Friday, September 9, 2022
The Benefits Of Animal Movement Strength Training
Thursday, September 1, 2022
Should You Count Your Steps Or Reps In Animal Workouts?
During workouts, we utilize a set/rep scheme to determine our fitness levels whether for strength, conditioning, endurance or how much we can handle during a certain set. In most circles, this can be good to figure out where you are and how you progress but sometimes, reps don't really seem to matter because the main focus is improving your technique, utilizing tension or using timed sets. Red Delta Project emphasizes those three methods together to help you get the most out of a workout.
When it comes to Animal Workouts, most of the time, rep counts don't really matter but more how long can you last before you start breathing hard. In many cases, a few seconds is all it takes. When I play my Animal Dice Game, it consists of using a step method to count how many times you move throughout an exercise. It can be used as a rep count as well but you don't always have to keep a record of how many steps or reps you do during rounds. In some workouts, you can time it and just play around until the time is up or you can just go until you can't move anymore; either one will get you results fast.
For a period or ever so often, I do keep a record of how many steps/reps I do in a workout especially if the amount is doubled per animal. I kept a record for a month to see how many I can do and during that month, I recorded over 10,000 Steps/Reps of Animal Exercises. The most I ever recorded in a day was around 2000. Consider that some of those rounds have you doing up to a hundred reps or more depending on if you multiply the dice and you keep going. The highest multiplier I did during certain workouts was around 5 times of what the round called for, so if let's say I rolled a 20 for the bear crawl, I would have to take 100 steps and they can be either fast paced or just "walking" it for that amount. In most workouts, I don't do more than doubled the amount which can still kick your ass in less than a few minutes.
Considering that you don't count your reps and do timed rounds for different animals, you can still end up doing up to several hundred to a thousand or more in a workout. That can be brutal but effective training and developing levels of strength and conditioning that would just astound people. When it comes to the ADG, you never know when you'll start to fatigue, it can happen in one round or 30, you never know. I'll always say that's the beauty of it, no workout is ever the same twice and you never know what you'll have to prepare for cause it can be a breeze one minute and stupid exhausting the next. The bear crawl is considered the foundation for Animal Movements and the easiest to start with; with that in mind, if you had to do even 20 steps of the bear crawl, the next one could be 20 Frog Jumps and you can wear out your legs and be huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf needing oxygen after trying to blow the brickhouse down.
The thing to remember with this specific Animal Workout is that the more times you multiply the amount per animal, the less rounds you'll end up doing. In one sense if you just did the regular numbers and went for 15-25 rounds or rolls, doubling the amount can take you down to less than 10 and you'll be done. Doing multiple rounds or rolls with a 5 times multiplier can be considered a superhuman feat but until you actually do it, you'll never understand the feeling of it.
One of the perks of the ADG is that you can do this with a partner and do all sorts of games like Tag, Medley, how many yards you can go for and so on. If you're playing tag, roll for an animal and whatever comes up, both parties have to do that animal. If you're doing distance like a race, roll for an animal, next roll is how long the distance is and it can be feet, yards and if you're insane, go for kilometers. Imagine the amount of reps/steps you take with those kind of games. If you were to do these games for a week, the numbers can rack up in the tens of thousands possibly, talk about being in shape or getting in shape pretty damn quick.
So with that in mind, should you really be counting? IMO, that's up to you but it's also not entirely necessary unless you have a specific goal in mind like doing 5000 Reps in let's say ten days or you want to average out a certain amount per workout. Regardless of what you do, with consistent training using animal movements, results will come fast and you'll develop skills and other attributes that other methods are obsolete to. Get strong, be wild and be amazingly awesome.
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
The Length Of An Animal Workout
Time can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending how you prioritize and take things into consideration along with making time. Time in itself is an illusion but for the sake of everyone's sanity (which could use a bit of a tune up these days) let's just play with the idea that time is of the essence.
Workouts in reality don't take up a whole lot of time unless you're a pro athlete who's job is to train for a specific sport and supplement exercises in order to perform at a high level. You could also look at the Great Gama who did nothing but exercise, eat, sleep and do a ton of wrestling that would make the average man's job look like a walk in the park. Most workouts shouldn't last for more than 30-45 minutes max, hell look at guys like The Mentzer brothers and Dorian Yates at the peak of their bodybuilding careers doing the HIT method and trained for 90 minutes a week. Most ideal training programs should be simple, short and with intent.
If you ever read up or check out the books from Red Delta Project (Side Bar Here), you'll find out that the workouts built in or certain plans don't take up a ton of time and make the time count in order to get the results you need. The truth is, if you can time your workouts right, you can make them as short or as long as needed. Micro Workouts are perfect for this because they give you ideas on how to spread out a workout or help you put in a certain short time frame and get the most out of it.
Now for the reason of the title of this article, Animal Workouts don't take up a ton of time and for good reason, they're intense as hell and most of them make you work every muscle in your body in various directions. A high percentage of workouts don't take more than 20 minutes if that because of how intense and explosive they can be. In reality, you can go as long as you want or do short workouts because it's not meant to be a "workout" per se but more of a way to play and have fun with. With other methods of exercise you can have fun with them too but it's something that brings that natural excitement when it comes to Animal Exercises. When you were a kid, you weren't thinking about how to properly do tricep kickbacks or planning your future to bench press 500 or more more pounds, most likely you were chasing friends and pretending to be a wild animal. Howling like a wolf, making sounds like the wildcats as you crawled like them or play on the monkey bars thinking you can be an ape.
It's that natural and instinctive connection to wild animals. We are fascinated with what we see at the zoo or an aquarium or even some crazy battle in the Forest or Serengeti that's on National Geographic or Animal Planet. It's that feeling of wanting to know what it's like to run like a cheetah, climb like a monkey, swim like a dolphin or wrestle like a Grizzly. As we get older, we lose sight of what made us pure, connected to nature and understanding what it's like to have that child-like energy and imagination.
You've all read about the animal dice game more times than you care to find out. To me, it's the GOAT of all workouts because you never know what comes next and you can either do a beginner's version of a movement or a more explosive, fast and more advanced version it's up to you. Some days, I'll just go a few minutes, other days I'll go for a half hour, it's new all the time and it builds your awareness and being ready for what comes next because you never know what animal you'll have to do. The longest workout I did with this was 82+ minutes long and if you want to know what it's like to need water and feel endorphins kicking in, that's it. For the most part, 20 minutes max is more than enough for anyone but it all depends on your energy levels and what you want to do. They can be so intense, 5 minutes will kick your ass and that's all you'll be able to do.
When you really get into it and understand the movements, you can go as long as you want or can handle. There's really no timeframe when it comes to Animal Exercises, you can do one animal per workout or do a whole zoo of them if you want. The variety is there for you and regardless of your age and sex, you will get some crazy results from them. Think about how much stamina you can build up, the strength you can posses, the explosiveness you will attain and acquiring a level of conditioning that would blow people's minds. Make the time count but have fun with it too, animals can teach us a lot of things. Be strong, get wild and be amazingly awesome.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Regardless Of Your Age You Can Do Animal Exercise
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
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
More On The Animal 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.
Friday, May 19, 2017
How Long Should Animal Playouts Be?
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
Friday, March 6, 2015
It Is Good To Get All That Energy Out
One of the most common things that you see in children (you parents know this very well) is when they get all hopped up and start running around like the house is on fire and you need them to blow off steam. This happens with adults too at times when we can't sit still and get hyper at times we can't fall asleep because your mind is on something and you just get so worked up over certain things. Blowing off steam doesn't always mean grabbing a beer or two to get away from something and it certainly doesn't mean getting high (although I see certain reasons needed to for some people) off of weed or whatever makes you see something that isn't there. One of the very facets about fitness is its ability to teach you to get all that energy out of your system and have a more calming demeanor. Go to the gym, go for a run, do animal movements (perfect for taken down a kid if you need him or her to chill out) or go lift some heavy stuff and just do what you need to do to get those endorphins kicking in and letting your nerves wind down.
Being hyper is a common thing especially among kids and hormonal teens, all those little tweaks that happen in your body, adrenaline is running and you're doing your best to calm down and nothing is working. Take care of it by working your body for as long as you need to. Taking a walk and deep breathing is a start but for the most part, it's really telling your body to move and utilize your body's abilities to do various things. When I'm in hyper mode after being at a concert or coming home full of adrenaline, I do different things like Bridging, moving like a wild animal or push-ups. Even one time I was so hyper I was bending this steel bar I had and used every ounce of energy I had to twist and pull from every direction I can think of. By the end I was ready to pass out because it takes a lot out of you. Have a little fun with it while it won't scare the living hell out of your spouse/sibling/parent or whatever.
What seems like a polar opposite of what you think happens, getting all that energy out productively actually calms the nerves in your body and bring flow back into your body on a much different scale. I don't believe I ever met anybody that got a ton of energy out of their body from working out and saying "man I'm pissed off." Your body is brushing with endorphins and adding a cold shower into the mix helps regenerate everything and lets the body use its cooling system. Funny on how the body works. Go outside if you have to; I wouldn't be howling at the moon like a retarted werewolf scaring your neighbors but moving your body in a fast pace manner for even a few seconds can elevate your emotions and clear out the cobwebs. Every time I hold the bridge for three minutes, my body just begins to float and when I'm done I feel like I'm in heaven, floating with calmness and awareness and feeling refreshed and happy. Animal Movements are great to get everything out of your system because they don't take that long for you to be huffing and puffing when you do it right.
Want to pass out without the need to be drunk? Go do some Animal Movements or create moves from Gold Medal Bodies and see how long you last. Movement is life but so is sleep, so in order to balance things out, you have to take care of your need to chill out. Don't take those crappy sleeping pills full of chemicals and crap that can harm your insides and I can understand the need to drink a little something but it's not the only way. For me, my drug is exercise, when I need a fix, I take care of it and I feel like a new man afterwards without the side effects of withdrawals and feeling the need to do it every 5 minutes just to feel good, at times one time is all it takes and my ass is knocked out like a rock. You know how they give names for these "diseases" kids have like ADHD or whatever they came up with, they just want to feed these kids drugs so they can sit down long enough so they focus on a board they'll be staring at for an hour and having them feel like they're nearly comatose. I 'am very much in tuned with a kid needing an education and finding a way to focus so they can get their school work done but feeding them drugs is not going to help your cause. Remember back in the day when we were told drugs were bad and whoever took them were losers and now drugs are great for "helping" in school; what a crock and very contradictory. Be productive by giving them something they could enjoy doing, something fun and letting their imaginations run.
Moving like a Wild Animal creates structure, helps out self-esteem and takes lazy kids out of the house, hyper kids become calmer and kids with attitude issues lighten up because of the endorphins. Don't force it on them or be so damn strict they'll hate you for it, make a game out of it and help them find a way that works for both sides. It's not easy but it's far better health wise than taking some crazy drug that can screw up their bodies later in life just so they sit still for an hour every class. Be smart about it and make it fun for them.