Mixture Of Training Using Different Styles

    Last night I was watching an episode of Young Indiana Jones where Indy was watching and learning about Jazz in Chicago. Although the story folds more on how Jazz creates improvisational sound it also had to do with a murder that involved a young Al Capone. Back to the Jazz, it's important to know it's not just a few instruments blended together, it's the feeling of creativity and harnessing the rhythm when they just make it up as they go. Culturally it involves different styles of music flowing together to have that sweet and fun sound. When Indy learns to play the Sax, he learns a tune but the tune is generic at first. He had to learn to talk as he played, using music as his voice. Although the song he plays is twinkle twinkle little star, it becomes more alive when he infuses his mind with the rhythm and puts a twist on it that just sounds incredible even for a kid song.

 
    When it comes to training, creativity is endless when you put your mind to it. There are so many programs you can blend together to create that unique style of exercising, just like old school Jazz, using the basics and adapting to a creative sound that just shoots out of nowhere and picking it up right away. You create something out of the norm. If you got the basics, you can find ways to use them in any way you want. It's also important to progress to a harder form of training but the basics is your foundation for a powerful way to say something without ever saying a word. The way you move and express it with passion and intensity can make the basics look more fun than usual.

 
    In exercise it's important to build your own style, use what you already have down and mix them to your liking. I like to combine certain programs because they not only interest me but they challenge my mind and they teach me what to use next, where to go and how it can be effective for me. The last few days I've been doing DDP Yoga and Animal Flow together and moving from one exercise to the next and finding my way to move with power and agility that just has that blend of grace and strength. It's not easy and I don't always know where I'm headed in the workout but that's the beauty of it, finding your own way. Some exercises I blend in come from other courses like certain leg exercises in the Pan Program based on the god/deity of the same name and put together exercises from that and add Gymnastic Abs. You make it your own. I love when certain people like DDP say things like "Make It Your Own" or my friend John Peterson would say "Becoming Your Own Best Personal Trainer" its things like that, that give me the freedom to find what is interesting and creating something out of it. You can do the very same things just in your own way.

 
    The late Karl Gotch once said "You must adapt and improvise." It is one of the most powerful quotes I've ever heard because now you find yourself in certain situations where not everything is a straight line so you have to adapt to things that come out of nowhere. Of course he was talking more about wrestling and conditioning than anything else but this applies to anything else you do. If you got the basics down that's the starting gate but you won't always be using the same things in every situation (workout in this case), you learn to channel your body's ability to move and sometimes pick things out of nowhere so you have to improvise sometimes. If you have a goal to get better that's awesome and strive to achieve it however, there can be "forks in the road" so do speak and you won't always go straight into what you want to achieve, sometimes you have to curve or change a direction in order to keep moving forward. It's like Jazz, it's not always the same tune, tunes can change in different directions and the way the sound is blended with the band to adapt and even come out of nowhere to hit that right note that just fits. Be willing to change directions that could create better results not just physically but mentally as well.

 
Be awesome guys, have a great weekend and have fun.

Getting Back To Basics

           Basic exercises are the true measures of what can be done in fitness whether it’s weights or bodyweight the principles still apply…

Presses

Pulls

Squats

Grip

            It’s important to use these principles with the best intentions because you’ll get the best results using these elements, you can add in supplemental exercises for extra variety but the more consistent you use these four the more you’ll get out of it.

            Sometimes we progress to higher stages of development that we move on without thinking too much of how we got there in the first place. Yes it’s important to progress and advancing yourself to harder types of training but in the end it all comes back to the basics and how it gives us the foundation to bring us higher and higher to where we want to go.

            The single most important ideal for being a great trainee is to not copy someone else’s program but to create your own with the basic principles and there are endless ways of doing them. Doing what works best for you is the journey of finding one’s self and that although you can get ideas on how to do things you’ll want to learn how you can create something on your own that you enjoy and making it challenging for you and you alone.

            There are countless attributes but the best ones stay within the realm of the basic principles and that’s…..

Strength

Stamina

Speed

Agility

Reflex

            All five of these attributes should be planted into your brain at all times not because it’s just a few words but when it comes down to it you’ll need them in whatever you’re doing whether it’s in sports, training for conditioning or whatever. For some who have read, I like saying to have fun and although it’s important to have that, there’s also times to get down to brass tacks and get the job done whether it’s for a specific goal, in competition, in training and in life. Do what you can but never be satisfied, keep moving, keep driving and keep achieving the things you want to do. No matter how tough things are, come back to the basics and use them to bring you back up because they will always be there when you need them. 

Learning From A Physical Culturist

 I have doing exercise since I was a little kid in PE and first got a taste of Weight Training when I was an early teen. After High School I joined a gym and learned from a few guys here and there but never made a big impact with them and just didn't get it. After my accident back in 2005, I began learning just a few things from a book called Combat Conditioning by Matt Furey. When I began walking again and was cleared to train, I dedicated myself to get stronger and healthier and it just happens that one of my good friends lived only literally a couple doors down, we call him the Duke but to a lot of people today you know him as the Garage Warrior Tyler Bramlett. He was the first guy that taught me real conditioning and mental toughness. This was my stepping stone into Physical Culture.

 One of the guys Tyler had me research on was Karl Gotch, the man who’s considered the God of Pro Wrestling in Japan, one of the first things I learned was how to use bodyweight exercises on a deeper level. I had already done some work on the deck of cards workouts but another thing I learned later on was “You think you know, you’re dead.” Getting that stuck in my head I understood that if you want to be great, you got to keep learning. Just because you know a thing or two doesn't make you a superior expert, you keep testing yourself and when you pass your knowledge onto others you want them to succeed more than you did, if you don’t than you’re not a good coach and you haven’t learned a damn thing.

 Another great wrestler of the old days was Billy Robinson who has quoted saying “You learn how to learn” by this he means no matter what you do in life or in training you keep filling your head like a sponge and although you could be a master later on, you will always be the student. Understanding this isn't easy because you've done so many things in your life and yet you feel there’s nothing left but only have touched the surface. In nearly 8 years of being in the Physical Culture world, I have learned more than most guys my age have learned in their entire life and yet I haven’t even peaked the mountain. Constantly learning helps you become more successful, doing things one day at a time.

  Taking foundations from different elements of training gives you variety and teaches you which ones to work with and not to work with. Taking from Tyler and other guys it is essential to build your style and learn how to maximize them with different parts from different people. If you just do the same stuff over and over and expect something different to happen you’re on your way to be insane (literally). The ability to find your own style makes you unique and although most people don’t like change it’ll make them think twice about what they do.

 A golden rule in the Physical Culture world that made me learn the hard way with a few guys is the level of respect. Respecting others who have made big impacts, small ones and even crossed in the middle should be respected. I’m not saying you should like everything someone puts out, hell I can’t stand some of the crap that’s out today but I give those men and women credit for doing what they think is best. There’s guys out there who hate weights but love bodyweight, some loathe bodyweight and embrace weights and then there’s guys who are caught in the middle like me, Tyler, Bud Jeffries, Logan Christopher and many of the old-timers. We all have our own opinions of what works, what doesn't and what can be improved but in the end you learn respect not just to them but yourself because the moment you learn to respect that you are as a person and/or athlete, the bigger your opportunities will be.

 There’s always going to be debates on who’s the best of the best but in my opinion there’s no such person. Each Physical Culturist over the last 100+ years has had something that made them successful and they’re the best at it. I’m not going to compare who’s great at what and who’s the most successful because come on that’s just a waste of time and you’re not going to accomplish much. There’s a lot of great strongmen, wrestlers, steel benders, hand balancers, bodybuilders and others that are no different than you and me, just have something special about them that you can also find within yourself.

 To truly understand Physical Culture it’s a lifelong journey from your beginnings up until the day you die, there’s no real destination. You constantly learn, take things from different places and mold them together creating your own jigsaw puzzle so do speak. It’s finding who you are as a person physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Combination Training

Doesn’t that almost sound like Cross-Fit? Combining different elements into one method of training? Well, in certain cases you don’t need to lift a barbell than go do pull-ups.

 Creativity starts with your imagination and builds on what you have. I’m telling you from experience and practice, going to the gym isn’t your only option anymore. If you really looked around, you can workout in just about any type of place. If you lived in the woods, you can use nature to make your biggest benefit, tossing rocks, pushing boulders, swimming in the lake or climbing trees. If you lived around an industrial park, you can find little pipes to pick up, lever 2x4s, push-ups on the rails, finding a few rebar and see if you can bend them. Combining different things with what you have can create your own workout without ever touching a barbell or a machine.

 I have been training mostly bodyweight for years now but every now and then I like to use a few things like for instance a workout I did the other day consisted of a towel, Phonebook, my Thor hammer, a 10 pound sledgehammer and my lifeline chest expander. These things alone gave me a hell of a workout, one exercise I did for a combination is holding the chest expander in a one-arm press and with the other hand did swings with my Thor Hammer. In my opinion, books with exercises just teach you a certain type but yet don’t always give you something to combine them with, some do but most don’t so you’re left with “The hell else can I do”, simple, use your imagination and before you know it, you can come up with exercises that can never be found in a book or on a DVD.

 One of the best combos I’m learning right now is combining isometrics with a moving exercise but how does that work? Well remember I told you the about the Chest Expander and the Hammer? You can learn all sorts of combos especially the kick ass stuff here by my man Bud Jeffries. You want to hit as many muscles at once as possible and learning these combos with Isometrics isn’t just building physical strength but teaches how to use your brain from different angles of the left and right side.

 Doesn’t matter if you’re into bodyweight, weights, kettlebells, feats of strength or a combo of all four, hitting your muscles and tendons from as many angles is a key for foundational development as it helps hit sticking points and plateaus and the more muscles being used the better because isolated movements are more prone to cause injury as oppose to multiple muscle groups working to keep your body in unison. Some people see isometrics as isolation but in reality they haven’t done they’re homework very well. Steve Justa once told a story of Bruce Lee holding a 3-5 lb. ball, he’d hold it in his hand and hold his arm straight out, doesn’t seem that hard it’s just a shoulder exercise that works the hand just a tiny bit since the ball is extremely light but here’s where it really gets fun, do it for 8 hours straight, what seems like an easy shoulder exercise will turn into a hard fought battle for the entire body and who’s going to be the bitch at the end of that exercise, you or the ball. Never assume certain things will be easy.

 Remember the phonebook I used in my workout the other day? Well I didn’t rip it in half, sorry to disappoint you because the damn book was wrapped in duct tape from cover to cover and everywhere in between, it was giving to me a few years back from my friend Logan Christopher and ever since I had it I used it to do isometrics to rip up phonebooks for real and to say it’s helped me rip over 1600 pages in one shot would be just the tip of the iceberg. Combining this exercise and moving on to pulling down a tree is just another day at the office for me but it gives me super strength and makes my body feel like a steel rod of one unit of power.

 Using what you have can create endless possibilities for you if you open your mind and expand beyond just a regular exercise. You can turn just about any basic exercise into the most advanced exercise on the planet in a heartbeat, it all begins with your ability to imagine and put it into action. Also put some emotion into it and your results will surprise you by 10 Fold, I’m not joking about that. I have learned the best exercises don’t come from a gym, a book, a DVD or a class, the best exercises come from your own take on them and believe me when was the last time you did a isometric hold while swinging a Thor Hammer, highly unlikely ever. Learn from your own experiences and combine the best you have learned and mold them into something only you can come up with. When you do that, you’ll learn the secrets of true and creative Combination Training.

The Simpler The Better

Ever since cardio machines and big monster machines that work only 1 or 2 muscles, exercise has become a confused and out of whack form of strength training that just won’t cut it. Sure there’s Hip Hop Abs, 8 minute abs, Tae Bow, P90X and other infomercial products that are “designed” to give you the body of your dreams. Hate to break it to you but once it does happen or “if” it happens, your body will look great but your health will be in the slammer because they expect you to train hard all the time for the rest of your life and that’s just not ethical.

 The machines that are designed to work a certain muscle is not a realistic approach to functional training and should really only be used for rehab or if that. Isolating the muscles may make you stronger but you’re only stronger with that particular muscle. To build a functionally strong and healthy body, you only need a few exercises and the less you have the better.

 Back before cardio machines and cables, there were dumbbells,barbells, gymnastic rings and a few racks, which was all that was needed for the old-time lifters and strongmen of the day. They didn’t isolate the muscles and were far stronger and healthier pound for pound than most people today in our obesity, diabetic and cruel twisted world. Would you believe that a man back then only lived to be no more than 50 yet a number of physical culturists lived long lives and actually got better as they aged say for instance George Hackenshmidt lived to be 90, Jack Lalanne was 96, Bodybuilder John Grimek lived to be in his late 80’s and believe it not even a man as little as Joe Greenstein aka The Mighty Atom lived to be in his mid 80’s. Simple training with the right mindset and program that works can give you a long and healthy life.

 One of my all-time pet peeves from certain people in the fitness industry believe that they’re system only works and nothing else does so it’s their end all be all mentality and try to brainwash people into believing that. In reality there is no one way to any exercise system. I use to believe that too until I broke my legs and had to learn how to walk again. I learned to be open-minded and try certain things and if they work, great if not than I get rid of it. Having an open mind gives you limitless possibilities to find what works best for you but knowing and doing the basics lays the foundation to what you can really accomplish.

 It’s never a good idea to torture yourself and be frustrated trying to achieve your fitness goals. I was frustrated for quite some time when I first started training and read about routine after routine after routine in the fitness magazines that no matter what I tried to accomplish something else was telling me that I sucked and needed to do something else. The moment I learned to stop that, everything became clear. You don’t need to go to a gym, you don’t always need thousands of pounds of equipment in your house that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Save your money and if you want to get something, make sure you really could use it otherwise you’re just throwing yourself in debt.

 Remember that military tag line “The Few, The Proud, The Marines.” Great line and remember how many words are there, I counted 6. Six words and it already have a powerful statement. So look at it this way, the fewer exercises you do and you master them, the more powerful and stronger you can be. Here is a new tag line for you in your fitness endeavor “The Few, The Proud, The Basics.” Simple, easy to remember and sends a power message that you don’t have to do everything under the sun, just a few simple things and you’re on your way to fitness glory.