Before baseball was a major success, before football became
the second national pastime, wrestling was the talk of the world. Even in the
carnival ACT shows, wrestling was a way to make money whether by side bets or
on a major bout in a small city. The most notable wrestlers of the day were Tom
Jenkins, George Hackenshmidt, Frank Gotch and quite possibly the greatest of
them all Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Wrestling as we all know is the oldest of sports
and what better to help bring wrestling to the national spotlight then in the
Industrial Revolution. It took more then these men to make a profit and matches
were unpredictable as some lasted a few minutes to lasting a few hours.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Wrestling & The Golden Age Of Physical Culture
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Fire, Passion & Powerful
Three words that I can describe this guy whose come right
out of the bushes and began a journey of strength & health unlike anyone I’ve
seen before. I’m talking about my man Matti Merzel. He’s one very unique
individual that you only see once in a generation. A man who’s come so far in a
short period of time that one can only wonder how far he’s going to push the
limit. This is the same guy who was in the army in Israel and became a mean, fighting
machine.
There’s a lot of great qualities about him but one thing
that gives him away more then anything in a good way is his intensity for
becoming strong and powerful at a small size. One would not think of him as
being strong but that’s where ignorance is bliss. I’ve seen and talked to some
of the strongest people on this planet but Matt has that aura of him that takes
on a whole new meaning to the words “holy f*cking s*it.”
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The Animal
There’s a movie of the same name that’s been around for over 10 years. It’s a really funny comedy if you’re a fan of Rob Schneider. I’ve seen it many times over the years but after learning more on exercise I’m looking at this movie from a different perspective. It’s one of those scenarios of being bullied and turning it into triumph.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Fitness Russian Roulette
Ever heard of that ultimate and ruthless gamble? You have one bullet in a gun and you never know which part of the barrel it’s in. It’s a matter of life and death and you never know how long you’ll live until BANG!!! You’re dead.
In the fitness world this type of gamble happens more often then you might think. You have that one chance to find the results you want, you keep trying this or that but in the end, that one bullet will come up on you and because of your stressful efforts you failed and bit that bullet. People gamble so much for their bodies that the odds of them succeeding are 100-1 in my opinion. Very rarely that bullet of failure falls out of that metaphorical gun and you just happen to accomplish a goal and you felt awesome about it.
There’s also another metaphorical gun you should avoid that has not just one bullet but beyond the loaded rounds and that’s the verbal gun. The majority of people will tell you that you can’t achieve something great and you won’t make something happen because you’re no good. This type of Russian Roulette is far more dangerous then being scared of being a failure. To avoid that stress and anxiety picture all those people that tell you that you can’t be successful. Picture them as if they were bullets in a loaded gun and if you even attempt one shot, most likely it will hit you hard. What you do is in your mind is think of taking that gun out into the ocean where no one will find it. Take it as far out as you can where no one can hear them or see them. Take out all the bullets and throw that bitch in the ocean and let it sleep with the fishes. You are a wonderful person who should succeed and if you want it bad enough you’ll go get it and not let one negative person stand in your way. Don’t pull the trigger.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
The Forgotten Lift
Before anyone said “How much can you bench?” Before there were cardio machines reigning gymnasiums and long before the testing powers of Power lifting, there was one lift that gave you the most praises for your test of strength and that was the overhead press. This was the lift that told you how you belonged in the Physical Culture world and the two variations that became the stuff of legends were the Bent Press and the Two Hands Anyhow which means lifting 2 objects any way you can.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Internal Conditioning
A lot of mainstream gyms today help you build your body from an external point of view as in you see what’s in the mirror and for most that’s the only thing that counts. Some even go on extreme diets and do extreme type workouts that not only can hurt you from the outside but more on the inside. Have you ever thought of what it’s like to feel alive both in and out?
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Finding The Flow Of Your Training
All of us have different perspectives about the flow or high we get when we train. It can be a real hardcore workout, smooth and methodical, powerful or having the feeling of just taken on the world and won it in a glorious fashion. When you find how you flow through your workouts, you’ll be getting a sense of what true strength and power lies, not in the muscles but in the mind.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
How To Deal With Minor Injuries
Anything can happen in a workout especially when it comes to injuries. You can break a bone, sprain an ankle or you can pull muscles. One little minor injury however happens often in the strongman world and at times its common in gymnastics and that’s tearing of the skin. You get a cut or a bruise and you automatically think your training is done. Well hate to burst your bubble but you can still train while you heal but might need to cut back (no pun intended) a bit.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Muscle Control Resurrected
There is such a thing as building beautiful muscles without ever training with weights. It’s not always calisthenics that does it but with the proper techniques, you can build awesome looking muscle by doing the lost art of Muscle Control. This method of exercise is one of the most unique in the world and it’s very powerful.
Muscle Control has been around for centuries since it became famous by a teacher who traveled to
The real days of Bodybuilding were in the era of the stars I mentioned above. Their physiques were unmatched then as they are today and even back then before steroids and the overwhelming franchise of supplements and infomercials, these men taught the public through their mail-order courses how to live the life of a healthy, strong and vibrant individual. Most of these men outlived the majority of the average life capacity of the time which was between 47 and 60. Even after they had reach their peak in the world of fitness and healthy living, their bodies still looked vibrant and powerful as their strength was just as incredible as well.
Did I forget to mention that these stars have phenomenal strength as well? Matter of fact sometimes they did Muscle Control exclusively and still had incredible power left over. Take Otto Arco for example…One of the best overall athletes on the planet at the time was also one of the first 3 men in his weight class to lift double bodyweight in the overhead press which was unheard of for a man at less 155 pounds. Controlling the muscles individually can help increase some of your lifts if you do that as well because it teaches the muscles when to contract for a specific lift or stunt.
Powerful muscles can make you healthy in the long run as well. Practicing this method helps build internal power as it can increase your breathing capacity and strengthen the organs and not put rough stress on the tendons. When you learn the art, you will find some very rare techniques that not only give great definition and power but keep you healthy and vibrant. These exercises worked then and they’ll work now and if you’re practicing professional bodybuilding, your competition will ask about how you’re building these sculpted and chiseled muscles.
Take your time to learn these, you don’t need to rush and just jump into the exercises. Learn them, do them and practice, practice, practice. Before you know it, you’re going to look like a person that was carved from granite and have the body of a rugged athlete. Have fun and trust the power within you.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Beginners Luck
Every journey starts at taking one step at a time. Just like in Fitness, if you haven’t exercised at all or wanting to get back into after many, many years, all it takes is one step and keep moving. It’s not always easy getting into an exercise program and you might get discouraged because you can’t get the exercises right off the bat. Starting out can be confusing and not know what to do. Many systems don’t teach you real basic training instead they tell you to this for muscles and that for strength it becomes a vicious cycle that you never should go through.
Basic training is the foundation of all exercise systems, once you mastered them that don’t mean you need to do them anymore; no it means you can go back to them if you need help with progressions and never needing to do the same routine twice. You can change the tempo of your exercise, increase/decrease speed, hold certain postures and work the same exercises but in a different order. Never let yourself get bored because learning is the fun part and you’re finding who you are as a trainee. Progression is the key to the game and in order to play, you need to build yourself from a very easy exercise to a very difficult one.
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