A lot of people have been asking me for medical advice lately.
A lot.
Strangers.
They just walk up to me and ask, for example, how to strengthen their shoulder or their knee what they injured.
Me.
…
This is probably not wise.
Rather than offer to fix their computer or edit their writing, either of which would make a lot more sense (programmer by education, Fiction Editor of The Grove Literary Review by vocation) I’m going to try to link to a crap-load of conditioning knowledge across the web. A small crap-load, but still, in scientific terms, a crap-load. Hopefully you can find your own answers there, just as I did.
First you have to understand something. There are three components to healthy and effective strength:
Static Strength, Dynamic Strength, and Flexibility. Yes, Flexibility. Without training all three, you will injure. Sooner or later. Obviously all these can be broken down into more categories (flexibility: passive, active, ballistic, etc), but let’s not. You can get that from these wonderful sites. Do the time. Don’t be lazy. And you too will be able to work on the iron cross without injuring your shoulder or elbow.
An example of the active/passive/flexibility plan for fitness is from Coach Christopher Sommer. He views the three most important strength activities as rings, handstand work, and stretching. The first two involve both static and dynamic strength, and stretching is flexibility. Wait a minute? Why am I justifying myself to you? Just go after the info and make up your own damn mind.
Yet another note: all this stuff is great for women too. Your body will adapt differently than mine. You won’t get big, flaming muscles. You will get a tight, feminine six pack—assuming you have a no-sugar, low-or-no-grain diet to match. I think that more men than women create and flock to these sites for the same reason that there are more women than men creating and flocking to yoga studios: for solidarity. Yoga is great, if that’s what you want to do. I’m not as much for the spirituality, and I am more for the ninja-tricks. But body weight conditioning is fun in any form. Yoga is fun. But if you’re doing it right it’s a kind-of-too-hard that I don’t enjoy as much. Does that make sense? You have to be a real bad ass to push through some of those yoga work outs. I just monkey around until I get strong. (oot oot)
Do note: these aren’t pages on recovery. My game is to not get injured. It’s a good racket—you should try.
If you’re serious about body weight conditioning, start with the book: Building the Gymnastic Body
I can’t stress enough that this is a fundamental source of knowledge on body weight conditioning. Read it cover to cover. Do not skip the last chapter; it’s on program design.
Also from the Gymnastic Bodies Website:
Coach Sommer’s essays.
And the forums are great.
And last, from another part of the web, Coach Sommer’s article on building the iron cross
Ido Portal is the bomb.
YouTube channel, start at the bottom.
Blog. Start here and go forward in time.
Ido is my latest favoritest source of intel. I’m going to link directly to this warm up thingum, with a nice section on shoulder stabilization, since that’s what I get the most questions about. The wrist work is awesome. Those wrist pushups hurt at first, but you quickly get stronger.
I don’t have as much to say about Beast Skills, but it has fun stuffs: Beast skills. I’m currently working on the flag and the one arm elbow lever. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Lost Art of Handbalancing. Honestly, I haven’t found too much help here. I haven’t been willing to buy any of their for-sale products. I do have to give a shout out to this guy. He started much younger than me, early twenties instead of thirties, but he’s learning what he wants to learn. I badly want to reform his diet, but that might hurt his feelings and he could probably kick my ass anyway. I’m not a fighter.
They do link through to hand-balancing stands. I hope to buy a pair later in the summer. They’re spendy, at $129+shipping, but much less than other options. PS—if you find a better option, message me! Also, if you’re a believer in this site, please put it in the comments. I won’t approve any comments that bash these sites, though I will approve critical reviews, but what I’d really like is success stories. So if you like and use the Lost Art of Handbalancing website, give a shout out in the comments!
stretching
Most of the forums I’ve linked to have good information on stretching. Also, search both youtube and google for split progressions. The two things I would emphasize are that stretching is an integral component to strength. No ifs, ands, or buts, Second, improvement takes time. To improve the splits I found I had to hold the position for at least two minutes, and I must do this several times a week. Then I hit a wall, so now I’m doing it for three minutes at a time, and making progress again. I have my middle splits, and I’m close to my left and right splits (or front splits and … the other front splits?). Tutorial details that warn you that training the splits requires extended periods of increasing pain are not exaggerating. Also, cramping is your friend. Have a laugh with your friend, and, if necessary, a good cry. If you find great tutorials please put them in the comments and I’ll link them here. For now, try this.
If I didn’t put dragon-door in here somewhere, I’d get flamed: http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode2/Workouts
Gear:
Iron Cross Trainer
I’ve been using this. Slow progress. Big arms.
Parallettes: There are options. I prefer wood. I have two sets, my favorite being the 18″ Gibson.
I would buy the 36″ if you have the room / can afford them. That way you can practice L-Sit circles on them.
A good Yoga Matt: talk to a good yoga instructor.
Interlocking mats. I don’t have these, but I’ll get some at some point.
Rings. I’m lucky enough to have access to rings at the bouldering gym. I’m unlucky in that I have no space at home to hang a pair. If you buy your own rings, get metal. I hate the plastic rings, and you should too.
That should be more than enough to get you started. I’ll try to post an impressive looking video or something to hold your micro attention (assuming you’re like me, of course) as soon as I can.
