever and maybe some kids will experience unconditional love through physical contact but that's the way the human race is these days. I'll admit, as a person who is a hugger and loves to shake hands and high five people, it's driving me nuts. My wife calls my way of being with people a Love Language because yes I do like to hug people and if some aren't like that than I tone it down but I care about people and comforting them whether they're happy or sad or whatever, that's the compassionate side of me which only those who are around me understand. When you're barely allowed to do that, it tears you up and breaks your heart.

I firmly respect boundaries and I get it that there's an epidemic that is potentially fatal but come on now, some form of physical contact is a stress reliever and aids in those who suffer from depression and anxiety. I don't have severe depression thank god but I know what it's like to have high anxiety and have empathy so I feel for those who could use a hug and a smile to brighten their day. When you start taking away a natural stress reliever and a person's right to share unconditional love because of fear, you're aiding gasoline on the fire on the notion that because of how bad it's gotten, people are being conditioned to stay away from each other. It's one thing to understand safety and learn how to keep yourself healthy but the coronavirus isn't within every square inch of somebody and out of over 7 billion people in the world not even 1% have gotten it. 

Be safe and healthy, share some love with someone even if you can't even hug them at the moment. If you go out, protect yourself but don't go to extremes and for the love of the damn universe, thank a store clerk, a nurse, a small business owner, a teacher, trucker and others that have to keep going out into the chaos to get a paycheck.

This may be too soon to do but for those who are stuck at home and need a little pick me up, turn your Cabin Fever from a negative to a positive and remember, this won't last forever.

Building Powerful Forearms Using Isometrics

Our lower arms and hands have built the tallest structures, crafted the most most beautiful yet devastating weapons, created some of the coolest cars on the planet and have also been a lifesaver whether it's holding onto somebody, made the difference in a fight, won or lost a game or literally saving someone from danger. We at times take our hands for granted and not realize that what can create, can also destroy in the blink of an eye.

One of my favorite sports has been Arm Wrestling and when I get an opportunity, I don't hesitate to take someone on. Maybe it's that thing about testosterone us guys have and an urge to test our strength. I have arm wrestled some pretty strong guys; took on three generations of men in my wife's family (two of them were loggers for many years and both are bigger than me), my friend and brother in strength Logan Christopher, big man named Travis who's 6'3 and around 250-260 at the time, and a friend of my dad's who's a practicing buddhist and weightlifter. It took me a lot of years to build the strength I have and a large part of it was due to Isometrics.

Although I have swung heavy hammers, torn phonebooks, bent short and long lengths of steel; Isometrics were a major key component to keep myself injury proof and strengthened my muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones. One of my favorite exercises that I haven't done in a while is Isometric Arm Wrestling and hitting angles that gave me incredible strength. In No Gi Grappling, it was hard for guys to armbar me and the extreme few that did, learned the sweet spot to get me but it was interesting the way they tried.

On a more serious note, it does take quite a bit of work to build the lower arms and strengthening the hand and wrists. Some solid movements are great especially if you're into things like Arm Wrestling but hitting different angles in an Isometric fashion can give you a incredible advantage where if you get caught up in a fight and you need that punching power or be able to squeeze your opponent in a choke hold and have that vice-like grip, that shit can save your life. If you're a member of law enforcement, the military or a firefighter, grip strength is an essential ingredient of being able to save someone's life or apprehending a suspect.

Using a thick handle for various exercises can build serious forearm and hand strength. I use to love doing pull-ups with the fat gripz or wrapping a thick towel around the bar, those were brutal. One exercise that really gave me the strength to rip thick phonebooks was actually trying to rip a phonebook that was completely wrapped in duct tape, I still have that book and was given to me by Logan Christopher. Because Isometrics were such a key asset to my training, they've helped me tackle weights I rarely ever touch but can still do like 60 lb db curls, 130 lb one arm db rows, picking up a 335 lb deadlift in the rack and still able to bench around 300.

It's amazing how some blue collar guys, old time farmers, arm wrestlers, football players and wrestlers have phenomenal grip strength even in their later years. One of the most fascinating to me is old time pro wrestler Danny Hodge whom had grip power that broke pliers, turned apples into mush by squeezing them and made opponents his bitch just by getting his hands on them. The best modern day grippers or men of hand strength are guys like Dennis Rogers, Bud Jeffries, Mark Henry, Chris Rider, Jedd Johnson and others. If you want to build stupid strong hands and steel cord like forearms, go with Isometrics.

Remember, what you can create, can also bring destruction, so train with intent and use that strength to help others when an opportunity arises.