functional fitness gurus or frauds?

Just like you I want to learn the best ways to stay fit and healthy. But I’m having a problem
with this so called functional training. You know the things I’m talking about, the training that is
new – but really old.

Sand bags, kettlebells, tire flipping etc. These are not new ways of training. These are tough ways
of training, but they are anything but new. All my life since I was 12 I have been a laborer and at 42
I’m still a laborer and it’s tough back breaking work. Yet I always have and still train everyday.

I remember as a kid using the rear end axle of a car for thick bar curls and bench presses and using
logs for training and I can’t count how many truck tires I loaded and unloaded from tractor trailers or
how many millions of pounds I physically picked up and moved. But I still trained no matter how many
hours I worked, I still trained.

It’s easy to make progress when you have a sit down job, your body gets a ton of rest for the next workout.
I’m not pissed that I’m a labor I held the same position for 23 years . It’s what I do and like. For a short time
I tried some less physical jobs and hated every minute of it. But now with all the new old training coming
back and being pushed by experts who only can talk about labor from yard work experience or the summer
they mowed lawns.

Now they are trying to make it easier. For instance, the new sand bags have handles on them.
Handles make it easier to control taking away from working your stabilizing muscles or pushing
a wheel barrow with 2 wheels can’t get any easier then that. I like to use a 100lb heavy bag.
Why? It’s tough to grab, hold and to lift making you work harder.

By the way have you ever seen men on a road crew beating concrete with a sledge hammer? These guys
are strong, but most are not lean, they are beer drinking dudes who do this to make a living.

It’s a good chance you won’t find them in a gym smacking a tire with a sledge hammer for a set of abs.
As a matter of fact there are very few fit laborers. They can do their jobs all day or all night but that’s it,
they can’t do much else.

I talk from years and years of experience, not text book or magazine reading. The men that train this
labor style of training are usually desk jockeys or kids who are looking to get as big and strong as possible
but you won’t find many laborers in the gym smacking a tire with a sledge hammer you may find a labor
carrying a keg of beer but only if it’s full of beer.

Basically if you are going to train with sand bags, kettlebells, tires at least keep it hard. It’s not that
impressive lifting sandbags with handles or flipping a 300lb tire once try flipping it for a 100 yards
or flip 25 times like a laborer might have to, that would be tough. Want to do a tire toss try doing it
50 to a 100 times or more this is labor training.

This is from years of being around it. You can dispute it and it’s not like this for all men but for the most it is.

Before I go I know for a fact how the body reacts to years and years of this type of training, and it’s not good.

Easier is not the best way, find a way to train – have fun, but think down the road how’s your body going to
be when you get older. That’s the reason I switched to bodyweight training it’s changed my life physically
and mentally.

Toughness Builds Winners

Johnny Grube
www.wildmantraining.com

P.S.Would love to here your comments