Monday, April 9, 2007

The Lifeline Power Wheel

This unicycle device can turn you into a machine, period. It has 2 sets of ways to work the core and entire body, one way is holding onto the handles and the other is strapping your feet in. Our midsections play a major role in our muscular development. Our abs built our entire strengths and weaknesses so in other words if you don't have strong abs you won't go far. Now with this device we can built strong, powerful abs without having to do sit-ups and crunches.

One of the best exercises that this 5 pound unicycle gives you is the ability to walk on your hands. Now our lower body is 3 times stronger then our upper cause we walk around all day long, but if you knew how to walk on your hands imagine the strength you will create. Its one of my favorites and my #1 reccomendation for a strong core and a powerful upper body. Although that exercise is a major one, the one exercise everyone knows is the Roll Out where you grab onto the handles and roll out as straight as possible either from standing or from the knees.

No matter what if you're a strongman, a tri-athlete or better yet a professinal/olympic gymnast the wheel can give anyone a run for their money. This is by far the best piece of abdomanial equipment and far better then the "ab sissor" or that crazy stupid looking "Boflex" The wheel can make those abs like granite and like it says "Strong abs create phenomenal power and might."

Want the Power Wheel here are the 2 best people to buy from.

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

Lifeline USA

Lifeline Power Wheel


Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Sunday, April 8, 2007

The Power Of The Animals

Theres an animal inside all of us and we all at one-time or another leashed out the animal in us on a rare occassion in fighting, business, bedroom endeavours (had to bring that up sorry if I offended anybody) and most obviously in the fitness world. Some of our personalities take on the form of a wild animal and most of us never really know how to use that trait. Mine consists of the powerful gorilla and its physical and mental strength. Now none can have the actual strength of one such creature but we can attain some and even that is enough.

In working out when us human train very hard and I mean where we are pounding iron hitting very difficult angles in BW exercises some people would say to us "Damn man you're being an animal" which is true. Now there are many ways to train the human body, we can lift weights, do BW exercises and we use certain peices of equipment to get is going but nothing makes you train harder then moving like the animals in the wild. I'm not saying we should pound our chests or jump and feed on prey or speed up and take action no i'm saying move in the form of any animal, a tiger, bear, crab, gorilla, chimpanze, lion ect.

When you see animals in the jungle theres always one thing you notice about them (this goes out to every expert who thinks weights is the only way to make you stronger), theres no barbell, no dumbbell, no machines, no racks and certainly NO WEIGHTS!!!! These creatues of nature are far stronger and far better skilled then us human beings. They stay strong to survive and to defend themselves. The bear chasing down a rabbit at a bw of 800 pounds and run on 4 legs, the gorilla pulling himself up onto a branch with one finger or the cheetah having the ability to take off faster then 350 horsepower muscle car in a matter of seconds. These are all the things we can learn from to increase our cardiovascular conditioning and over muscular strength.

If you haven't noticed already my fav. animal is the gorilla. The king of strength and overall power. They are the first to be developed into humans during the prehistoric age and gave us the ability to create superhuman strength. You notice a gorilla by the way it walks and how it climbs up and down the largest of trees and branches. Although we as human beings don't always understand how intelligent these creatures are but we should damn well know how to create their strengths. The strength of a 400 pound gorilla would be equivilant to the strength 10 heavyweight olympic weightlifters (check out Animal Planet sometime), wouldn't anyone of us would love to achieve that. I certainally would and i'm a big fan of great strength.

You see if you're a fitness fanatic and whatever animal you feel is connected to your personality or you feel you take "shape" of and by that I mean if you're lean and athletic you would have the animalistic shape of a cheetah or a chimpanzee or even a certain preditorial bird. If you're body takes an animalistic "shape" of a big, burely and thick billed you would take on as a bear, gorilla, rhinosaurs or a thick muscled lion. One-way or another we all have the personality or "shape" of an animal thats inside all of us. Which one are you?

Want to train like the wild animals heres the place to get you started and if you're like me and want to feel having somewhat of the strength of a powerful gorilla heres another place you can find.

www.wildmantraining.com

www.mattfurey.com

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Training Wherever You Go

When it comes to bodyweight exercises, no matter where you go you can either have a good, tough workout but also you can get the toughest of your life. Gym training is ok if you're into it but look at the contineous fees and equipment use to wait for and the this idea of whiping off someone elses sweat. Screw that i've had to do this more then a few times and its not great to do. I rather be my own gym and want to something for me and nobody elses. I pick the exercises and the time its never determained for me which is something we all want. Now we all need to create some overall development but hey wouldnt it be nice to have an alternative on the road. Try a few BW exercises and you won't be dissappointed if they're too easy do some with one arm or do them at a different pace there are unlimited possibilities.

If you want to get either into this system or amp it up John Peterson and Jom Forystek can help.

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Ab Training + Bodybuilding Senarios

What makes great powerful abs? Is it doing crunches everyday, is it working out while giving them a good rest or can it be that some of the strongest looking abs in the arnt really that strong? Anyway you see it in today's modern fitness you see bodybuilders, pro wrestlers, baseball players ect. there is just some that seem to look like a greek god but have the strength of 5 year old. I love seeing homeruns smacked, I like seeing someone getting slammed and on a few occassions I think its cool how awesome a bodybuilder's ripped abs look like.

Back in the golden age of Physical Culture, Strongman, Wrestlers, Gymnasts ect. trained every part of the body including the inner portions to keep them strong (the organs of the body) and yet not a single I have read did crunches it wasn't even invented yet. Yet today we see these gadgets, gizmos and "Guarentees" going on that some expert can get you the abs of Zeus or whatever. Personally ripped abs arn't all that appealing and do most of them have any REAL strength. Lets look at a bodybuilder with the biggest looking set compared to yesteryear shall we?

Bodybuilder #1- In this day in age the average muscle man is 5'9 around 225-265 pounds who's ripped to shreds everywhere, strong as hell on the weights he grins and grunts on ab lounge and does several sets of sit-ups/crunches and possibly do a few sets on a stability (to them its too girly its only for chicks) and creates this magnificant 6-8 pack of muscle chromed abdomen. Eats like a horse on meat and protein supplements and eats about 6-9 times a day and then drain themselves to get ready for competition. Lets put him to the test, he gets into a fight or has to pull off a very difficult Keg Toss. The moment he gets punched as hard as the opponent can hit this ripped up looking god goes down in a heart beat screaming in agony. Now the Keg Toss (trust me there needs to be plenty of ab strength to pull this off) he grins and grunts and yet as he gets ready to toss he pulls a muscle in the oblique area at mid range of the toss.

Bodybuider #2- An old time physical Culturist, in the days where strongman and developed human speciamens trained the entire body (including the internal organs) and were very active, ate healthy foods even to gain or lose or to stay at a particular weight. They did ab training through deep breathing, basic exercises in weight lifting and bodyweight. He's very lean at 5'7 maybe 185 pounds of ripped solid muscle (this is in the early 20th century mind you) and just has a great way to devote himself to fitness while maintaining a healthy social lifestyle. Lets say he gets into a fight and wanted it to get over with and gets punched very hard in the abdomen but yet doesnt have very much affect on him, he still keeps going until the opponent can't take it anymore. Now the Keg Toss, even at 185 a keg can weigh around lets say 250, he grins and grunts and without missing a step he swings up then leans back and throws it with every ounce of strength he has and yet never came out hurt or felt injured.

You see the difference in those senarios, they both trained very well in their field and can draw a crowd with ease but yet who do you think was stronger and less injury prone. The first muscle man was todays modern fitness magnet that although he looked big and strong he couldnt take a lick of a punch or the toss. Yet somehow the old time muscle man was stronger and can take monsterous shots and doesnt come out hurt in the toss. These are true stories and i'm sure you can find whom. When us society get sucked into the whacky world of bodybuilding and the so called "experts" show us the way to better to a healthy life and have us take their supplements and yet don't get anywhere as aposse to the old-timers that didnt have supplements and worked hard to get themselves really strong at very lean weights.

Whenever I get asked if I do weights cause i'm big and a bit muscular for my height and say no they don't believe it cause thats where they're brainwashed to thinking that to look good and be strong hit the iron when you can use basic commonsense. Never believe everything you read or heard cause of what they tell guarantrees, if we all had guarantees in life we'd all be a perfect world. Yeah Right! Check things out for yourself and if it works for you and you alone. Train the way you want its your decision not the advetisers who tell you too.

If you feel you want a change in your training and see whats best for you that you feel is right, go to John Peterson, Matt Furey, John Wood or Brooks Kubik and they'll show you the right path as they have for me.

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

www.mattfurey.com

www.functionalhandstrength.com

www.brookskubik.com

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Pull-Ups/Handstand Push-ups Build Gorilla Strength

When it comes down to building upper body power and strength there are many ways to develop it since most bodybuilders and other fanatics are upper body crazy. There's the Bench Press, there's lat pull-downs, dead-lifts, push-ups, chest expander ect. But I feel the best and most healthy way to develop super strength is through 2 exercises that take you beyond the levels of strength and that's Pull-ups and Handstand Push-ups. Either one of these is not easy to do and to me that's a good thing.

Pull-ups build super strength in the back, grip, arms and shoulders. When you can do these at about 15 reps you got something going my friend. Why does this exercise seem like the strength builder? Look at the gorillas, they're strong, agile and massive, they have powerful looking back cause why, they climb and pull themselves up on a daily basis and they do this to survive and they start learning to hang as babies like a human baby learns to walk, apes do the opposite. I like to train in ways of the primates cause when you learn to swing around and grip and pull you're building strength in places you didn't know you had.

Handstand Push-ups are the upside down version of pull-ups, now holding a handstand alone can be difficult so you're already building strength by holding one. Once you get to the point of going down and back up you're building more power. It takes a great deal to pull off 1 HSPU but if you keep working on them you'll eventually hit 10 or more, my best is 25 consecutively at a body-weight of 230 pounds so think about how much strength I'm building pressing my own weight. This exercise was used by some of strongest men in the world and are a common exercise for gymnasts and look how strong they are. HSPU build strength in the arms, chest, grip, back, shoulders and abs.

When it comes down to it I find no other exercises for building great power in the upper body, walking on your hands is also a great exercise to build that kind of strength but just these 2 where you go up and down. If you want pull-up and handstand strength then check out these guys below and they're courses will get you to where you want to go.

Ultimate Handstand Push-ups

Pull-up Strength Training Workout


Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Monday, April 2, 2007

Brooks Kubik & Dinosaur Bodyweight Training

Brooks happens to be one of my top favorite fitness authors and is tough as hell when it comes to training. 5-time Bench champion and record holder in his age group when he was champion. A firm believer in hard work and the right ways to develop strength/power in every area of the body. All you gym rats and strongman know Brooks by his book of Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets Of Strength & Development. Fascinating book and well deserved in the fitness world. Great talk on thick bar training and teaching the trainee to built the power he/she so desires and built heculean-like strength without the use of drugs or steriods.

He was a writer for Milo Magazine one of the biggest strength magazines in the world and he wrote countless articles on strength training and the types to get super strong. After a few years his body started to tear from the weights and needed an althernative. All who read on him know he had to come up with something. So he wrote a course that was unheard of and had a row of exercises many never thought of putting in a book. This book was to be known as Dinosaur Bodyweight Training. What exactly is this course and why would it be a BW course knowing that this man who looked he was carved out of granite was a 5-time national champion in Drug Free Powerlifting?

He came up with the idea that with certain elements and change in exercise you can develop a physique thats the symbol of a Greek Statue. From reading this course and doing most of the exercises personally I believe it. I didnt become a Greek Statue but I did develop muscle mass I never put on before. People get the idea that BW training can't get you muscle mass and you have to lift weights to get stronger. Thats pure BS cause once you see a video or picture of brooks doing the exercises the man is massive and is strong as hell for his size so he proves it works.

There are 100's of exercises he put in that cover every part of the body even exercises that build muscle in places you didnt think were working. The course has a vareity of equipment that is used during some exercises and he clearly states you don't have to use them to get in a great workout. They're great to a degree where if you want to increase the difficulty its a good idea to use them. Theres rings, pull-up bars, push-up bars, ab wheel, stability balls ect. So you have a great deal of equipment to use for BW exercises.

Is it worth getting the course well you be your own judge, the course sells at $197 plus 15 for shipping. In my personal opinion its worth getting cause its different then anything you've seen or done before. If the price is not your cup of tea, then get it on ebay if you can find it or don't get it all you've got other things you can try but take my word for it. If I didnt have it and can afford i'm right there. Its an awesome course and the DVDs that follow from his site can give you a better prespective watching him then reading about it. He goes into greater detail on the DVDs so if you don't want the book then get those seperatly or all together.

www.brookskubik.com

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Life Without The People In Your life!!!!

When I was growing up I didnt have the luxery of having tons of friends and have a great group of family to back me up in my goals and being the best I can be. Most of them wanted me to be what they thought I should be and so I rebeled against them. In my teens I didnt have the best of athletic ability or have a killer physique. I dont have much of the latter even now but thats ok its who iam even though I wanna drop a few just to experience it. Anyway, Over the years i've dealt with deaths, depression, crying a lot, getting beat up both ways and being put down by some of the very people i love and care for but yet its hard to imagine me going through that cause most people see me as a nice guy who doesnt bullshit anybody. I used to keep many things to myself and its pissed quite a few people off but you know what I dont care anymore lol.

I'am who i'am and I can never change it. The thing to remember is that with everything going on you can't not think about the people who got you here even the ones I rebeled against got me to where I'am but the people who encouraged me to do what I love to do best. There are many people I can name off who inspired me and admired so i'll just name a few:

John Peterson- The man that has put me through torture and brutal workings through his books and dvd. This is the guy that can never put you down for what you believe in and if you have something to ask hes got the answer. The few times i've talked to him I get nervous but excited cause i'm just not talking to any old physical culturist but I a wonderful human being. Thank you my friend.

Josh- One of my new friends that has helped me push even further into my writings and training. A kick ass guy that doesnt stand down for what he believes in and does his best. I'm honored to call this soilder and fellow physical culturist my friend and i'll always have his back as well as he'll have mine. Keep it up bro and I know someday we'll put each other through torturous workouts.

Matt Furey- For introducing me to bodyweight exercises and teaching me how to strengthen my legs again through Combat Conditioning and Gama Fitness.


Never fall short on who is pushing you or inspires you or motivates you cause those are the true people to have in your life and the ones you dont want to let go. Thanks guys and you know its gonna get better from here.

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Bridging- Pros & Cons

When it comes to fitness there is one subject that very few talk about (mostly in martial arts) and thats bridging: Hands alone, head alone and hands/head. There are many people who believe bridging isnt good for you and you're going to snap your neck and ect. These are the people that never bridged in their life and want to give other a bad rap about it cause they feel if they can't do neither can anybody else. Now lets take a look at the pros and cons of bridging and see what we can come up with.

Pro- When done properly it energizes the body by releaving nerve force which causes new life in the bloodstream and to the organs of the body.

Con- First who start out will be fearful of being upside down and are not used to being bent backwards.

Pro- Builds strength/flexibilty/endurance throughout the whole body and with the proper breathing it can a calm and relaxing exercise

Con- Causes of bit of pressure to the head even in the proper position and the trainee must caution himself to not over do it.

Pro- After a period of training and mastering certain elements of the bridge the trainee can use to develop the body and the thickness of his/her neck .

Con- Most people don't see how it builds neck strength and do it improperly.

Pro- Once going through the process of bridging gymnasics (kick over and falling back) the trainee has a key sense of kenistetic awarness of his/her surroundings.

Con- People get scared of not knowing how aware and strong they can be and want to avoid the bridge.

There are many more but i'm sure you can come up with a few more. No matter how you put bridging works like a charm but it isnt for everybody and thats ok we need different structures and people feel limited to what they can really accomplish if they look hard enough. For me I love it and wouldn't be anywhere without it and all its elements and still got a bit more to learn but hey we all have to learn something. Bridging to me makes me feel like a million bucks, if I can pull off a 3 min. back bridge or hold a good gymnast bridge everything else seems easy cause not only is it challenging it builds character.

Once you get over the fear then you know you've come a long way. Keep learning and keep challenging yourself cause thats the only way to grow.

If you want to learn more about the bridge look up these sites that I feel are best to look. For Matt Furey's site go to his daily archives at the bottom of the site and you'll see some bridging articles, great reads. For the other site look for posts in the forum and there should be some there.

www.mattfurey.com

www.bronzebowpublishing.com

Advanced Bridging Course

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Push-Ups: Better then the Bench Press?

Thats been one of the world's top questions in fitness and there have been many answers, some good, some bad and some just plain stupid. Heres how I would pan it out by experiencing both. The bench press is the leading exercise in weightlifting and the most famous question "What can you bench" has been going on for decades since the 60's maybe longer. Benching can make you stronger but you will suffer many consequences as you progress to higher weight. Shoulder problems, tendonitis in the elbow, blown out triceps, chest pain, neck problems and torn trapizius joints. There are men and women that are some of the strongest people on the planet yet an extreme few can do push-ups. Whats wrong with this picture? People hitting a hardcore upper body developer and cant do some simple push-ups with their own bodyweight.

What people don't realize (and if they're smart to notice) is that push-ups build the entire body from head to toe from 100's apon 100's of angles. I can name quite a few but hey i'm sure you enthusiasts can come up with them on your own. Push-ups build a different kind of strength then from benching and yet there are very few injuries from push-ups then benching has. Push-ups create the body you want and deserve whether you want to lean and cut or big and burly. After experiencing both i've come to the conclusion that push-ups are far healthier and better yet have far more veriaties then benching.

If you want to build upper body power and become a true fitness machine here are the go to guys.

Ultimate Bodyweight Conditioning- Push-ups

www.transformetrics.com

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Gama Fitness

Probably my top 5 program out of tons of books I have on strength/conditioning. A program by the controversal Matt Furey that was formulated after the greatest wrestler of all-time The Great Gama of India who was undefeted in 5000 matches and trained like an animal day in and day out. It was said by many articles of the great champion that he trained in thousands of calisthenics plus hours of swimming, running and wrestling and with these sayings its very exaggerated but at the same time you knew this man of a beast trained hard.

In this course you are taught how to develop strength in many areas including the mind. In each lesson out of 12 you will exercises that focus on ways to get your mind and muscles work in ways that are rarely taught today. If you learn what to do in this course alone you can do anything you wanted to do. It even teaches you how to gain/lose weight through the power of the mind and exercise and the obvious by eating.


Get into it, focus on what you want and just go with maximum force and make goals that will make you happy, feel energized, feel like a strong bear or gorilla and never put a bad thing into it and you will go far. Heres the lessons in this course:

Lesson One- Making goals and what to do to achieve then. this is probably the most important lessons in the course.

Lesson Two- Variations of Hindu Push-ups/Squats that increase muscular strength/endurance and flexibility.

Lesson Three- How to increase speed and explosiveness through hill sprints and various equipment.

Lesson Four- Going beyond the bridge and get into whats called Bridging Gymnastics.

Lesson Five- Keys to building incredible Pull-up strength and overall upper body development in that area.

Lesson Six- Isometrics used by Gama and some of the greatest athletes in the world in a series of non moving flexing and squeezing muscle groups.

Lesson Seven- Building strength and power using the Chest Expander. If you're a combat athlete or strongman you'll love this.

Lesson Eight- Exercises (other then Hindu PU's and Squats) that build great cardiovascular conditioning through the Power Wheel and Jump rope.

Lesson Nine- Stretches that simutaneously build Strength/Flexibility at the same time. Dont always believe in the fact if you want strength lift and stretch for flexibility.

Lesson Ten- Ways of rejuvinating the body after vigerous training.

Lesson Eleven- The keys to gaining/losing weight while training and how it can affect the body.

Lesson Twelve- The Muscle/Mind Connection and how it pans out for daily life and how you can use it effectively to achive anything you want.

This course sells at 215 bucks on Matt's site and well worth the dough but if you feel you dont want to pay that much then go to ebay, you'll see it somewhere. This is by far the course when it comes doing high levels of conditioning even for the elite. Have fun and hope you get a kick out of it.

www.mattfurey.com

Yours in Power & Might

Ben

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