Really good book. Talks a lot about how to gain functional strength and train your body a whole unit, be stronger than weightlifters and preserve your joints etc.
The average gym junkie today is all about appearance, not ability. Flash, not function. These
men may have big, artificially pumped up limbs, but all that the size is in the muscle tissue; their
tendons and joints are weak . Ask the average muscleman to do a deep one-leg squat-ass-to-floorstyle-
and his knee ligaments would probably snap in two. What strength most bodybuilders do
have, they cannot use in a coordinated way; if you asked them to walk on their hands they'd fall
flat on their faces.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry when see the current generation of men duped into handing
over a fortune in overpriced gym memberships and for weights and other exercise gadgets, all
in the hope of becoming strong and powerful. I want to laugh because I admire the con trick for
what it is-a perfect grift. The fitness industry has duped the whole world into thinking it can't get
by without all this equipment; equipment it then sells to the mark, or rents out at exorbitant prices
(in the case of gym membership). I want to cry because it's a tragedy; the average modern
trainee-who is not on steroids-makes little gain in size from year to year, and even less progress
in true athletic ability.
To become hugely powerful, you don't need weights, cables, fancy machines, or any other crap
that the industry or the informercials are brainwashing you into thinking you can't do without.
You can gain Herculean strength-genuine brawn and vitality-with no special equipment at all.
But to unlock this power-the power of your own body-you need to know how. You need the
right method, the art.
Such a method does in fact exist. It's based on traditional, ancient forms of training, techniques
which are as old as training itself. This method has evolved by trial-and-error over the centuries,
and has proved its superior ability to transform flimsy men into steel-forged warriors time and
time again. This method is progressive calisthenics-the art of using the human body to maximize
its own development. Calisthenics today is seen as a method of aerobics, circuit training ormuscle
endurance. It isn't taken seriously. But in the past-before the second half of the twentieth century-
all of the world's strongest athletes earned the bulk of their power through performing calisthenics
progressively-to become stronger and stronger, day by day, week by week, year after year
http://www.amazon.ca/Convict-Conditioni ... 0938045768