Lately I have been looking for an alternative to weight lifting and going to the gym every day. I was so excited to find this book Convict Conditioning (affiliate link).
Paul Wade was incarcerated for many years and wanted a workout program. Contrary to what television shows us, inmates do not have the greatest lifting facilities. To help occupy his mind and keep himself fit (for protection purposes) he started studying and using calisthenics. Not the wimpy activities we used in school but hard core activities that have been used for centuries by people like the Romans.
The coolest thing in this book is that is teaches a process to do one handed push-ups, one handed pull-ups, and one handed inverted push-ups. I consider myself relatively strong, but I cannot do any of these. By doing body weight lifts I can get even stronger than I am now.
One of the main take aways from this book is the systematic process he teaches to reach the extreme levels of strength. This process can be adapted to any exercise we are trying to accomplish.
The only negative is his writing style requires some work and the chapters can get a bit redundant.
All in all, if you are just starting out in exercise, or if you want get strong but don’t want a gym membership or if you just want to impress your friends get this book. I am going to start implementing this program in 6 weeks to begin my preparation for the Tough Mudder.
Wow, you and I are really on the same wavelength. My girlfriend and I started doing P90X a few weeks ago for exactly the same reason. The redundancy of only lifting weights at the gym over and over again was getting to me. Let me know what kind of results you get with this new workout!
I will, I am so excited to start it. It is a totally different mindset from the typical gym goer. Plus, I can impress people with one handed push-ups