The following is what I like to call the double shrimp squat, sometimes also called the advanced shrimp squat. I first picked up this move from Al Kavadlo. The single shrimp squat, that is with just one hand behind you holding onto the foot is an easier version and a …
Should I Be Symmetrical in Strength?
I copy a conversation thread with a customer below as I figure some other people will find it interesting and useful. It covers how to target weak spots as well, body symmetry, and whether or not to aim for this. Enjoy! Laid writes: “If you remember I recently wrote you …
Full Deep Vacuum Box Breathing
A new breathing combination routine I’ve been doing which involves box breathing and the abdominal vacuum, along with a few other finer points. This method and much more with box breathing and beyond are fully explored in Outside the Box Breathing.
Research Benefits of Deep Breathing Exercises
What Deep Breathing Does for You Recently I came across some new papers on the benefits of deep breathing exercises. Like this paper titled, “Physiology of long pranayamic breathing: neural respiratory elements may provide a mechanism that explains how slow deep breathing shifts the autonomic nervous system.” (Yep, they pretty …
Progression Keys – The Max Set
e continue the series on the keys to progression. Today a deep dive into why the max set is best.. To understand some of the terms used, read that first article in this current series, Progression Keys – Intensity, Volume, Density, Quality, RPE right here. As mentioned, strength training is …
How to Be Breathed
“Be Breathed” is a concept I learned many years ago from Scott Sonnon. It is the idea of the movement breathing you, rather than you breathing…even unconsciously. If you missed the previous video and post, that covers the difference between anatomic (or natural) breathing and paradoxical breathing. You must understand …
Breathing Principle – Anatomic vs. Paradox
Understanding the breathing principle of anatomic (or natural) vs. paradox is very important when breathing is combined with any sort of movement. This is as opposed to just sitting there doing breathing exercises. This video breaks this down in simple to understand terms using squats as an example of how …
Get Fit…Be Happy, Make More Money
Had to share this study I came across last week… In a survey of two thousand people, one thousand of which exercised regularly and one thousand who didn’t, they found a few interesting correlations. Those that exercised: * Made on average $25,000 more per year. * Had more sex! * …
Flow in Workouts
I’ve been reading through Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. This book has been gracing my bookshelf for years now, yet I hadn’t read it. I was dissuaded as I heard it is a tough read, something like a textbook. Well, some textbooks are worth reading… The flow …
Yardstick Conditioning
This is a concept I first learned from Bud Jeffries. I believe he outlined it inside of Twisted Conditioning 2, though I could have that mixed up. Bud was the first guy I saw that was really doing it all. While many people were bodyweight only guys, or kettlebell guys, …
100 Burpee Challenge
This second video is purely an example of the 100 burpee challenge down with regular burpees. You’ll notice I start off with good speed, which gradually slows down finishing the 100th rep at 6 minutes, 52 seconds. My aim is to do this single set rep-count in five minutes flat, …
Soft vs. Hard Muscles
“What is this?? Are you saying a person can build soft muscles rather than hard ones??” -Ricky Two weeks ago, I wrote an email about muscle control to which I received this reply. Now, I’m not exactly sure what he meant by this. But here is what I mean by …
How to Breakthrough a Chin-up Plateau
I remember the Presidential Physical Fitness Test back in 8th grade. Well, part of it anyway… For those not familiar with the test it involved doing reps on pushups, situps and pullups. And it was the pullups that stand out in my mind. I jumped up onto the bar and …
22 Chin-ups
It’s interesting. Chin-ups, that is with the palms facing the body, tend to be easier than pullups, with the palms facing away. But for some reason, when doing a high rep set I tend to max out around the same number. Just this past weekend I pulled off 22 chin-ups, …
How to Build Muscular Shoulders with Bodyweight Exercise
Earlier I covered the subject of building the chest and triceps with a few pushup variations. You can find those at the following links: How to Build a Muscular Chest with Bodyweight Exercise How to Build Muscular Triceps with Bodyweight Exercise Of course, all of these exercises target all of …