Using Different View Points To Create Your Style

Learning different view points from other Physical Culturists is quite a learning experience. You learn what works for them, how they developed a philosophy for training and what can work for others. Some of the best guys in this field have great philosophies and quite a few I agree with but yet for that same line of guys there are things I do disagree with. Its not out of disrespect its because I know what works and what doesn't. If you want to learn from the best you have to do research and experiment. Find what works for you and be open minded about who these guys are.....For example...

Bud Jeffries....A man of great strength and ferocious power is a man of god who uses the best equipment and body weight exercises to create the ultimate athlete and build strength & endurance at the same time with a separation of spiritual strength and strength using energy or qi gong. One guy I have very high respects for and one of the coolest guys I ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Brooks Kubik....Without question one of the greatest writers in the history of Physical Culture for the last 20 years. His beliefs is in Hard Work, Old School time-tested methods for super strength and muscle-building and puts a lot into basic lifts and the great methods of Olympic weightlifting. Work your exercises into the ground and master the exercises you want to do.

Logan Christopher.....A man I would def. call a brother because he's helped me over the years showing me how I can be a good physical culturist with the way I'am and have on many occasions seen him do some of the coolest feats of strength a man his size should not be able to do. He believes that to get the best results is to build a foundation to creating great strength and use the best equipment for mega results whether it be weights, bending steel, tearing phonebooks or using the Indian clubs. Whatever style of training you want to pursue learn the values of what is the best to use.

Dennis Rogers....Pound for Pound the world's strongest man for the feats he performs. A man of god as well who has taken grip strength to a level in his line of strongmanism that is as unreachable as wile e. coyote catching the road runner. The things he does should not be done by a man of his size. He is the modern day little Samson and in my opinion the man with the spirit of The Mighty Atom within him. His philosophy is based on how to develop the grip while using the body as a whole using odd objects, tools and weird looking but effective equipment to get the best out of becoming super strong without the need to be a monster.

Garin Bader....Quite possibly one of the most legendary concert pianists of the last 20 years has developed a style where he develops energetic strength through his imagination and mindful power to create surreal strength, dexterity and speed that is just off the charts. With a way to create sounds and develop the difference of muscular strength and his system CoreForce Energy anyone can provide the strength within them in a very short amount of time. Being powerful using muscular strength and being powerful with CFE is a massive difference and once you see it you'll notice right away how strong you can become.

These are examples of the guys I have researched and learned from over the years and I have the highest respect for them for what they do. Whether I agree with what they all do doesn't matter but what I have learned I have taken and developed a style of my own. You may have noticed that some of their styles are similar but at the same time very unique and different in many ways. My style of philosophy of Physical Culture is to learn the basics, transfer that to your daily life, never be hardcore all the time but never slouch either. You don't need to be big to be strong but in order to be strong you have to think big and being wise about what you want to do. Again my style is a little similar to the guys I've mentioned but yet its very different in many ways. I train for strength and power using many different styles that are the best and not use too many things.

Create your own style of Physical Culture by learning from the best and never shy away from who they are and give them the respect they deserve.

Learning How To Tap Into Your Power Within Seconds

Scientists say we only use 5% of our overall power. Now how can that be? We have some of the strongest people on the planet and yet were only using 5% of our potential for super strength? That just doesn't seem right. If you truly want to become powerful you don't need big muscles or have the physique of a Greek god. There's already a power within us that be reached with the right amount of training and its a lot closer then you think it is.

Tapping into the mega secrets of Chi Power is not in a galaxy far, far away nor is it hidden in the undergrounds of the Himalayas. Its really within the power of your own mind and imagination. Let me give you an example of super humans that have the ability to generate so much power within the snap of their fingers that it looks like it came out of comic book movie.....The Shaolin Monks are really some of the most powerful human beings on the planet. They can do things that would boggle the mind and have strength that men twice their size can't even comprehend. Whats their secret? How can they harness that much power? Another would be Strongman and one of my mentors, Dennis Rogers. At 5'8 and nearly 170 pounds has the ability to generate so much power within seconds that its almost impossible to believe a little man of this caliber has the strength to crush hundreds of pounds of pressure and mangle tools that were made to not bend. What is his secret to have these superhuman abilities?

I personally believe that one man has brought a version of this superhuman secret and taken it to a level that is beyond any one's own assumptions and gives you the keys to achieve a level of strength that has to be so surreal its not even funny. This one man has traveled around the world many times over using a few magic tricks, a piano and some crazy stunts that would make your Jaw drop. His name is Garin Bader and he is the author and authority of CoreForce Energy. Its a system of generating beyond that 5% potential that we have in us and creating the ultimate Chi Power within a short amount of time. I'm a firm believer in this system and still practice it to this day after nearly 3 years. Its helped me and thousands of others around the world achieve a level of strength and speed that can only be described by one who has experienced it. If you click on the link in this post you will find a series of how this system works and find your true potential with the power already inside you. Go to Garin's Blog and learn how he can create matrix-like flexibility and still have enough power to knock down a 300 lb. dummy full of sand,water and rock. You will be amazed.

As a Strongman and Physical Culturist I have sworn on my own oath to find the best ways to become strong and powerful and if theres any strongman out there that doesn't have a smiliar oath then he shouldn't be a strongman. This course alone can teach you the secrets of becoming superhuman and give you the power you want. Does this apply to just strongmen? No it applies to everyone who wants to get stronger. Build the strength you were meant to have. Harness the power within you to create anything you want in your life. Create strength within seconds and become a more powerful human being. Take a look at CoreForce Energy.

Bodyweight Exercises: Putting The "Fun" In Functional Strength!!!

In many circles around the web you'll hear quite a few people giving Bodyweight Exercises a bad rap and thats just not right on so many levels. First off whoever thinks bodyweight sucks is their business and their opinion but lets get the facts straight here. This type of training has given many people the world over an awesome body, great strength, surreal flexibility and insane endurance. I say this as a point with the right amount of training. Am I saying weight lifting sucks? Hell no man I just prefer bodyweight because it saves me money, time and I can do it anywhere I want.

The real keys to having a solid program is using your imagination, being creative, find goals and mastering basic exercises. Just like weight lifting, work the basics and soon enough you'll find thats all you need to build a solid foundation for sheer strength, muscle-building and all the good stuff that comes with them. It does piss me off sometimes when these morons don't know the real side of a good solid training program. Example would be some people think that bodyweight training is only good for endurance and doesn't build muscle or strength but it can give you flexibility. Ok in some cases they're right it does build flexibility and can give you great stamina but heres a kicker here folks. For those that don't know i'm 5'10 and 242 lbs. My main training is pretty much all bodyweight and so I have built strength from this type of training um lets see....

I can hold a handstand on the wall for more then a minute

I have Deadlifted nearly 400 lbs. without almost any training on it in the last 5-6 years

Easily can press a 88lb. Kettlebell

Bend Steel short and long

Held a 125 lb. Dumbbell w/ a 2 inch thick handle for 10sec.

I think I've made my point here. Will this type of training do the same for everyone like it did for me? No theres no way not because i'm dissing your abilities its because I chose to try these things and my structure is different then others. That shouldn't mean you can't take a shot at them or whatever you want to do but with a good structure and leverage with your body-to-weight ratio you'd be surprised how strong you can get. So I really don't give a flying you know what about people who say you can't be strong on this type of training.

Man I sound like an a**hole right now don't you think? Sorry guys I tend to do that every now and then. Back to why it puts the "Fun" in Functional Strength. Its fun in my opinion cause you get to be free to do what you want for exercise. When they say the best things in life are free I'd put exercise right near the top of the list in my opinion. You get to be creative and try things at different angles and for the most part you're always isolating muscles.

Working the whole body as a unit is far better then doing a ton of other exercises for specific muscles. When you work the body as One, you're putting on more muscle, burning more fat and your muscular strength & endurance go through the roof. It also saves you time from going to the gym and training in your own home, how many people at the gym can say they trained while they played video games or trained while commercials are going instead of their favorite tv show or better yet train with the music they want to listen to with no one around. That's one reason why I find Bodyweight Exercises fun.

I feel that when Jack Lalanne pioneered his fitness tv show way back in the 50's and 60's he wanted you to get up and start your day with a smile, laughing and feeling good like you were a little kid. He was the guy in my opinion that made exercise fun and enjoyable instead of being hardcore and rough and making you feel that exercise is just horrible. He wasn't just a pioneer in the fitness industry, he was also one of the most intelligent men of his generation because he not only made you bust your ass but you enjoyed it and kept coming back for more with a smile and a thirst for life. That was his true genius and no one should ever forget that.

One of my favorite forms of bodyweight training is being out in the wild and being an animal that is strong, powerful and graceful. This is where another form of freedom comes into play. You don't feel like working out but playing and having fun moving around. Theres something for everyone that can do bodyweight exercises, you can be 10 or 100 and still find a way to do great exercise to keep you young, vibrant and healthy.

Back in the early eras of Physical Culture of the 20th Century, many strongmen on the vaudville circuit, circuses and competitions actually did Bodyweight Training to help gain an advantage for what they did as performers. Many of them were wrestlers, boxers, gymnasts, acrobats and just flat out very powerful men. Otto Arco for example was a superior acrobat who can not only do great hand balancing feats but was one of the first of three men to lift double-bodyweight overhead in the clean and press or jerk if I said that right. John Grimek who has been known as the greatest bodybuilder in the non-steroid era of the sport who can vouch for bodyweight exercises as part of a token of his successful career as a bodybuilder and Olympic Weightlifter. Those 2 were examples of among many others that have used bodyweight with sucessful results.

Heres one final thing about why bodyweight exercises are fun to do for functional strength and that's being able to play with your kids. Children start the first few years of their lives doing bodyweight exercises, whether they're running, jumping, playing on the monkey bars or climbing up to go down the slides they're using nothing but they're own Bodyweight and some of them are very strong for how small they are. Makes you think doesn't it? When you learn to train like a child it can give you a whole different prespective about training. As adults we may not have the same energy as a young child but we can adapt and learn to enjoy being there and playing with them. When you train as a family, you create a certain bond and learning from each other. I want to be able to do that with my own kids one day and be able to have fun with them.

If you're looking for some awesome courses on Bodyweight Exercises then look no further then below.........

Gymnastic Abs

Animal Kingdom Conditioning

Advanced Bridging

Body Sculpting Bodyweight Exercises For Women

Pain Killers

Gymnastic Handstands

Ultimate Guide To Handstand Push-ups

Hand Balancing Mastery Course

Animal Kingdom Conditioning 2: Call Of The Wild

Wild Animal Fitness For Kids

Ultimate Bodyweight Conditioning-Squats

Ultimate Bodyweight Conditioning-Push-ups

My Secret Weapon!!

We all strive to become strong and want to be a powerful human being. What if we turned the volume up a bit and search for a higher purpose and become superhuman. Isometrics for the most part when done correctly is one of the most difficult forms of strength training. The reason why that is its because Isometrics require a laser-like focus of mind over matter and shoot for the last rep first. One of the keys to developing superhuman strength is indeed through isometric exercise.

One of my good friends John Peterson of Bronze Bow Publishing and www.transformetrics.com is one of the best at knowing how to develop strength and conditioning through basic and simple bodyweight exercises. I've had many conversations with him over the last half decade and one that comes to mind is often discussions on Isometric Training. Me and him agree that in order to develop superhuman strength, Isometrics are one of the true keys and as a strongman myself this is true to the bone and i'll tell you why. In order to pull off certain feats as bending, tearing phonebooks, levering sledgehammers or ripping decks of cards you will notice how that to start an isometric contraction takes places and the amount of pressure needed to pull these feats off is not as easy as some people may believe. One of John's products is called the Isometric Power Belt. Its an 18ft long Leather strap belt that withstand as much as 7000 lbs. of force and can be used for many many exercises and not just isometrics but also DSR type movements or Dynamic Self Resistance.

It is without question my secret weapon for feats of strength and because of that unlike what John has advertised for what exercises you can use I have taken it to another level and imitated various feats of strength in order to build super strength in my tendons and ligiments for the feats I want to perform. My secret weapon costs less then a 3 month membership to a gym, less then a set of dumbbells and barbells and just to name another, it costs less then a power rack to hold weights. Am I saying those things are bad, no but i'm not a weightlifter and I don't have a lot of money so this belt is a life-saver for me and it can do more then I expected it to do.

The true secret to Isometrics is not how physically powerful it can make you but how powerful it can make you mentally. You develop Mind Power with Isometrics and you learn how to channel your focus into one given moment of programming your body to get that last rep first. You don't just flex a couple muscles and be done with it, no your whole being is driven to the core. If you want to squeeze out an exercise for 6-10 seconds at 70-90% of your power you can do that but you can also channel it to another dimension and hold it for 1 minute or longer at 30-50% of your power. Thats the beauty of Isometrics. Unlike other exercises where you do different speeds, tempos and how fast or slow Isometrics makes you work your own strength and power which too many people forget to do because they don't care how strong they get and thats a shame. Isometrics helps you build a mind/muscle connection unlike anything else and in my personal opinion and experience, you can build strength and endurance at the same time using Isometric Exercise.

One of the greatest Strongmen in history was former P.O.W of the first World War Alexander Zass. He was known throughout the world for his strength to bend steel bars and being able to take some serious blows to the stomach by boxers and being hit with sledgehammers. Without question he was the world's strongest man for the things he did. When he became really famous he wrote a course detailing how Isometric Exercise was the key to his reknowned power and superhuman strength. He used chains to do certain Isometric Exercises and because of that eventually he eventually was breaking those chains with ease. The chains are now synonum in Strongmanism throughout the last 100 years and used by men like Zass, The Mighty Atom, Slim The Hammerman, Dennis Rogers and many others.

Now a couple questions that come up every now and then were "Can you train on Isometrics Alone?" & "Is it true that Charles Atlas had isometrics in his Dynamic Tension Course?" Now contrary to popular belief, no Charles Atlas did not have isometrics in his course and most people don't know the difference between isometrics and dynamic tension. Iso-Metric in greek terms means Same-Length which in turn means you're holding a certain contraction without moving in any direction. Dynamic Tension means you're moving through a range of motion depending how hard or easy the movement is. Can you train on Isometrics Alone? In my opinion that depends on the individual because Isometrics can be used in many ways, rehab, strongman, athletics, time-saving training just to name a few but in technical terms no and I'll tell you why. Isometrics is a very powerful form of strength and conditioning but to get a complete program you must do various moving exercises whether it be push-ups, squats, pull-ups, muscle control, sit-ups or whatever. Its balancing out the weak points in your training.

I love Isometrics because i'm a strongman and need that form of training to accomplish the feats I want to do. I  also like moving through certain ranges of motion because I want to balance out the weak spots and get that strength and flexibility that I need to stay in top shape. Find your own secret weapon and conquer your own training program. The true keys to complete strength development is learning the basics and creating your own style of training. Like me I have developed my own style of training and it won't always work for everyone either because they're not strong enough or don't have the right structure. Develop your way and build a body thats around your structure and body-to-weight ratio.

Cables For Building Strength For Strongman

In the last century throughout Physical Culture we've seen many strongmen perform great feats of strength such as bending nails, driving nails through boards, rip phonebooks in half, lever sledgehammers, bend and break odd objects, lift ridiculious amount of weight and in some cases do some crazy hand balancing. Yet with all of these things what did some of theses men used to build those levels of strength that would seem impossible to the average person? Well for starters most of them just practiced the feats just themselves and doing tons of isometrics for those feats but believe it or not some of the most famous names used Cable Training to enhance their strength.

The type of Cable Training I'm speaking of is not the pully machines that were in gymnasiums at the time but something more closer to home and thats what we call today the Chest Expander. Back then it had metal springs and would stretch as far as 12-16 inches compared to the rubber cables that can reach up to 18 inches or more. Men like Charles Atlas, The Mighty Atom, Thomas Inch, Eugene Sandow, John Grimek and Earl Liederman all at one point used cables to strengthen their bodies from various angles that weights and bodyweight exercises didn't hit and what happened when they used this device? Well saying they were damn strong would be an understatement.

The beauty with Cable Training is that you can hit angles in the shoulders, arms, chest, abs, back and the legs that many other systems can't and at times you need that type of strength and flexibility in order to keep yourself healthy and strong. Today Cable Training is more popular then ever with Lifeline USA and other companies using cables for just about every gym in the country. You can use them for just about anything, strength training, sports training, rehab injuries and even for endurance training.

Now there is some controversy in the fitness world and saying you can can't build strength and endurance in the same workout. Well I have friends that defied those odds and have done it myself and yes it is true that you can do this but with the right type of training. One way in this case is to do presses with a light cable and once you hit a high number you switch to a heavier cable and do low reps and you can do all sorts of exercises with this but with proper training you can create Strength & Endurance in the same workout.

One of my personal favorites of this type of training is mimicking certain feats of strength such as ripping a phonebook or bending nails or if you're a weightlifter mimick the one-arm clean & jerk/press. As a strongman I have to be in top condition for consistant strength in my feats so I use cables to help strengthen the muscles and tendons I need for the feats I want to perform.

Whether you're a Strongman, Athlete, Housewife, Hard Laborer, Businessman or just the average joe, cables can give you a really great workout in a much shorter time it takes getting the gym. You can have your gym right in your own bag. All you need to do is make a little effort and make a small commitment to becoming stronger, healthier and more durable with vitality and a powerful body.