Going For Distance Using Animal Exercise

Yesterday for Memorial Day, I went into the dungeon to do something a little different than the regular dice game i've been doing for playouts. This game was interesting as it involves some Distance Training but with a little flare. First off from the wall to the end of my mats in the garage is 16ft in length; so going back and forth would be 32 ft. I decided that when I roll for an animal I would go up and come back doing that animal. How many revolutions can you do?

I'm not a fan of running or jogging so I adapt to whatever keeps me interested. In this case; the animals. Now unlike Jogging you won't last very long going for distance straight through unless you're a maniac but for the sake of cardio per-se and throwing in that fat burning idea that animal moves give you; let's see how far you travel or stop to take a breather then keep going. How many yards did you do? What was the distance going up and going back? Do you do it fast or do it slow?

Mixing things up can boost your brain power and overall conditioning however because the animal moves have you going in all different directions; your body is strengthened in ways other methods won't do. Go for distance some time. Yesterday I did 21 revolutions going back and forth of 32 ft. That's a total of 672 ft, divide that by 3 and you get 224 yards. That's quite a stretch of distance for doing animal movements. This is conditioning in another unique way to challenge your body in all sorts of ways. Some people only do 50 yards in the beginning and that's fine; build yourself up.

There's a fine line doing 400 meters sprinting on two feet than it is to do the same length doing the bear crawl; most people can't do it because not only are you using twice as many limbs but you're also challenging your balance and speed. You can go even slower creating a "migrating" Playout where you test your endurance instead of going faster. Try for 500 yards at a slower pace than doing 70 yards at a maximum speed. When you do the jumping animals; do as few jumps as possible because if you do short jumps it's going to be tougher. Here's a playout that will test you in your strength endurance (something I plan on doing one day).....

Bear Crawl 100 Yards

Gorilla Walk 90 Yards

Frog Jump 80 Yards

Tiger Walk 70 Yards

Duck Walk 60 Yards

Alligator Walk 40 Yards

Rabbit Hop 30 Yards

Crab Walk 20 Yards

Seal Walk 10 Yards

That's 500 all together. Rest when needed.

This would be the only playout for the rest of the day because once you do it and have completed it, you'll be spanked. When you get to a point where you're resting less and less, your conditioning will skyrocket and you'll be handling your competition like nobody's business. If you're a combat athlete, this will give you a boost of conditioning that can help you last in the cage or ring for quite a bit. Animals utilize multiple muscle groups and tackle the body greater than on 2 limbs. They give you explosive power, strength unlike anything else (and its functional) and your endurance will go further through the roof than many other exercises can attempt.

I still have a ways to go but if i'm at nearly 230 yards already, i'm nearly halfway there pretty quick. I love animal training and it builds me up like nothing else has. Squats and Push-ups are amazing but to me nothing gets me fired up more than an animal move.

Regardless Of Your Age You Can Do Animal Exercise

From the time we were little, we are taught to use our imagination, reach for the stars and learn to use our brain and body for the adventures lie ahead. As we get older, we drift away from the adventures and start following everyone else; fall off the beaten path, take life way too seriously and suppress our child-like qualities by doing what is told of us, there's no room for imagination only the results someone else wants. We even get so caught up with information that most of the time is completely useless yet it overwhelms us and we become confused, disoriented and downright screwed up.

The funny thing about animal exercise is its ability to bring us closer to nature and closer to what our bodies were meant to do regardless of our age. A 7 year old can do it and play with friends; run around and get that energy out, a man in his 30's can do it to maintain shape, be healthy and stay strong, a man in his 50's can do it to strengthen bones, have strength that would make most men half his age envious, a woman in her 70's can do it to slow down the aging process and have healthy bones and strengthen her brain. It is a powerful form of exercise no matter how old or young you are, its like baseball; it is a form of activity that has been past down from generation to generation and brings others together whether it's for competition or just a friendly outing.

Due to the movements that get you going in all sorts of directions, it helps strengthen muscles that aren't normally used and teaches you how to balance your body no matter what direction you're positioned in. It can make you explosive, enduring, strong from many angles & powers up your tendons. You can start from the very beginning and build a foundation or you'll be able to advance very quickly and reap benefits many never get to achieve. You can go fast, slow, it can can condition your reflexes, calm you down from having excess energy, it increases metabolism, harnesses your Growth Hormone, enhance brain activity which can lead to greater memory and sharpened focus, it can even make you stop within 10 minutes or have you going for more than hour because you get so into it your body just can't get enough. I've had major injuries, tennis elbow, bumped knees, burned skin & even busted my head open all before the age of 21 yet in my near mid 30's I have far less pain, stronger than ever when I was in my teens or even early 20's and kept in awesome shape for my size all due to doing animal exercises.

It has healing properties that can only be described by experiencing it and it can possibly take you out of your funk with depression, hypertension, being lethargic and low testosterone. Many in fitness see it as a warm-up and nothing else; that's all great for them but to take it a step further creates a chain reaction that changes the course of the entire process of being in shape both inside and outside. It changes lives, creates endorphins, teaches self discipline and lengthens the quality of life.

Animal Kingdom Conditioning 1   

Animal Kingdom Conditioning 2

Wild Animal Fitness For Kids

The Importance Of Conditioning Using Animal Exercises

If you look in nature, the wild beasts and creatures that are animals in the jungle, the water, swamplands & deserts are in amazing condition; they have strength lasting them long periods of time, some have amazing stamina like the wildcats & primates, others have insanely powerful joints and tendons to stay tough during battles and for survival looking for food. In our society; endurance, strength & conditioning are dramatically specialized and too concentrated on one or the other. I'm here to tell you, too much concentration on one particular thing without bringing the others into play can be more harmful than you realize.

In order to even move in some animal exercises it takes strength. As you progress, you go a little longer and your stamina builds up but even then you still need the strength to hold yourself and be able to move fluidly because if you become sloppy and your strength diminishes, the rest can falter as well. Strength isn't everything yet it is a key attribute but endurance can also be the defining factor and that can determine your level of conditioning. If you're an athlete, you need to be in shape for your sport. Granted in some sports being in shape isn't everything but in most cases if you get tired early in a game/fight you are pretty much useless to the people on your team or against a particular opponent. 

Conditioning is the best asset whether in sports or in life. The beauty of animal exercises, it doesn't utilize just strength or endurance; both are valued and are the essential elements of what makes them superior to many other systems of exercise. They force you to adapt to any direction you're put in; it's not the typical up and down exercises like weights & push-ups and squats. Unlike other bodyweight exercises where you are stationary (staying in one spot of space), they have you move from point A to B, C, D. up, down, left, right, sideways, forwards, backwards, diagonal, horizontal, vertical, front ways, long ways, north, south, east, west you get the picture. When you move your body in all sorts of directions and gain strength from awkward angles, it creates a dynamic point of view where just like in sports, you're going somewhere at some point you never noticed before. 

The importance on conditioning utilizing this ancient style of fitness remains one of the most powerful yet a nearly forgotten aspect of what brings us closer to nature. Animals are by far in greater shape than any of us humans can even dream of. You can be the fastest man alive, the strongest woman, running a marathon like its nothing or go the distance in a wrestling match but none of us will ever have the universal power, speed, stamina, intensity of a wild animal. Emulating them brings us closer to what our DNA gives us the abilities to do amazing things. You can have a great physique yet have amazing functional strength, legs that can go the distance, flexible shoulders, steel-like tendons & have the lungs that would make a marathoner blush all by imitating a wild animal. Become conditioned, fast, coordinated and crazy strong.  

More On The Animal Dice Game

No matter what program or playout I end up doing, sooner or the later the bug (pun intended) will bite me to say "go back to the animals, they're your favorite." One of the things I have observed in MMA or Wrestling (the real kind) is that you never know what to truly expect from an opponent, the random things that could happen in their strategy can strike you at any time. Randomness can be your best friend or your worst enemy if you never expect the unexpected. Your brain is going a million miles an hour and what you may not know may end up hurting you in the end. That's what I love about doing Animal Moves and playing the dice game.

If you know how to move like a wild animal, whenever it comes up you're prepared to do it but another animal can come up at any time and if you don't know the moves, your instincts can go in the wrong direction. That's the reason why I made the best decision to learn about Animal Movement, it can be very unpredictable because you may not even know which direction to go but if you have practiced enough of the movement and it becomes a second language to you, you have conditioned your body to move that way and you're prepared for it even at the most random moment.

The dice game goes beyond taking random steps of an animal and I have personally have journeyed my mind and my body to be ready at all times whenever an animal comes up and I know all the animals I have learned like the back of my hand. Although it's a game of physical movement, it challenges your brain to be quick and strong to the point where you know what animal to go with but because the game is never the same twice, you're on constant alert for what comes next. It teaches you the unexpected. Just like in sports you don't always know what's going to happen but if you have programmed yourself to expect the unexpected, it gives you an advantage over your your opponents and when you add the conditioning into the mix, you're a monster among men.

It has taught me to use my instincts on another level, create a greater sensitivity of what can be applied next and has made me physically stronger than practically any other program I have done before or since. With animal moves, you can go in any direction; up, down, sideways, backwards, forwards, diagonal, horizontal, create shapes as you move and so on. Many people believe they're only good as a warm-up when they don't realize it can be the most challenging playout of their lives if they opened up their mind and see the other side of the coin. I challenge anyone to play this game and see how they feel after 20-30 min. I have gone nearly an hour doing this and I was done, many won't go 10 min. and 20-30 sounds like forever. If it's too easy, double the reps or triple it; if you can go for a half hour tripling the amount of steps per animal, that's impressive. It's a deadly game but that's the point, it makes you deadly.

How Long Should Animal Playouts Be?

People in fitness tend to give a general ideal of the amount of timing someone's fitness is at. Some say 10 min. is a good start, 15, 20,30 even sometimes an odd number like 13 minutes but for me it ought to be much lower. When someone starts out, they don't know what the hell they're really doing and just going through the motions. I say once you have them getting used to certain movements, start them off with 5 min. to start. Why 5? Isn't that a little short and very easy to start? Well, you want to build up an individual's stamina and strength and for health purposes, 5 min. is more than most can handle.

Once their consistent, build it up minute by minute. I started out with barely 10 min. before I gave out and wanted to die LOL. Everyone is different so they can't always go by the same protocol and plus, some take longer than others to get used to the movements. Depending on your fitness level and coordination for the animals you're good at, start with what's right for YOU!!!

When you're at a level where 10 min. is easy, do 20, then 30 and after that if you're in world class shape you can go 45 min to an hour or longer. Because animal moves are very intense, it won't really take that long to get really winded, even the greatest athletes in the world have fallen prey to short and intense playouts of the animals. Now really when it comes down to it, you don't need to go more than 20 min. to be in awesome shape. That's the main reason I love the animal dice game; after a while the numbers can get boring and you need a challenge; how do you do that? Double the reps on the dice, too easy? Triple them and so how you really do.

It makes me laugh that people say bodyweight exercises or animals are only great for warm-ups; if you tripled the reps on this dice game alone; you'll be begging for mercy within minutes if not seconds. I once did a total of 1000 reps worth of animal exercises within 45 min. to an hour doubling the reps on the 20-sided dice. It was exhausting and packed full of whole body movements that many consider easy, keep going and overtime, the exercises get harder and it becomes more difficult to jump, crawl, walk and hold certain animal postures. Play the dice game long enough and tell me how easy it was; I guarantee it'll make a world class athlete humble after going beyond double reps. I once did about 10-12 rolls tripling the reps of the movements and I was spanked.

The animals (pun intended) become second nature after practicing the movements so that's when you test out your stamina and conditioning by doing the dice game or picking and choosing certain animals for time or as a circuit. They can be done in some many ways its not even funny. They can turn a weakling into a powerful human being within weeks with solid practice. They don't build bodybuilding muscle because when applied correctly, animal moves utilize the body as a single unit and have you using practically every muscle. Many are so intense that a minute or more moving would spank most people in a heartbeat. They build insane conditioning for anyone, even the very best in sports have done them; some are used in gymnastics, wrestling, MMA, Football, the military and other factions of law enforcement for the sole purpose of targeting the entire body and strengthening it from all angles even areas regular bodyweight and weight training can't touch.

Go as long as YOU see fit, build up and see how far you can go. The most I will ever do is an hour but at times i'll be so into it time flies by. Amazing source of functional fitness, hormone builder, testosterone booster, getting excess energy out, lung enhancement, heart strengthening, tendon builder & provides insane stamina for your daily life.

Animal Kingdom Conditioning 1 & 2
Wild Animal Fitness For Kids

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Why It's Important More So These Days To Be In Better Condition Than The Average Person

We live in a society where junk food runs rampant and not enough exercise is instilled. Sure there are many that go to the gym but the biggest purpose for the majority who do only want to look like a pretty boy in a magazine and to have many women show off their ass more than doing real training. It's good to have a goal to be in shape but at the same time you'd want to learn to strengthen more than just muscles but also have some level endurance and flexibility.

Don't get me wrong it's cool to want aesthetics but if you can't be strong, enduring & flexible/mobile what the hell can it really do for you. It doesn't matter how good you look, if you can't go long in the sack or able to move freely as possible, looking good isn't going to help your cause. However, with the right form of training and the ability to eat as healthy as possible, aesthetics can play a great role and will come the way it is meant to.

In this day and age, looking good is not enough anymore; being in real shape and handling life situations is more valuable than having rock hard abs and biceps bigger than the Black Pearl's Cannonballs. If you took maybe 100 people that look like greek gods and goddesses, how many of them are in real shape and can go along with decent levels of strength? Most likely maybe 20% or less. Even more so with the obesity epidemic, staying and maintaining shape is a must. Kids barely even exercise in most schools these days because you have too many written notes, there's no real structure or fun in how exercise is applied; many P.E classes only shoot for teaching specific sports which isn't bad by any stretch but it doesn't teach the fundamentals of kids learning to do Push-Ups, Squats, Sit-Ups, Animal Moves, some form of lifting; hell make them carry a bucket of water if it makes you have them working a little. You know where many kids find exercise; on Youtube. It's cool they found something but nothing compares to learning the real thing and having a coach show you how to apply the exercise with control and able to breathe properly.

Any exercise is better than nothing but it's important to teach the values of understanding your body before moving onto weights or what thereof. Some people go their whole lives not touching a weight and that's awesome yet to get an overall picture its good to have a knowledge and understanding a solid amount of exercises that purely basic and effective.

Circuit Training is very valuable because it's time efficient, doesn't need to be in a huge building and has you building more than just pleasing muscles; it builds strength, stamina, conditioning & flexibility. When you learn to control your breathing & form plus resting as long as needed not what is typically ideal, you can be in incredible shape. Now when it comes down to conditioning i'm not talking Crossfit because that has more flaws than I care to explain but conditioning is being able to withstand stress throughout a playout and it helps you stay in the game even when you might feel shot to hell. Just yesterday I put myself through a Circuit playout that had me doing a total of...

100 Hindu Push-ups
200 Hindu Squats
100 V-Ups
200 Mountain Climbers
100 Hindu Jumpers
200 Side Bends
100 Push-ups
100 Pushing (Jumping Jack Variation)
100 Lunges

Totaling all together 1200 Reps in an hour or less.

You can do lesser reps if you're short on time so it's important to intuitively make the best time for you and do so with intent and making it interesting and challenging. This is a high level playout so for a beginner, cutting it in half would be a hell of a start. You can create your own and not always rely on playouts pre-made. You can adjust the exercise, tempo and time however you wish.    

Circuit Training & The Benefits That Come With It

Circuit Playouts go beyond just moving from one exercise to the other and moving as quickly as possible. The ability to train the body through different tempos and form is a top quality to acquire but at the same time, it's critically important to be aware of breathing and the speed to push through with the best intentions. It challenges your conditioning but it also challenges how you breathe and move throughout a single circuit to multiple rounds.

I have mostly done circuits in the 6-9 range of exercises and do my best to get in 5-10 rounds depending on my mood, the shape i'm in at the time and the difficulty the exercises are. If you're an athlete training for a sport say like MMA, Wrestling, Football, Hockey; you want to be able to move as quickly as possible with limited rest periods between circuits and be able to withstand even great stress. What this teaches is that if you can push through a tough circuit multiple times with very little rest, you can handle extremely well in a competitive environment. However, not all of us can have that luxury because for the average person, pushing that hard can lead to many physical problems and your oxygen levels become more depleted than accustomed to over time.

I believe circuit training can be very beneficial but for the sake of health purposes and a goal to build up strength & endurance over time, its important to focus on the 3 main factors to take on high levels of conditioning; breath control, muscular control (solid form) & tempo. If you move too fast too quickly, your body will shut down in a negative way and you'll need more time to recover, if you move too slow or the playout isn't quite right or not enough you won't make the progress you want. It's like the Goldilocks & The Three Bears concept, there's too much, not enough and there's that one that fits you perfectly. This is where experimentation and focus on how your body operates and is leveled to a particular easy or advanced playout.

Everyone is different so build up to what works best for you and adjust according to your level. On some days it's good to back off and do lesser rounds but on your energetic days you can go for as many as 10-20 rounds if you wish. I also believe in how your energy plays out in this type of training. Pushing to the absolute limit can really deplete your energy levels and you won't be boosting hormones at a great rate; matter of fact your hormones and testosterone levels can drop if you do too much. When your energy levels are leveled to where you can be energized during and after a circuit playout can have a great deal of benefits when done correctly. Circuits can be a powerful way to surge growth hormone, testosterone, strength endurance & energetic properties that lead to greater recovery and accumulate amazing muscle definition & natural muscle mass. It wouldn't matter if its weight lifting, bodyweight, cables or whatever; if you can use the energy to your advantage and use the right form of leverage to where you can be as strong going in as you are coming out of it you're still having a great deal of power throughout your circuit training.

Bodyweight circuits are the best in my opinion because not only can you do them practically anywhere but you learn the sensitivity at a greater rate of your body moves freely than by moving weights because with weights eventually you're moving with the weight instead of moving freely on your own. Be simplistic using pushing, squatting, ab play and some grip to get the most out of your training. You can supplement other exercises but stay with the fundamentals and you'll never go wrong.

A Playout That Turns Boys Into Men & Little Girls Into Strong Women

Many playouts can be challenging and having variety brings a great element of using your brain and your nerves to take in strength & endurance you didn't realize you had. To me such a playout is using a simple deck of cards that can be done in a variety of ways; you can go fast, go slow, do holds, modify and utilize different variations to your advantage and fitness levels.

A awesome playout with the deck of cards is just doing Hindu Squats & Hindu Push-ups. Just these two alone can get you in awesome shape and give you a level of conditioning second to none. The idea of this one is to beat the deck and go a little faster beating it each time but unless you're a pro athlete (Pro Wrestler or someone in Combat Sports specifically) you can only go so fast until you start to lose form and stop focusing on the breathing, the technique and paying attention to the body inside and out. At one point in time for a while I was doing 400 Hindu Squats & 250 Hindu Push-ups at a time with the deck and that wasn't always the best thing for me and ended up hurting myself due to over excitement and adrenaline not paying attention to my body. It's a learning experience and doing that high of reps is a great accomplishment but there's more to it than just hitting those numbers.

You can put any exercise you want with your own deck but don't just do repetitions and thinking that's the best way to get stronger; there is a line you don't want to cross and it'll either make you or break you if you don't pay attention. The deck I like best is the one made for students of Matt Furey and the exercises are Hindu Squats, Hindu Push-ups, V-Ups & Tablemakers. These 4 are the foundation for Combat Conditioning and can be done in great ways that don't always require speed. There have been playouts with this deck where I didn't go for reps but counted breaths or seconds with each card and that becomes a whole other ball game. Doing them in Isometric Fashion develops strength from another universal element and creating power you didn't think existed. It gives that extra spring in your step and puts you in a state of mind that is blissful, peaceful yet excitingly challenging.

You don't need the Matt Furey Exercise Bible to do these 4 exercises, you can put them on any deck you choose but how you apply them for the best intentions is up to you. I mean just the other day I did a total of 300 Hindu Squats  and 100 Hindu Push-ups, V-Ups & Tablemakers each and felt like a million bucks. It never gets easier but it does get more interesting once you're consistent with it. You can make it the most challenging Playout of your life or make it to where its not that difficult but yet still feel great. Make it play for YOU!!!

If you can't get your hands on that specific deck, here is a place where you can pick your own deck and have at it.....My personal favorite deck is here.

Why I Don't Train To Failure

In the past, I have pushed myself in gym sessions and even during certain bodyweight training sessions to the point where I couldn't move anymore in a particular exercise so in other words trained to the brink of failure. I looked at that as a sign of knowing what it's like to have that warrior mentality and pushing through pain and giving it all I got. All it really got me was in fact pain, not sore muscles but actual pain and still feeling the effects of some of those sessions to this very day in places like my right shoulder, ankles & even my elbows.

Going to failure basically means you do so much until you can't move anymore in an exercise like the bench press, deadlift, push-ups, squats or whatever. You keep going until that last rep is so freaking tough, ever inch hurts and its the ultimate struggle. Many take this as a sign that it means you'll get stronger next time around. Don't get me wrong this is true to a degree but for overall development from my own experiences and being around others who've done it, it can actually weaken you because when you go that hard, you're not just stressing the muscles, you're also putting even more stress on the joints and ligaments and the chances of anything tearing are greater when you do go to failure workouts.

Going to failure depletes your energy both mentally and physically afterwards or even during on some occasions and when your energy is depleted, this can lead to a series of problems and can take you out for often times weeks for complete recovery. The type of training ought to be giving you or help conserve energy regardless of how strong you are. This mentality for going to failure is usually by hardcore fanatics either in sports or the gym or whatever it is they're training for. Me personally I can't afford to get injured or something worse because I do have a job, a house I take care of and need to pay for things to help stay afloat when its needed. When you're injured, you can't do the things you want to do, recovering from injuries can be unpredictable and if you have a job where if you're injured and can't do the tasks, you're not getting paid.

I don't train to failure because I need the energy to stay focused in what I need to do. I hate not being able to train and when you don't have the energy to play with your kids, can't squat without feeling some form of pain, not move with efficiency; it'll make you miserable. You need that energy from beginning to end so the very things that are important in your are possible to accomplish.

There is a fine line between a few aches but severe pain is a miserable thing to have. Training to failure breaks down the muscles way too much and the recovery time can take longer than you'd like it to be. I play with exercises every single day and have for nearly 12 years ranging from 5 min. to well over an hour and still have energy to do things with the people I care about. Be smart when you train and train to conserve energy whether you're a beginner or advanced do what's best for you and make the most of it without suffering the consequences of overtraining and putting your body at risk. The body can only take so much regardless of how you set your mind to. The idea is be as pain-free as possible and have strength during and after your playouts.

Playout, Don't Workout.