What Is My Fascination With Tarzan????

             Ever since I was little watching guys like Arnold, Stallone, Ford, Van Damme, Jet Li, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and others, I always wondered what a picture perfect athlete would be like. Yes I even got a kick out of Brendan Fraser in George Of The Jungle being a Tarzan wanna-be. As I got older and transitioned from a weightlifter to a bodyweight guy I loved the way certain athletes moved through the air like a gymnast or an acrobat in the circus and how they’re built not like a bodybuilder but like a real and graceful athlete. In reality (contradiction I know) Tarzan to me is the picture perfect athlete.

            The beauty of Tarzan’s development is that he is forced to adapt to his environment in the jungle, swinging, climbing, moving in awkward positions and being free out in the open. There have been a lot of Tarzans in films over the years from Johnny Weissmuller to George Scott to even the original Highlander Christopher Lambert. To train is to think and very rarely you see that today in your commercial gyms and health spas because too many people just go through the motions, hop on the treadmill reading a book or watching TV, even blasting their ipods while lifting weights not even paying attention at times to what they're doing.  

            When it comes down to it, they say the lion is the king of the jungle but I believe when it comes to sheer power, size, forced to adapt and having the most powerful grip strength pound for pound are the primates like Apes and Monkeys. You won't see a lion swing through trees jumping from place to place, he'll run, chase and wrestle you to the floor but an Ape can crush your bones just by squeezing them and have tendon strength that most animals don't have. The Wrestlers of the Jungle are the Gorillas and Chimps, the acrobats are the Gibbons and smaller primates. They move with power yet with grace at the same time. Yes they're structure is a little different but yet we can adapt to what can work for us.

            Training shouldn't be a hassle or something you need to punish yourself with but what it can be is an adventure. Think about it, being out in the open, having fun, putting yourself in different situations with practical application and having the time of your life. If you can't get outside due to bad weather or there’s trouble out or whatever, you can still have fun inside and maybe not move so much like a wild animal but adapt to what you have and the space you have to do what you can. Karl Gotch once said “adapt and improvise” this meant that you can do things anywhere at anytime but yet improvise with what you have to make use of what you can do. Be open to ideas and have some fun.

            As some of you know, one of my favorite styles of training is moving like an animal in the jungle, stalking its prey, jumping and speeding up on an object, using my imagination to make things more exciting. As of late I've been trying different things and one of them is a system called MovNat which is using only your body and the environment to create different situations which are used in crawling, jumping, running, lifting, climbing and carrying different things to build your body from adaptation. Erwan Le Corre is the founder of this type of training and is one of the fittest guys in the world today. It’s pretty interesting considering some of the things he does is almost a spitting image of Tarzan. Check out some of his Youtube stuff. It gives you a different perspective to how you move and put yourself in different ways to adapt and improvise in a practical and safe way.

Fight For What’s Important

             If you’re truly committed to something, whether it be training or whatever, fight for it with everything you have because it’s worth making something happen. Some people half-ass it, some barely do anything an others don’t do anything at all but the real one’s who make the commitment go places. It takes practice to find something you want to achieve or have a lifelong goal.

            Taking a stand in what you believe in takes guts. In the case of training whatever it might be, if you believe in what you’re doing, no one can tell you right from wrong. Gymnasts bust their ass day in and day out for years and for what, to get a medal around their neck? Not all do this and more power to them if that’s what they want to shoot for but for some it’s much more than that. Many athletes have this same mentality but the difference is how they believe in themselves and in their sport. Michael Jordan is another prime example of believing and taking a stand on what he wanted to do to be better than anyone else.

            Your instincts are what separate you from the rest of the pack. Sometimes it’s all you can rely on but another thing to look at is listening to your heart. Your instincts help you be aware but your heart is what you feel and that can mean a lot of things but in the end you’re either going to go after what you want or you won’t. Value what you have but keep challenging yourself. Fighting for a goal makes you stronger and reliant on your instinct to make something happen but also feel it at the same time.

            If you value what matters, you’ll fight for it while being smart about it. Fighting for something can only take you so far and eventually you’ll have to rest and rethink. Think about what you’re doing and ask yourself “is this truly what I want?” I value what I have and have fought for what I believe in, not just myself but what I want to do. After my accident, there were times where I thought I wouldn't be able to walk or do the same things again. It became true but I fought back and believed that if I wanted to get stronger, I’d be damn sure find a way to do it. Making things happen puts you in a class very few achieve and the more committed you are mentally, the more you’ll want to shoot for. Fight for what’s important and do it in a way only you can do it.  

Just a reminder, there's less than 3 days left of the House Sale Logan Christopher is putting up at Legendary Strength, get on the bandwagon and you'll even find a course that's only $7. Everything is ranging from 20-80% off. Hell of a deal.

Ultimate Kings & Queens Of Bodyweight Exercise

 Usually most people look at bodyweight exercise as a waste of time and don’t hold any real value for fitness. Even many trainers would say that if you want to get strong you advance onto weights and machines. The problem with this notion is that many people don’t know how to handle their own bodyweight. When you learn the real styles of Bodyweight Exercise, you’re learning how to use your body from multiple angles, work more muscles one exercise at a time and you burn more fat. Those who tell you it doesn't do anything either can’t do it themselves or they’re trying to make a buck and don’t really give a damn who they hurt to get by.

 To be a stronger person physically, you can and should learn to build strength from multiple angles, the more muscles you work at one time the better. In Gymnastics, strength is built all over the place from your neck to your toes. Now I never said you needed to be like a gymnast to have that kind of power but learning certain basics won’t hurt very much either. It does take practice but with time, your strength can skyrocket to levels you never imagined before. Think about it, what it would be like to hold a perfect handstand, be able to switch from exercise to exercise without pain or fatigue or better yet, have the strength to hold even the most basic positions and still look good doing it. It could happen if you just believe and take action.

 Gymnasts and even Acrobats have the most fluid and graceful movements that are strong and cunning. Even a ballet dancer is very strong once you start paying attention. The power of a movement even in basic positions isn't how it looks; it’s how it’s presented, straight and tight. The best way to describe those straight and tight movements is how you are flexed in that position. In other words, you’re looking at Isometrics. Think of a guy on the Rings in the Iron Cross or in a Handstand, that is a form of isometrics. Isometrics is the form of strength training where you’re throwing all your strength in a fixed position.

 Have you noticed that one of the key components if not the key component to a gymnast is their powerful abdominals? It has been said that Gymnasts have the strongest abs in the world, why? Because without strong and powerful abs, they can’t move or better yet hold the most powerful looking positions. A lot of us look to having strong abs, but the majority just want abs to look which is not a bad thing but I’ll say it won’t look good on your resume if you’re trying to do certain things. Your Core is the center of your whole body, the key that holds everything together, from the lower chest down to near your pelvis, that’s the Core that holds it all. Building strong abs= A strong body.

 Every time you watch Gymnastics, Acrobatics, Ballet or anything that has nothing but their own body moving through the air or holding some pretty awesome positions, you’re in awe and think “how the hell do they get like that?”, besides years of training, they all started somewhere, some of them had natural ability, others were terrible but with practice got better and better. We all start somewhere, I didn't get into Gymnastics till I was in my 20’s when that’s the retirement age for most gymnasts, a good friend of mine didn't start till he was in his mid 30’s when most would say he was too late and won’t be able to withstand those exercises. No matter how old you are or what your current fitness is, beginning an exercise program is a great way to go up that latter, it’s like learning math, you start with arithmetic and work your way up to calculus. Start with where you’re at and progress to the best of your abilities.

 One of the coolest ways to look at training with Bodyweight Exercises is that it doesn't take up a lot of time, hell no more than 15-20 minutes a day is all you need and if you don’t have time, start just doing a few seconds, work up to a minute. You can even do separate exercises throughout the day. It’s all about making it work for you. Those who say you need 30 minutes of cardio and an hour of weights don’t know a damn thing about your lifestyle, the majority don’t have that amount of time to do all that but its not impossible to do something during your day. Doing a few minutes of training is really all you need, you used many muscle groups, you don’t need to do more than a few exercises and best of all, you can make them fun and exciting, not dull and used as a punishment. Do what you can, your body will thank you for it.

 Getting stronger is not far out of reach but you got to want it bad enough, not to the point where you’re taking short cuts that’s the cheating way. The true value of being strong and healthy is practice, practice, practice. Consistency is a key and whether you exercise for one minute or one hour it still counts. Make it happen for you, you can think all you want and nothing will come of it, it’s the action that gets the job done. Your body is what you make of it, don’t let certain things or people get in the way of what you want to do. You can have a beautiful, powerful and strong body if you believe in yourself and find the right resources for you to develop what you want to achieve. It’s not that far away but it’s up to you to reach out and grab it by the horns and run with it. 

The Astounding Strength & Grace Of Acrobats & Gymnasts

 

  Ever seen Cirque De Solei or something similar and even Gymnastics, than you know how cool it is to see these world class athletes fly through the air with grace, power and beauty. Just having the speed and the strength to pull off certain moves is just incredible and you never know what comes next. To me Aerialists are one of the most powerful people pound for pound in the realm of Acrobatics.

 There have been debates who have the strongest this or the strongest that, you got big arms than you have some serious upper body power, powerful legs you can either squat a lot or run like the wind but yet the Core is what separates the men from the boys. Your torso carries the most power and strength in your body next to your legs being the strongest. When it comes to athletics, gymnasts have pretty much the strongest core in the world. Think about it, how do they fly through the air, hold hand balances so perfectly and move around on their upper bodies as if they were legs?  If they didn’t have strong torsos, everything else would be gone in a snap. Now some people think Bodybuilders have strong abs but in reality, it’s just the opposite, not all of them but most have very weak torsos to do anything basic let alone incredibly superhuman. The stronger your Core is, the rest of your body is strong, this doesn’t mean do nothing but crunches and sit-ups and leave everything else out, it takes the whole body to work together.

 

 

 One of the most kick ass shows I’ve ever witnessed was in Las Vegas where there was a vampire show called Bite. This show featured smoking hot and beautiful women, jaw dropping dancing & acrobatics and heavy metal that was just as powerful as the performers themselves. During one segment, a man who was pulled from the audience gets bit by a vampire, turns into this incredible monster with a shredded body that you need to see to believe, becomes consumed by the powerful bite and begins to take hold of a chain hanging down, wraps around his arm and begins to fly and twirl in the air like a madman and reaches down and with one arm picks up a woman and bites her as well. I can’t tell you the rest of the show but I can assure you that same actor has powers in real life that even he can teach you how to grab a hold of.

 

 

 An important aspect to keeping the body fit and ready for anything is to keep the blood flowing throughout the day. Doing small little exercises can have a huge impact on your level of strength and power beyond belief. Even the most experienced gymnasts and acrobats do some form of exercise throughout the day because during practice or even rehearsals, they have to be in top shape otherwise they can lose their spot on a team or worse be out of a job. Learn to use your time for these little things and big changes will come. “You don’t have to do much, for doing a lot” Karl Gotch.

 

 

 Practicing Hand balancing is the most basic component in both acrobatics and gymnastics because what some teach Bridging in wrestling, Hand Balancing is one of the first things taught in those areas of sport and entertainment. Hand Balancing isn’t for everyone I understand but there are those who want to learn it and get good or even great at it. At the same time, how cool would it be to have the strength to hold yourself up in Handstand and move around just like a gymnast or an acrobat? You don’t have to be a either one to get great benefits from this type of training. If you want to practice it, than look no further from my friends Logan Christopher and Ed Baran.

 

 

 In both acrobatics and gymnastics, the number one rule is to keep the body strong in every movement and by that I mean the whole body from your head to your toes. You will learn how to keep the body tight and strong because being loose anywhere can spell disaster or you’ll just not be able to do even a basic exercise. Learning to use your body in complete unison builds awareness and strength in ways nothing else can match. Anybody can lift a weight one way or another but you can’t hold yourself up in certain positions without the whole body working together.

 You may never aspire to be a Gymnast or an Acrobat which is perfectly fine, yet you can still have the great benefits and a strong & powerful body once you learn the basic elements of using your body as a whole package and become stronger than the average person. You don’t have to be a world class athlete to find world-class or even superhuman results. All that matters is you make your exercise fun and enjoyable and if you have children, let them exercise with you or teach them to exercise; this builds power and confidence within and helps build character. Have fun and make it worthwhile, even if you have only 5 minutes in the day.

The Olympics

 I watched a little of the Olympics a few weeks ago and from most of what I watched was the majority of Swimming & Gymnastics. The female gymnasts just destroyed opponents left and right and in my humble opinion none of them shined as much as Gabby Douglas. She embodied what a gymnast should have, grace, power, strength and above all fierce balance. Gymnastics is by far one of the toughest sports there is, both Male & Female competition, the training is fierce and it gives you a whole new perspective on Animalistic Bodyweight Training. The closest to Gymnastics would be the Animals although you won’t see a Tiger on the balance beam or a Gorilla on the Pummel Horse but the resemblance is uncanny and like an animal in the wild, you have to be quick, fast, coordinated and extremely strong.

 Swimming was the other sport I couldn’t take my eyes off cause our American squad just took over with a  vengeance in just about every event both men and women. Michael Phelps was the dominant king but the dominant queen in my opinion was Missy Franklin who was no more than 17 and won many gold medals. Just to swim at an incredible pace takes conditioning to a level you can’t even imagine. Like Gymnastics, Swimming takes up your entire body from head to toe and each event looks more grueling than the other the toughest being the Butterfly I think. That sport became a favorite to watch and wasn’t much of a swim fan in previous Olympics but after learning many forms of exercise and conditioning I had a new found respect for certain sports.

 We all know that some athletes have used steroids in the Olympics to increase their performance and chances of winning but it comes with a price. Steroids for personal gain is just plain stupid and there were at times when some of them didn’t realize they were on it because Roids don’t always come with a needle, comes in creams, pills and all sorts of stuff and it’s just plain dumb to even put athletes on it. I realize there is pressure among coaches, families, teammates and the organization to an athlete that they are expected to do great things and many of them are duped into being as perfect as possible even taking serious health risks for seeking that perfection. It’s really tough to avoid that kind of thing when you’re a world-class athlete whether an Olympian or a Professional so to really avoid it, do your research, learn alternatives that bring you more health instead of decreasing it and find that power within you that gives you the strength, speed and endurance naturally and show it that you don’t need Steroids or P.E.Ds (for those playing the home game that’s Performance Enhancing Drugs). This is a suggestion not a general way to do things.

 Training at the highest level of Competition takes practice in ways you can’t imagine unless you’re in your specific sport. One of the greatest amateur wrestlers of all-time Kurt Angle was an Olympic champion, World Champion, NCAA Champion and a profound man on his intense level of conditioning. While he trained for the Olympics, he ran hills as far as 200 yards, lifted weight in very high numbers, once he went to the University Of Iowa where Dan Gable was still coaching and once had a match with one of his wrestlers, this wasn’t your typical hardcore 4-3-3 minute rounds, this was a 40-30-30 minute rounds that made you realize how far you’re willing to go to keep going. That’s not hardcore training, that’s pure insanity and the will to fight to keep up with yourself. I have been in a wrestling room and for a 3 day period, it was till this day, the longest 3 days of my life as an athlete. It’s not just wrestling, it’s every sport you’re in, if you want it bad enough, if you want to be the very best, than you got to train harder than anyone else, you won’t always be the strongest, biggest or meanest cat in the gym or in your field but the will to bust your ass in practice makes you an athlete with the highest of honors and that’s fighting for what you love and smiling while you’re doing it. The hardest part isn’t the training, training actually is the easy part, and the competition is your toughest part because the training you already bled sweated and gotten through, now you got to put that to the test.

 Out of everything you do for a sport, no matter how many opponents you won or lost to, there’s that one opponent that will always come after you and that’s the same one you see in the mirror every morning. The other guy is just another athlete that you’ll face time and time again or face him/her only one time but fighting yourself is the one thing you face every single day. If you can learn to grapple yourself and overcome the challenges you face every day, the rest is a cake walk. After watching some of the Olympics and reading about the other athletes, it’s safe to say with every up and down, won or lost, defeated and conquered every single athlete down to the very last place did everything they could to make it to the highest level of competition but many of them still need to find that one thing that brought them there and make it consistent otherwise, they will become just another athlete with the word Olympian attached to their name.

Muscle Reminders, Vampire Strength

Here's the second Guest Article for the week by my good friend and former European, World & Olympic Gymnast Cees De Kok giving you the chance to find your inner Vampire. Enjoy everyone....

Hi,

My name is Cees and I am the creator of Muscle Reminders.

All my life I have been a gymnast and as Dutch National Gymnastics Champion I competed in many competitions, including European, Worlds and Olympics. After gymnastics I became an entertainer and traveled the world showing of my unique skills as an aerialist. I have always been conscious of my body, shape and condition. It has been and still is a big part of my life. Being fit is so important to a person. For the last 7 1/2 years I have been working in a vampire show in Las Vegas where I play the role of a flying vampire.

For those interested, here is a little clip.

http://musclereminders.com/evp/?seed=ceesflying

 It involves playing a drunk guy that gets picked out of the audience and is bitten and turns into a vampire, I fly, I act and also have a fight scene where I have to tumble twist and swing big sticks and fire around. I am so absorbed in my role that I “become” the animal vampire I am portraying. Every small little movement I make is controlled and full of energy and passion. As a vampire you are always alert and you always know what is happening in front and behind you. You are ready for anything. Your body is ready to jump up, make a flip and land comfortably back on your feet ready for your next move.

 And that is the way I am behaving myself during my normal life in the daytime as well. While going about my daily busy life and constantly doing my exercises my body does not sink in. I perform small effective exercises that keep me alert and awake. At the end of the day I have done a full body workout, am energized and still ready for more action.

 Look at the world we are living in and the hectic lifestyle we lead,.... trying to get or stay in shape comes with a lot of hurdles. Our lives are being made comfortable and convenient and society is pushing us in the direction of the easy way out. Remote controls for everything, escalators, electric toothbrushes, etc, etc. And on top of that are we are so busy with everything that our good intentions of going to do a workout are being placed on the back burner. We delay our healthy plans and promise to go the next day, but have to reschedule again and again and finally we give up. There is just not enough time in the day to get to it.

 Vampire Power is known as electrical power consumed by electrical appliances while they are switched off.I use this Vampire Technique to develop Vampire Strength with no gym in minutes a day.While my work-out mode is switched off or on standby I activate the Vampire within me and suck out little bits of energy at a time to do small but effective exercises. The energy used does not drain nor fatigue me. Instead it will feed my Vampire within and generate the used power into strong and powerful muscles without interrupting the course of my daily routine. Many of my exercises are about engaging and controlling my muscles in a way that fit in my daily life but will ultimately give me the strength of a vampire.

 Even in this hectic world we all have an enormous untouched wealth of time that we can use to get a full body workout without changing a thing we do. I use this method already for years but did not know the importance and impact it made on other people. So, I decided to share my experience and expertise and created this series of DVD's. Small effective exercises make my body strong, tight and ready for everything. It does not drain me but instead gives me extra power. Physically and Mentally.

 Do you have a Vampire inside?

Die Hard Pull-ups

Pull-ups are one of the most difficult forms of strength and conditioning because it’s the one basic exercise most people have trouble doing. It doesn’t have to be a burden to learn how to do pull-ups. Once you learn the basics an can do a few reps what’s next? Just doing a few reps alone makes you a strong person at that exercise but it’s really the quality of the reps that count and not so much the quantity. Repetitions in any exercise up to a point can be boring like the 500 push-ups or the 1000 Hindu squats or even the military goal of 20 or more pull-ups to get 100 points on your PT Test. I like doing reps but I get bored easily so to enhance my interest I change grips and do them as best as possible. To get the greatest benefit in your reps, work different parts of the pull-up and try different tempos in speed and precise movement.

 One of the most common neglected parts of the human body is training your grip. Without grip strength, how will you hold onto something such as a baseball bat, opening a jar of pickles, picking up heavy weights or squeezing a Captains Of Crush hand gripper? Working your grip has more of an impact on your training than doing a bicep curl, a press or swinging/juggling a kettlebell, think about it, how would you be able to do those exercises if your grip can’t even hold on? Grip strength is essential to your training and the more likely your grip strength is the better your lifts and feats will become easier. If you don’t believe me than learn from two warriors of pure unadulterated gripping power and that’s Arthur Saxon and Slim The Hammer Man.

 A lot of people have this notion that pull-ups and chin-ups are just for the Biceps and Back, obviously they haven’t done much research because when you really get into doing this exercise, the back and arms are just the tip of the iceberg. You are working the upper body in ways not many other things can do and eventually you’ll be working the whole body. When you use certain tools to put more into your pull-up training, you’re learning the key secrets to challenging your grip, mind, body and your coordination to keep tight and tough in order to make the quality reps.

 If I had to pick one of the strongest pound for pound athletes in the world, it’s a guy you don’t hear of quite often unless you live in Vegas and know something in Gymnastics and that is Dutch Gymnastics Champion and Performer Cees De Kok. I once saw this old school gymnast do a show in Vegas called Bite, a vampire type production where heavy metal is blasting and a Circ De Soleil type action styled performance happened. In one of the epic scenes of the show, Cees wrapped a chain around his wrist and started flying around the audience and out of nowhere grabs his wife in mid air and twirls around the stage like a figure skater in space, it was unbelievable and one of the most awesome displays of strength and agility I’ve ever witnessed. This guy was just incredible and he has the mastery to even teach you the secret andmost impressive ways to build pull-up strength.

 Who are the strongest climbers in the world? Not humans sorry guys it’s the mighty Apes. Animals like Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimps and Gibbons are the most powerful species of this caliber because the way they need to move either on the ground or in the trees takes grip strength to a level only rock climbers have come the closest to and yet we still can’t match their strength and agility. Training like an Ape however is a key to opening a new door of strength and fitness that can only be explained by experience and experimenting. I’m not a climber nor am I a tree swinging jungle man but I have practiced brachiating, hanging and pull-ups from many different angles and at 240+ lbs. I’m surprised I can actually do it. Training this way works your tendons and muscles to their very brink and if you truly want to feel real gripping strength, hold onto a pull-up bar with one arm and see how long you last.

 In many areas of fitness today, we don’t do much in the way of pulling movements unless it was a curl or pulling on a cable and deadlifts aren’t really that big anymore but yet pulling movements that work major muscle groups even out the front and back portions of the upper body since most gym rats focus on what they can see in the mirror as oppose to neglecting the back. If you can’t pull yourself up than you’re in trouble my friend. It is important to work your body from as many angles as possible while working as many muscles in one or more motions as possible and when you work on your pulling strength, it’s going to help you in other parts of your life you may have not realized and I’ll let you figure that out on your own.  

Abdominal Training For Superior Strength

When you think of Ab training, you mostly hear about crunches and little side bends and mostly isolating the Abs with little rockers and machines. This is not real world Ab strength training. Our body’s core is all the muscles of the Abdominals from below the breast line all the down just to the top of the sexual organs.

 A lot of people think if you want six pack abs you need to do this many crunches, eat less, do 100’s of side bends and whatever crap that others come up with. Not saying a six pack isn’t a bad thing but really what does it really matter when you have a washboard stomach that can’t take a punch and your organs aren’t strong enough to hold off diseases? Karl Gotch once put it that there are two types of muscles for an athlete or bodybuilder and that “Conditioned Muscle” & Counterfeit Muscle.” These two variations have obvious statements but let me clarify a little, conditioned means that it’s strong, can take a lot whether in a workout or a fight, it’s useful, functional and the organs are strong, counterfeit means basically it looks awesome but than no further than that as you can have great development but that won’t amount to anything if you’re prone to injury.

 Real Abdominal training comes from training the entire body as a unit while keeping a major focus on the Abs. If you look back over 100 years ago, the old-time strongmen had some of the most powerful Abs on the planet. Men like Otto Arco, Maxick, Sandow, Farmer Burns and others all had what would be called punch-proof Abs. Their developments were off the charts and this was long before machines and gadgets. They developed this kind of strength and power by utilizing Muscle Control, full body training, Gymnastics, various sit-ups and Deep Breathing. They became so strong that would be able to handle certain feats that were beyond their own bodyweight. This type of training didn’t take hours a day and never isolated yet some of them had muscles that are still better than the bodybuilders of today.

 One of the true kings of Muscle Control was Otto Arco of Poland. A master of abdominal training that had the ability to wrestle, lift heavy and was one of the purest acrobats in the world at that time. Many came after him but there is only one Otto Arco and unlike bodybuilders today, Arco not only looked incredible but had pure strength and power to back it up. For one of the first 3 men in history to lift overhead double bodyweight it was a real feat to be reckoned with. The ability to control any part of his body was a sight to be hold and very few then can match and chances are slim to none no one can match him today.

 Another facet of phenomenal Ab Training is the Bridge. To most the bridge is either a neck, back or a shoulder exercise but really it is an exercise that works the core to a level unlike any other. If you don’t have good solid strength in your abdominals, the bridge will be difficult to do. Holding a posture is one thing but to do lethal and acrobatic maneuvers is a whole different ball game. Ever heard of the burpee? I’m sure you have, it’s a staple of conditioning that’s practiced in many areas but what about the Bridge Burpee? This makes a regular burpee look like a cake walk as you fall into a bridge either on the hands, head/hands or head alone and you kick over and back, if you’re really athletic you would do this then stand back up. A good bridge builds functional and powerful abs and with power of deep breathing, your core will be difficult to hurt.

 A key ingredient in all of Physical Culture is one of the most neglected forms of modern training and that’s learning to breathe. We today take our breathing for granted but what if I told you that your breath is the source of all your power and strength. Breathing gives us life. We can go long periods of time without food or water but we can only hold our breath for only a few minutes before we start to give out and die. The number one secret to true core strength is in how you breathe.

 You don’t need the skills of a gymnast or the body of bodybuilder and neither do need to have the skills of a wrestler, all you need is a few minutes a day of working your body as a unit and focus on the abdominals. Muscle Control is a healthy practice as it teaches you how to use your mind and body’s connections and with basic gymnastics that anyone can learn from a humble beginner to an advanced athlete. The stronger your core inside and out, the stronger your whole body will be. Learn to take control of your body and your strength & fitness will skyrocket to levels you can’t imagine.

Gymnastics For Super Bodyweight Power

There are athletes that are very strong at what they do. Wrestlers can take down the best of them, some basketball players are very strong down the line, football players are extremely strong when it comes to tackling and pushing past the defense in the running game, shot putters can throw with power but one breed of athlete stands out from the rest when it comes to Bodyweight. The Gymnasts. The way they move and the way they have to use their body is just incredible and its all in their own body.

Their abdominal strength is off the charts and that's because its a major factor and piece of the puzzle that not many people realize. When you have the abs of a gymnast, you are strong everywhere. Strength in the core requires focus, concentration and power.

Most acrobats are originally gymnasts and one of the requirements to be an acrobatic is to learn Hand Balancing. The reason why that is it's because Hand Balancing carries over to a lot of other gymnastic stunts. Being able to stand on your hands is quite an impressive feat because you're not just using your hands but you're whole body. You're in a different state of mind and your body needs laser-like focus to even hold a handstand let alone walking or doing stunts.

Now do you need to go to a gymnastic school to get the best for your buck? Not really because certain schools charge way too much money and if you're willing to pay for it you'd be lucky to even find a good coach and teach you the progressions you need. I went to gymnastics in college and I didn't progress that much especially in hand balancing because you had a coach that had to teach more then one person and it was hard to get real one-one training. You don't need to be a gymnast to get the great benefits of this kind of training. Using basic principles and learning the secrets of the handstand is really all you need to get in great shape for whatever you want to do.

This isn't just for men but women as well. Male gymnasts are strong as hell for what they do but ounce for ounce I feel women are the stronger and faster gymnasts. Yes their feats are different but I see it more impressive a woman holding a handstand then a guy. The cost for a couple courses in Gymnastic Conditioning is far lower then a school and you can have even better progress as they take you step-by-step and give you everything either as a beginner or advanced athlete. If you're a fan of gymnastics but are below the beginning phase and need something to work with don't look no further then here at Basic Bodyweight Building Blocks.

If you're a woman and want to get that beautiful toned figure and be stronger then most guys then get your hands on this Body Sculpting Bodyweight Exercise For Women as this takes the best of basic gymnastics and other methods and can mold you into the woman that's within you and take your fitness to levels that most women envy and without the fear of bulking up because it won't let that happen.  Never get bored with your workouts and learn fun, progressive and powerful ways to become strong, athletic, powerful and flexible. 

So it doesn't take a gymnast to become strong and flexible like one. No more spending thousands of dollars on gymnastic schools. Because of this type of training, you can take it anywhere you want. You can train in a hotel room, house, cabin, at the park, your backyard just about anywhere you want and can still have the workout of your life. Start off doing only 5 minutes a day of exercise. You can squeeze in 5 minutes of your day can you? When you get up in the morning or before bed. If you have kids that are taking a nap, use that time to train. There's no excuse so make an effort and not procrastinate. Training a few minutes a day saves you 2 hours of regular training getting to the gym, changing and trying to find an empty place to lift or use the treadmill. Plus it saves you time for the things you want to do during the day. At best if you have kids, get them to work out with you as this helps build bonds and to challenge each other.

Whats also great about this kind of training is that it doesn't take much time to do and it strengthens the joints and ligaments and doesn't compress the spine like heavy weight lifting does. Learn it and go through your own pace. Give yourself time to do them right and once it gets easy, move on. Progression is key and having fun is a must. If you're not having fun then you're not doing it right. You can do all the exercises you want but if you don't smile and just go through the motions you won't see the big picture. Keep track of what you do and find what works for you best.