Damn walking is hard

Well, i have delay with my plans regarding calisthenics, i will post them as soon as i have time.
Today walked about 22-24 km with 20 kg vest.
I weight 80 80.5, and with the vest+bag i had i weighted 105 kilo.
Pros: Burned hell a lot of calories guessing somewhere 1500-2000,experience.
Cons: Always buy good shoes- fucking shoes!!,

: thats how my legs feel now

Pros concerning walking with vest: you feel cool,burn a lot of calories
Cons: Burdens you too much,headache,high blood presure,can make breathing harder,trapezius work too much -total fatigue.

(Whatca starin at fool?8

Calisthenics Routines

 

Who says you can't achieve perfect body using Calisthenics?

Old school weight lifters such as William Bankier(AKA Apollo or the Scottish Hercules),Frank Saldo and the world famous Eugen Sandow(who is considered by the way the father of bodybuilding) gained the perfect bodies of the pre-golden era-they are the ones who set the iron bug.

Calisthenics helps you develop strong body both in strength,flexibility,balance and explosive power. Some say that pushups are for pussies but there are extreme kind of pushups like Lalane Pushups(made by and named after him), or the famous planche pushups which target mainly your deltroits.

I have a lot of Calisthenics and bodyweight exercises information so i will post them in different times when i feel like it, i will try to cover books in this topic(You are your own gym,raising the bar,building the gymnastics body,test you physical fitness), motivation videos by famous Bar athletes like Hannibal,Al Kavaldo,And material by Barbarian and Calisthenics Kingz.

First i am going to post some basic routines and sites that can give you backround about bodyweight exercises.

Too much information to cover and too little knowledge about how to do it(but at least i am trying).

The first link is made by and for the army as you guessed by the picture: 

http://www.military.com/military-fitness/workouts/try-pushup-push-workout

It is EXTREME pushup workout which is extremly tense if you are coach potato or new to pushups. It is recommend to do this routine no more then 2 3 weeks in a row, then you must take a brake to restore your nerve system. 

Basically its 200 pushups everyday, one day in minimum sets and the other day through the day: meaning you get no time to rest you put your body through hell but its going to pay if you want to increase you repititions.

The next link is in bodybuilding: it basically covers all the body weight exercises you can do without any equipment at all(in vocation for example).

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/lookup/filter/equipment/id/5/equipment/body-only

It's nice to see if you can do all of them, such of them are stretching movements yet others can get you intense workout such as rocket squats.

The Next 3 routines are Internet-wise famous:

they are basically gradually increasing routines that get you to sick amount of repititions:

http://hundredpushups.com/index.html   - pushups routine up to 100 in 2 month maximum

http://www.twohundredsitups.com/index.html - sit ups, tryed it but i dont like situp for core so cant recommend it.

http://www.onefiftydips.com/index.html - assisted dips although you can do them like Branch Warren with iron on you :)

http://www.twohundredsquats.com/ - squats, great routine doing it right now great for endurance and explosive power.

http://twentypullups.com/ - pullups routine, great one if you want to have great pulse-raising muscle building routine.

The final routine made by the famous Lee Hayward, 100 dips and pullups:

http://leehayward.com/blog/100-rep-pull-up-dip-workout/

Sweet routine,good for intermediate bar athletes.

Well sorry didnt have much time today, slept 5 hours 3 days in a row.

Tommorow after work i will post records in bodyweight exercises and calisthenics.

William Bankier famous wrestler and classic strongman

 

Body weight for grip strength?

Some say bench is the main exercise that describes strength,others argue that deadlift is the king of all yet others believe that its pathetic if you can deadlift 500lbs but cant pullup a single one.
I mean even babies do it, right ;)?

Everything i write about pullups is the same for chinups if you can't do them.

False grip: in order to hit you forarms,wrists and tendons more during the pullup motion you use the false grip technique:

Start lightly as this motion is hard for your wrists,try to do this motion with the pullups first.
Flexibility of the wrist is the answer here.
This motion is used in armwrestling too(hook) and well its hard to use it unless you practise it a lot.
Here is pullup routine i used to get to 20 pullups:
http://twentypullups.com/

I have too much information about pullups i will post it later but now i will try to go with the topic i started which is bodyweight for grip strength.

I will write few more bodyweight exercises that increase your tendons and wrist strength and flexibility:

The Crow:

  


If you think this exercise is easy i dare you to try it, it is one of the hardest body weight exercises if you do it right.
But first put a pillow in front of you unless you want a bleeding nose.
Shoulder strength, strong tendons,flexible wrists and stable core, and balance is the answer for this exercise.


It works hard on your forearms as well, i highly recommend this exercise to anyone as it damn hard.
Here is basic information about the benefits of this exercise:
http://yoga108.org/pages/show/109-kakasana-crow-yoga-posture


Here is a site i highly recommend to any sport enthusiast:
http://www.dieselcrew.com/how-to-do-a-hand-stand


The hardest part in this exercise is to be in balance which requires great fingers strength and core.
This exercise is great as a starting exercise for your shoulder routine as it requires great energy. 
At first try to aim for a minute total(if you fall you try again untill minute passes) for three sets.
If your arms are'nt straight at the start- it doesnt matter, this exercise is hard and requires practice just like everything else.
As you get stronger aim to straighten you arms,bent you head further and even try to handstand from this position.


The best exercise to prepare for this one is handstand as it strengthens the same tendons and wrist part.


There are many more body weight exercises to increase your grip strength via them but they are much harder like OAP(one arm pullups),iron cross,human flag etc.

Start with the basics: I will write in the future about pullups and body weight exercises as i think i have much more information about them especially calisthenics.


Here is a site i highly recommend for any athletes out there:
http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials/


Next topic Calisthenics and Plyometrics.
 

Grippers and basic grip strength

I will start with Grip strength tab- different links,recommandations,my own opinion and experience.

There are many aspects to grip strength; the main three are:
Crash Grip,Pinch grip,and support grip.
First i am going to talk about Crash grip.
There are a lot of ways to develop crash grip: some say pullups are the best(John Breznk-Armwrestling Legend), some say wrist curls will do the job and some insist grippers are the way to go.
I personally believe every activity that involves grip strength- even if its light will improve grip strength by blood flow.
Grippers:
Well thats a huge topic to start with as there are many gripper companies in the world: some say Captains of crush are the best, others say beef builder, there is even a chart in gripboard . com that describes the best grippers and their aspects.
Here is a chart with different grippers quality:
http://gripguy.wordpress.com/about/

I think i started too harshly with this topic so forgive my arrogance- let's start with the basic:
Why:
Well, basically because by develping strong grip you get stronger in other parts in your life.
If you are an athlete- and using your upper body in any way grip strength may help you become better then others- and we all know it's jungle out there and the rules of the survival of the fittest.
It doesn't require as much time as other sports,it fun and it helps you in every day activities such as gardening,weight lifting or just humiliating a guy in the pub with your grip.
How to:

the basic rule: close to the end. There are many rules in the professional world of grip strength: card close,2mm close.

I am going to post different videos,tips,sites,news and in the end my own opinion about grippers which you probably already know:
the art of manliness! -
Great site, found the article very amusing recommend reading this very much:
http://artofmanliness.com/2011/11/10/molding-a-mighty-grip-strength/

Great site for grip strength:
http://www.ultimategripstrength.com/physiology/physiology.php

the first link is a basic guide to grip strength it describes how hard its to close the grippers:
http://www.gustrength.com/joe-weir-strength-blog:gripper-guide

Grip FaQ- intersting read, the site is okey i guess although it promotes its own stuff.
http://www.gripfaq.com/Hand_Grippers/Human-Potential-to-Close-Grippers/

here are 2 guides for both begginers and intermediate people by Clay Edgin (first certified gripper king and master- yes there is such thing):
http://www.ultimategrip.co.uk/intadvtraining.html
http://www.ultimategrip.co.uk/beginnertrainging.html
 Video of him ripping phonebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9HBZdEaWpM&feature=player_embedded

Lee Hayward(famous internet trainer for and by bodybuilders) has a lot of intresting articles, here is about his grip strength:
http://www.leehayward.com/gripper_manual.htm

Here is another fellow blogger- nice blog and information he got there, its more for the advanced:
http://musselwhitepapers.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=1

Interesting read:
http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2010/Feb/World_of_Grip_Strongest_Hands_Series-David_Horne_Wins_Second_Leg.html


John Brookfield is a famous grip world record holder:
Search him in youtube, the guy is crazy- tears deck of cards like its plastis.
He has very good book about grip strength:
http://mirknig.com/knigi/hobby/1181473471-the-grip-masters-manual.html
 I highly recommend as well his dvd:Blueprint for Grip Strength
search in the net: <the name> then write warez,torrent,tube,rapid and any key names and i am sure you will find it although it is for the more advanced

Here is last guide i recommend by Paul Knight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj9Ue9co4us
It is one of the most recommended guides in the world of grip strength so i highly suggest you take some of his tips.

Training:

If you take part in heavy training that involves your wrists,tendons,forearms: you can take one of the workouts i posted above.
If you are weight lifting,doing bodyweight workouts such as calisthenics or just masturbating a lot ;) then you need recovery time because inflammation is common.
If you are working with strength program such as Mark Ripptoe SS or Bill Star's 5*5 you can work your grip strength in the end of the workout (thougth i doubt you will after heavy deadlift).
If you are doing regular ABXAB routine you can train your grip in the end of B's workout - worked fine for me.
Anyway just dont overtrain yourself as its easy to do, start lightly and increase gradualy just like in everything else.
Work heavy because doing 100 reps isnt going to build you strong grip\arms.
Aim for low reps,full range of motion,explosive power,try different techniques.
Different stuff works for different people so try to understand whats best for you.
Going past the 10 sets is just overtraining,especially if you participate in other sports as well.
Next topic i am going to talk about forearm strength: body exercises that strenghten the tendons and your wrists.

Well Get a Gr1p:

 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Confucius

Well finally i started my own blog.
Been thinking about doing it long ago,as i think i have a lot of information i would like to share.
I got tired of all the forums about fitness,bodybuilding and exercise trying to promote their products,books etc.
I have a lot of information i barely found myself in the web about calisthenics,plyometrics,old school bodybuilding etc; i think by sharing this information i will save a lot of time those who seek it.
Let's start with my Physical & mental training favourites: by reviewing sites,superfoods,videos,exercises and etc.