Step Ups & Hindu Squats: A Leg Workout From Hell

I've written about my latest Deck Of Cards workout consisting of Step-Ups & Hindu Squats. This time, I actually filmed it in its entirety from start to finish with barely any rest other than than flipping the cards. It is literally a workout from hell that will have you sweating and breathing like a maniac. Some think I lie about my workouts especially one lame ass dude who talks everyone's ear off on his own channel while also trying to call me out or bash me to his cult-like email list using unoriginal high school trash talking as he "demos" his version of bodyweight training. That's pretty sad, petty and to be blunt very pathetic for a grown man to resort to that. Someone like that needs to seek professional help. Anyhow, this was something I have wanted to show for a while but was reluctant cause I didn't know if my camera would be able top hold out for the length I needed to do. Luckily, it worked and you can see for yourself that I did what I said I would do. 

That's the thing I learned later on in my fitness journey is that some guys are great at talking and demonstrating their craft, guys like Bud Jeffries, Matt Schifferle, Logan Christopher, Tyler Bramlett and bad ass ladies like the Scottish Super Woman Kirsten Tulloch and Ant Strong Rocker Melody Schoenfeld. I'm not one of those people and I learned that the hard way in my early days of filming workouts, feats and exercise demos. In the last number of years, I basically stopped talking all together and just went out there and did it. I let my physicality do the talking and yeah sure, I'm not perfect or flashy, I just run with it and if it's beneficial than I put it up. 

I rarely ever put up a full workout these days because for one, not everyone has the attention span to see workouts that last more than 5 minutes and two, I prefer to put up demos of various exercises so people can learn them and create workouts for themselves while I promote some of the best stuff out there. It's a better choice for me and it's gotten a lot of positive feedback. This workout however was special to me because I was already sore from the day before doing over 320 Hindu Squats. I haven't done that many in a while and just wanted to see what I could do, I felt it that's for fucking sure and also because it isn't some flashy and sparkly spectacle of cool moves and CrossFit style horror but simple and basic old school exercises that with enough length of time can be brutalized into some demonic, tough and physically demanding workout. 

The thing you'll notice about the video is that I don't really take a break other than to flip a card and do my best to keep my form as good as can be so I'm not bending over dying and ready to collapse. I keep going until that fucking deck is finished. By the end, I'm drenched in sweat, breathing like I just ran a marathon and raise my fists in victory. That's one of the things I learned from Matt Furey was after doing a workout with a deck, you celebrate and give thanks for a great workout and you accomplished something for yourself. It's hard and it's tough as hell but I'm grateful that I can do it and I'm happy that I can show you guys what I'm able to do cause the last thing I ever want to be called is a bullshitter and a liar, that makes it personal for me because anybody who truly knows me knows that not only am I the worst liar on the planet, I have no poker face and if I did lie, I would tell on myself faster than Clark Kent in a phone booth changing into Superman. Not only did I finish this workout, I did it in less than 30 minutes and never once felt like quitting. 

It's one of the toughest workouts I've ever put myself through and had no one to blame but myself if I failed. I love what this workout gives and the combination of unilateral movement with Squats is sure fire to kick your ass. Altogether I did 675 Total Reps (450 Step Ups & 225 Hindu Squats). It builds incredible muscular endurance, conditioning, long term strength and is a complete calorie burner. Want to know what it's like to have your lungs feel like they're on fire, see and hear for yourself. This can be done just about anywhere and the only equipment is a step stool and a deck of cards as your coach. If you can't do it at first, that's ok, do what's possible and build up from there. Once you get the hang of it, go as fast as you can without compromising your form or hurting yourself. I'm not even going complete Speedy Gonzales on this thing, I let the speed come naturally and be as smooth as possible. 

This will have you breathing heavy like crazy and there's no real way around that. You do the best you can to control your breathing but as you go along, keep as natural as possible. It's hard and it will test you especially the faster you go. It's intense and it'll feel like you're going to die but do what you can to get through it. Be mindful and progress to where yeah you're breathing like a maniac but your mind is strong and taking it one card at a time and not forcing yourself against the clock. Focus on the task on hand, not the clock or the random thoughts in your head, focus and utilize that 1000 mile stare. 

Take a shot at it if you're ambitious and see what's possible. Be strong, get some leg work in and keep being amazingly awesome. Here it is you guys, the full workout that delivers like an awesome pizza in 30 minutes or less. 

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Spartan Formula

BTW, here's a couple shots of my calf development that I took yesterday. Think they're coming in pretty good since I don't specialize in them.

Results Of Leg Training

I normally don't like showing off my legs when it comes to the results I've attained because of the accident and some areas seem off to me but overall from years of Squats, Step-Ups, Sprints, Animal Walks, Isometrics and other things, I think I've developed some decent legs with some muscularity. Not shredded by any means and I wouldn't call myself Quadzilla or anything like that. These legs have been through a lot and have kept myself in really good condition for the most part.

For a long time, I have always believed in keeping the legs strong, durable and having that workhorse mentality of doing what was possible yet still have gas left in the tank. Stumbled a time or two and have gotten my ass kicked on a few occasions especially on the mat doing BJJ but never thought about not doing some kind of leg training almost daily. Numbers have come and gone, workouts change, forming exercises that don't risk injury and keeping the joints healthy. 

I was never big on the Barbell Squats back in my teens and have done around 400 lbs but that's about it. Squats & Sprints were the big thing for me in those early years of bodyweight training and as time went on, switched to Isometrics and Step-Ups but the Animal Exercises were always my favorite. Not the biggest fan of Plyometrics but I did like the Frog Jumps & The Hindu Jumpers. For a period with the Jumpers, they were part of my 500 Rep Workout with the Hindu Squats and have done as many as 100 Jumpers in a row but never went beyond that. 

From time to time I'll still do Squats and such like doing 100 or so with my 50 lb Sandbell and holding in various positions like Bear Hug & The Shoulder To Shoulder. Step-Ups are my big leg exercise these days as I'll do several hundred to 1000 in certain workouts but also because of my attention span, I have to back off and do other things to keep me interested. Doing hundreds or more of Leg Work isn't my biggest priority but I will do them in spades to maintain conditioning. When it comes to strength, Isometrics are right up there because as long as my tendons and ligaments are strong, it keeps me strong in the long run especially if I'm hiking for a long period of time, hauling furniture up flights of stairs. I haven't even touched a barbell squat since I went to a seminar way back in 2011 when I met Bud Jeffries for the first time and as weird as that was even just doing partials, I just never got right with that kind of squat.

One workout I've now done a couple times recently was doing Step-Ups & Hindu Squats using a Deck Of Cards. I have to where the numbers come out to 450 Step-Ups and 225 Hindu Squats and that's a pretty good workout for the legs. You get both the Unilateral Work and Squat work in the same session which is a hell of a test for lasting strength, quad building, cardio and conditioning. I do my best to only rest by flipping a card and getting into position other than that, I'm off and running at a good pace for myself. One of these days I'll have to time it and see how fast I can do it. It's like paying tribute to Bob Backlund & Karl Gotch in the same workout. I do get bored doing just one exercise for an entire workout and as many times as I've done 500 Squats with those cards, this workout I find more appealing cause I get great leg work from the best of both worlds. If you think Step-Ups are a "lazy man's form of leg training" than you haven't done something like this and do it with solid efficiency and are full of shit in the first place to think like that. It's anything but lazy and as you do the squats, you'll sometimes feel heavier going up the step to do Step-Ups, it can be that brutal on the legs. 

 Most of the time, I like to show the results of my upper body because that's what you see the most from me since I wear baggy shorts and they cover the thighs. I'm just more skeptical of my legs because my scarring from my shin and my legs aren't my best feature. It is what it is but with the way I train, my legs feel great and rarely ever get sore and do my best to work my joints so I don't stiff up. I won't ever have the legs of a Tom Platz (quite frankly who really would?) or a William Gerardi but I'll take what I can get and keep those Tree Trunk California Redwoods going for as long as I can. 

Condition your legs, keep them strong and keep being amazingly awesome. 

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Mucuna

Rare Footage Of Karl Gotch Training With Antonio Inoki

When I first started out way back in 2005, Matt Furey was my first intro in the world of Physical Culture with the recommendation by Logan Christopher of Lost Empire Herbs & Tyler Bramlett of WeShape. Things slowly began to change for me from then on and learned about all kinds of people in that area of old school training. I learned about the legendary Karl Gotch who had mixed reviews of those who knew him or interacted with him at one point or another. Some praised him, others saw him as this sadistic wrestler with a pension of beating the crap out of guys. 

The two people I knew who was around the man for an extended period of time was Bud Jeffries and Tom Puckett (Both RIP). Bud respected Karl as a wrestler but didn't see eye to eye with him and didn't get along with him which at the time would be understandable. Tom saw the man as a father figure and told me a story about him when we went to the gym together and got in workouts. He showed me his style of the exercises Karl taught him and I did my best to mimic him but even when he was sick, Tom was a machine and could still go in some fashion. 

Karl had this mystique about him and his workouts were about as crazy as you can get. His legacy lives on with the likes of Jake Shannon, catch wrestling legends such as Yoshiaki Fujiwara and current Japanese star Minoru Suzuki. His skill set was beyond what most would comprehend and is arguably the greatest wrestler of the last 50+ years. I never got to meet the man but I've heard enough stories to last a long time. 

After his stint in the states, Karl found fame in the Japanese culture where to the point the wrestlers called him a God even though the man himself never really liked that moniker. His conditioning methods were torturous and it showed in certain footage you can find on Youtube. One of his students became the Hierarchy for Japanese wrestling Antonio Inoki who owned New Japan Pro Wrestling which has been the top of the food chain in Pro Wrestling in that part of the world for decades. His training under Gotch has rarely been seen on screen to the point where even with all the research, there's less than a handful of videos of Inoki training under him. 

Now as a side note, Karl's idea of conditioning was taken from the Indian Style of wrestling called Kushti. The Great Gama is the most famous man in this style of wrestling. Karl learned it from a practitioner in England who taught him what we now know to be Hindu Push-ups, Squats, Bridges, The Clubs, Mace and others. He was fascinated by this to the degree where he took the approach to another level and worked other wrestlers into the ground to show them what they had to do before even stepping foot on the mat. Karl's numbers alone in his own conditioning were so impressive that he put them into a watered down entity for others to even try to accomplish or be consistent with. 

In this past week, some footage popped up on Youtube that was uploaded in Japan of Gotch putting Inoki through a workout (edited of course) that shows not only what Inoki was capable of back then but what is even more rare is seeing Gotch himself who was in his late 40's early 50's at the time train. His style of Hindu Push-ups is not the same as Furey taught decades later, this was actually the same variation Tom Puckett taught me to do when I went to the gym with him. I like this style better because it mimics the movement on the Push-up board that you see in the video. He was doing mobility drills long before what most do today so even way back then, Gotch was ahead of his time and his bridging was just phenomenal to watch. The man was thick and had a powerful neck and thoroughbred legs that could go on forever. He was just incredible. After seeing this footage, it gave me another perspective of what the man did and have a higher sense of respect than I already did. Barrel chested and was one of the most flexible and durable men that was a heavyweight. Think at his peak he was about 6'3 and 260 and could do thousands of squats if he wanted to, push-ups that would make most men puke their guts out by the end, tremendous agility and mobility and had stamina that was right up there with the likes of Lou Thesz, Ed Lewis, Frank Gotch & others. 

If you're serious when it comes to conditioning, wrestling and understanding the history of the game, this video alone can give some great insights and something that should be respected and shared. I may not completely agree about certain things about Gotch but he deserves respect beyond what he's already been given and was one of the last remnants of an era of wrestling that is now long gone. He truly was a man among men and had levels of conditioning that is still talked about today. 

Hope you enjoyed having a small bit of a history lesson and watch the video linked above here, it's really awesome stuff. Have fun, get conditioned and keep being amazingly awesome.

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Elderberry  

The Wild Never Stops

 Animal moves have an endless variety but only a few are needed to get in a really good workout. What you choose to master or utilize in your training is up to you but never forget to respect the movements as you practice them. You can go hard, you can go slow, you can even do them in Isometric fashion (maybe not the jumping ones for obvious reasons). It's about building a foundation and finding what gives you the best benefit.

The wild never stops. You keep finding ways to condition your body and put yourself in awkward positions to strengthen areas that conventional or "traditional" training methods can't reach. One of the reasons why I love doing my Animal Deck Of Cards Workout (The Four Animals Of The Apocalypse). It never goes the same way every time and when a Joker comes into play, you get to pick which animal to tackle for reps or distance. The total reps I've done most of the time is around 500 but have done a 1000 total on a few occasions and feels awesome afterwards. With the 500 I would finish around 15-16 min for a full deck which is still quite a workout in itself. These days the main four are....

Bear Crawls

Crab Walks

Bigfoot Walk

Duck Walks

Why did I choose these specific animals? At least 3 are the most basic you see in sports such as wrestling and football since they can be so intense that only a few seconds of them can get you out of breath. The bigfoot walk was what I learned from Vahva Fitness and it's based on movement utilized mainly by wrestlers being in that stance and shifting for balance like in Shadow Wrestling or a match. They get the body in rugged shape pretty fast and when you go hard on even one of them, you're building that explosive conditioning. 

One of my other favorite workouts is a 5 min Tabata Workout of just the Bear Crawl. You go as fast as you can for 10 seconds, rest for 20 and repeat until you've done 5 minutes. That may not sound hard but it's not as easy as it looks on paper. When you have to explode at a moments notice and you're practically sprinting on all fours, it becomes quite the exercise. The first couple rounds you might be breathing hard but the more rounds you go, the more it's going to feel like your heart will rip out of your chest. If you're in good health, this might actually be good for you to do (not every single day though).  It's quick, fast and can be done practically anywhere. I do it in my living space and it kicks my ass every time.

There are so many ways to do Animal Workouts it's not even funny. When you get the idea of moving like a beast in the wild, it doesn't seem like a workout, it becomes a game you can play and being like a kid again. An ancient style of this type of training can be traced back to the art of qi gong and the Shaolin Monks who mimic animals in their Martial Arts practice. In today's style which can has been seen like with Animal Flow and Ginastica Natural, it's been used to target MMA style training and conditioning for certain aspects of Health. It can be fun especially if you combine them but when it comes down to it, you can do all of that and then some with the Movement 20XX fitness course that shows you how to not just work individual exercises but combine the elements of all of them together to form your own style and goals. 

These forms of exercise create an exciting aspect of fitness you don't get with conventional training methods. Yes some exercises may be too advanced for some people but as long as you stick to the basics, you're golden. Just the deck of cards workout I've given you would be a great warm up or a conditioning workout on its own and you can pick your own animal moves to work on. I picked those because they're fun to do. It can be challenging but I find it more interesting to do than hundreds of squats or push-ups. Regular calisthenics are great and should be mastered and practiced whenever possible but at the same time, very few replaces killer exercises like Bear Crawls, Crab Walks & Duck Walks. If wrestlers use them for conditioning, that should tell you how important and brutal they can be. Whether for a few minutes or close to a half hour, animal exercises can be a great asset to your health, your overall strength and conditioning along with building balance, flexibility and durability. Did I forget to mention they're calorie burners as well? 

Get moving by training like a wild beast and have fun. The more fun you have, the better your results will be. Keep being amazingly awesome.  

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Seabuckthorn Berry

The "Risks" Of Training Out In The Open

 About 99% of the time, I train by myself everywhere I go and when it's nice out, I'm either at a park, the lake or at the house. It's my "therapy session" or my time to do what I love and make the most of it. Seriously from my experiences it's the best therapy and it's FREE!! Now when people come up to me, it can vary on the mood I'm in.

When you train out in the open, there's a chance some shmuck or kid or whoever might come up to you. In roughly 18 years of doing this (god damn, I'm getting old), I've had maybe less than 10 people ever come up to me. I do my best to be polite to that person but I'm not going to stop what I'm doing and if they find it rude, that's their problem. We are a curious bunch, I get it and I'm guilty of doing it myself. I even went up to an elderly lady at a park one time in Pleasanton, CA who was doing some form of Tai Chi Walking or Crawling and barely spoke any english (or at least pretended to not know at all) I asked her if she could show me what the method was. She politely shrugged me off and I was ok with that, it's her thing and didn't want to keep bugging her.

In the last few years, I've only had less than what you can count on one hand come up to me about anything. I did get a little peeved when one guy looking for "buried treasure" got in my way of filming a pull-up video and had to restart the video again. That was pretty rude and should've said something but it is what it is. One guy came up to me after a set of Hammer Strikes on my tire and told me he thought the half tire was part of the park and it was a good little laugh and said something like "nope just mine having fun with the hammer." My favorite is when these two mormon kids going on their "route" to preach and saw me hitting the tire with the 25 lb beast of a hammer I have. They were being kind of rude so instead of telling them to fuck off, I messed with them and had them try out the hammers, neither one of them would touch Big Bertha (my 73 lb hammer) and the look on their faces when I swung that sum bitch was priceless. They did their bit and I shrugged them off. 

Another time was this past summer, I was playing Basketball, just shooting around and this 15 year old kid and his girlfriend came up to me and wanted to play me. Now you need to remember, I'm old enough to be this kid's dad, so he thought I was just another guy in his mid 20's just shooting around. The kid tried to play me and got a bit of an awakening. I was outshooting both him and his girlfriend (whom was already a bit reluctant to even try playing) and this kid was like "what the hell, how are you shooting like that?" It was fun and introduced one another and went our separate ways. This really is a nice neighborhood and many people are friendly. Do I wish it was more diverse and not so Vanilla, hell yeah. If it had as many races and cultures from where I've been and was as friendly as this place is, the world would be very different. 

I understand that when it comes to training, it's your time and you do what you need to do. The problem is, you don't own the park or the lake or wherever it is you train at unless it's at home so you have to be aware of people coming around and being curious. Some might try to tell you what you're doing wrong, others may want to join you, be rude and possibly mormon or just curious as to what you're doing. You can tell them to fuck off or be a complete ass to them because they're in your space but you never know what you're going to get with people. You can't completely control the space you're training in so you learn to adapt and be aware of what is possible in that moment and do what you need to do and let others know without needing to say much. If you're going to get that pissed off and have some kind of meltdown, you're not in the right mind because for one, you chose to go to a place where other people will be and two, it's really unlikely tons of people will come up to you anyway unless you go to some major place like central park or a big park in Asia or India where hundreds may be around but you also got to roll with the punches. 

Training is about adapting, it's about learning the environment around you, where you choose to go and what the workout will entail. You can't control what people do, most of the time if people see me train, they're either minding their own business or might mimic me from a far and never actually come up to me. Believe me, not everyone is going to come up to you if you're training with a sledgehammer or moving like a wild animal, that's not in their interests and frequently, they find me odd and just move along. That's my intent to have people distance themselves from me because unless you plan on getting your ass kicked training with me, you might want to step back and go about your business because I'm not going to stop and show you the ropes, keep up or walk away, those are your only options. 

Be resourceful but also be firm and remember people are curious. Many can be unpredictable so expect the unexpected and do your training the way you need to do it. It's not about catering to people, it's about letting them know you're there for a reason without needing to say much. For the most part, if you're doing things that they most likely cannot even fathom, they'll figure it out pretty quickly and move along. Train with intent, be firm with people and keep being amazingly awesome.

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Maca Powder 

SCT: Superset Conditioning Training

 When it comes to a top level favorite of workouts, working with Supersets ranks right up there. For those who've been living under a rock, Supersets are taking two exercises and doing them back to back for a certain number of reps or sets. You mostly see this in gyms where someone would do a set of let's say Bench Press & Curls back to back for one set without stopping, resting and repeating. In that instance, some will do lighter weight or mix it up doing heavy with one exercise and lighter with the next or do heavy with both. It's a style where it gives off more of the pump along with certain cardiovascular effects.

The style I like to do is take two exercises and do them back to back without stopping for a certain period of time. I set my watch to some arbitrary number like 10 min, 15, 20 or an hour. Keep at a good pace where I'm not moving like Speedy Gonzales on a Coke binge but I'm not moving so damn slow the Mars Rover is outpacing me. I use this purely for strength and conditioning purposes mainly in the realm of carrying an object and doing Step Ups. I've done supersets of Push-ups & Squats in the past or do Bear Crawls one way and do Duck Walks going back as part of a sequence. The carrying and step ups provides the idea of using real world application. 

With these workouts, the idea is to rest extremally little or none whatsoever. This teaches your body and mind to keep going even when it gets tougher. Carrying something like a 50 lb Sandbell a couple times and then straight to step ups may not sound tough but over a period of time without stopping, it becomes something more than you would expect. One of the crazy workouts of this magnitude would be to Carry a Sandbell for ten yards on one shoulder, drop and carry 10 yards with the other shoulder, 20-30 step ups (10-15 per leg) and repeat that for an hour straight. That sounds more like a Tri-Set but to me, carrying something one shoulder at a time is one set. I did this workout for 46 supersets without a break (920 Step Ups and Carrying 4600 lb for a total of 920 Yards). 

You can do whatever exercises you want to do, the objective is to keep going. If you're a bodyweight maniac, set a timer for 15 minutes and do 25 Squats and 10 Push-ups without stopping. Micro Workouts are great for this kind of thing. You can also do Isometric type training where let's say you do a 30 second Horse Stance and then go into a 30 second Fist Plank and keep repeating that for as long as you can. If you absolutely need a break, take it between supersets until you're ready for the next set but for the most part, if you need a break than you're exhausting yourself too soon. Utilize a pace where it's not so easy but it's not going slow you down either and you can go without having to stop. 

Supersets are awesome for building high levels of conditioning and fat burning effects. If you really want to take it to the next level and shed fat faster than butter in a pan, do Sprints and Circuits as a hybrid superset where you sprint for let's say 10 seconds, walk back and do a series of Push-Ups, Squats, Jumps, Burpees or whatever a circuit may be and than rest for as long as needed. Repeat for a few rounds and that's it. This is more of a HIIT type of workout where even 3x a week might be pushing it so don't do workouts anymore than that, 1-2x a week is ideal. I did something similar to this for 6 weeks and dropped a considerable amount of bodyfat, lowered my blood pressure by a huge margin and was leaner despite only losing a few pounds. That's going hardcore and not a beginner type level of training. 

Another great workout would be doing Farmer's Carries and Step Ups or Squats. Example would be to carry a kettlebell in one hand for x amount of yards, switch hands and carry the same amount of yards and then do step ups or squats. Repeat this for as long as you wish or can handle. Some would take two exercises and do them with deck of cards to really up the ante like Hindu Push-Ups & Hindu Squats, work your legs hard with just Step Ups & Hindu Squats or whatever you choose to do. 

This type of training is very effective and goes beyond just working muscles, you're working your cardiovascular system, you're testing the mental aspects and training muscle groups that are often ignored. Make it work for you and be sure to recover efficiently. If you're into weight training, do supersets that work opposing muscles like a Chest & Back Exercise or Tris and Bi's, Thighs & Hamstrings or Mix and Match. It's not complicated, it's very simple and as long as you stick to the basics, you're golden.

Train hard, recover just as hard and keep up your conditioning so you can last when it counts. Keep being amazingly awesome.

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Cistanche 

Yielding Isometrics With A Weighted Vest

 Even with the most basic exercises, it's fun to challenge yourself every now and then to test your physical and mental conditioning for everyday life. During the spring and summer I would go for walks or hikes with my 40 lb Vest on and just get some killer cardio in. On the hikes, I would sometimes lose up to 2 pounds by the time I get back home, they can be brutal. 

As of late, I've dabbled in Isometric Training with the Vest on and that is a whole other sport of conditioning training. Mainly in the Horse Stance & Fist Plank for Tabata style workouts. Do 20 sec on, 10sec off going back and forth for a number of minutes and just see what I can do. Last night I took it a step further and added more time than usual by going for a total of 15 minutes for a workout with those two exercises. Just doing it without the vest is tough, add in a 40 lb Vest and you're going through hell.

This tests not just your strength but also your ability to hold the posture/position as best as possible being still. A lot is going on beyond just concentrating, you're also having to control your breathing because the longer you go, the harder it is to keep your breathing at a solid pace. It gets you breathing pretty damn heavy to the point where it feels like you going for miles even though you're not moving. These exercises also dig into the smaller muscles and works the tendons and ligaments like a motherfucker.

You may not think two basic and plain exercises can get you breathing hard, test your core strength, leg conditioning and grip strength but they do and it makes isometric training all the more reason to do them. They can be just as effective or even more so than doing hundreds of squats or push-ups. Doing hundreds of reps are great but yet it's a very different form of strength when you have to hold a position for as many sets as this and rest only half the time. This workout alone with or without toughens up the muscles and give you that hard and rugged feeling, not to mention incredible speed and power to boot. This is great for martial artists, football players, injury rehabilitation, conditioning enthusiasts and those who are a little twisted in the head. 

As we get older, doing hundreds of reps is not always going to be priority since it becomes more of a thing to do every now and then (you're not going to see many people over the age of 50 doing 500-1000 squats or 500+ push-ups), Isometrics on the other hand can be done by nearly everyone at any age and have unbelievable benefits of strengthening the body from the inside out. You can get a great cardio workout without ever moving a muscle (or in this case being still as much as possible). You think you can't get cardio, try holding a Horse Stance for 5 straight minutes or do the Horse Stance/Fist Plank Tabata Workout for 10 minutes and tell me you're not breathing heavily. 

It's important to do forms of training that make us uncomfortable to do in order to withstand whatever comes our way in the real world. Carrying furniture, going up and down hills, going up flights of stairs, lifting odd objects such as logs and wood chopping all have a hand in how we handle ourselves and Isometrics provide opportunities to make ourselves stronger to do those things whether young or old. 

Be resilient but as safe as possible, build strength without getting injured, condition your bones regardless of your age and develop levels of stamina beyond conventional means. Having muscle on the outside may look great but if you can't back it up, what good is it? Isometrics can show you weaknesses you didn't realize you had, make them strong as hell. This workout also burn a stupid amount of calories and have fat burning effects. Be strong everyone and keep being amazingly awesome. 

Lost Empire Herb Of The Day: Phoenix Formula