Bending Steel: A Documentary

Films come and go, some take your breath away, some make you cry, even some make you think. A documentary however is different. It shows real life as we know it or may not know it. Look at Pumping Iron. Yes it was considered a documentary but under certain scopes it really was a docudrama. Really a great film in of itself and showed the power and strain and drama of bodybuilding. Now how many documentaries are there for strongmen? Not too many but one film seems to want to take that obstacle and take it to another level.

This film is about the journey of one such strongman. Small in body structure but big in will power and the will to succeed. His name is Chris Shoeck and he's learning the craft of the old-time strongmen from the vaudeville era of the early 20th century at the historic American boardwalk Coney Island, NY. Along this journey you will see what this man at 5'7 155 pounds does when he bends incredibly tough steel bars and such other great feats of strength, you will find very rare Photos of one of Coney Island's Strongest men Joseph Greenstein AKA The Mighty Atom who wasn't that much smaller or bigger then Shoeck is today. You will also see very rare footage of the strongman's protege' Slim The Hammerman Farman who was recently inducted into the York Barbell Hall Of Fame.

While you will see a heartfelt and surprising journey unfold it wouldn't be possible without the help of Chris' mentor. Professional Performing Strongman Chris Rider is also in the film as well. He's a protege' of World's Strongest Man Dennis Rogers. Rider has become famous in his own right being one of the top guys in his field at a relatively short span of only a few years. He's one of the fastest rising strongmen in the world and for good reason. The man is a monster at 6'4 290 pounds of pure solid rock. He's known to bend tough horseshoes, rip decks of cards in halves, rip license plates in quarters and bend wrenches unbraced (not using the lower body as leverage).

As you will see in the film which is set to be out as of summer 2012, Rider helps Shoeck learn the ropes of the audience, bend certain things within periods of time and also see Rider at his best as he bend and tears whats infront of him. This film is one that needs exposure because the Old-time Strongman are starting to fade if it hasn't already and this film is helping bring back what was the glory days of the Strongmen of that era. With Shoeck on his way to performing, does he have a bit of the Atom in him? Will he perform unlike other times he has before? We shall see and if you take a look at the trailer http://www.bendingsteelmovie.com/ you will get a peice of the journey but will you find the destination once you see it?

I'm proud to get to help get this film going. While the crew is finishing up, me and Chris Rider will be helping spread the word of this film and I hope YOU will as well. Nothing in the Iron Game is more sacred then being apart of some of the strongest people on the planet and nothing is more sacred in this business then to help restore what is now a memory in the eyes of those came before us. Join me and Chris to bring this film to life nationwide and around the world.

Pre WWE vs. WWE Now

Before you had pyrotechnics and the big spectacle of drama and soap opera that is WWE today, there was a time when wrestling was meaningful. At the time once wrestlers like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt were long gone (once the 30’s rolled around) you still had some great wrestlers who drew in crowds but then it started rooting in the ground of what was to become a heavy national spotlight and the start of sports-entertainment.

Back in the days of wrestling where they were guys like Bruno Sammartino, “Superstar” Billy Graham, Buddy Rogers, Crusher & The Bruiser and even wrestling greats Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne there wasn’t a big boss of the biggest corporation to go to until Vince McMahon sr. came into the spotlight in the late 60’s and 70’s. You had territories where promoters held their ground in certain states across the country, in Canada & abroad. There were champions in every territory but the biggest Company at the time next to what used to be the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was the NWA ( National Wrestling Alliance.

Wrestling camps back then were scarce and since there was no internet, cell phones hell a wrestling camp wasn’t even in the god damn phonebooks. They were through word of mouth. Back then up-coming wrestlers got the shit kicked out of them and some of those camps made Tough Enough look like a cake-walk. Ask guys like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Paul Orndorff, and Randy Savage even the greatest good guy of them all, Ricky Steamboat. If you got into a camp it wasn’t easy and being in a camp wasn’t the hard part, it was being on the road and practically having wrestlers as your family. A wrestling camp in those days meant that if you didn’t come back for more and make just a tad more then 100% effort you didn’t belong there. Wrestling Legend Vern Gagne had a camp in Minnesota where he took up to 12-16 guys to see how tough they were and put through training that just didn’t seem to be human. I mean you have guys do 500 squats, 100’s of push-ups, ran stairs up and down then carrying a guy on your back and then you’d get in the ring to learn a few moves and that was just a daily routine for these guys. I don’t know the real details about this camp but I can assure you I have put myself through some workouts but I would not want to mess with guys who made it through that camp.

Other trainers like Eddy Sharkey, Killer Kowalski, Hiro Matsuda and even the late Karl Gotch would train some of the biggest names that went to NWA, Japan, WWF/E and Vern’s near 30yr stint Organization the AWA in Minnesota. The big time names that came out of these camps went on to have some of the most famous matches in the history of wrestling. Once the 80’s rolled around you had Mega Stars making huge bank and some of the matches these guys did lasted close to or even over a whole hour. Win/Lose/Draw those matches pitted wrestlers at the peak of sport to entertainment before those 2 words were put together by WWE owner Vince McMahon jr.

Wrestling Camps today are very open to business and the training of wrestlers. Some camps are rip offs, very few give an up-coming wrestler what he needs to have Charisma, Ring Work, Conditioning, Mic Work, Working The Crowd and Ring Psychology. For the most part camps today are expensive as hell and usually from what I read far more wrestlers quit after a couple months then wrestlers who train their asses off and actually make it to the WWE. In my opinion, if most of these gyms had a synch of a Vern Gagne or a Hiro Matsuda Attitude I wouldn’t doubt some of the wrestlers would be far tougher then some guys today. Wrestlers in WWE are tough in their own right, they did a lot to get where they’re at but the training today is nothing like yesteryear.

For my opinion on WWE’s future, I would say it’ll make more money in 10 years then it did 30 years ago its really that huge and most likely already made that much bank as a company. A lot of people have their opinions about pro wrestlers and how much its more drama then physicality but the truth of the matter is these guys are some of the greatest athletes around and ya outside the ring some do drugs, drink and take certain things but in that ring when they wrestle they really are some of the best storytellers and some of the physicality they bring is just incredible. So the next time you give a wrestler shit try training like one and you’ll see how brutal some of these guys can really be. Even though it’s a spectacle and has characters that are just not that normal you have to give them props from where they came from and how they got there.

Taking A Page Out Of George Hackenshmidt

Back in the early 20^th century, GH was considered by many to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time. Still do to this day. He was a champion in both weightlifting and wrestling plus had a string of strongman performances. As an athlete he trained with the best of them and trained rather uniquely at the time and that was integrating both weights and bodyweight exercises. Now even back then plenty of athletes did this but he did in a way that became legendary. So much so he wrote a few books on the subject including his biggest seller The Way To Live which I highly recommend you check out it’s a wonderful book.

He became very popular in his time that today he was considered as a turning of the century equivalent to Hulk Hogan. In his later years he kept on training and writing up until his 90’s. In a time where you were considered an old man at 50 George broke the mold and went past what is considered old today. That’s quite an accomplishment.

If you want to become the athlete you want to be then you need to find your own unique style of training like Hackenshmidt did. Your workouts need to be different then anybody else and in some cases some people use weight, some use just bodyweight (like yours truly) and even some use both at the same time which ideally is a good thing because you get to balance out the best of both worlds. A good idea to use in this pursuit is to also use Odd Objects which means you move something heavy that can be used to lift in odd places unlike a straight barbell or dumbbell.

One such a guy has taken that mold and created what I would like to say is the ultimate physical culture courses on integrating both weights and bodyweight exercise and that’s Bud Jeffries. This man by many in the Iron Game to be one of the strongest super heavyweights in the world (Drug Free) and I’m in no position to argue with them. I’ve seen first hand in person how powerful he is and it’s just unbelievable. His strength is just surreal and anybody who says otherwise is a bullshitter. He has lifted some of the heaviest weight around but can also do high repetition squats and push-ups. In his courses Twisted Conditioning and Twisted Conditioning 2 they are considered to be in my opinion one of the best works in the iron game like the Godfather films are to movies. They are that good.

When you learn to integrate these conditioning elements you’ll find that learning a unique style of training is how you can start becoming your own trainer. Me personally have done so many exercises in my lifetime that I know what works and what doesn’t for me and Bud is one of many guys I have known to teach me those things. Let him do the same thing for you and give you the chance to become a much stronger person both inside and out and vise versa. Once you start finding what works for you, you will become your own ultimate athlete.

The Most Feared Position In Football & How You Can Condition Like One

Lambert, Taylor, Butkus, Lewis….What do these names have in common? These are the last names of some of the feared Linebackers in the History of the NFL and for good reason. They were tough, vicious and some of the most conditioned athletes on the planet. Believe it or not a Linebacker in my opinion is second to the quarterback because he has to keep a sharp eye on where the ball and the players are going and once someone has the ball near them bam he pounces like a wild tiger going for the prey. A linebacker needs the speed of a running back, the strength of a lineman and a keen eye of a quarterback.

If you’re going to train like one you need to hit your workouts fast and hard. There’s no need to do hour long marathon workouts because those are for more moderate workouts in most cases. Hitting your workouts with a vengeance for a few minutes a day can take you far beyond what you normally consider training.

Now you may not start out fast and hard but with a will and the ability to get better you will get stronger, faster and more agile. Vince Palko has such a way to get you to the top as a conditioned athlete and for good reason. He’s been there himself personally.

As a college and pro football player, he was taught by some of the best coaches this world has ever known and he was never apart of a losing season and has won many titles in his career. He’s also one of the most knowledgeable guys on the subject. You want to get hammered to the ground, let him get you to those heights and make you want more. He has a plethora of courses on how to get in condition unlike you have ever seen before. Whether you’re in football, sports or just want to get in better shape here is one of the best places to go.

Vince Palko Strength/Conditioning Website

Helping Bring Back Catch Wrestling

My wrestling studying started when I saw Wrestlemania XII in March of 1996. I was 11 years old a few months shy of being 12 and I was captivated by the main event and that was the WWE Championship Match between HBK Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart. This was an Iron Man match which lasted an hour long and in this particular type match whoever scored the most pins/submissions wins the match. These 2 guys went at it and I didn’t know it at the time until I learned later on that at the beginning of the match they started doing what’s called in the business Chain Wrestling which was a sequence a moves that was fast-paced and timed correctly. After that match I was hooked into wrestling and went to events at the time was The San Jose Arena (Now HP Pavilion) and the San Francisco Cow Palace which also was a big time wrestling venue for many years since the 60’s I think. I even met and had my picture taken with WWE Superstar the dead man himself The Undertaker.

Once I got into the circus-like atmosphere of the business I wanted to learn more about it so I recorded a show on A&E one night that had the topic of wrestling called The Unreal Story Of Professional Wrestling. In this film it gave insights into the roots of professional wrestling beginning with the cavemen, Egyptians, Japanese and the best of them all Catch Wrestling that was apart of the Civil War and how guys in the ACT shows (Athletic Shows) and carnivals would take on all-comers.  It talked about guys like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt, Otto Arco & Farmer Burns. Those were the guys that seemed the most cool looking to me and they weren’t bodybuilding type dudes they were far smaller but a lot more into wrestling the way it was as oppose to today.

As far as I was concerned Wrestling was the most brutal sport and the most scientific sport there is and that was at the time my introduction to physical culture and that’s when I became a fan of history and culture. This is where I tell you that if you haven’t figured it out was that if you’re a true fan of something and make a positive way for you to be enthralled by it that’s when you’re the ultimate fan. You learn it you practice, you study and you want to make a positive impact on it. Now I know what you’re thinking “Well what about those obsessed fans that have pictures and have a shrine to pro wrestlers?” Those types of fans are just plain psychotic and in desperate need of help.

When you really get into the sport of wrestling its not just how you study it, its how you talk to people who were wrestlers, what’s their training like, where did they train, who trained and who do they know to be experts. I have talked to guys who have a vast knowledge in catch wrestling and have studied and learned from the very best in the world. If you’re a true fan you would learn what techniques are used, how you condition and what you can find to help it be more applicable to other martial arts systems.

I have studied wrestling for little over 15 years and have gotten on the mat a time or 2 and have made it a quest to be in the best condition I can possibly be. A true fan goes old school, he doesn’t find the latest gadgetry or learns from guys who don’t know a god damn thing about wrestling. I have learned so much yet I still have a long way to go. You don’t stop after hitting a plateau you keep driving and finding the best sources. Wrestling is my fav. Sport period. Its fascinating to me I want to spread the word about it. Take it from me if you want to be a true fan to the sport of wrestling you’ll find the best sources about it and you can have that opportunity here…….Scientific Wrestling

Animalize Your Body

Most training programs have set and rep schemes where you’re set up on a fixed type workout and a lot of people get discouraged sometimes because they don’t make it through them which would really suck. Forget the set and rep schemes for a while and have fun when you exercise because that’s what it’s supposed to be right? You have fun, you enjoy yourself and in the end you feel good.

When it comes to human training it can be boring at times, doing certain exercises in one position and needing to do rep after rep after rep and for some people they will get bored after a while. Why not learn how to be a kid again and go the park and have fun moving around and not worry about what to do next. That’s the beauty of Animal Exercises.

As you learn to move like an animal visualize yourself as that animal. Feel the fury of being in the jungle and have the burning desire to be one powerful looking beast. You’re working out and if you learn to imagine yourself as that animal believe it or not your results will become much quicker and faster.

So for the most part its safe to say that animal exercises can be the most fun training systems around and learning to be a wild beast can have a big impact on your life outside of fitness. You’ll be more confident, vibrant, alive and have an animalized body that have people turning their heads. Go check out my man Ed Baran’s Animal Courses and you’ll learn first hand how to become the king/queen of your jungle.

Animal Kingdom Conditioning

Animal Kingdom Conditioning II: Call Of The Wild

Wild Animal Fitness For Kids

Taking The Handstand To A Whole New Level

Hand Balancing is without question one of the most fascinating feats of bodyweight strength there is. You see gymnasts, acrobats and the men and women of Circ De Solei who all do a form of hand balancing. Now they’re awesome to watch but they didn’t start that way. They built a foundation so they can get on the path to holding the perfect handstand.

Like any other program you want to build your way up in order to go from basics to intermediate to advanced stages and that’s the starting point of building a solid foundation. I for one had to start at a level before the basics because unlike a gymnast or a light weight I’m a big dude at 240+ lbs. I had to start in the headstand on the wall because I’d fall on my ass if I just kicked up from standing. From there I worked my way up to holding a handstand against the wall for more then a minute. I may never get to the perfect handstand but again if I ever pursued it I would probably do much better and plus I like handstand push-ups. That shouldn’t stop you from building a great handstand. If you’re passionate about Hand Balancing then by god go do it brother.

I must give some of you guys a heads up and tell you that Hand Balancing isn’t just an exercise for the upper body; it’s a whole body exercise. Believe it or just because you’re on your hands doesn’t mean your legs don’t do any work because the legs are more involved then what you would believe. You have to work your body as a unit in order to create the best Handstand you can make.

When you create the perfect handstand its not just how you hold it or where the body needs to be but in order to have such a handstand you have to set your mind with your body on how it all ties together. Whether its on the wall or free handed you must practice keeping your body in great alignment so it doesn’t just look good but it won’t hurt your body and won’t set up to get injured.

If you want to build a solid program you need to go to the best places to find it and you don’t need to go to a gym or have special equipment, just use your own bodyweight and find a good amount of space to practice in. For free Handed Handstands I recommend NOT YOUR ROOM!!!! Trust me on this I’ve done it and it hurt like a mother. I would suggest either your yard or a park and until you have significant training the only time you should do it indoors is when you have done a full fledged handstand.

Here are a few ideas of what you can learn to develop your own beautiful handstand……

Learning the correct hand positions

Building Superior Balance

Step By Step Instructions to create a straight handstand

Gain Amazing Body Awareness

How To Stay In The Zone Vs. Going through the motions

And Many More……

It takes practice to build a superior exercise but if you took a look at these two great Physical Culturists I personally believe you will find your ticket to Hand Balancing Success.

Hand Balancing Mastery Course

Gymnastic Handstands

Lost Art Of Hand Balancing

&

Ultimate Guide To Handstand Push-ups

Electrical Energy In CoreForce Energy Training

Like a car to an engine your mind and body are the same thing. One will not work without the other and vise versa. Creating energy is not easy but there are simple solutions to it. Your body has a ton of strength & power within but if your mind isn’t up to the task you won’t last very long. Same with the mind, you have tons and tons of electrical cords that keep the brain intact but if the body doesn’t respond then how the hell are you going to get around let alone be strong and enduring.

To get a better analogy, look at Star Wars, specifically the Jedi. They use the Force to generate their power and how it intertwines with everything around them. It’s the same thing with CoreForce Energy; you learn to intertwine your mind/body together to create the ultimate power within you as it is. Now I’m not saying you’ll move objects without touching them or mindfully control somebody but what you will learn is how you integrate that power that you can harness whenever you want.

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. That’s pretty damn fast. Will you be able to go that fast? Hell no, its not possible no matter how hard you try but with imagination and the will to integrate with your body you can become much faster then you have normally known. Look at the cheetah, its literally the fastest animal on the planet that reach up to speeds as fast 67 miles per hour in one swoop. How the hell can a cat/animal be that fast other then any other animal? Mostly for survival but it also brings forth how it needs to be fast to catch its prey. Think about it for a second, taking the power of your imagination and using it to amp your muscles to create huge amounts of strength and thinking like a cheetah and burst out like a wild cat.

Like the force, energy is all around us and how we harness it can help you bring in strength you never knew yet you had all along. When you fuse the power of your mind and body you can become a more powerful being. I have witnessed it in myself, my friends and my mentor. My friend Garin Bader can help you achieve the power within you to come out of the darkness and shed some light into a greater being inside you. Build up to it and you will find power that you will have and harness whenever you wish to use it. Its not difficult but you will need to put a little work into it like anything else.

Come check out........CoreForce Energy

Power Of The Animals Part Three

Now we all have seen in the gym or doing our training at home that we have to have set/rep schemes. We do this for cardio, this for strength and this for flexibility. For the record I’m not dissing this notion because its organized, done for specific reasons and its got you covered for what needs to be done. What I’ am saying however is that at times this can also take the fun out of exercise and you don’t enjoy it as much.

How about you open your mind up and try something a little different. Forget sets and reps and just go out and have fun. Seriously have fun. That’s one of the keys to fitness success is that you look forward to your workouts and also you want to enjoy them. That’s how I feel about Animalized Training. It takes away the complicated timing of writing down or setting up a workout when you can just take it for what it is and have a ball.

Animal Fitness can make you feel better about yourself because you get to act like a little kid at the playground. It’s not a secret that Animals are far more conditioned then us and there’s no way in hell we can top what they possess. So why not imitate them and get much stronger then the guy who sits on his ass eating chips and watching hours of TV everyday. For real a animal workout doesn’t need to be more then 20 minutes long period. The exercises are compound movements which mean it works multiple muscle groups which you need to burn fat and gain functional muscle. What they also do is generate HGH a.k.a Human Growth Hormone which helps you stay young, burn fat, build muscle and gives you energy beyond belief.

I practice Animal Exercises quite often because of the fun in how I can train without needing a strict workout and needing only a few minutes a day is just great and I feel like a million bucks. So why not you? I know it tends to look stupid at times because there are exercises that can make you look silly but who can really care?

Lets face it, kids today are becoming overweight because of bad eating habits and they never get fully into doing exercise and it’s a damn shame. There are even some schools in this country that are taking away P.E because kids aren’t just into it and its really sad. Hell not everyone likes to exercise, shit I train 7 days a week and have been for over 6 years and I sometimes feel its crazy and a waste of time on some levels but I do it anyway because I always end up getting something out of it.

So come on people. Wouldn’t it be fun just for a few minutes a day to be like a kid again and build up your energy to do the things that can make your life a little easier? God damn I want to feel that way all the time. If you also worked out as a family, it can lead to better happiness in your relationships as a family and work together and bond, it will go a long way to not only be better for yourselves but for the kids as well. Remember the game tag as a young boy/girl? Well how about you and your son/daughter pick your favorite animal and as that animal you play tag. You might want to compromise being the same animal cause I don’t think a bear can outrun a lion or tiger LOL……

Take up Animal Kingdom Conditioning & Wild Animal Fitness For Kids and if you’re a real stud check out my man Eddie Baran’s new course Animal Kingdom Conditioning II: Call Of The Wild. Get off the couch and start moving yourself into a wild beast in the jungle.

Become A Wild Beast & Become Much Stronger Then The Average Human

Have you seen the animals in the wild? The real power in these jungle creatures are far beyond any human strength that’s possessed. Take a look at the strength of a gorilla. At a bodyweight that can reach up to 400+ lbs. it can practically climb with ease and the power in his hands are just as strong if not more then a lifter’s legs. What about the speed of a cheetah? Runs up to speeds at best 65+ miles an hour to catch its prey. Now we will never become that fast but we can most certainly increase our speed.

What I’m getting at here is if we want to build solid strength and power and develop great endurance and stamina then look no further then Animal Exercises. Because of the compound movements being used you’re using both muscular strength and muscular endurance all at the same time. Not a lot of exercises do that. Plus with animal type training you’re developing the body the way it was meant to. Being functional and not isolating one group of muscles. Also you’re not just building muscle and burning fat but the strength in your tendons and ligaments are one of the true keys to overall strength and power.

Take a look at the tendons of a chimpanzee. Now its not very muscular in the same sense as a gorilla but they’re strength is nothing short of surreal as in if you let him squeeze your finger it can most likely break it. Tendons are actually more important then muscle building in my opinion because with strong tendons you can develop strength in ways build muscles can’t. If you build too much muscle it can wear down the tendons and that’s how you see injuries in the knees, ankles, shoulders and lower arms. Building bone density is keen to having a healthy life. For Astronauts they need to build their bone density when they go into space because with no gravity you aren’t using the body very much and you lose muscle mass. So its safe to say building tendons is important.

Muscle Building however is also important because you need those muscles for specific things and getting around. I’m not talking about bodybuilding in the sense you’re building so much muscle you can’t walk right no I’m talking about the muscle building that is functional and can have you do things you normally wouldn’t do. It takes strength to hold heavy objects or lifting groceries and whatnot so functional muscle building is a must. That’s why animal exercises are so complex and simple. You’re moving your body in different directions and using muscles you normally don’t use which in terms helps build the strength you need.

When you get into the habit of moving like an animal in your workout you’re working the body that can lead to a healthy one and create an inner power within you that is confident, vibrant and alive. Some animal exercises look a little weird but what’s wrong with that? I don’t see anything wrong with it and I practice it quite often. You don’t need to set up a workout hell don’t even look at it as work it’s a little fun thing to do for a few minutes a day. Go to the park and play with your kids or just do it yourself either way its going to be a great experience. Check out Ed Baran’s Animal Kingdom Conditioning Courses and get yourself on track to being a wild beast in the jungle and become more powerful then you ever thought possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re skinny or overweight, young or old these exercises will give you the power to be a new you and engulf yourself into the jungle.

Animal Kingdom Conditioning

Animal Kingdom Conditioning II: Call Of The Wild

Animal Fitness For Kids