Think You Don’t Have Time, Tell That To Slim

A lot of people say they want to get fit and strong but they tend to have this “I don’t have time” mindset. I understand that some of you have children, work at certain stressful jobs and need to take care of your family, I was raised in a day care when I was young and saw the woman that became my second mother get up every morning at five and kids would roll in around six and some would go to school but the majority stayed, there were between 7-11 kids at a time not including the 4 she has of her own and by the time kids were gone it be almost 7 o’clock at night. That’s a hell of a schedule and doing that for over 20 years takes a toll on you.

 I’ve learned to make time everyday even on days that I don’t feel well because I’m determined to get something done. That’s a cake walk compared to a living legend like Slim The Hammer Man. This man alone starting as a teenager worked in the Rock Corry and smashed rock and stone with a sledgehammer for 12-14 hours a day up to 7 days a week. Why am I telling you this, yes he busted his ass and you’d think he didn’t have time to do a workout? His job alone was a workout in itself but the point I’m making here is after this long and grueling hours at the Corry, he’d still come home have a little dinner and go down to his basement which became legendary as The Dungeon and bent nails, bars, broke chains and worked tirelessly on his trademark and that was Hammer Levering which you can learn about going to legendary strength and look into the feats of strength section on the site.

 No matter how tough your life is or how grueling a schedule you have, if you want it bad enough you’ll find the time to at least some kind of workout. One strongman I highly admire is named Steve Justa and during his early days he worked on hay bailing and worked construction. After long hours he’d still come home and train like a madman because he wanted it bad enough and made an effort. Some of that training even helped him bail hay faster in a shorter amount of time than he did lifting weights and you can learn what type of training he did from my man Bud Jeffries’ DVD set on Isometrics.

 Find something you want to make a goal, start small, and do a little exercise here and there. Taking a walk on your lunch break is a start, when you have had a rough day and need some time alone, before you go to bed, take a few deep breaths to calm down, do a few stretches that should take no more than a few minutes and there you go. Morning workouts are the best in my opinion because you can get up before everyone else does, do some deep breathing and stretching, if you’re into Yoga that’s awesome. Every little effort can make a huge difference in your results. More importantly, have a good attitude and learn to tell yourself that when you do exercise, make it fun and enjoyable. Who knows, your kids if you have any might want to join you, encourage them, it helps bring in more positive energy and gives your mind and body a healthy dose of great motivation.

 I feel that if you keep making excuses to not exercise, you’re setting yourself up for jail from a mental standpoint and not just a cell, you’re solitary confinement where you’re locked up, chained to the wall and you can’t do a damn thing to break yourself free, do you want that to happen, being stuck with the same things over and over and looking at the same boring and unhappy life? One little change and you can make a whole turn around. I never said give up what you have in your life just to exercise, that would make me sound like a prick but what I’m doing my best to help YOU with is that if you want to get in shape, do what you can to make the time to do even if it’s for one minute. Yes you read that right; you can start doing exercises that will take only a minute to do. You can even do certain throughout the day, make it happen for you.

 Having the need to go to the gym is way overrated and it sucks getting there, being stuck in traffic, parking, dressing into gym clothes then you try to find a place to workout and someone else has taken it, you’ve just wasted precious time and I would bet my bottom dollar that at times it takes you as long to get to the gym, park and dress as it is getting the same amount of time as the workout itself. Home workouts are the most valuable places to train because you can listen to whatever you want, use what you have and if you don’t have equipment than check out my buds Matt & Ed’s stuff where you can do exercises anywhere at any time and take as much time as you want and no one would be hassling you and never feeling pressured about using a machine and having some dumb ass give you a hard time cause he needs it too.

 If you can get to the gym, great, do what you can and make it an effort. Small steps can reach big heights and only you can choose to climb the mountain or stay at the bottom, believe me it’s not easy but it’s like what Tom Hanks said to Genna Davis about Baseball “It’s suppose to be hard, if it wasn’t everyone would do it…The hard is what makes it great.” Don’t push it but create a challenge and start easing into it and build from there. You can do it, I believe in you and so does everyone that I’ve worked for, with and trained with do to.  

Big Muscles Don’t Mean Jack Shit

In every major muscle magazine, you’ll find a minimum of 3 articles that “teach” you how to build giant looking muscles. Come on are you fucking kidding me, most of these guys can’t write a single program that shows any realistic approach to building massive muscles with functional strength. Having big muscles can actually ruin your chances of having success in your exercise program, sure some are genetically built to have big muscles and still find a way to be extremely flexible and very strong. If you don’t believe that then take a look at a couple of muscle bound looking guys I know of.

 In my opinion, if you have 23 inch biceps, so what, sure they look cool and sometimes grotesque but just because you have them, doesn’t always mean you’re a strong dude. What can they really do except look good in a pose down? Big arms can only go so far but when you have strong tendons to go with them that are a whole new ball game. Back in the day when Bodybuilding actually meant something, they didn’t just train to look good on a stage but had superior strength to back it up, one of the very best of them was John Grimek who was by far one of the most massive men of his time actually pulled off some fucking awesome feats of strength such as phonebook tearing, nailbending and tearing decks of cards, I don’t even think he liked bodybuilding that much he just got stupid strong with a mega boy to go with it, next two would be Bill Pearl and Reg Park. All three of them had a powerful physique but yet overshadowed their even greater functional strength.

 Functional strength is essential to everyday life and not always in the gym either, holding groceries, opening a jar of pickles, saving one’s life and even taking up furniture for that matter. Training for everyday functions is a key to your vital success in having a strong body. Just looking good has far more disadvantages than you’d believe, seriously pal, if you have a great body but can’t defend yourself or even please a woman in the bedroom than you got some issues. I don’t care who says it and whoever doesn’t believe it isn’t helping himself very much but sex is the best exercise there is period. Now I’m not all about that, sex alone isn’t the mainstay for a healthy body or even a healthy relationship, there are other factors to be done there but with the right resources and techniques you can learn, you’re in for a hell of a good time my friend. So for my sake, value your body as a strong, functional and healthy practice and you will see certain things come about you didn’t even realize before.

 Big muscles really aren’t good enough to get by on realistic strength and fitness, just because you got a pump doesn’t mean you’re superman. Building strong tendons however, give you that level of strength that you can’t justify on just muscle building itself. It’s more important to build tendon strength rather than building muscle. If your tendons aren’t up to par, your strength is rapidly diminished and your big muscles are going to wear down on you and then who’s the bitch now.

 Bodybuilding from 1900-1960 was the type focal point of physical culture, many guys weren’t that big back then, at best the biggest guy that had a great deal of muscle of him was no more than 220 lbs. and didn’t just have a great physique but had strength that still holds records to this day. From 1960-present day, Bodybuilding has become a steroid infested culture that just lost it pride and joy of being a great physical culturist, not all bodybuilders today do steroids and some have lived long and healthy lives, it’s the habit of wanting more and more and too much of anything isn’t good for your health but yet these dumb fucks don’t give a rats ass to what they do to themselves. Today Bodybuilders are like supermodels, they put so much on themselves, one type nearly starves them to death to have that “beauty” look and the other tries to pack on so much muscle that they deprive themselves of walking like a normal human being and it’s sickening to me.

 To be truly strong, you want to have real muscles that can do things for you in your time of need or do things that give you the most benefit for the muscles you want to build. Muscle building is about learning your body, what can work for your particular structure and how to build the tissues and tendons that hold everything together to get the complete package. If you want real muscles than you need to find the realistic approaches to get them and they’re much closer than you think. Learn and find a way for you to build some raw, functional and some real fucking powerful muscle.

Gorilla Power & Creating Animalistic Strength

Lions are known as the kings of the Jungle but I feel the incredible hulks of the Jungle are of the Gorilla. Gorillas have strength that surpasses more then 10x of the strongest men. Yes they're structure is different when it comes to walking but yet with chimps they're the closest to us humans, they have hands, they have feet and have torsos that resemble a human. They walk different because they're arms are longer then their legs and need to adapt to walking on their hands.

I personally feel that if we were to get strong then we need to reverse evolution from our modern methods of today. Today in most fitness circles we can't compare to the old school ways of training and that's most likely a good thing. Today we have people who are more overweight then any other time in world history, we have gyms that have just lost its roots to whats really important and looking good and being overly cautious has taken over. Very few of those that know the real secrets to strength & health look to what the animals and early men have done to become strong. Animals don't lift weights and try showing off their muscles, they use their strength to survive and early men strived to survive harsh weather conditions and move boulders to help shield themselves and swam to catch fish, run as hard as they can to get away from predators and used spears to kill their food of some of the wildest beasts of the time.

Getting strong using weights has its own benefits but modern trainers make it look like a joke and those old-timers from the golden ages of strength would be rolling in their graves. If you're going to use weights, do the simplest one's and stick with that, Presses, Pulls, Abs, Grip Work and basic leg training is all you'll ever need. Isolating muscles is only good for one thing and that's rehab other then that it's useless. When it comes to weights, the simpler, the better...Dumbbells, Barbells, Kettlebells and a few odd objects here and there is all you'll ever need.

When you learn to become strong, its best to look at not only the muscles of the strongest animals or the strongest of humans but take a good look of how strong the tendons are. I'd say the best animals with the strongest tendons are Gorillas and Wild Cats because they have to reach, climb, crush and pounce while defending against predators and/or fighting for food. It's better to pull a muscle than tear a tendon. Huge difference between the 2. Pulling a muscle recovers quicker, tearing a tendon however can put you out of commission a lot longer because the tendons are the things that help keep the skeletal structure together while the muscles are the tissues that cover the skeletal structure. Tendon strength creates a chain reaction of how strong you really are. Take a bodybuilder for example in this day and age. He's more into building muscle so he can look as big and powerful as possible but does little to no training in the tendons and chances are he's going to get injured quicker then any other athlete including fighters and major sporting athletes.

Developing Ape strength without weights is very simple an doesn't take that much time to learn or do. Look at the basic things they do, climb, walk, pull, push and move in awkward positions. Learning basic elements in their evolution can help you become 3x stronger then the average human. This of course means you won't build the strength that they do because its the way their structured and their nature is used but that doesn't mean we can't adapt. Some of things they do might seem silly but if you're open minded and look at another prespective you might realize that you can become stronger using those so called "silly" stuff.

The only time you'll ever see an Ape lifting weights is if researchers experiment to find out how strong they are in that area and if you see some knucklehead meatball of a bodybuilder trying to lift some weird looking weight. Apes carry strength that makes most weightlifters look like chumps and who's to say we can't try to imitate and build superior strength ourselves. We can really learn the true secrets of creating Animalistic Strength with the simple points of observation, experimenting and adapting. In the world of fitness it's not a bad thing to turn reverse evolution and become the strongest person we can be.

Take Your Core Strength To The Next Level

One of the most difficult parts of the body is the one most people need work on next to the tendons and ligiments of the body and thats your Core which is your lower back, upper/middle/lower abdominals and the obliques. Strengthen these together and you got yourself a pretty strong body. A lot of people feel the need to isolate the core one muscle at a time by doing hundreds of crunches, hundreds of side bends and whatever else they need to do. Truth of the matter is if you only isolate a certain muscle, that muscle will get strong but not the rest of you.

Take into consideration of the cavemen, neandrathals and other anchient men of early civiliation. They had to bust their ass trying to survive by pushing, pulling, swimming, fighting, running and yet they were the fittest men of their time and never once did they do crunches or side bends because thats not what they needed to function in the world. Their Core became powerful by what they had to do to survive. Now they may not have had six-pac abs (or did they?) but they were very strong and very intelligent in that particular time period and they had to be otherwise they'd be eaten or crushed by wild animals.

Now we know that man invented the wheel and it was one of the biggest things to change the course of civilization and the world for that matter and now theres a great way to use this marvalous invention and it comes from one of my main guys Jon Hinds.

This one peice of equipment can turn your core into one strong powerful peice and you only need a few minutes a day with it and unlike other ab wheels, you can use either your hands or you can strap in your feet. Jon has invented one of the best fitness equipments in the world and its been proven how much strength it can build a person and the types of exercises you can use. You will not be isolating the muscles but like a real athlete you work the whole body as a unit and build real world-class functional strength.

This bad boy is called the Lifeline Power Wheel and it will make your abs work unlike any other and when you strengthen your center (torso) your whole body will come into affect the way it suppose to. Go check it out and let Jon hook you up and build the strongest core you can possibly have. I have used it myself and after only a few minutes my body is just done and thats what I want, get in get out with the best possible results. Here are some of the exercises you will find to build a powerful Core..........

Rollouts

Pull-ins

Walking On Hands

Push-ups

And Many More......

Go ahead, take your first step to building a powerful body and a strong as steel core.

http://dev.lifelineusa.com/affiliate/redir.php?oid=1039_26

Developing Pull-up Power From A World Class Gymnast & A Concert Pianist

How the hell can two very different athletes share secrets to doing pull-ups and not only get you to amp up your reps but give you little tidbits on how to increase your power to develop a great v-taper and strengthen your entire upper body? Well its not surprising that this shit works. I've seen both of these guys in action and i'm here to tell you that they are the best at what they do.

Pull-ups are one of the most neglected exercises in physical culture today and why is that? Its because they're difficult to do and when someone can't even get themselves up its humiliating. I know how that feels and being a super-heavyweight at 5'10 its even worse. Yet what if you learned some tricks that not only helped you get your first rep but also increase your reps if you're a veteran of the exercise. One of the key points to doing rep after rep is your grip. Grip strength is another neglected area that needs to have spot on power. Without grip strength you won't be able to even get up past the bar.

The guys who will get your pull-up strength going are Entertainers/World Class Athletes Cass De Kok & Garin Bader. Cass is a Las Vegas Entertainer in the show Bite, a Vampire spectical and in your face action. His strength to hold himself up with one-arm and grab his wife with the other is just un fucking believeable. His presence on the stage makes you feel that anything is possible. Garin on the other hand is a pianist with dexterity and strength that will make your jaw drop from the first note. I've seen how strong this guy is and he makes certain people look like wimps. They're ability to teach pull-ups is awesome and well thought through. Pull-ups are one of the exercises in the world and can turn your upperbody into a strength machine and give you gripping power and shoulder flexibility unlike anything else.

The practice Of Pull-ups in your strength training regime will take you far beyond the bar and give you a sense of strength and power that just makes you feel confident, protected and most of all give you a presence that will give others from far away a glance. Take up Pull-up Strength and you will even learn the secrets to Vampire Strength.

Pullup Workout Strength

Old School Training With A New Twist

A lot of people think these days that training methods back in the day are outdated and have no place in the gyms and are not for strength and flexibility and if you're doing them they would laugh or be confused or better yet have that "what the hell are you doing these for. Those arn't traditional." Well in some ways they're right, they arn't traditional, they arn't your typical modern exercises and most of all they don't belong in the gym today because they're TOO GOOD FOR THAT CRAP!

I really hate to offend these people but you know what, pull your head out of your asses and look at the big picture here. The old school methods are not only better then today's training styles but they're more simplistic and are far more creative. When you trained back in the 20's, 30's, 40's, even the 50's you learned why basic exercises like olympic weightlifting and push-ups, squats, clubs, maces and simple dumbbell and barbell training can turn you into a superhuman. I would bet you if you took a bodybuilder today up against a bodybuilder of yesteryear you would not only see a massive difference in size (not bloated yesteryear's BB) but also in strength. Take John Grimek for example. He was without question the Ronnie Colman of his day, winning competition after competition and was the only man in history to win the Mr. America title 2 years in a row. His training was basic dumbbell and barbell training and every now and then would drop and do push-ups or pull-ups, free hand squats and muscle control. His muscle control at the time was unbelieveable and not many men his size (heavyweights back then were under 200 pounds for most of them, he was no more then 185 at 5'7) were that solid and powerful and can move his muscles in ways that were unmatched.

Its one thing to criticize the old school methods its another to not realize that these methods worked and I may be a bodyweight only trainee but if I was around in that era I wouldn't have minded training the way those guys did. What they did was unique and brought a hell of an outlook on how training should be done. Not just for size and strength but for health and longevity. Yes back then people died younger then they have today. If you were born in 1900, chances were slim if you lived to be 50 but yet if you look at the men and women who trained in that era beat the aging process by a huge percentage. Bernarr McFadden died at 88 in 1955, Farmer Burns died in mid-late 1930's at the "ancient" age of 86-88, Bob Hoffman 1898-1985. What was their secret? How could any of these men lived to be at an age in a era where you were considered to be an old man at 50 or 60. It was their ability to take that govenor in their brains and find a solution to live longer and not only found a way but beat the aging process by a mere 25-30 years longer the average age at the time.

Are you seeing what i'm getting at here? Old methods may be outdated but thats actually a good thing. They worked, they gave the pioneers of physical culture a reason to keep on living, keep being healthy and strong into their 80's, 90's, even 100's. Learn how to take old school methods and put a twist on them for today's methods. Under this article, you will find methods of training that not only are sinple to do but can probably save your life in more ways then what you read in the magazines today. Learn the secrets of the original bodybuilders and athletes of true era of physical culture.

Massive Functional Muscle

Training with Partials

Odd Object Lifting Series

Advanced Bridging Course

Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups

Indian Clubs

Mace Training

The Russian Kettlebell Challenge
Xtreme Fitness for Hard Living Comrades

Beyond Bodybuilding
Muscle and Strength Training Secrets for The Renaissance Man

Squats & Push-ups....The Foundations For Superior Bodyweight Conditioning

When you learn bodyweight exercises the first 2 types anyone should learn and master are the Push-up & The Squat. The reason why for these is because they lay the foundation for total body conditioning. There are many variations of them but only a few surpass the true monument for superior exercise. In the early days of Physical Culture, men and women of either bodybuilding, weightlifting or gymnastics trained in Squats and Push-ups because they knew how much power they can build to help assist their training. Some of the biggest names did these exercises such as:

Charles Atlas

John Grimek

Otto Arco

Maxick

Alois P. Swoboda

Steve Stanko

Earl Liederman

Great Gama

Ect......

At one time or another all these men performed push-ups and squats. At high reps they combine a great deal of strength, endurance, flexibility and balance. High Rep Squats performed correctly build ammense lung power and superior conditioning and they know it gets them in high regard when it comes to competition. It takes a great deal of mental awareness and strength to do great reps. Whether its 100 or 1000 you will take your physical and mental game to the next level. I for one have done over 300 reps a day for a while and I once went over 1000. Regardless of your fitness level, if you learn to work and adapt you can become strong and vital. Once you reach a certain level you can increase your HGH Levels which helps boost testosterone and helps you stay younger.

One guy that can help get you there is considered the world's strongest man drug-free and thats the big 'ol southern man Bud Jeffries. In his time of training he has recorded the following.....

1000 Pound Squat (Starting From The Bottom Position)

2000 Push-ups

3000 Squats

2000+ Kettlebell Swings

Pulled A School Bus

Bends & Scrolls Long Steel Bars

Those are just a few to mention but no matter how you slice it the man knows conditioning and has done it as a super-heavyweight at a BW of 380 Pounds. He now is at just under 275. He still performs as a strongman all over the country. Yet inspite of all this he still uses BW Squats and Push-ups. He's put together a series of the two exercises in DVD sets and both Videos have multiple variations that can be suited for any need and adaption. Bring you level of conditioning to new heights and be on the look out for more muscle, more stamina, more mental power and great physical strength waiting within you. Are you up for the Challenge.

Ultimate Bodyweight Conditioning - Squats

Ultimate Bodyweight Conditioning - Push Ups

The Passing Of A Legend!!!!!!

One of the greatest human beings and physical culturists of all-time passed away yesterday Jack Lalanne. He personified the meaning of physical fitness and helped more people then just about anyone in history. His endurance was unmatched and took feats of strength to a whole new level. Every year on his b-day starting at age 40 he did endurance feats that not only were surreal but you pretty much had to be there for it to be believeable. He was one of my biggest influences in the last 14 years of training. At a young age he turned his life around and became a pioneer in the fitness industry and became the first man to jumpstart fitness on television from the late 50's to the mid 70's and it was still to this day the longest running fitness show in television history. His books and videos changed so many lives I think we all lost count and whenever you mention great bodybuilders Jack has to be near the top of the list. He had one of the best physiques of all-time. Nobody can say Jack about his undeniable boundless energy and ever enduring smile apon others. Some of his most memorable quotes are inriched into the brains of millions and should be in the library of congress. May he RIP and lets never forget who made fitness an art.