Bull Shit Training Trickery
I do not train people in a gym, live in a gym or earn my living training people in a gym and it is by choice. Bodyweight tricks and gadgetry no longer appeals to me. I have a job and don’t want to spend hours going to a gym learning how to be a gymnast. I was also caught up in to the party tricks of “Look at what I can do”.
With a manual labor job where my body is in constant motion I want“Conditioned Strength” for real action not playground trickery or just for a pretty boy body, I want functional strength for everything I would need to survive.
So I’m not going to spend valuable training time trying to learn bodyweight tricks to impress a bunch of people. I can tell you this, do all the tricks you want, if you spend all your training time learning how to do complicated movements you will be lacking conditioning, and without conditioning, strength alone will not get you very far!
I also don’t need to follow a “Training Cult” I have been training for around 35 years and manual labor just as long, and I have never been hurt as a laborer while lifting, dragging, pulling, throwing in brutally hot and cold weather. But have been injured in the gym.
So when the experts tell me about recovery and what the body can handle they can “Shut up” and tell their gym boys their philosophy of their limitations don’t tell me mine.
For today’s gym folk it becomes much easier to practice trickery then to actually work brutally hard to build strength and conditioning that very few will ever know. Pushing past failure is taboo in the fitness culture, but only for the average
person. Train like the average and all you get is average. Average sucks!
Does it really help me to practice movements like flags and planches and one arm planches these will never help me in any situation I can think of. Then I love the people the piss and moan about my review of “Convict Conditioning” these people are upset and defend their stupidity for thinking they were learning how hardened criminals train.
The bottom line they were duped by expert marketing by dragon door and John DuCane he is an expert marketer. Tricking people with a fictional character is wrong; “Paul Wade” is a mystery and people by into it.
Convict Conditioning
Prisoners do NOT train this way. I own the book and think it’s a good reference book to learn bodyweight exercises but unless you can prove that prisoners train this way or prove you were in prison keep your mouth shut!
Real Prison Fitness
This bodyweight trickery is just that trickery. This type of training will not help you in real life situations.
Wrestlers who I feel are the greatest conditioned athletes don’t train with trickery; they train brutally hard to survive on the mat. They don’t waste any time doing things that will not make them more conditioned.
Navy Seals don’t use tricks to get in shape they get pushed to survive in the worst possible conditions. No gymnastic training no one leg pistols, no one arm back bridges or planches.
One situation where my fitness level was tested, I was caught in a swollen Allegheny river in Oil City Pa and after paddling nonstop in a kayak for 1 hour 45 minutes and dragging a kayak up a slippery, muddy mountain side, up to a bike track then throw the kayak on my shoulder and walk back 3 miles nonstop to home base was not something the average person could do.
So if I spent my time doing training that is for show I might have had a worse day, but because of the way I train and what I call “Conditioned Strength” I did not need any ones help.
Absolutely.
The Wildman has spoken. I got no time or patience for stunts. High reps rule.
Amen. Burpees are the prime example. Indian wrestlers also come to mind Do 20 to 1 ladder, for a
month, then 25 to 1 and then 30 to 1. Other days 500 hindu squats, then 20 sets of 10 pull ups and 20 push ups. If you do not get fit,
well, there is always the easy way, do a couple of sets of bench
and curls ( nothing wrong with these if they are worked hard) and
and duke it out on forums on how to isolate the medium high part of
the biceps. But just remember as you do this that a fellow is working his burpees at a deadly rate, no escape from hardwork.
I completely agree with you!!
I like this website . I think you may have saved me from many hours of painfully deciding what elaborate routine I am going to follow in order to look good and get in shape . I don’t want to be a bodybuilder I simply want to be fit and look lean and strong. I’ve fell for the whole bodybuilder mentality and those styles of workouts have got me nowhere. bulk up a bit, loose it when not maintained , get fatter and unhealthy get strong busting out those one rep squats and deads counting the damn protein and then realise your a fat bastard who is struggling going up stairs, its a vicious circle and not worth it unless your on drugs or have the time to dedicate to some insane diet and living like some machine component . The method of simply picking one to 3 exercises and going ape shit doing high reps for 15 to 30 min’s until your exhausted seems very therapeutic. It involves no fanciness, no counting protein portions and no elaborate routine. Its minimalism at its finest.
I spent 6 years in prison after they took the weights out the workouts in there are pretty much what you got here on your website great website and really like your books
Peace little man … come to work with me one dsy
Mark Durham are you going to educate me somehow by inviting me to work? Hey, give
me some more info. I know a lot who have tried to out work me and everyone has failed.
All that pistol squat , planches etc… shit is a one way ticket to an ass whipping
Thanks for your motivational talks . I am currently going through cancer infusions but still keeping on my workouts the day after. Like you mentioned I have to be a strong example to my family. Doing what what I can to keep training. Thanks.
Stay strong! I was you and your family well. Keep me posted on your progress.
I just reread this post. This is an epic, legit post filled with truth.
High reps, bodyweight nothing fancy. The basics for high volume work. At age 45 I feel better than ever. I am now at the same weight I was in high school, and kicking ass. I train daily, eat 2 meals a day of whole food (no processed crap), and through simple work and consistency using your method I have clear results. Thank you again.
V