My Story pt.1

I was born July 28th, 1984 in Santa Clara, CA at 5:30 pm. Born 6 pounds 8 ounces and as healthy as you can get. Well over a year later, around 14 months I became ill and my parents didnt know what to do. I was rushed to the hospital where I was born and had taken many tests to find out I had Spinal Menengitis a germ that goes directly from the spinal cord to the brain and made switches in my bodily functions so everything went the oppisite way. There were 2 things supposedly were going to happen to me that the doctors told my family: Either I was gonna die from this disease or if I lived I wouldnt have the brain of more then a ten year old.

I lived and had to learn everything all over again, I was more right sided then so everything shifted and had to learn how to use my left side since my right became weaker. Over the years I was in speech therapy, taking tests to see how sociable my lifestyle and attitudes differ from othr people and if I can co-exist in a normal setting. Learning speech patterns, taking physical therapy in order to strengthen my entire right side and use my left side in the least possible ways. At the age of 3 I couldnt pick up a clothes pin with my right hand cause it was so bad.

I started being in the Special Education programs for the next 15-16 years, learning how to do certain tasks and social skills and reading patterns. I hated it, every minute of it, I just wanted to be a normal kid and play ball and be with normal friends but it wasnt all meant to be. I got picked on on a constant basis and just didnt have the best times around other children and such and didnt always have the best times at home.

As a young teen it became even tougher to deal with other kids and teachers and family cause at one point during that time around 13 I really wanted to do drugs and wanted to be with the popular crowd who was doing them and knew it too. I got beat up a lot around this time mentally and physically and even been in big fights with my best friend at the time. It was hell as you can imagine. The only thing that didnt feel like it could hurt me was my school work. Even wanting to play around a lot I got some good grades and became an honor student with a 3.6 GPA in junior high, I just wanted to be out of school just by getting good grades. I was a fat kid around this time as well at 5'4 180 pounds with no muscle tone whatsoever and got beat for that as well. during 7th grade p.e we started doing weight training and it got me into lifting. Slow start but I got hooked.

After I graduated and went to high school, I got a bit shyer but not as bad as it used to be. I started just wanting to go to classes and just work my ass off to be good at whatever I was taking and it was fun at times but horrifying the next. I did a little weightlifting around my sophmore year and I was hooked on training since then but it wasnt easy. As teens we all developed all those hormones and such that I got angry a lot and I always took it out in the weight room and started developing this natural strength for heavy lifting and I never trained on a routine I just did what was there or added up to it.

At 17 I started to notice that I was good at weights so I challenged a few guys a time or 2 and got beat and won but my greatest achievment was I was challenged to a squat duel lol with a buddy of mine and see how much we can lift, he warmed up I just stood there and started psycing myself up and he wanted me to go first so I put on somewhat 400 pounds on bar (it was a 65 pound bar so less plates were added) and got 3 reps, he got 6. So I wasnt the one who was into losing so we added 100 pounds on my expense and I got the same amount of reps and he tied me. Like I said I wanted to just get this over with so we ended up putting most of the plates in the rack on the bar and it was at I think 615-620 and even though we were screwing around I just wanted to win so I went first and by this time the entire class was watching and some other kids from the track heard us and came in so it was around 40 people. So I closed my eyes and started screaming with everything I had and didnt think anything of it it was just a number to me and hit 2 full reps while yelling and in agonizing pain and came up and put the bar on the rack and the guy who challenged me just flat out went "f*ck that you're crazy" and I was told that by the entire class.

Anywho weights was the thing then and I partcipated in Track & Field for 2 seasons and enjoyed every minute of it and even though I sucked lol it was fun while it lasted. I stopped wanting to do the Special Ed program around my junior year in the last semester and just felt like I can do these things and I wanted to do them. During my senior year I wanted to wrestle but ended up hurting my knee so I stopped and focused on school. Later on before my last semester my stepfather passed away and it couldnt have come at a worse time. I was miserable, angry and just became depressed.

I wanted to hurt somebody everytime they talked or touched me and I cried at least 3 times everyday for most of the year. No one understood and they tried whatever they did and I didnt budge I just didnt want anybody around. He meant the world to me, he was my best friend and he got me through so much even though he was far worse having diebetes and hardly if ever taking his insulin. I just lost it and thought that was it what can I do now that he isnt here anymore.


I will write pt. 2 either tonight or tomorrow so be prepared. You never know what will happen.

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

The Chest Expander

One of the best training equipment is not one thats on weights or kettlebells but rubber cables. The Chest Expander is considered the cable equipment to train the shoulders/arms/back. Once you use over a period of time and using heavier type cables it'll make your upper body have the strength of male gorilla (slight exaggeration) but you know what i'm getting at. At one time during the golden age of physical culture it was used in competitions in europe to determine who was the strongest strand puller (thats what they called it then).

Now unlike weights where you have to switch to a different weight and that can be a bit of a hassel considering people in gyms using the equipment, with the cables take a couple of em and add on either lighter or heavier cables, very simple. When stretched out it works the shoulders from angles you cant get from either weights or bodyweight exercises. It not only builds great strength but you're building tremendous flexibility and that alone works well into sports like fighting, gymnastics, football pretty every sport you do. Also like weightlifting you have choices to do major alternative lifts for the expander like the Clean & Jerk, Military Press, Bicep Curls, Upright Rows and many others.

Now I believe there are 10 different set of cables for the expander these ranging from pink to the blue and the blue cables are the toughest of them. I havent heard a person doing the Clean & Jerk with all three cables so the equivilant is around 275-330 pounds of resistance. This little peice of equipment can give your upper body animal-like strength cause when pull or lift the cables, your body is shaking so that tells you you're working major muscle groups and your using it from many angles so you're getting the benefit of working from a different prespective. I have used this device to aid in feats of strength and i'll tell ya it got me there so it should never be neglected in any regimen whether its weightlifting, kettlebell training, bodyweight ect. Give it a try and you'll see your strength skyrocket into a whole demension.

If you feel you want to add a different kind of strength and flexibility in your training, John Hinds will take care of you my brother and never fall short of becoming super strong.

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

The Power Of The Mind

No matter what we do in life, we all begin with a thought and end with a thought. Some of us human beings have forgotten how powerful we can really be if we just focused on what we really wanted and how we could achieve a certain goal. When it comes to fitness, most of us today believe if we went on a diet or trained to gain weight that what routine or what we exercise will automatically happen. Anybody who thinks that is way off and full on ignorant for thinking that. If we just trained and ate and figured things will start to go according to that specific idea we'd all be in trouble one way or another and we blame the idea instead of ourselves. When I did weightlifting all I cared about was lifting heavy and being big and eventually I was at nearly 265 pounds, sadly no matter what I ate or lifted I got a little fatter and blown out every time cause I figured if I lifted hard and ate hard i'd be a machine. Far from it brother.

By the time I started reading Combat Conditioning, Pushing Yourself To Power and as recently Powerflex, I started to understand that in order to achieve what you want you have to set your mind to it and make yourself believe that what you picture and what you do for yourself you will achieve great heights for yourself. After to converting to bodyweight exercises and feats of strength I wanted to stay big and strong but be able to go for long periods of time and only one thing led me there was the power of my thoughts and the mental pictures I made.

No matter what your goal is whether its fitness or business or anything else, picture in your mind what you want and go after it with passion and fire and sooner or later its going to happen but if you fail you can't blame anybody or anything else cause of your mistakes. You're the problem so fix it and bring yourself back to that picture, that goal, that door that opens to your imagination. Believe in yourself and believe what you want to achieve can and will happen and you my friend will go far and block out anything negetive and disbeliefs by others cause even one person who doesnt believe in you can make you stop from dreaming and stop you from achieving your goal. Block all that out and know that what you want you will grab and never let it go, go beyond. The power isnt in the outer portion of physical abilities but the power inside yourself and what you create makes you that person and that my friend will make you far stronger and more powerful then anything else. Believe in the mind and the mind will believe in you.

If you want to learn how to develop a greater mind then go here and you'll find what you're looking for whether its fitness or whatever you choose.

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

or

www.mattfurey.com

Ripping a Phonebook

This to me is one of the most impressive feats in all of strength. Most people today rip a book by either pushing down on the binding and break the book or sqeeze the pages together and "pop" the book which eventually tear in half but for me I like to tear the book like the old-time strongman and just use pure Grip strength. Now what I mentioned earlier on popping the book thats the cheating way to break the book and thats ok if thats what people want to do but its not nessecarly the only way. Ripping a phonebook is just plain awesome to do and the thing I like is that no matter where you are in the U.S they're usually free to grab in the area you live in.

The best way to get better at ripping phonebooks is just by progessing up to thicker books and as a novice for now my best book is 700 pages, I believe the world record is around 3000 so I have some work to do lol. I learned a technique to rip a book by the best pound for pound strongmen of all-time Dennis Rogers and the way he showed it on his DVD is so simple that any person willing to try and work up to a certain book can do it no matter what their size or age they are. When I first started all I did was fight the book with all the power I had and ended up hurting my thumb and it went numb for weeks just on that first day. After watching the dvd and practicing without any trouble I tore the hell out of the book, small but hey i'm learning here dude.

Eventually after practicing with many phonebooks small and slightly thick I got better and my grip strength skyrocketed. After watching the video he shows you certain exercises to do to help increase your chances in tearing thicker books and theres one exercise that he shows that takes your tearing to a whole new level and its very simple to make in your home and turn you into a ripping machine. I worked on this one exercise alone and my best time on a phonebook (mind you 700+ pages) was only less then 20 seconds. Now wouldnt that be awesome in itself to learn how to rip a phonebook, i'd take that any day of the week brother.

If your serious into learning how to tear phonebooks with ease heres the man to look for.

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

www.dennisrogers.net.

Conditioned Athletes vs. Bodybuilders

These 2 advesaries have been going at it for decades and many people have different opinions, intrests and experiences. When I talk about conditioned athletes I mean by football players, wrestlers, gymnasts, baseball players, basketball and combat ect. These athletes are a special breed, no matter how you put it these guys are the athletes of the world, they know what they must do to be in shape and they are in shape for that particular sport, doesnt matter whos better at what sport it all matters on their dedication and how they got there and do they have the drive to keep going. Some do some don't but one way or another we as fans have watched them do their thing but never knew how they trained.

I believe the athlete who puts himself in a position where he is the last one to stand and fire up his team or just himself and wants to finish what he started thats a conditioned athlete and he is the strongest of them all. They train hard and they train with fire, thats the slight few. There are very few athletes in this world that care about their sport and keep driving to get better when the majority rather rely on talent and see how much dough they can get in their pockets. Those few dont do steriods, they dont do drugs and they certainly arnt in it for the money. They train everyday, they push themselves to constant limits and they always have a positive goal and they drive hard to achieve it. I won't name athletes but I many people would know who they were so you be the judge.

Bodybuilders are a different story with a different mindset but with a similar look at what they want to accomplish. They want to be the best at all costs. They're a different breed of athlete. They want to be the biggest and strongest looking guy on the stage and make themselves like bohemeths. No matter what gym you go to anywhere in the world theres at least 10 guys possibly more in that one gym whos looking at themselves in the mirror and flex with everything they got from every possible angle. Thats what people see more of in the last 30 years or so and thats where they would mostly set their mind to. I used to see guys like that and everytime I looked at em I picture them saying "If I look good then everything else will come into play, I dont need talent to do anything else I got this killer body." Unfortunitly the world doesn't always work that way.

You will see these 2 types of figures time and time again and just like looking at the front of a book, Don't judge it by its cover, a guy ripped to shreds and has the body of a greek god may not have the ability to last very long with a sports athlete. Its ok to look good no harm with that, but you gotta bring the inner tools to back it up. No matter how you put it theres going to be oppisite sides to who is better, truth is neither are better at any one of us can accomplish. The question is do you have the drive to be better? Do you have the power to take on difficult tasks?

Look inside yourself and what you want to accomplish, what you have the inner ability to do and what you have your mind set on what you want, that makes you the better man/woman inside yourself not what someone will think of you.

Create yourself a mindset and picture what you want and once you do that, you have what it takes to get better. If you want to learn these things and help create your mind through physical movement and some reading to help get you there got a book and dvd to try out.

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

www.bronzebowpublishing.com- Look for Pushing Yourself To Power

www.mattfurey.com- Look for the Super Energizer Workout

Isometrics for Super Strength

This particular type of training is a great way to not only increase physical exercise but it makes you work the mind as well. Unlike other forms of exercises (Bodyweight, weight training or other forms of resistance training) Isometrics are in a class all in their own and lol believe it or not their difficult to do. When you learn to control whats difficult and master my god man you're on your way to achieve higher and higher goals and you just want to keep driving. Isometrics make you flex multiple muscle groups even the joints in your body without having to move. Pushing against a wall or holding onto a pull-up bar thats an isometric your tensing to stay on and when you can hold for a good amount of time, damn man you're building strength. With this training and adding to your current regimen or something to start with, they will help you increase your strength and improve your physique. There are thousands of ways to do Isometrics so you have a wide variety to choose from for example, wall chairs: sit against the wall and squat until you're almost parellel to the floor and hold, squeeze those legs a few seconds, relax and repeat. Thats an isometric or multiple contractions. They make the muscle fibers work hard and just like regular training they break down and have to repair. When they put themselves back together it creates more muscle and strength. So to make them more difficult either do multiple flexes or flex a certain group one at a time and just shoot for it and make them work. People say Isometrics are nothing but a way to just stand there and flex and you wont gain strength well my friends look at some of the strongest men and women on the planet either at one time or another they did this kinda training and achieved unbelieveable results so you whatever you decide to do thats your choice and if it works do it. Building strength isnt always physical but mentally it makes you much stronger. Work on them, research them and just try them for yourself and you'll see how awesome they can be.

Yours in Power & Might

Ben


P.S Ever want a book that takes Isometrics to a whole new demension, look up Isometric Power Revolution.

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

The best routine

There many ways to develop a routine but people always ask what is the best out of all the things you can do. Truth is the best routine is your own, you create it, the goals the sets, the reps and the exercises. Never believe the routine someone else uses will work for you cause that would just be cheating. No matter what bodybuilding magazine or book or course you read only one thing will make you stronger, powerful, full of stamina and enormous flexibility and thats your own goals, everything else is set for you the question is how do you apply it? Heres a few things to get started and see what you can do for yourself.

www.superstrengthtraining.com

www.mattfurey.com

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

Hindu Squats

Probably by far one of the best exercises for the legs and overall body conditioning. It strengthens the legs, hips, calves, butt, chest, arms and back. What a lethal combo dont you think. Never be afraid to bring the knees foward, that helps strengthen the knees, it did for mine. Now some people shouldnt do this but I believe 98% of the people who can will benefit from just got to try. If you're in football you will build strength as well as cardiovascular conditioning for the 40 yrd dash or just keep your legs durable for those final moments in the game where most of the guys are warn out. Its great for all sports and better yet its great for your health cause it strengthens the internal organs, heart, kidneys, lungs, liver everything. Give this one a go and soon enough you'll have legs of a tree trunk while having tri-athlete endurance.


Heres the way to do them correctly.


http://www.bronzebowpublishing.com/HinduSquat.gif


Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Leverage Lifting And The Man Who Made It Possible!

Its rarely seen these days and its starting to bubble as a straight shooting training tool to develop a powerful grip. I'm talking about leverage lifting or in other words, train with a sledge hammer. There are quite a few ways to do this for one, take a sledge hammer and hold it straight up with a straight arm, now by using the power of your wrist, tilt the hammer to your face and bring it back without bending too much of the elbow, or two, lift the hammer off the ground from the bottom of the handle, very tough and must coordinated precisely or you just wont make the lift. Thats 2 I can come up with right i'll leave the others to your improvsation. Now how did all this kind of training get started, well it began with an 18 year old worker in a pennsylvania quarry and this young developed a certain natural strength by swinging a 16 pound hammer and cutting stone on a per ton basis 12-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. At a small show in gilbertsville this young man was watching a legendary strongman by the name of Joseph Greenstein aka The Mighty Atom. Atom asked the audience that at his age (back in his 70's I believe) he can only bend this 6 inch spike and out of the crowd the young teen shouted "You aint talking to me old man." So the young man went up to the stage and with no trouble he bent that spike into a "U" Shape. Now the way he did it was unheard of, he bent it downward from the chest up and the old man was in awe as he never saw anything like that in all his years as a strongman. From that day foward this young man became known as the living legend and the last of the old-time strongmen. His name is Lawrance Farman aka Slim The Hammer Man. This man broke not just his hands but records that can never be matched in the anils of hammer lifting. This man is one of my hereos and I learned from watching this man that I wanted to built a powerful grip by not only training with hammers but many others. He in my opinion will never be matched ever. You can break weightlifting records you can break strongman records but never will someone be able to break hammer records unless you're to sacrifice your body by breaking wrists, hurting your head and god knows what else.


Never believe you're too old or too small to be strong, always believe that you will be strong.

If you want to check out Slim and other strongman heres the site to go. www.dennisrogers.net


Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Power & Might

No matter how you put them, these 2 words always catch some one's attention one way or another. They can be used in any type of definition but I love referring to them in the Fitness World. To me these words means strength, means iron will, means over the top endurance and also the feeling of hitting your personal record with hardcore determination. This will start being a blog that I'd like everyone to check up on, you can read if you wish and if you don't like what I have to say then I'm not worried theres plenty of other people who like to read. I will feed you guys info at the end of every blog that can give you an idea of what I love to use, read or recommend for either the elite athlete or the average Joe.

When it comes to hand crushing strength, there are many ways to built it and make grip strength the key to gaining great strength and power in everything you do. Here's a site that will help your grip get to levels neither you or anybody can imagine, I'd recommend these guys 150%.


www.functionalhandstrength.com