Building Eagle Claws

Building strength in the fingers, hands, wrists and the entire lower arm can make you or break you in a workout or anything you need your hands for. We need our hands to build things and create things so is it essential to build a level of strength, flexibility and dexterity that helps us in our everyday lives? I believe so. There are many ways to build a solid steel grip but there are other ways to keep the tendons strong and durable no matter what you do.

 The lower arm area all the way down to the fingertips is the most neglected parts of the human body in exercise. You won’t get by much with just wrist curls and a few isolated circular movements; you are learning to build that area by squeezing, flexing, extending, push, pull and working the individual fingers. It is important to master all these factors because if you don’t have strong hands, you won’t be able to pick up a weight no matter how big your arms it’s not going to happen. What if you need to fix something with a wrench or screwdriver and don’t have the hand strength to twist and turn, that would suck and if you work using those types of tools you won’t be at your job for long.

 When I talk about building eagle claws, I’m not just referring to training the entire lower arm to claw somebody in a fight or having great strength to do amazing things, I’m referring to creating great strength, flexibility and dexterity no matter what you want to do with your life. It doesn't matter if you’re a musician, athlete, entertainer, carpenter, construction worker or landscape artist, you will have great attributes if you gave yourself the chance to learn. How about curing Carpal Tunnel and never needing to wear a brace ever again, be less prone to injury and be able to heal quicker with exercises that work the entire region and not just that area but the shoulders, the arms and the trapezoids.

 One of the best conditioning programs ever assembled is the use of Animal Exercises. You can learn how to move like an animal in the wild and teach your body to burn fat, build muscle, increase the strength in your organs, tendons, muscles and so much more for only a few minutes a day. Now how about amplifying those exercises once you have mastered them, begin to do some on your fingertips, this type of training alone can build crazy strength in your lower arm in ways you can never get from machines. Having a solid steel grip and power in your lower arm can help increase your strength in other areas, it’ll help you pick up weights better, and it’ll help your grappling game much more efficient and if you’re into Arm Wrestling, look out because you’ll be ripping those guys up in no time.

 Getting started is like everything else, begin where you’re at and progress from there, work certain exercises that keep the blood flowing and ready to go. Spread exercises throughout the day so you can keep that energy flowing and use certain tools to help the grip. One of the coolest tools I like for building grip strength is called Fat Gripz, these babies will take thick bar training to a whole new level and you can attach them to just about any dumbbell or barbell but if you’re a bodyweight guy, you can attach them to your pull-up bar to increase the difficulty. I use these for building strength and endurance in Arm Wrestling using my lifeline Chest Expander. Progress is a very important factor because once something becomes easy; you want to continue to challenge yourself so you increase the difficulty by a small percentage. Even Rock Climbers have to progress otherwise if they jump in too soon, they’ll fall off much quicker and that can mean certain death so it’s important to build progression.

 No matter how you slice, strong hands equals a strong body because when you have the strength to pick up really heavy weight or be able to twist off certain objects with a wrench or even pick up groceries for that matter, your hands are the tools that open doors to everything you pretty much do. Even doing certain Feats Of Strength requires strong hands, you can build as much strength as you want in every other area in your body but if you’re hands aren't up to par, you’re pretty much done. Complete the whole package by training as many areas as possible including your lower arm, you’ll be amazed how weak or strong your hands are certain situations so my suggestion is make those hands work for you and build a foundation to have the strongest and most functional hands as possible.     

The Difference Between Believing & Not Believing

 There are a lot of skeptics out there who don’t believe in certain ideals or they do believe in certain things but it’s by tradition and rules when in reality they don’t have the slightest notion of how to be open minded. For those wondering, when I speak of this article, I’m talking about fitness and health not religion or politics, that’s way out of my league and have my own views of what they are. Back to the task at hand, many skeptics are the ones with their guard up and never want to take it down and that’s not a good thing because they miss out on many things that they can work on.

 One of the best quotes I've learned since I was 13 was “For those who do believe you don’t need an explanation, for those who don’t believe no explanation will do.” Want to know where I learned that from? Believe it or not a pro wrestler named Jeff Jarret on the Unreal Story Of Professional Wrestling, talk about weird. A lot of people sometimes including myself feel like we need to explain our beliefs and what they’re all about but in the end, people need to figure it out for themselves. Its one thing to throw something at a skeptic but it’s a different ball game on how they figure it out themselves.

 One of my biggest peeves is people who do believe in something but only because they listened to someone’s word and not use common sense or research. The traditional belief in fitness is do a half hour of cardio and an hour of weights to get strong, eat less to lose weight, do push-ups for warm up and do bench presses to get a big chest and my all-time favorite, bodyweight exercises are only good for endurance once you reach a certain number of reps and than you don’t build strength. I’m sorry but tradition has never really been my style and going on someone’s word is just (excuse my language) bullshit. If I want to believe in something I’m going to try certain things out, do a little research and experiment a little to see what works and what doesn't.

 For you skeptics out there, drop your guard a little, not all the way but a little and try certain things, you never what you’ll get out of it. I know what it’s like to be a skeptic, I've been there many times before and still a skeptic to certain things but with a purpose and not just because someone says something and that’s it. Opening your mind is like opening a new door to a world you never seen before. To give you an example, I was skeptical about being athletic and agile as a big man, these guys told me try gymnastics and try hand balancing and all these different things but I was just so guarded about who I was that I can’t do all this stuff but the moment I dropped my guard just a little, I opened up a whole new door and kept an open mind and gave a shot at few things I felt I could do but get better at and low and behold, I got stronger, more flexible, more agile and more durable than ever before and never looked back since. Dropping your guard a little can be a big impact on how you do things. It’s up to you to do it, no one can really do it for you.

 To me the true meaning of believing is not by someone’s word and just believe because they said so but believe in your heart that it works for you and you've done some things to find that belief. A true believer is someone who wants to find what he’s looking for and believes in oneself and not from this or that, he/she believes this does work and it does give me something to do. Fitness wise, you can be a sheep and follow everyone’s word or you actually do something about it and find your own belief and create something out of the norm and make it your own tradition. Like before you don’t need an explanation as a believer, it’s there it works, you understand it from all angles and you learned how it works for you. Believe in yourself and trust it. It took me many years to figure that out but and I’m still learning a thing or two but it’s a journey and that I believe will go a long way to make me better at what I do and so can you. 

A New Age Of Vampires

 In the old books of the Creature Of The Night, we have romanticized it’s characteristics, it’s strengths, weaknesses, it’s funny side and even it’s very much larger darker side but let’s not forget how we as a culture come to love and hate vampires. We all know the tales of blood, immortality, fear and the biggest name of them all Dracula. What if we took these old tales and turned them into something that is what we crave for centuries; a longer life, having super human strength & speed and the ability to have a high dose of great emotional power.

 Certain vampires you’ve seen in the movies and comics are different and either funny as hell or as dark as you can get. From Boris Koloff to Edward Pattinson, we have loved and loathed the idea of what it is to be a Vampire. Personally I prefer the Warriors of vampirism such as Blade and Kate Beckinsale’s character in the Underworld saga but this generation prefers the Twilight and True Blood types. We all have our likes and dislikes to Vampires but the truth of the matter is, we can use those capacities to become a stronger and healthier human being. We can become a much stronger human with the right tools and resources and not resort to taking shortcuts and making ourselves weaker as we age. Sure we won’t have the unlimited power of age compared to a Vampire but we can use methods to live longer, be stronger and have vitality beyond the average human.

 When I talk about Vampires I’m not talking about dressing up in gothic crazy costumes or having night clubs devoted to a cult, that’s for children and demented overzealous freak shows; what I’am talking about however is the ability to look outside the box and look to ways in the fitness world where knowledge for strength, speed, energy, flexibility and building a body that you can be proud helps bring life to what you want out of it. Does that make a freak in some way? Hell yes it does and I’m proud of it and I love being to learn how to keep my life the way I want it to be and move forward with it.

 Vampires have strength and energy beyond our own imaginations so how do we apply that notion for ourselves. We certainly do not need to suck someone’s blood for a life continuing capacity but we can keep our bodies fresh and ready to go by using small effective exercises and build our hormones naturally so we can look younger and have the strength of a wild animal. It’s something we can look at from a different perspective as a nation that has become accustomed to the growing disease of obesity. Being unhealthy isn’t a good thing no matter how you slice it, it eats your life away and you are just sucking energy just to even get off the couch and that’s sad.

 Do you want to have a life where you can energy that can go on for hours on end, have the strength to help others and what about being able to move pain-free and not have aching backs and busted knees? You can create the life you want, all you got to do is take one step in the beginning to start and build yourself up whether physically, mentally or emotionally, if you don’t move, you’re stuck in the same place. Remember that.

 The ability to move with grace, power and super human speed takes practice but at the same time, practicing with mindful intentions creates an even bigger place of building great strength and power in ways you can’t imagine unless you've experienced it. Certain things don’t just happen overnight, most people can’t get the concept of that because they want more than what’s already been given to them and than they want more than that. It takes time and patience. Think of a Vampire who has lived for a couple hundred years, don’t you think he’s learned patience and in that period of time? I’d like to think so in some cases, if he/she can live that long I believe you don’t have an excuse for something you wish to have at this very moment. It’s like saving money, you put a little in your account every now and then and before you know it, you have quite a bit of money built up, same thing with building a body and creating strength and agility, takes time and before you know it you’re far stronger and more energetic than when you started.

 Unlike a Vampire, you don’t need a thirst for blood, you should however learn to have a thirst for exercise, not to the point like a crack addict but using it to keep your energy levels up for things you need to do throughout the day like your job, taking care of kids, being energetic at a gathering, in the office writing up reports or delivering mail. It’s all about consistent action and reminding yourself that you don’t need a gym or a trainer to get you awesome shape, you can learn to do it yourself and save your money for the things you need in life. The only person that makes your life complicated is you and you can either keep running with the flow, or you can make something of yourself and be happier, live longer, have great strength and be able to handle things even your friends couldn’t do. Make it happen and learn from the Vampires. They’re not as messed up or dark as you might think.

TV Will Never Be The Same To You Again

Television is a window to the world and it has its blessings and its bad habits. There are movies, shows, infomercials, sports, news ect. With all this information, why can’t people realize that watching TV can be one of the best reasons to get in awesome shape? Most never see it as an opportunity to develop strength and health, not saying you should spend all day at the TV, in reality you should avoid as much of it as possible. To be honest, I haven’t watched a single show that had commercials or changed the channel in over a month and a half, I watch Movies.

 If you’re a fan of TV and want to watch something either by yourself or with family & friends, you should make an effort to do some exercises. Most shows have commercials and we all know how annoying they can be with ads that don’t really have any real morals for other people, so why not put that into an exercise program. When your show has taken a break and gone to the commercials, use it as a reminder to exercise. Do Push-ups, Squats, Sit-ups and Isometrics whatever you can do until your show came back on.

 Most commercials are pretty stupid and those god awful meds ads. I guess stupidity runs in advertisement, the only thing that commercials are good for are movies and those funny Super Bowl ads other than that you’re better off doing something to pass the time. One of the most famous athletes in the world Herschel Walker performed hundreds of push-ups and sit-ups while he watched TV and exercised during the commercials. There’s a lesson there that we all should learn.

 Would it be nice to enjoy your favorite show and get a workout in at the same time? I believe it be pretty freaking sweet if you ask me. Exercise done right gives you energy and that extra spring in your step. Sitting on your ass the entire time isn't always the wisest choice as you can burn calories faster and amp up your energy when you have time to do a few exercises for like what 30 seconds, that seems good don’t you think? Give yourself something to do while you watch TV instead of just sitting around looking like you just came back from a marathon. When a commercial comes on, do a few push-ups, the next do squats or hold a certain position. Make it work for you.

In 30 Minutes Or Less

 Hate to disappoint you people but the title does not mean I’m talking about ordering a pizza. I love pizza as much as the next guy but this is something more important than food. This is about learning to exercise with the little time you have as possible. Training for 30 minutes isn’t always about cardio training or doing one 30 minute workout, why not spread those 30 minutes throughout the day.

 One of the most powerful exercises you can do is Isometrics, more so what some people call Power Postures, meaning holding various positions at odd angles. Think of some of the Yoga Postures like the Downward facing dog or what we call the Hindu Push-up, just holding for time in the three positions can build internal power like you wouldn’t believe. How about holding a horse stance like the Shaolin Monks do, that builds some serious leg strength. These two examples can be used as a foundation to build your body from the inside out.

 Ever watch TV? Of course you do, you have a favorite show or movie you like to watch and take hold of the drama or one-liners that unfold, than the dumbass commercials come on and nobody likes those right except the trailers for upcoming movies. Why not use that time to get in some exercise, remind yourself to exercise a little bit, do a few push-ups or squats during the commercials, hold your leg(s) up in your chair for a few seconds, do jumping jacks, these are all things you can work on while the commercials are going and when your show comes on, take a break. Continue this until your show is over and there you go, you just did a workout within a 30 minute period.

 Stop thinking you need to do an hour of this or an hour of that, you don’t have a lot of time. When you wake up in the morning do a few stretches for about 15 minutes to get your day started, you’re at a red light in your car, while you wait push/pull and/or squeeze your steering wheel, and you can get in great shape no matter where you go. The people who tell you have to do cardio and an hour of weights to get in shape are the ones who are stealing everyone’s money and think they have full on expertise on what is good or bad for you in exercise. The less time you can workout, the more you can actually gain, not just physically but mentally and emotionally because you can have more time to do the things you have going on in your life. It’s all about making little effort that can turn into big impacts in a productive way.

 Don’t ever feel you have to go to a gym and use a cardio machine because someone told you to because it gets you in great shape and listen to your iPod or watch TV while on the treadmill, ask them to do 500 Hindu Squats and so how long they last, bet you a few bucks most likely he won’t be able to do it and he’ll be so out of breath he’s going to feel like dying. Real cardio won’t have to be 30 minutes, if you really learned it, it doesn’t need to be more than 15 at best. Cardio is a term that exercising to keep the heart rate at levels that burn fat and build muscle, most cardio methods only diminish muscle and yes you’re burning fat but not the way you really want it too. Doing a few squats for several minutes gets your heart rate up real quick and maximizes fat burning levels faster than anything else with the exception of sprinting which you only need to do for a few seconds at a time. Build your way up and make the best of the exercise time you have and believe me, it’s better to do exercise for a few minutes and feel awesome than doing exercise for a long, long time and feel like crap afterwards.

Maximize Your Strength & Conditioning In Short Time

 To get the biggest benefits in your strive for strength and conditioning, you learn to maximize your efforts with the best intentions. This doesn’t mean you go hardcore everyday, you want to have great recovery as well, maximum effort doesn’t mean going the hardest or the fastest, it means putting in the effort to where you're efficient and consistent with your exercise and your recovery. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the gym, at home, at a park or on the road, building effort with great intention become your greatest asset.

 Now a lot of trainers don’t always start out with giving their “pupil” a foundation and just throw them to the wolves and hope they make it out alive meaning they just have go all out all the time and believe it or not that can lead to injury, complications to your organs, brain trauma and too much too soon. The number one rule for starting out no matter what you want to do is build a foundation. This helps find where you’re at and where you want to keep going. I understand what it’s like to jump in and just hammer it out and expect results in two days or less, that’s the arrogant thinking, the key is patience. Set goals to improving, this is called Progression, it’s like Math, you don’t jump to calculus on the first day, you learn arithmetic, than multiplication, than division and so on and so forth.

 A great way to understand your goals to maximize your workouts is to learn to harness the power within yourself. From the mind to your organs to the outer body, using your power source from within will tell you to stay strong or keep off. Whether it’s Deep Breathing or learning to control your adrenalin, inner power is much stronger than your outer appearance.

 Cardio is an overrated form of conditioning that not too many people quite keep up the aspects of what they really know. If you’re running on a treadmill for 45 minutes, you’re working your body but at the same time, you’re diminishing your real lung power. Not saying cardio is bad but in my opinion, if you’re training hard and you’re out of breath after a couple minutes hell even a few seconds, chances are you’re building much stronger lungs than you would running for quite a bit. Anaerobic exercise makes you far stronger in the shortest amount of time than aerobic exercise because the difference is one gets you out of breath and the other keeps your breath going. Both are good but rarely anyone uses both when mostly they use one or the other. Using both in different workouts makes you a machine.

 To maximize your workouts, you work as many muscles as possible at one particular time. Basic principles train the muscles at their peak levels and the basic exercises are Sprinting, Presses, Pulls, Squats and Grip all of which give you the foundation to build levels of strength and conditioning you never imagined having and all work multiple muscle groups. Isolated exercises don’t have the luxury of making you very strong, you’ll only get strong in one particular area and neglect everything else. It’s like a kick ass looking salad, you don’t just put lettuce here, tomatoes there no you put croutons, beets, lettuce tomatoes, carrots, nuts and dressing so it’s all mixed and matched TOGETHER!!!

 Don’t just throw all your eggs in one basket meaning in this case don’t just put all your effort into one workout and you’re don’t for the day, spread your exercises around so your energy levels are always there and when you have that big workout, do it with a vengeance and after, rest and cool off. Again your day is not done yet and there are people out there who don’t have that amount of time to do one big workout, if they can go for it but for those who have very little time, could spread out their exercises throughout the day so they can have that sense of accomplishment. Make the effort to exercise as best as you can no matter where you are.

 To get great benefit, you need tools to help you along the way. If you got weights, do them when you have the time, stuck at a red light in your car, do isometrics by pushing and pulling on the steering wheel, got a ton of room to train, move around like a wild animal, only have a short amount of space, do push-ups and/or squats. These are all things you can do to help you keep in mind that exercise is key to keeping a long and healthy life and you make the effort to do something. There is 24hrs in a day, use the free time you have whether it’s a couple minutes or whatever and do something, you don’t have to do much to get a ton of benefit.

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.