Handstand Push ups!

Handstand push ups rule. Period.

Broad shoulders help that v-cut appearance, and if your shoulders are weak chances are your upper body is weak. 

The handstand push up increases your level of balance and total body control. Due to being upside down, it also helps circulation as well. When you're forced to balance upside down not only do you have to balance and overhead press your whole body weight (which most people can't do on an overhead press), but you also have CONSTANT tension on your deltoids. There is NO rest for the muscle in between reps. 

When overhead pressing a straight bar you're forced to press in an unnatural range of motion, which is no bueno for the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder joint and eventually leads to injury. Handstand pushups however force you to work in a natural range of motion!

Handstand pushups hit EVERY head of the shoulder muscle, anterior, lateral, and posterior, as well as being a killer exercise for the abs, triceps, traps, and back. 

Work at em enough and maybe one day you'll end up jacked like you're in cirque de soleil, or maybe even master the ultimate feat of upper body strength, the one handed handstand push up, like this fellow below:

Anyway, for a how to, check out my how to do handstand push ups vid on Youtube! Link is below!

How to do Handstand Push ups!

Pistol Squats!

Squats are quite simply one of the best lower body and core exercises you can do. 

Pistol squats are possibly the greatest, and most difficult variation. They look simple, but lowering your butt all the way to the floor while balancing on one leg can be exetremely challenging for most.

It might take you a while to work your way up to doing a true pistol squat using only your own bodweight, and you can start by rolling at the bottom to use momentum to help you up while you build the strength. 

Here's a link to a how to pistol squat video I made on Youtube:

How to Pistol Squat

Better attempt at pistol squat ;)

Seriously try to start including these in your leg or total body workout. Use them in the Dark Knight or the Arkham Asylum Prison workout available below. 

Become a pistol squat beast, and not only will your legs become CRAZY strong, but you'll also burn a TON of calories in the process. Seriously. 

(And after doing them in the Arkham Asylum workout I did this morning, I could BARELY shoot this video. Serious jell-o legs now :P)

-Tom

Prison Style / Arkham Asylum Workout!

In both film and comic, batman has spent plenty of time behind bars. Whether it's in Arkham Asylum, Bane's pit where men are thrown in the Dark Knight rises, or Blackgate, he still manages to stay in shape. But how?

With bodyweight exercises of course! You too can get jacked with your own bodyweight! Most people think you can't get in crazy good shape with just push ups and pull ups, but they're just not thinking creatively enough. If you can do regular pushups, try clap or 1 arm push ups. If you can do chin ups  and pull ups, try them with 1 arm. Knock out some handstand push ups. Look at olympic gymnasts. Crazy good shape, yet they rarely lift weights. 

Here's a workout that can be done with MINIMAL equipment, and will get you in shape no matter where you're locked up, whether it's arkham, blackgate, prison, or just your own living room

The Arkham Asylum / Prison Workout:

3 circuits

High Box jumps 5 reps

1 arm/side to side push ups 5 reps each side

1 arm chin ups 5 reps each side

Handstand push ups 8 rep

Slow negative squat jumps(or pistol squats) 5 reps

Hanging leg raises 5 reps

Bodyweight inverted row 5 reps

That's it! If you can't do the harder variations like 1 arm chin ups, work your way up to it. 

Get it done!

-Tom

Mix it up!

This article was inspired by this morning's workout ;)

Variety is the spice of life folks. And that definitely applies to your workouts. Sticking to a routine is one thing, but if you do the EXACT same routine every single session, I'm talking the exact same moves, order of exercises, sets and rep schemes, a lot of no fun can happen. Besides eventual plateaus
which are discouraging, it can get boring and that kinda kills motivation.
Now I'm not saying you need to do a crazy different workout every time, that too can be bad as your body just won't adapt well.  But change SOMETHING. Maybe do 3 sets of 8 one time, 4 sets of 5 the next, maybe even 3x6 or 5x3 on some power moves. Change the setting once in a while. Try working out at a public park or playground (playground work out coming soon;)). Maybe just mix up the order of your exercises. Try a different grip on pull ups. Maybe a different variety of push ups. Your muscles will love the challenge and the variety will keep you engaged mentally in your workout too.
Here's a different variation of the DARK KNIGHT WORKOUT (available below in this very blog) that I ran this morning. (Went amazing by the way)

Box Jumps superset with Pull ups
TRX Push ups superset with Dead Kettle bell Snatch
Jump Squats superset with Handstand Push ups
TRX row superset with Hanging Knee Raises

Same basic Dark Knight Workout but just a little varied to spice it up. Give this one a shot.
Or try something different in your workout. Try it! You'll like it!
-Tom

The Cardio Myth

Yea that's right. The cardio myth. There's a reason all the people wasting time on the cardio equipment look like this:

It's because Cardio is a fad that never really died, unfortunately. And let me clarify by saying when I say cardio, I mean steady state cardio. Jogging on a treadmill or outside or on the elliptical for thirty min.  

Around 1968 I believe, some jackass named Curtis Mayfield published a book entitled,"The Joy of jogging", and thus the belief that we needed cardio was born. 

I know what you're going to say. Our hearts need it! It's important for heart health!

WRONG.

Before the whole cardio craze, workout fanatics and body builders alike did very little cardio. We as a people didn't go jogging. And guess what? Before the whole cardio craze caught on, the rates of heart disease related death were actually pretty low. So what caused the spike? Our shitty, shitty, horrible diets and reduced physical activity. 

You don't need cardio to burn fat, or stay in shape if that's your concern. If you're getting a total body workout with short rest periods, that alone will keep your heart rate up. Total body workouts are excellent for blood flow and your heart. Jog all you want, but if you're living on soda and fast food and energy drinks and cigarettes your heart WILL suffer the consequences.

Look at the cardio area at a commercial gym. Mostly overweight folks. See any fatties cranking out wide grip pull ups? Nope. Here's a challenge. Find someone who does 30 min on the treadmill every few days and rarely does a push up or touches the free weights, and someone like myself who avoids cardio and cranks out pull ups and handstand push ups and let them race for a mile. Then let the doctor give them a physical. Bet myself and all the other pull up beasts win on the mile, and on blood pressure and body fat.

Look I'm not going to keep repeating myself, but seriously folks if you live an active lifestyle and stick to full body workouts every other day or so then you're just wasting your time on that treadmill and getting discouraged. If you don't believe me then try it my way for a month. Get it a full body workout with weights or bodyweight every other day or monday weds fri for a month.(Women you WILL NOT GET BULKY! You don't have the genes but I'll cover that later). Workout and eat healthy and at the end of the month if eating shit and the treadmill was a better option then fine go back to it. Waste your time. Your loss. 

Hit the Weights Workout!

Here's a workout for those of you who have access to a gym and a looking to hit the weights!

This a semi old school workout(classic's are classic for a reason) that'll hit all of your major muscle groups! 

Here ya go! Remember, form and good quality reps over everything else! Leave your ego at the door!

Warmup: Jump rope, jumping jacks, something to get the blood flowing, maybe some dynamic stretches(NOT STATIC! Google the difference PLEASE:))

Workout:

Barbell Back Squat 4 sets of 5 reps. (make sure you go till your thighs are low enough;))

Dumbbell Floor Press 4 sets of 5 superset with 

Wide Grip Pull ups 4 sets of 5

Standing Barbell Military Press 4 sets of 5 superset with

Low Cable Row 4 sets of 5

Cool down, rest, refuel, recover. This is a workout meant to be done with HEAVY weights and reps in the 5 rep range. Beast it out! Any exercises you're not familiar with (IE what's a floor press?) please look up on YouTube for how to's until I post videos of my own.

Have Fun!

-Tom

Abs like Batman! Want em?

People try to make six pack abs sound like a complicated science. It's not.
The simplest way to put it is this....if you want your abs to show, you need low body fat. Most would say under 10-12% for males and a little higher for females.
So for the most part, when they say "abs are built in the kitchen", they're mostly right. Diet is I would say about 80% of the ab battle. You can do all the goofy ab exercises you want and do thousands of crunches or planks (crunches burn like ZERO calories btw, and doing only ab exercises is a waste of time.), but if you eat like crap or like a depressed fat girl, no abs for you. Sorry.

Working your abs is a lot easier than you think. If you stick to mostly compound exercises like squats, kb swings, push ups, pull ups, rows, the snatch, jumps, STANDING military presses (not seated), handstand pushups, you really have to do VERY LITTLE direct ab work. Don't do sets of fifty crunches or use one of those stupid ab machines at the gym. You're wasting a lot of time and energy. The same goes for cardio but I'll get into the cardio MYTH at a later date ;)
The reason your abs get worked in those amazing compound exercises is that the main function of your abs is to keep your spine from collapsing over like a jenga tower. PLUS total body movements like those burn WAY more calories than sitting your ass on the thigh machine at the gym, and if your sitting on your ass with your back on a back rest to press dumbbells overhead, guess what? You're pretty much neglecting your abs. Stop it!
Here's a secret: I have pretty decent abs judging by the pictures below and BF that hovers around five and guess what? I do almost no cardio, and here's my abs routine: 3 sets of 8 crunches one day, 3 sets of 6-8 hanging knee raises the next. THAT'S it! Your abs DO NOT need their own routine!
Seriously folks, if you stick to total body work outs with plenty of squats, jumps, push ups, pull ups, you really have to do very little ab work.
But remember, even if you have a very strong core and amazing abs, body fat WILL hide them. Exercise is amazing but I DON'T CARE HOW HARD YOU WORK OUT! EVEN IF YOU WORKOUT LIKE A MONSTER THAT DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE LICENSE TO EAT LIKE KIRSTY ALLEY WHEN SHE FALLS OFF THE WAGON, PERIOD!
In closing , stick to those compound exercises, don't overwork your abs , and remember , it's mostly about diet ......
So work hard! And eat clean! Get bat abs!
-Tom