Prison Workouts

Prison workouts are basically ego driven. There are a lot of talented and gifted people behind bars. But like other parts of their life, they lacked direction.

The whole kit and caboodle of working out in prison is over training, over training and more over training. Guys beat themselves to death day in and day out without proper nutrition. One thing that was taken care of is rest. A lot of guys got plenty of rest. Workouts usually go for two hours or more. A major problem of prison workouts is that guys worked out with three or more partners. Sometimes up to 5 and still thinking if they lift 6-12 then they will get bigger. More is not better.

What I did was introduce "in and out." Get in bang hard and then get out all within an hour. Workout with one partner. Everything that we desire happens outside the gym. Very little rest between sets. So what happened? Guys called my workout "Jane Fonda." They couldn't grasp that I lifted more weight that they did, a lot more weight. Some noticed that while other guys lifted more weight that they never changed, while my partners and I made improvements. On the cardio side they thought I was even more radical.

I started a cardio program called Cardio Hoorah, which was a shuttle sprint (max effort) set followed by active recovery. This again got "Jane Fonda" comments until a couple of guys tried it and just about puked. We did the sprints alternated with running stairs with an AB and core component. The ABS was done fast and hard just like everything else. 3-6 exercises in a row with 20-30 seconds of rest in between each set. The core workout was done without stability balls. We ran circuits with bridges, planks, lunges with thrust, drop lunges and some balance exercises. I started another program of just body weight circuits, as a lot of guys don't believe in weights. They are bar monsters, 20 sets of 10 reps of pull ups, push ups and dips.

I started a body weight circuit with a metabolic component. Squat to pushup to medicine ball press to squat thrust to mountain climbers and on and on. Take 5 or 6 moderately hard exercises and run them together for 25 minutes and your dead, a lot of sucking of air going on. Guys who were out of shape got in shape. Some guys got off their diabetes meds. Everybody improved. ABS were seen for the first time and my passion for helping people "get right" was born.

Coming in next month's newsletter workouts in 30-45 or even 15 minutes. No time. Yeah Right!