I just got out two weeks ago. The answer is boredom and a masculine environment that pushes you to workout more. Some of the guys I met in prison were the most supportive and accommodating when it came to working out. My bunkmate was huge and pushed me to workout with him 6 days a week.
I am not an expert on this subject but I have read from many sources that training to much is counterproductive. The muscle grow when is in the "healing process" that is 48hs o 72hs resting the muscle after the hypertrophy
@WNC HikeStrong I think that is a myth about testosterone: "New scientific evidence refutes the preconception that testosterone causes aggressive, egocentric, and risky behavior". There a lot of research about that subject. Apparently high levels of testosterone are not linked to aggressive behavior.
@WNC HikeStrong Some people are more genetically predisposed to easily build muscle mass. For example I've been training consistently for over a year and I have a good diet but nonetheless I can't get close to what others have done in 6 months (in youtube)
Well, I'm not denying the fact it works for some but I had me and 3 other guys who each started the same time around the same weight (150) and we all ate together everyday big ass blowups lunch and dinner. At about 6 months, we also did 5 day workouts and rest on our weekends kindve usually we did a smaller version. But anyways daily at about 6 months was 800 push up a day, deck of cards for squats and laps, 400 dips, 250 Tysons. Occasionally we would have a water bucket and do curls at around 80 lbs at max fill. Also using towels for pull downs. 3 of us got pretty good size, but one guy never gained any size except when we would workout, he would dwarf the other 2 guys and was much stronger than most of the bigger guys in the entire dorm. Our diet in all honesty was 2 oatmeal trays or 2 biscuit and gravy trays for breakfast with some fruit. Lunch depended between sausages with chili, noodles, cheese, pickles and pickle juice, onto of chips spread across a 5x5 table. Before dinner we'd have another blowup maybe rice and beans with some fish usually mackerel w/ bones. Mustard and soy or BBQ sauce. Dinner usually either lunch or the between dinner meal but bigger or sometimes stacked together. Just depended on the money. Sometimes we'd buy or trade snack cakes for other guys trays and use the state plate as part of the meal. Edit: forgot to mention my ending weight was 195 bunker was 205 and last I knew the other 2 were between 185 and 200
To answer the diet question, as an ex correctional officer: the swole guys, especially those with time, consistently ate commissary Raman, tuna, and peanut butter between chow. Also worked out for hours a day, napped constantly.
I had 4-hour janitor shifts every night over a summer and did pushups to failure every 15 minutes during the 4 hour session every day. I started out at 3 pushups, but I kept getting stronger and stronger, and ended up getting into the ~200-rep range per 15-minute-pushup set, and it was the most muscle i've ever amassed in my life
If more people spent less time worrying about the perfect program, pre and post work out supplements, counting protein, etc and just focused on grinding the basics more people would be in way better shape The basics work
It s simple:Consistency, when your entire life revolves around working out you get big, workout throughout the day, and sleep in between, high test levels due to the environment.
@@risefromthedark either working in the kitchen and getting more food, able to buy any kind of food from the commissary and just hustling for more food
@@risefromthedark it's working in the kitchen getting money from outside and a mix of other things. - My uncle told me that working in the kitchen gave him that edge and getting money send to him from family but that was back in 2005 i don't know for now.
I entered prison at 150 lbs, with a strong foundation in cardio and basic calisthenics. I witnessed SEVERAL men try SEVERAL workout programs with weights and calisthenics. What I noticed was that the men that adopted the "muscle confusion" stance had the most astounding results! An old convict, about 50 years of age, and in gymnast condition told me that the human body is a machine that will adapt to any stimuli that you press upon it.
It basically comes down to volume and consistency. 2 years ago, when the pandemic started and I couldn't go to work and was stuck at home basically 24/7, I started doing multiple bodyweight workouts during the day at home. Within a few months I got into the best physical shape of my life (and I was 40 years old). Then I started working again and unfortunately I lost most of it, due to being at a job for 9 hours during the day.
@@mryellow9655 Trust me, if I could work from home, I would. Unfortunately the current work climate, especially in this country, has changed so much during the last 3 years it makes it REALLY hard, unless you're in the right field.
@@MrCageCat I gave up my office job in law to become a refuse collector. I've lost around 15kg of fat and gained a lot of dense muscle strength training. I took a massive wage cut but im healthier and happier. You have to consider whats important to you. For me it's being healthy.
Hey I'm 41, never been out of shape, but I started with strength training nine months ago and I'm also in the best shape of my life! I see muscles I only theoretically knew I had before 😄 I do work more or less eight hours a day, but I find the time to stay consistent with my training. It's all about priorities, but I can understand if yours are different, especially if you have a family (I don't).
Protein is a large part of their diet . Every hardcore fit prisoner had large collection of tuna . It's the most protein they can get from the commissary. Also milk and prisoners would make their own protein shakes out of that milk and mixing in their own high protein food .
I was a Correctional Officer for many years. I watched people of all body types workout, and noticed something. They didn't workout for hours a day, they all worked out for about 60 minutes per day. The two biggest dudes on the yard would workout for an hour per day. It's not about how long you workout, rather it's about consistency. Don't do the same workout for 3 months and expect major results, workout for 3 years and you'll get big. Also, these fools didn't eat non stop. Most of them were broke and only ate what the prison gave them. Consistency is the key.
@@xpertaab7261 No one knows how all this stuff really works... and that goes for almost everything. Its all conjecture and "science". And "science" nowadays has little to do with the scientific method.
I did many years in Georgia prisons back in the 90s-2000s and did 1000 pushups a day every day. I'm 64 now and still do 300 everyday. I do 15 sets of 20 every day and I think I'm still in pretty fair shape.
@@gregpettis1113 better results? I think for my age I get around better then most. I stop at 300 because of time before I leave for work but I believe I can still do 1,000 if just wanted to. You realize literally thousands of convicts have been doing pushups by the thousands every day for decades.
@@gregpettis1113 no I don't get sore at all and I don't have any special genetics. I've been doing high volume pushups for many many years and my body handles them well. I'm nothing special brother cause there are many people that do high volume daily pushups just like I do. Check out some of the pushup and prison pushup videos on RUclips and you will see many just like me.
In some cases it's boredom and in some cases it's fear--depends on where you are. In those situations, it's all about repping to ever increasing levels--always until failure--because when you're pushing that last 2-5 reps before you literally collapse, the whole metabolic ballgame changes.
When I was in prison I was in great shape, very lean and the food we were served was high in carbohydrates and low in protein I believe the reason that I looked so good was that the last meal was served at 3.20 in the afternoon and the first at 8.20 so it was basically a 17 hour period of fasting every day
Our food was lean but so many people didn't drink milk that it was easy as hell to trade stuff to people for milk. I drank about 10-12 8 Oz glasses of milk a day for a few years just trying to get any extra protein I could.
I lost 50 lbs. during covid doing keto/if. Now weight has plateaued, but still use i.f. 18 - 6 to keep calories down. Fasting is a great tool to be used for diets!
I went to prison 10 Years ago and now I own real estate. But those 10 Years ago was Im the leanest I ever had, we don’t do any diets just eat what we are served and we don’t do nothing except working out and playing basketball in the backyard.
@@tootsiestamlin i did the exact same bro..i would get 2 packs of buglars an have them rolled up an trade single ciggs for a milk..i would have prob 12 milks a day counting mine an some that bought for a bag of coffee a week
I would like to be interviewed for this topic. I worked in the prison system here in Georgia for over 4 years and I learned so much. Those guys taught me things I still do now
13÷ years in federal prison. Outside of sports I never trained consistently until prison. I bulked up nicely and was in great cardiovascular shape. I did it with consistency and intensity primarily. It was also difficult to get enough protein, which makes a HUGE difference. I did weight training and the Convict Conditioning program at different times. I truly believe a hybrid program of utilizing weights on limited things is best, for example: bench and squats. I felt sore, stiff, and achy on weights only. With calisthenics I felt like a king with very usable strength in any position versus adjusting my stance to utilize my strength when a weights only guy. To feel great and truly capable I can't recommend calisthenics enough. Go ahead and add weight to bench and squats, especially squats because the load, if you go heavy for at least 1 set, releases hormones and gets you growing faster. BUT under all circumstances PROTECT YOUR LOWER BACK! Stay in perfect form. Deadlifting is great for growing but not worth the risk to your back and it's not essential, Bridges are more than enough. Be consistent, be INTENSE, DRINK TONS OF WATER, stay in calorie surplus, and eat a ton of protein and especially beef. You'll grow like a weed if you get your rest doing the above! As for the crazy high reps, yeah it can work but I never seen anyone do it consistently that had faster gains than us guys that bought books like Arnold Swartzeneggers etc and followed it religiously. We believed, like coach in Convict Conditioning, that intensity is key, and did lower reps for strength and 8-12 for mass etc. Now if a guy is in the hole well there's not much you can do but reps but on average the masses have plenty to do and many even find it hard to get exercise time in. I also did some yoga after workouts which really helped me stay flexible. My most important advice, although I thrived in there I strongly recommend you don't go. Not much is worth going to prison for except for defending your family.
Moderate to heavy weights + higher reps is what I learnt as a key concept of inducing hypertrophy as well as burning overall fat (burn triglycerides as well as glucose) at the same time
I’ve ditched the weights for the most part and have been mainly doing Pull Ups, Chin Ups, Dips, Push Ups, Crunches, Calf Raises, Wall Sits & Split Squats and have seen a lot of gains. Basically just work until failure, rest and repeat for a few sets. Sometimes add a weighted vest for more of a challenge.
You're absolutely right. And let me add to this that for the average person I think this is a much more convenient and effective way of training than hitting the gym, because the best training is the one you actually do. I found myself always making excuses for not going to the gym, but it's hard to not do a few sets of body weight exercises each day. I don't adhere to any specific plan as well and just train close to failure and got good and noticeable results. Everyone who struggles to make gains should really try grinding push-ups, dips etc for a few weeks and see if that works better for them!
Yup, I do mainly bodyweights too and some dumbbells on alternate days only at home, keep at it :) Maintaining a body fat of 10-13% lean physique quite easily
Too true, some people respond to body weight better than free weights and some people respond to free weights better. I noticed if I wanted to lose weight, body weight exercises brought results the fastest but that's just me
I think the prisoners are proof that you really don't need all the protein most people think you do. The main thing is workout frequency and intensity.
You’re right it’s all diet and consistency,when I was in basic training I was afraid I’d lose more weight through the excessive training but we had a strict diet and constant water consumption so when I went there I was 125lbs and in 2 months I gained atleast 13lbs just doing body weighted exercises no supplements
I’ve always suspected that too. This wouldn’t be possible if the protein intake were true… I really am starting to think it’s just cleaning the diet and have reasonable protein intake. It seems to be mostly consistency and discipline
@@amazinggrace313 probably because think about it, ancient Greeks and Roman’s weren’t jacked like mr Olympias of today, but they had good bodies. They for sure didn’t eat all day long
I worked in East Africa a few years back and I used to see these local guys pushing and pulling carts or moving heavy boxes around all day, every day. No gyms in these towns or villages, no protein powders etc and these guys were jacked. I would say their diet was clean, plenty of fish, carbs and vegetables etc, but not massive amounts of it. It made me wonder the exact same question you asked about reps/sets/diet etc. If you are smashing it out all day, every day, you will get big. Our ancestors were "working out" all day before wheels and machines made it unnecessary for us to physically and manually work all day. I'm no trainer or dietitian, but I think some of thinking and "rules" on reps/sets/diet and sleep is horse s**t. Your body is capable of much more than you give it credit for. Thos guys I saw in E Africa are proof. They were at it 7 days a week, every week. They certainly weren't eating 3000 calories a day. They worked all day, woke up very early and there were no rest days. They were fit, big and healthy. Just my opinion
Also eating twice a day help. Those guys only eat twice a day in the morning and in the evening. That helps the body stays in a lower fat percentage and raises the testosterone.
@@alisajjad4591 You are so stupid and mis informed. Have you ever been to east Africa before uttering such nonsense. Stop giving Africa a bad picture which you have been continuously been fed by the media. Don't believe everything thing you are told by the media...
@@alisajjad4591 you are wrong, african genetics are very good for muscle growth. It's well known. Especially the ones who ended up in America. I'm 6'2 and 220lbs with a 6 pack. Working scaffolding which is a laborious job has me ripped
For me it was a mixture of internal and external motivating factors. On one hand I was driven to be in better shape than everyone around me, on the other the environment was dangerous enough to keep me serious about it. The workouts were bodyweight variations of the things mike mentzer taught, a lot of short range reps most with full range super slow reps, even static holds. On top of that I would do super high reps. 200 pushups straight at the end of a workout. Just pushing yourself harder than the next man. I had 17 inch arms and a 49 inch chest just from pushups. Very little body fat.
I switched from weight training decades ago. The main reason being lost time from travel to and from the gym, and the wait time for equipment. I’ve incorporated high rep training over the years. But over time, and age related slower recovery time, I’ve discovered that proper form and varied time under tension will create benefits and body composition change.
About the diet: I went to prison in Louisiana. They served beans & rice every day. And most of the time, twice daily. Bc beans & rice are cheap, have a lot of protein, carbs & are very filling. Plus, working out all the time.
you're the 2nd person i've heard mention all they had was beans in prison and this is proof you don't need that much protein- esp if you are male at least b/c while beans are "high" in protein for a vegetable...they are not a high protein food. They are a high carbohydrate food. Clearly if put under the right amount of stress the body will build muscle without needing 125g protein per day.
I'm a Certified Personal Trainer.... I was in Texas Prison Roberson Unit back in 98' ...We ate everything ramens, links, anything to survive. High reps until failure ...our preworkout was coffee, coke, peppermint stick...my body was in the best shape of my life..
@@survivalistor6195 im my opinion that's how a work out should be like. Just go until you're burned out. Rest and do more. Personally, I've discovered counting out sets limits my desire to push further. I thinks sets are best for controlled group workouts.
You should also take into consideration that inmates have something that many of us on the outside do not have--recovery time. From what I've seen on television prisoners have plenty of time to relax and recover from their workout. I imagine it's probably also easier to be disciplined where the diet is concerned. No running out for McDonald's, pizza or Chinese take out.
@@HateTheIRS facts! I’m walking back from McDonald’s as I read this ironically and i just so happen to look the best I have in years. I eat it 4-5x a week and go gym everyday. It’s about the calories 100%.
@@HateTheIRS the idea is that mcdonald's meals generally have high calories and thus can make you fat. Also they're packed with gmo and hormones that may or may not hinder you in gaining muscle as well as promote fat gain.
@@Caaro99 you realize people can count calories? Also, GMO’s are not bad for you. Bro, you are a GMO. Ask your parents how they made you. Hormones, idk anything about tbh. Burgers taste good so I don’t care
Agreed. When I got my best shape, I was doing as follows : 30 jump and jacks, 30 regular push ups (warm up). Then every single reps of the following series of push ups where made in decreased, which means I was going down slowly counting 1,2,3,4 and pushing up hard on 5. (10x regular grip, 10x wide grip (real wide grip), 10x grip as low and close as possible from my hips and finishing always with 12 diamond push ups) I was doing this 3 times and finished always with "active 360 rotation plank", cannot really explain that one and 2x 120 swimmer kicks abs . After 1 month, I was doing sets of 20 and then at the mid second month I was doing sets of 25. One very important component is that I was, and still always do, timing my rest using an timing app, in order to always have the same rest time. I think it is even more important than the sets themselves, cause if you are a bit out of energy one day you can still do the same intensity without disturbing your muscle and nervous system metabolism. If you take random rests between sets, your metabolism will never really adapt, which mean far less progression. On the third month I also did a 30 days with sugar only from half a banana a day and one cheat meal on rest day. One my rest day, I was swimming non stop and at 75-80% of my maximum speed for about 30 minuts. Eveveryone was shocked of my physic and girls......my Godness lmao. Now I still in a very good shape but due to a double injury from ice hockey and swimming I have some left shoulder issue.
When you're in a prison, time stands still. When you have so much time for yourself, you tend to do something about it. Also it would benefit for you survival inside the prison. So its the perfect time to build your body the least. Out here in the world meanwhile, we pamper ourselves as more and more of an era passes by.
@@Nick-up6xi yeah the video was about nutrition and rep ranges, asking useful questions. Nobody was wondering if people had extra time on their hands in prison.
The only way to build muscles is progressive overload. In prison, they push to their limits everyday. There are many way to get progressive overload. Increase weights, increase Set+rep, increase time under tension, increase intensity. Look at these guys do calisthenics who try to beat the timer 50 pullup-100pushup in under 5 minutes, they do high volume+ high intensity workout. That will build muscles
@@raygengamer8440 apparently you've never overtrained. I have, there is no pushing thru, it gets worse week by week eventually you can't eat or sleep more than 2-4 hours at a time, then you start getting sick.
@Pedro Right. According to someone who says he did 1000 push ups that weren't even part of his main workout. I'll trust you on that one. I mean, nothing says "trust me" like a 12 year prison sentence.
Coming from someone who spent 3 years in prison and got in the best shape of my life while being down and also my biggest I can say you can get huge from just calisthenics. High reps and lots of volume, the most important thing though is consistency and also getting enough sleep.
@@markgroves4167 I worked out daily taking maybe one day a week off. Knowing what I do now I was probably overtraining at times and could have had similar results training 4 to 5 days a week.
During my time in the military all I did was calisthenics and I benched for the first time during that time. Maxed out at 245lbs with a 170lbs body weight. All I would do was push ups and dips for chest/tri. Max strict push ups was 108 reps in 2 minutes
This is such a great realization. Sometimes I wanna do high-reps for 2 hours, sometimes I wanna go caveman and lift something heavy for a little bit. This motivates me to push even harder in calisthenics to see what's possible. Thank you for this one!
I was a distance runner throughout high school. And while I wasn’t particularly muscular in terms of my upper body. All that running (50 miles per week) put a ton of muscle on my legs. High reps absolutely work! It doesn’t equate to explosive strength. But it helps give you amazing endurance when done properly. You’re less likely to get injured. And I believe you’re more consistently able to release feel good endorphins as well.
I often get asked how I got calves so large and, matter of fact it has very little to do with resistance training but rather high elevation ascent/descent (up and down is like a total leg workout), switchbacks shifting terrain high speed hiking (not climbing but picking out a moderate to hard trail and booking it) If you live in a place that's flat, then a gym treadmill can closely approximate with its electronic settings (close, but not quite the same) You can wear a weight vest too if you want; but the point is to - while enjoying the peaceful meditative scenery - move quickly (and safely, with proper footwear); the shiftin terrains help engage muscles for complete adaptation of the legs
I agree. I love long hard workouts. When I first started all I knew was working to failure. Now I work to failure and push higher weight which ends up going to failure with lower reps if I'm going for strength. Right now the goal is 100lbs for 100reps unbroken preferably for all of the main barbell movements. Think of it this way. The human body is very lazy and with adapt and overcome so it doesn't have to work that hard. If you push it to or above your current limit, your body will adapt so that it's not as hard next time. You just need the mindset to go to failure.
I was in the Marines and although we did lift weights, a lot of that was shed off in the field through long range endurance exercise and weekend drinking. What was left behind was solid lean muscle from calisthenics. I believe this because that’s what we pack on in bootcamp and on a daily basis. All the guys I know since that come back from training all have the same thick, lean, solid physics. You can do a lot with calisthenics for sure. And throw some swimming or surfing on top of that and you become a god.
During the lockdown when all the gyms were closed I worked out daily at home. I have a really nice doorway pull-up bar that is actually elevated and I did use some dumbbells and I have two weighted vests. A lot of basic movements and high-volume and I found that I was leaner and more athletic. When I do calisthenics it's more of the weighted calisthenics. Even now that the gyms are open I still make sure that I incorporate calisthenics into my routine. Excellent video! Thanks
Amazing point. What changed my thoughts on this originally was seeing gymnasts and the superior upper body strength they have to be able to perform especially the rings
Before I went to prison i never worked out but always wanted to be shredded! When i got to prison, working out all the time was just a time-killer very mind-numbing when your alone but focus came easier!
Calisthenics have been one of the best types of workouts I've ever done! I've been doing a military style fitness plan and it helped me not only achieve muscle tone, but also I performed very well at some activities I did recently for the first time: wakeboarding, aerial silks, and horseback riding. I do use dumbbells for adding resistance to legs and core.
When I was 22, I did 50 pushups every time I finished a chapter of the book I was reading. When I went to the bathroom, I did 25 pullups on the door frame on the way in and 25 on the way out, and did sets of 25 dips in the corner of the kitchen counter. I also had a small weight bench with the cement weights with the plastic shells, nothing fancy. I did sets of 30 bench press with only about 120 lbs. I did that for about 9 months before I moved from that apt and fell out of practice. That was the biggest I ever got in my life, even bigger than when I had an Olympic weight set. Actually, I injured myself going high weight low reps with that set, when I got into my 30. These days I don't worry about how big I get. I just make sure to do something every day and keep it mostly body weight or functional exercises like picking up 5 gallon jugs of water and other stuff around the house. Anymore, I focus on longevity aiming to stay fit for life.
Same here. When I was 17 I did dips pull-ups and push ups and was bigger then ever in my life and I’m now a grown man (and “big”). People used to think I was on steroids but it was only from those 3
@@walexander8378 Yes, the frame of the door was an older building that had just enough to grab onto. Couldn't do it with modern molding, but you could put a door gym in the bathroom doorway. I have done that and do pullups or skin the cat or just hang, each and every time you go into the bathroom.
@@BluBlu111 I am 50 years old now, so I will never have the body I had in my 20s, but I still keep in shape. One of the things that I have realized throughout my fitness career is that everyone has to live in the body they have. Some people naturally have big pecs or big biceps or big back, legs whatever. I always wanted bigger traps, but that is not the body I have. Some would say that I have a great body. Others would say that I am skinny. Mostly, I work to keep fit without injury. After injuring myself, and fighting arthritic knees and tendinitis, I wouldn't say that I have a great body, but it is hanging in there :)
I did 7 years in TDOC (Tennessee not Texas) and I was big into exercise and lifting while in there. Diet is a big issue in there since the food they give you is generally terrible, but honestly it doesn't seem to matter quite as much as people think. We had access to things like tuna packs on commissary (items you could buy once a week with money sent from the outside or with the job you had) and if you work in the kitchen or know someone that does you can get your protein in. Some places even let you buy whey protein. Commissary is big business so they want to stock the things we wanted. For me personally besides the two years I worked in the kitchen I was pretty much always hungry. My pay was usually around 50-70 dollars a month and not only did I not have anyone sending me money on the outside like most people did the only things I allowed myself to buy was a bag of coffee a week, vitamins and good hygiene products. The rest of that money I saved for when I got out since I knew I was going to be pretty much on my own. The last year I was in I was "trustee" status and at an annex where I had access to a halfway decent pile of weights at all times except for "count time" and in between 9pm and 5am. My natural frame is 5"10 155-160 and they ran a weight lifting contest right before I got out. That weight put me in with guys around 200lbs and I just can't lift as much as them, so I actually cut about 7 lbs to get into the smaller class. Even with shitty food and not much of it I managed a 315 bench, 425 squat and 385 deadlift. That's just from training the hell out of those lifts twice a day (mot every day same lift of course) and hitting the "ab wheel" along with a few other basic lifts. I wasn't exactly new to weight lifting and exercise either as I'd been doing it pretty much my whole life, but all you really need is the will to put in the time. I also ran across some freaky strong dudes in there. Guys that would slap 405 on the bench and rep it like it was 135 and toss so much weight on a deadlift it literally bent the bar. There were also dudes that were just built like that. Guys that didn't even really work out that were apparently jacked from birth or something. I'm sure someone else has already mentioned it but it's a high pressure environment. You're in there with men that when they say "IDGaF" they actually mean it, so it's a good idea to be ready at all times. That probably tends to up your test quite a bit from constantly being in fight or flight mode without the flight, because you don't have wings and there's nowhere to run.
Thanks for sharing. It's true, testosterone rises in fight ir flight environment. Diet is for not that important. But the fitness gurus have to have something to sell. Training plan, exercise selection, diet plan ect. Hope you have you life back on track, all the best 👍
TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) is what it's called here in Texas. ^_^ Calories and protein are both very important, there was an inmate they interviewed here awhile back, he would buy off other inmates lunches by trading away junk food since they wanted it more than regular food. The inmate stated that the other inmates didn't realize is that the food they were served was actually somewhat healthy, akin almost to a school meal in that is was balanced nutritionally. He was in amazing shape, with an impressive, defined upper body and a decent core as well.
@@AnANas00-x3p “diet isn’t that important, testosterone rises in fight or flight environment “ should we all just go to hostile environments to lift or jail haha. Ffs diet might not matter how you’re thinking it but it matters gain or loss so you either need to be in caloric deficit or caloric loading. Depending on your goal or just go lift in Afghanistan
Aside from the water bags they'll use for curls, upright rows etc., the exercises they do (calisthenics) are closed chain. So you can really put as much force as you want into the exercise. You usually don't see the bigger inmates slowly easing into the excentric phase of the movement. They blast out of the bottom, but keep the negatives smooth. And if you're training like this and keeping your session sense, you can absolutely grow, even if you're already muscular. Obviously you can add weight to things, but what I'm saying is with a closed chain exercise, you don't necessarily need to because the force applied gives the body stimulus via added mechanical resistance.
Absolutely agree with your assessment. I had participated in competitive bodybuilding as a teenager in the early 80’s . For the last 15 years I’ve done strictly body weight work outs with tremendous results. Also incorporate boxing and sprints as well. Many years ago I purchased the book Convict Conditioning also and prior to that a book by Matt Furery called Combat Conditioning. Both excellent illustrations on the subject. Thanks for the good info!
I have been following a workout routine largely based on the big 6 mentioned in Convict Conditioning for 2 years now. Has been working quite well for me.
I was recently released from federal prison after doing 12 years. I spent half my time in a prison in Pennsylvania that had no weights, and the second half in a prison in New Jersey that still had a weight room. The convicts in Pennsylvania did pullups, dips, burpees, and pushups every day Monday through Friday with Saturday and Sunday off. In New Jersey they lifted weights following traditional exercise and split routines. The convicts in Pennsylvania were far and above the most ripped and muscular group of men as a whole that I have ever seen anywhere, in or out of prison. Many of these men did 20 or more straight supersets of pullups and dips every day Monday through Friday. Their reps were constantly sets of 20. Many of them had been doing this for 10 years or even 20 years straight. Many of them were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. A few old OGs were in their 70s, and I saw one Greek OG in his 80s. I had spent decades training in the traditional way before my federal prison bit, and I had completed the better part of a Physical Education degree with an option in Exercise Physiology before that as well. Everything these men in Pennsylvania did defied traditional training theories, and I used to tell them that. They just laughed at me and kept doing what they were doing and looking like Greek gods. I was never able to get in the condition they were in, probably because I continued to follow traditional training theories
@@nighthawk244 Learning how to use smartphones. How much my mother had aged. How people take small problems too seriously. How much I enjoyed the simple pleasures of life
@@alvarojimenez655 It's pretty basic. Pullups supersetted with dips. Bodyweight squats. Burpees. Pushups. Situps. Every day for some people. Every other day for others
I remember doing 6 months in jail back when I was 19. I went in weighing 125 and came home 155. I started with 200 pushups a day and went all the way up to 1,000 Plus other work outs within a month. I worked in the kitchen so I was able to eat alot more than other inmates so that also helped me gain weight. Some years I work out some I don't but I always know how to get back in shape 💪
@@JM1675 Didn't do much reading but I did work in the kitchen 5 days a week so I was able to eat a little better than most inmates. I did cut hair for fun and would draw pictures for extra snacks and stuff lol. Staying busy is the best way to pass the time
Reminds me of my uncle. He's the strongest dude I know. Goes to the gym 3 times a week without any lifting plan. Just does whatever lifts he feels like doing at whatever weights. Sometimes he'll bench 135lbs sometimes he'll bench 275lbs. Does a lot of work on machines as well. So why is he jacked? Because he's been going 3x a week for 25 YEARS NO EXCUSES and he ALWAYS does the last set of each exercise to failure. So even if he benches something puny like 115lbs he'll still induce muscle/strength growth by going to failure on the last set. Consistency is absolutely the key.
How strong is he exactly? Please tell me more about his strength and training plan . I'm 50kg 5ft8 skinny dude and only did bodyweight exercises coz I'm broke . I once was able to do a clean pushup with my nephew on my back who weighed in between ( 20 - 30 kg ) I was so happy that day 😅😅😅
Great video, I was in the best shape of my life when I worked in construction I know its different to calisthenics but body weight and light weights (blocks and bricks) repeated hundreds of times a day I was buff and ripped kinda the same, I will definetly be adding body weight exercises to my day a few sets during the day, again great videos keep up the good work
I used to by a gymnast and when I tell you the kids that were higher level than me looked like aliens, I’m not kidding. Ripped 8 packs and insane bicep development. I stopped and picked up the gym years later in high school and everyone I saw looked unimpressive to be honest. There was a massive emphasis on long rest periods. The gymnasts I used to train with worked out for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night!! Go figure.
This is 100% true in my experience. I was working unilateral progressions for a few years then just decided to do 3 sets of 3 basic exercises, six days a week. Exercises: Push Up movement, Leg lowering ab movement, a Squat, Hindu squat or similar. My chest and shoulders blew right up and I dropped body fat, despite not really changing diet. Consistency is key.
Really appreciate you actually showing the study instead of just requiring us to take your word on it. I mean I probably still would have because of your arguments. But it’s not something many on this platform are willing to do.
"How do prisoners get so big" There's this special mineral that's very prevalent in prison known as "vitamin don't-take-my-cheeks". You get enough of that vitamin in your system and you just naturally become swole.
I’ve only been to jail for a few months (not prison) but when I was in there, the big guys that worked out would buy people’s plates and only eat the meat and vegetables, they’d also buy these 1 scoop protein powder pouches from commissary. It’s basically doing whatever it takes, them dudes are VERY strong mentally as well.
@@AH-hz5xc actually jail is a correctional facility, prison is a state facility. Where I’m from jail is provincial, prison is federal. Can your small brain comprehend that?
@@AH-hz5xc Jail = temporary short term stay. Jail could be in a police station. Prison = long term stay. Dedicated building for such. Stop criticizing people unless you truly know.
I guess the take away from this is that training to failure it where it is at. Whatever you do, just keep on doing it until you feel really spent and then do another two plus reps. It actually makes sense.
I was 180lbs sitting on my ass behind a computer with a 36" waist. Went back into the military, PT'd Mon, Wed basically every exercise you can think of just using your body, not a single weight and never in a gym. Did this twice a day, Fri morning was run day, a couple miles. Just doing this routine by the time I was 28 yrs old, 5'10" and went up to 223lbs and had a 30" waist. It made me a believer in body weight exercises.
High Sodium content keeping those muscles hydrated, lots of carbs with enough protein and high testosterone levels from a survival nessicity Plus the obvious workout regimen
John, sorry, but you are a little right, but also wrong. The fact is all those steroids those inmates take. Yes, they get steroids as well as other drugs. There are more drugs in prison than out of prison. Some former prisoners and a prison guard I dated (a woman :) ) who works at a max security prison told me that.
@@seanknight9808 no you're wrong maybe in other countries but they're popping vitamins amino acid and eating alot. Lots of pull-ups and burpees. Quit story telling especially if you haven't been locked up..
Hi Ryan, in regards to nutrition you might have watched Forks Over Knives. It connects lower protein diets to health as it relates to cancers and all-cause mortality. Your question is about getting Big and Muscular, and I don't know specifically about that and what the diet is prison is. But when it comes to health that is something you might find worth looking into, and find some clues for the question about big and muscular.
Im so happy that your channel grows day after day i remember when you had only 50 k and seeing how much your channel have grown shows how much effort you are putting in these video thank you very much!
Yesterday I was at the gym. I've tried everything and I'm not at all big but yesterday I realized that I ca get results with lower weight as long as I increase the reps. It's all about getting the "right feeling" in the muscles.
I always thought about that, but at some point people called me crazy lost. Im a swimmer/freediver and PTrainer too. The time of my life that I expirienced best body shape and hypertrophy combination was when I spent most time connected with calisthenics. Even in my breaks at work, co-workers were not ashamed of having a cigarete. I didnt feel ashamed of doing push ups and squats while they were doing the oposite. which means we should be doing calisthenics where ever we move in the social world, the same way people have a big burger or cigarete, or a beer, or nuggets to attent againts their health. just meditating. gracias brother for confirmation.
The answer is that they don't do anything all day. No work, no cooking, no repairs on the house, no homework with the kids, nada. They sleep half the day and lift out of boredom. Bring back work farms, and we'll see how jacked the felons are when they are as tired at the end of the day as we are.
A friend of mine was in prison here in the U.K for 2 years. During the last 18 months of his sentence he was able to get into great shape, due to good behaviour privileges and being a role model inmate, he was able to go to the gym 7 days a week for 2 hours at a time. He said the consistency and training frequency was what really made the difference. He thinks due to the bare minimum of food portions they would receive, he would've been eating at maintenance or even a slight deficit. A lot of hard gainer/leaner guys would spend most of their "canteen shop" allowance on the highest fat/sugar treats possible just to get the extra calories in, but my friend used his to buy protein powder from the shop, so that did help get his macros up. But ultimately, even with a less than desirable diet and macros, the training consistency really transformed his physique and he came out looking like Thor. I guess not having access to "cheat days" and binge eating also contributed.
Awesome, that's exactly what I've been lately. When I switched from the usual ranges and dropped ego weight lifting for super high reps, I got the most hypertrophy in my life. Suits me better mentally also, rather than struggling with super heavy stuff I can go long and do clean work. But honestly we're all so different I think it just varies from one person to another. Just try both and choose your favorite
@@joshuajay2886 I do push-pull-rest-push-pull-rest-rest (no leg day, playing soccer is enough). 5 exercices, 4 sets x 15-20 reps. My workouts are way shorter than with my previous 3x8 series and I still get much more total TUT (time under tension, which proved to be the key for me)
i used to do 700 push ups a night. sets of 70. in an hour. when i was in college. the goal was to get up to sets of 100, to make it a 1000 a night. sit ups in between sets.
Great vid. I’m a huge fan of time under tension, static hold workouts. Rep range is whatever you can handle for that particular exercise with the load. Also, sprints and full body movements. Bear crawls, get ups….
You actually hit a great point with this video because I was incarcerated in my late 30's and for 6 months I did nothing but calisthenics workouts 5 days sometimes 6 for 2 hours a day and I never been in better physical physique and haven't been able to repeat that and this time around I've been going to the gym for the same amount of time of course not putting in not as much time for the workouts but calisthenics in my opinion just get you there in a very effective challenging way
@@folksurvival Mondays I would do Burpees 5 pump to 15 pumps (push Ups) 10 sets each, Tuesday I would do 50 downs regular these are push Ups counting down from 50 all the way to 1. Wednesday I would do the deck of cards doubling or tripling the count on each number for example 2s become 4 or 6 depends on the day, and doing 30 crunches every 5 sets, Thursday I would do incline and decline push Ups 10 sets each of 25 followed by 15 dips followed by 15 pull ups. Friday would do Cardio and I would do just core. Rest Saturday and Sunday.
Shadow Boxing, Sprinting on the track, sprinting in place, split squats, jump squats, burpees, pull ups, dip bars, and lots of push ups/mountain climbers.
No doubt about it! I got into doing burpees for about six months-maybe four or five times per week for 20-30 minutes. I definitely saw some pec and shoulder development and as a bonus my wind capacity went way up! I gotta get back to them.
Interesting research, but it aligns with what I have experienced in my training. It’s always preached that anything over 15-20 reps becomes endurance and cardio work. But I’ve experienced the greatest size gains in the high two ranges, especially when it comes to getting that coveted “pump”
It makes sense that you get good gains in these rep ranges. Pump is just a blood flow and blood is filled with nurtrients for our muscles, so better pump = more growth. I always do one heavy ecercise in the beginnig (6-8 reps) to mobilise all muscle strands and then 2-3 more lighter exercise to increase the blood flow!
My time in prison (4 years) revolved less around diet, and more around committing and being consistent in your workouts. Always dedicating an hour and a half a day around calisthenics, (basketball, jogging and pull ups). While dedicating the remaining 2 hours to lifting. Alternating push & pulls, light and heavy, never working the same muscle group twice in a day, and never repeating the same workout routine every week. Keeping your body guessing, and not allowing it to fall into a particular routine keeps soreness and injury at bay. I was lucky to be placed in a minimum security camp that allowed 3 1/2 hours a day I could work out with free weights a track and 2 basketball courts, indoor and outdoor. I ate a high carb diet, protein was not really available due to prisoners getting so big without the need for a high protein diet. So unless you ate peanut butter with oatmeal, or cans of tuna which are outrageously expensive, you weren't getting much protein due to the almost exclusive soy diet the state has almost all prisoners on depending on diabetes, allergies, religion and vegetarian or vegan preferences.
For anyone wanting to do calisthenics, stick to the basics. Push ups, pull ups, squats, dips, jogging, and skipping rope if you want. Remember all of those things have different variations that you can use to confuse the muscles and stimulate growth. Us Africans no matter where you were born have a strong dna to build muscle mass. Use it
“Diet” might not matter but caloric deficit or loading does. Simply put ,burn more to lose more fat than you intake, eat up and burn less to gain or fatten up.
@@stminggol8438 soy also lowers your testosterone count so I would avoid it at all costs that's why when you buy good protein supplements you want to make sure that it's organic from animal protein
@@joblessmike2423 that's true for regular soy which is the standard in the west. Fermented soy is totally different and actually a very bioavailable protein source. But fully fermented soy is really just available from Korea, all others say its fermented but in reality only partially if at app
I was probably at my absolute PEAK muscle mass at around the age of 12-14 years old when I was a competitive gymnast, practicing those compulsory floor routines, uneven parallel bars, power vaulting, and balance beam, plus just the general tumbling passes you do to warm up before you begin performing those routines. As a competitive, compulsory gymnast (private club, not related to school), you are working out for...at least...2 hours every day...after a full day of school and whatever sports you're competing in at your school, plus several hours on Saturday, either at your own gym or competing in a meet at another gym. During that same 3-year span, I was also a competitive sprinter (anchor leg, sprint and 800-meter relay), and jumper (high jump, long jump, triple jump) on the Varsity track team, freshman year. Plus, as a 14-year-old freshman, I played varsity girl basketball, even though I was only 5'5" and I was the starting jumper because of my incredible verticle jump (playing with the junior and senior girls). Thus, that included lifting weight throughout the school year, both upper and lower body, and a variety of sprints, and other school-sanctioned torture methods, that often left us hanging on the chain link fence around the track with dry heaves. lol I quit gymnastics at age 15...kept up the varsity track and varsity basketball, along with all the weight lifting and off-season training (plus cheerleading), and then private gymnastics classes twice a week for fun (not competition). The only thing I removed from the equation: the daily training for competitive gymnastics. Guess what: I went from wearing a size 9 jeans down to wearing a size 3, but still had a solid vertical jump, despite my muscular legs getting much thinner. Nothing has ever given me the combination of strength, power, and muscle tone that 5-6 days a week of gymnastics did, and it was a JOY: a true labor of love. ...not training as a competitive sprinter and jumper ...not training for basketball ...not even daily training for cheerleading, which contained quite a bit of power tumbling and lifting other humans, almost my same size ...not snowboarding (two season passes...one weekday pass, one week-end pass) ...not rollerblading (not in Manhattan where I first learned, or on the strand along the beaches of LA) ...not scuba diving and snorkeling ...not surfing ...not even teaching yoga (and I was teaching yoga, while rollerblading, snowboarding, and scuba diving/snorkeling regularly...only surfing sporadically in HI) So, for me, it was competitive gymnastics that made me the strongest...gave me the best vertical jump...and created the best core strength and overall body strength, compared to every other sport or athletic activity I competed in during my lifetime. CRITICAL OVERSIGHT: motivation in prison to *not become prey* in a strictly predator-prey environment You really fail to recognize how CRITICAL it is to keep up not only an impressive physical strength when living amongst predators...but to also physically DEMONSTRATE that overt strength, agility, and power...so the predators in the yard can SEE THAT STRENGTH. Sociopaths love nothing more than to take a strong, confident person and tear them down until they are nothing. Violent sexual predators don't suddenly become non-violent, and lose their overt drive to rape just because they are in prison. Rapists do NOT stop raping until they either... 1) lose their physical strength to overpower someone (they are all about power and control over others) 2) die 3) have a drastic shift in endocrine function that severely increases their estrogen while decreasing their progesterone and testosterone, and even then...they will NEVER lose their predatory brain that is constantly sizing others up for "weakness". They will prey on others in a different way (psychological abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse read: a variety of explotation) In prison, you have 2 choices.... Predator/Competitive Predator (read: predators see you as another predator and their competition...so they don't fck with you) Prey Most in the US & UK prison population suffer from all-or-nothing thinking, aka black-and-white thinking. There is little to no grey area for them. Thus, they think in extremes...predator...prey. THAT is all the motivation most prisoners need to stay in prime physical shape. They don't want to get raped by the serial rapists and other sexual predators and sociopaths in the gen pop. Oh, and here is something else you should know... psychopaths sociopaths malignant narcissists narcissists borderlines read: the people who make up both male and female prison populations in the US & UK (the world over, actually) They have no strong sexual orientation...instead, they see opportunities...so male, female, teen, child, mentally ill, just about any age...can be sexually arousing for them. There is no "gay for the stay". They are sexual omnivores, by and large. They may have a sexual preference...but the are all sexually flexible, some are overtly bisexual, and sociopaths and psychopaths and try-sexual predators who are more aroused by power and control over someone than what the rest of us consider sexually appealing. Then you have those who can only be aroused...or climax...by forcing themselves on others, and seeing them in extreme pain (the sadists). This is what I mean...by the motivation to remain in peak physical condition. Unless you understand these fundamentals, you are missing KEY FACTORS to keep those workouts up. This is the reality in a predator-prey. Let me say this again in case you miss the SALIENT POINT: avoiding the appearance of weakness is EVERYTHING Predators SCAN every environment they are in, naturally...without a 2nd thought...for the most vulnerable. Facts. Harsh realities.
When I joined the U.S. Army, almost straight out of highschool, I was 5ft 11 in inches and 145 lbs. In an 8 week period of basic training, where we ran several miles every morning, and did an insane amount of nothing but pushups and situps, (no weight benches in sight), I swelled up to 180 lbs. That's 35 pounds I gained in an 8 week period, while doing more exercise, and in better shape then Id been in my whole life. We were worked to the point of collapse every day, for the first two weeks until we got into shape. I remember going to the chow hall and eating more then I'd ever eaten in my life, yet getting up from the table still feeling hungry.
I did 5 years in prison and that was all we did was 1000s of push-ups 1000s of pull ups and 1000s of squats I went in there 160ish to dam near 200 solid so he’s right bout what he’s talking bout ☝🏿🤲🏿💪🏿💯
@@ap6722 it's pretty easy , especially if you have been doing it for awhile on a consistent basis, your body adjusts , I my self am over 50 years old and I've been doing 1000 pushups every day since I was 15 years old , and being over 50 now I still do the same routine without any problems, and I've got big shoulders chest arms ,the key is to have a routine goodluck
The harder you train the better results you get! Keep grinding y’all, the basics really do work, you just have to put in a lot of effort to get a lot of results!
@@exit281 I’ve watched a bit but I feel like he’s not trying to achieve failure but prefers to do something more cardio like. I’m going to rewatch some of of his videos. I prefer a more controlled style of high reps calisthenics where push ups for example are done in high volume but with control. He’s doing them more military cheating style
After you master the basics which probably takes you for 10+ years, you can also move on to advance exercises and do high reps on them. I've seen a guy who does 100 planche push ups and another guy who does 148 planche push ups in 1 hour, and they're JACKED.
Thanks for the video Ryan. High reps definitely work but it’s also takes a much bigger toll on your joints. So if you want to reduce injuries (and also training time) it’s much more effective to go with harder exercises and lower rep range (or same exercises but perform them much slower so time under tension is equivalent but with less joint stress). Just my two cents..
I think I now understand why they say spending more than 1 hr on workouts reduces testosterone. It is not actually because of the time spent but the fact it can take a huge toll on your joints and this increases inflammatory markers in the body that the body produces cortisol to counter thereby reducing testosterone
please continue to explore these ideas, you are onto to something. experience has show me that hypertrophy has a direct relationship to the muscle have "time under tension'. calethenics, in particular the 'prison style burpee' is the 'red pill of fitness'. look at guys like iron wolf, burpees king to name a few.
I know a couple guys that have been inside and they said they bought tins of Tuna with their weekly allowance to get extra protein. Can't speak for all prisoners but I assume this is fairly common?
Milk, Boiled Eggs, Chicken on special days are all traded for weed, tobacco, meth, heroin, other junk food like cookies, chips, chocolates, you name it. The swole guys would trade to get more and more protein. Peanut butter was a also another source of protein.
I have been doing cal esthetics for a couple of years and I am 60. Everyone has been telling how big I have gotten. No gym. I typically go to failure 8-12 reps depending on the exercise. So I agree with you. Just work to failure. And I just do pull ups, dips and push ups. But I use rings: Rings are the game changer
I have a hypothesis that hypertrophy is a combination of fascial remodeling and blood flow. And where strength is about neural signal volume and tissue load capacity. In other words if you want to change the volume of your muscles you need to pump the full of blood and remodel the fascia by activating the muscles at full blood volume. Thus re-modeling the fascia. But if you want strength then you need to recruit signals to fire for specific loads so you get full signal for those ranges of motion.
So do a few min on the spot cardio/breathing exercises to get blood pumping and then a workout to activate the muscles and make them grow.. and focus on muscle control while doing workout as well as practicing breathing to get lots of air to gain energy from? Or just do some tai chi and yoga and then maybe a workout??
@@JonahWoods the idea is to get blood specifically into the muscles that you're wanting to grow and the easiest way to do that is through direct stimulation. In other words if you're looking for larger triceps and chest a push-up is a perfect exercise for that. The issue isn't what exercises good the issue is how do you differentiate strength from size. One of the things that I've learned from looking at a lot of the bodybuilder workouts is they are more set oriented. My current understanding based upon my hypothesis is it is not the reps that matter but the sets that matter and the frequency of rest in between. Think about it like this if you were wanting to get really good at sprinting from just a off the block Sprint every time you start firing those muscles off of the block after the first time off of the block your resources are less your muscles are having to recruit more resources and that takes recovery time. So your first time off of the block is going to be the fastest and every time off of it after will be slower if you don't allow enough time for recovery. But if you came off the block tested your time and then 20 minutes later came off of the block again and tested your time again your times would be similar and potentially faster. This hypothesis basically says we want to capitalize on the fact that the body wants to recover by sending blood inflammation is natural and the inflammation is going to go to the point where the tissues need the resources. But you also have to allow enough time for the resources to get there so the next time you do work the tissues are already flooded with blood and thus causing tissue expansion. This happens because the next time you do work the tissue that is flooded with blood is now going to press against the boundaries of what it's capable of holding while you're doing your next set of work. So what I don't know is do you actually have to go through range of motion to get there in other words can this be done with isometrics? How many reps are enough reps in order to cause the blood flow effect? Bodybuilders generally tend to use three to five sets is three really enough would more get you there faster? What I do know is doing specific reps and sets you're going to have a diminishing return especially if you're not waiting enough time for recovery so eventually you just can't do anymore. I also know that there's a diminishing return if your rest time is too long because the blood that rushes to the area for the next load will get rerouted to other parts of the body.
Another thing worth mentioning is sleep. Prisoners probably get a better nights rest. On the outside ,especially if you live in a major city, there is a lot of ambient light and background noise which interferes with your sleeping pattern. In cells during lights out, there is none of that. A deep sleep beyond the REM phase triggers growth hormones naturally.
Actually it's pretty loud, antique ventilation systems, security doors clanging anytime staff has to move around, (and you can hear those from a long way away), and a couple of time a night guards shine alight on you to make sure you're still there
My experience with high rep calisthenic exercises and workouts this from the military. What I found is you won’t get “massive”. But you will certainly be fit and look it. Of course you might be able to pack on more mass if you don’t do things like 10 mile rucks and 6 mile runs a couple times a week. We did do a lot of heavy weight insurance training such as Rucking. So if you cut out some of that you probably would get a lot bigger.
*Genetics at the end of the day.* Some guys get swole from lifting 200lb. Some guys are skinny and tiny when lifting 300lb. You cant get big if you dont have the genetics. Strength and genetics are not the same.
When you're natural you have to do both body weight and iron, body weight you can bulid muscle density and a good base and iron will put on the size iron hits a different muscle fiber from body weight. Plus natural swole looks better than steroid swole. When you are steroid swole your muscles look like hard rubber.
You are correct when you say what we've been told about rep ranges and hypertrophy are definitely not true, and in fact all sorts of fitness RUclipsrs I think either intentionally or by omission include inaccurate and sometimes false information to keep you coming back
I've accumulated 10 years in penal systems in the USA. And yes the book Convict Conditioning, which I read upon my last bit, confirmed what I already knew to be true. Calisthenics was the best route. High intensity Calisthenics was what I consistently did. Yet I was the same size as John Rambo in Rambo 3. I combined my Oklahoma high school wrestling conditioning along with some of Hershel Walker and Mike Tysons routines and combined them to make it my own. I promise you prayer( through Jesus Christ ) along with fierce grit and determination to a 1.5- 2 hour routine 5 - 6 days a week you will get in the best shape of your life. My main routine outside of pull-ups and upside down push ups or handstand push ups was a pushup / shoulder press/ box squat/ fly( motion)/ twists/ im)) kettle bell( motion)--pyramid combo 1-20 up and down. Do that 5 days a week plus pull ups guaranteed success!!!!!
I liked a lot this video! Thank you! I think that big volume of reps is not the same than reps to failure. Possibly when we do the greasing the groove strategy we do more reps through day. I hope that you'll upload more videos about old school calisthenics, they are very practical!
I worked out 5 consecutive hours every day, no set limit, no counting reps, just kept going as intensely and as long as i could go, rest a minute or 2 max, and went again...back workout alone was 1,000 reps, (when i did count reps) no less than 120 lbs, on pulldowns, max 250, twice per week...weights, ( began each workout with 45 mins on ellipical), mass amounts of food, everything, crap carbs, but as much protein as i could hook up with. I was big and ripped. Tracked every carb i could consume and burn. A BIG 172 lbs, AT 5'7", maxing a 455 lb bench.
@@corysturgis6660 I've been out 4 years, am nothing close to that now. I bought a functional trainer to inspire myself again....work 12 hour days and have eaten like shit...i burned myself out before i was released. My mind shut down any motivation i had. I had to FORCE myself to work out just 2 hours at the end, and i had nowhere close to the drive and intensity as before...my heart just wasn't in it anymore...don't know what happened to it, what can i say? I must have worked out all of the anger, i suppose.
I heard the half rep range is key to adding volume as well. I have also noticed the most drummers have big arms. If you’re using a certain muscle group you will see gains. I doubt professional drummers do 3 days a week in the gym doing bicep curls and dips. Their arms are big because they use them everyday
Let's keep prisons aside for a moment. All the 6 exercises you mentioned like pull ups, push ups, dips, squats, lunges & leg raises are all compound exercises that create uniform & explosive growth in the major as well as the minor muscles of the targeted body part. The development creates more strength and that allows more overall size & growth. It's a self feeding cycle. The minor muscles have a huge part in lifting some of the load along with the targeted major muscles. So this growth can possibly happen in a prison or in a gym or even at home. The solitude of a prison cell would definitely help though. This is my take.
The best shape of my life was doing high reps. 1000 pushups on knuckles every day I was ripped and strong. I'm getting back to doing high reps again. Low reps aren't cutting it for me.
Good video! I have been training on and off for over 30 years and wondered the same thing. 5 years ago I started working as a guard and I've witnessed first hand the workouts and diets. One phenomenon not discussed is that when you put men together to live natural testosterone often gets increased naturally. Prison diets are horrible high sodium high carb lots of pasta grits and rice. Protein mostly comes from tuna, and smoked meats like summer sausage. Workouts are done twice a day and often get broken down like this. "Card challenge" body weight exercises usually pushups bench dips or bodyweight squats, done solo or with a partner alternating with a deck of playing cards using one or more exercises almost no rest, pick a card and knock out the number of reps that coincide with the number. "The Wheel" its basically circuit training done in either push pull splits or as a full body where you walk or jog to the next station. For example as many push-ups as you can do by rep or to failure then go to the next station usually pull ups (they call "bar") or dips or bodyweight squats and repeat. Another variation of these set extender workouts is lifting weights, say dumbbell or barbell bench press switching on and off with a partner and then immediately doing pushup tank emptiers or doing pushups while their partner does dumbell drop sets and alternating between sets. Lots of variations including lifting one side at a time and alternating between all. Most prisoners have pretty small legs they work mostly on beach muscles, but I've seen brutal leg routines that follow a similar protocol alternating barbell squats with a partner then doing walking lunges the length of the gym and back or non-stop bodyweight squats after lifting. Delts are done with rack runners dumbbell presses or lateral raises. Muscles look bigger when the person is lean prisoners often look huge because all the bodyweight exercises basically become like cardio conditioning and makes them lean and strong. Hope this helps
@@gaberoyalll Something I forgot to mention is that according to many of the prisoners themselves, the main reason they can get yoked so quickly, is because they had either never worked out at all or already been in great shape before. Weather it was lifting or working a physical job like construction on the outside or achieving a body transformation during a previous bid. At any rate, the consistency of working out and eating as well as being limited by the amount of drugs and alcohol they are all factors. Loved the video, again thanks for posting and hope this helps with your research.
After the lockdowns of the pandemic, everyone can probably understand this. When you have nothing to do other than train, eat and rest, it's quite easy to bulk. You have all the physical ingredients and the right mindset since there's nothing else to live for! I gained 10kg of mostly solid muscle during 4 months of lockdown.
On the contrary, most people watch Netflix because they have no motivation to work out. I have a different mindset and haven’t stopped working out but we are the exception. So, most people cannot relate to your post, shamefully enough.
Same bro I went from 60kg to 70kg in lockdown. I was 16, so it was a bit easier, but still an impressive transformation. Now I had lost a couple kg after an injury, but I'm back on track and aiming for an ultimate objective of 80kg. It might seem like a lot, but I'm 6'2". Stay safe guys.
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I just got out two weeks ago. The answer is boredom and a masculine environment that pushes you to workout more. Some of the guys I met in prison were the most supportive and accommodating when it came to working out. My bunkmate was huge and pushed me to workout with him 6 days a week.
I am not an expert on this subject but I have read from many sources that training to much is counterproductive. The muscle grow when is in the "healing process" that is 48hs o 72hs resting the muscle after the hypertrophy
@@nahuel427 We did different muscle groups every day dude.. This guy was fucking shredded obviously he knew what he was talking about.
@WNC HikeStrong I think that is a myth about testosterone: "New scientific evidence refutes the preconception that testosterone causes aggressive, egocentric, and risky behavior". There a lot of research about that subject. Apparently high levels of testosterone are not linked to aggressive behavior.
@WNC HikeStrong Some people are more genetically predisposed to easily build muscle mass. For example I've been training consistently for over a year and I have a good diet but nonetheless I can't get close to what others have done in 6 months (in youtube)
@WNC HikeStrong what exactly?
1 word: Consistency
I 100% agree. That's the key ingredient to any successful program.
Yes Sir
Also the sausage diet is higher than you think.
@@alpharomeosierra7748 sausage diet?
Well, I'm not denying the fact it works for some but I had me and 3 other guys who each started the same time around the same weight (150) and we all ate together everyday big ass blowups lunch and dinner. At about 6 months, we also did 5 day workouts and rest on our weekends kindve usually we did a smaller version. But anyways daily at about 6 months was 800 push up a day, deck of cards for squats and laps, 400 dips, 250 Tysons. Occasionally we would have a water bucket and do curls at around 80 lbs at max fill. Also using towels for pull downs. 3 of us got pretty good size, but one guy never gained any size except when we would workout, he would dwarf the other 2 guys and was much stronger than most of the bigger guys in the entire dorm. Our diet in all honesty was 2 oatmeal trays or 2 biscuit and gravy trays for breakfast with some fruit. Lunch depended between sausages with chili, noodles, cheese, pickles and pickle juice, onto of chips spread across a 5x5 table. Before dinner we'd have another blowup maybe rice and beans with some fish usually mackerel w/ bones. Mustard and soy or BBQ sauce. Dinner usually either lunch or the between dinner meal but bigger or sometimes stacked together. Just depended on the money. Sometimes we'd buy or trade snack cakes for other guys trays and use the state plate as part of the meal.
Edit: forgot to mention my ending weight was 195 bunker was 205 and last I knew the other 2 were between 185 and 200
To answer the diet question, as an ex correctional officer: the swole guys, especially those with time, consistently ate commissary Raman, tuna, and peanut butter between chow. Also worked out for hours a day, napped constantly.
That is basically what sumo do. They have sevrral sleep cycles a day
@@lancehobbs8012 but sumo eat once a day.
I do that but it's slow for me
You sir are correct 💯 I did 3 months in LA county doing just that and added 17 pounds of mass in that time
what performance enhacing drugs did they use?
I had 4-hour janitor shifts every night over a summer and did pushups to failure every 15 minutes during the 4 hour session every day. I started out at 3 pushups, but I kept getting stronger and stronger, and ended up getting into the ~200-rep range per 15-minute-pushup set, and it was the most muscle i've ever amassed in my life
how much would 200 reps take
@@savaesmek 15 mins no?
@@RamezCheema nah 15 mins was the break between sets
not a toilet was cleaned or trash can emptied. But god damn our janitor is yolked!
@@bud47263 I'm not asking him to clean this poop, you ask him!
If more people spent less time worrying about the perfect program, pre and post work out supplements, counting protein, etc and just focused on grinding the basics more people would be in way better shape
The basics work
Amen to that, brother
I agree. What do you consider the basics though?
@@Vinegarissweet push ups, pull ups, leg raises, squats
@@Marvin-op7vb I would had hindu push up, hindu squats, wall assisted handstand push up and knee tuck jump
thats facts
It s simple:Consistency, when your entire life revolves around working out you get big, workout throughout the day, and sleep in between, high test levels due to the environment.
I want to know how they get adequate amount of protein in prison??
@@risefromthedark either working in the kitchen and getting more food, able to buy any kind of food from the commissary and just hustling for more food
@@risefromthedark it's working in the kitchen getting money from outside and a mix of other things.
-
My uncle told me that working in the kitchen gave him that edge and getting money send to him from family but that was back in 2005 i don't know for now.
In Australia they put test blockers in the milk
@@risefromthedark they don't, have to buy shit from canned goods if that's what the canteen offers
I entered prison at 150 lbs, with a strong foundation in cardio and basic calisthenics. I witnessed SEVERAL men try SEVERAL workout programs with weights and calisthenics. What I noticed was that the men that adopted the "muscle confusion" stance had the most astounding results! An old convict, about 50 years of age, and in gymnast condition told me that the human body is a machine that will adapt to any stimuli that you press upon it.
Damn
Then he said, "bend over...don't worry you'll get use to this."...lol
@@shawnstephens6795 lmfaooo. Facts. Let me spot you on them squats son
@@shawnstephens6795 😁😁😁😁
How much sack milk you drink straight from the source?
It basically comes down to volume and consistency.
2 years ago, when the pandemic started and I couldn't go to work and was stuck at home basically 24/7, I started doing multiple bodyweight workouts during the day at home. Within a few months I got into the best physical shape of my life (and I was 40 years old). Then I started working again and unfortunately I lost most of it, due to being at a job for 9 hours during the day.
Find a new job.
@@mryellow9655 Trust me, if I could work from home, I would. Unfortunately the current work climate, especially in this country, has changed so much during the last 3 years it makes it REALLY hard, unless you're in the right field.
@@MrCageCat I gave up my office job in law to become a refuse collector. I've lost around 15kg of fat and gained a lot of dense muscle strength training. I took a massive wage cut but im healthier and happier.
You have to consider whats important to you. For me it's being healthy.
@@MrCageCat 9 hours isnt that much to make you quit working out
Hey I'm 41, never been out of shape, but I started with strength training nine months ago and I'm also in the best shape of my life! I see muscles I only theoretically knew I had before 😄 I do work more or less eight hours a day, but I find the time to stay consistent with my training. It's all about priorities, but I can understand if yours are different, especially if you have a family (I don't).
The Bioneer also has great information on this. "The benefits of thousands of pushups" "benefits of high rep calisthenics" and similar vids.
The Bioneer is amazing
That guys awesome
Protein is a large part of their diet . Every hardcore fit prisoner had large collection of tuna . It's the most protein they can get from the commissary. Also milk and prisoners would make their own protein shakes out of that milk and mixing in their own high protein food .
Ryan an The Bioneer are complementary to each other. That's my take on this 2 channels. Both being very informative.
Awesome, never heard of Bioneer. I have to check him.
I was a Correctional Officer for many years. I watched people of all body types workout, and noticed something. They didn't workout for hours a day, they all worked out for about 60 minutes per day. The two biggest dudes on the yard would workout for an hour per day. It's not about how long you workout, rather it's about consistency. Don't do the same workout for 3 months and expect major results, workout for 3 years and you'll get big. Also, these fools didn't eat non stop. Most of them were broke and only ate what the prison gave them. Consistency is the key.
This matches the Science i've come across the past 3 years.
But everyone goes on about how important protein is for muscle growth and how you should be eating loads to build mass for energy in your workouts.
@@xpertaab7261 No one knows how all this stuff really works... and that goes for almost everything. Its all conjecture and "science". And "science" nowadays has little to do with the scientific method.
they feed on meat from livestock fully pumped with growth hormone
@@xpertaab7261 yes they do but prisoners have clearly proven otherwise
I did many years in Georgia prisons back in the 90s-2000s and did 1000 pushups a day every day. I'm 64 now and still do 300 everyday. I do 15 sets of 20 every day and I think I'm still in pretty fair shape.
Everyday. That's crazy. You probably would've gotten better results doing it every other day
@@gregpettis1113 better results? I think for my age I get around better then most. I stop at 300 because of time before I leave for work but I believe I can still do 1,000 if just wanted to. You realize literally thousands of convicts have been doing pushups by the thousands every day for decades.
@@kirkbailey7851 so you don't ever get sore? I thought you needed at least 48 hours for your muscles to repair. You must have amazing genetics
@@gregpettis1113 no I don't get sore at all and I don't have any special genetics. I've been doing high volume pushups for many many years and my body handles them well. I'm nothing special brother cause there are many people that do high volume daily pushups just like I do. Check out some of the pushup and prison pushup videos on RUclips and you will see many just like me.
dont your muscles need time to grow back tho? wouldnt doing them every other day be better? no hate im just curious
In some cases it's boredom and in some cases it's fear--depends on where you are. In those situations, it's all about repping to ever increasing levels--always until failure--because when you're pushing that last 2-5 reps before you literally collapse, the whole metabolic ballgame changes.
When I was in prison I was in great shape, very lean and the food we were served was high in carbohydrates and low in protein I believe the reason that I looked so good was that the last meal was served at 3.20 in the afternoon and the first at 8.20 so it was basically a 17 hour period of fasting every day
Our food was lean but so many people didn't drink milk that it was easy as hell to trade stuff to people for milk. I drank about 10-12 8 Oz glasses of milk a day for a few years just trying to get any extra protein I could.
I lost 50 lbs. during covid doing keto/if. Now weight has plateaued, but still use i.f. 18 - 6 to keep calories down. Fasting is a great tool to be used for diets!
I went to prison 10 Years ago and now I own real estate. But those 10 Years ago was Im the leanest I ever had, we don’t do any diets just eat what we are served and we don’t do nothing except working out and playing basketball in the backyard.
@@tootsiestamlin i did the exact same bro..i would get 2 packs of buglars an have them rolled up an trade single ciggs for a milk..i would have prob 12 milks a day counting mine an some that bought for a bag of coffee a week
How much sack milk did you drink straight from the source?
I would like to be interviewed for this topic. I worked in the prison system here in Georgia for over 4 years and I learned so much. Those guys taught me things I still do now
Could you give me some advice?
make a video bro
Why don’t they have weights!
@@Ligma_Male-ub1ud They don’t want the prisoners to become even more savage. For real. 🙏🏻
@@m.b.593 oh so criminals are considered savage now?
13÷ years in federal prison. Outside of sports I never trained consistently until prison. I bulked up nicely and was in great cardiovascular shape. I did it with consistency and intensity primarily. It was also difficult to get enough protein, which makes a HUGE difference. I did weight training and the Convict Conditioning program at different times. I truly believe a hybrid program of utilizing weights on limited things is best, for example: bench and squats. I felt sore, stiff, and achy on weights only. With calisthenics I felt like a king with very usable strength in any position versus adjusting my stance to utilize my strength when a weights only guy. To feel great and truly capable I can't recommend calisthenics enough. Go ahead and add weight to bench and squats, especially squats because the load, if you go heavy for at least 1 set, releases hormones and gets you growing faster. BUT under all circumstances PROTECT YOUR LOWER BACK! Stay in perfect form. Deadlifting is great for growing but not worth the risk to your back and it's not essential, Bridges are more than enough. Be consistent, be INTENSE, DRINK TONS OF WATER, stay in calorie surplus, and eat a ton of protein and especially beef. You'll grow like a weed if you get your rest doing the above! As for the crazy high reps, yeah it can work but I never seen anyone do it consistently that had faster gains than us guys that bought books like Arnold Swartzeneggers etc and followed it religiously. We believed, like coach in Convict Conditioning, that intensity is key, and did lower reps for strength and 8-12 for mass etc. Now if a guy is in the hole well there's not much you can do but reps but on average the masses have plenty to do and many even find it hard to get exercise time in. I also did some yoga after workouts which really helped me stay flexible. My most important advice, although I thrived in there I strongly recommend you don't go. Not much is worth going to prison for except for defending your family.
Thank you! I hope you are doing well. Bless
Props on the write up
This was helpful brother. From a former CO.
ok
Yo man! Thank you for serving time and writing this.
Moderate to heavy weights + higher reps is what I learnt as a key concept of inducing hypertrophy as well as burning overall fat (burn triglycerides as well as glucose) at the same time
I’ve ditched the weights for the most part and have been mainly doing Pull Ups, Chin Ups, Dips, Push Ups, Crunches, Calf Raises, Wall Sits & Split Squats and have seen a lot of gains. Basically just work until failure, rest and repeat for a few sets. Sometimes add a weighted vest for more of a challenge.
You're absolutely right. And let me add to this that for the average person I think this is a much more convenient and effective way of training than hitting the gym, because the best training is the one you actually do. I found myself always making excuses for not going to the gym, but it's hard to not do a few sets of body weight exercises each day. I don't adhere to any specific plan as well and just train close to failure and got good and noticeable results. Everyone who struggles to make gains should really try grinding push-ups, dips etc for a few weeks and see if that works better for them!
Yup, I do mainly bodyweights too and some dumbbells on alternate days only at home, keep at it :)
Maintaining a body fat of 10-13% lean physique quite easily
Too true, some people respond to body weight better than free weights and some people respond to free weights better. I noticed if I wanted to lose weight, body weight exercises brought results the fastest but that's just me
Yup im in the best shape of my life with barely any weights. Bought some gymnastic rings toos which are fabulous
plus doing supersets of pull ups and dips looks more badass then doing benching or whatever other lifting exercise
I think the prisoners are proof that you really don't need all the protein most people think you do. The main thing is workout frequency and intensity.
You’re right it’s all diet and consistency,when I was in basic training I was afraid I’d lose more weight through the excessive training but we had a strict diet and constant water consumption so when I went there I was 125lbs and in 2 months I gained atleast 13lbs just doing body weighted exercises no supplements
u know ''prisoners'' in eposides u seen in this video is from movies? :D
I’ve always suspected that too. This wouldn’t be possible if the protein intake were true… I really am starting to think it’s just cleaning the diet and have reasonable protein intake. It seems to be mostly consistency and discipline
@@amazinggrace313 probably because think about it, ancient Greeks and Roman’s weren’t jacked like mr Olympias of today, but they had good bodies. They for sure didn’t eat all day long
@@Bigman-fh1fz no, they wasnt as u see in sculptures :D
I worked in East Africa a few years back and I used to see these local guys pushing and pulling carts or moving heavy boxes around all day, every day.
No gyms in these towns or villages, no protein powders etc and these guys were jacked. I would say their diet was clean, plenty of fish, carbs and vegetables etc, but not massive amounts of it.
It made me wonder the exact same question you asked about reps/sets/diet etc.
If you are smashing it out all day, every day, you will get big.
Our ancestors were "working out" all day before wheels and machines made it unnecessary for us to physically and manually work all day.
I'm no trainer or dietitian, but I think some of thinking and "rules" on reps/sets/diet and sleep is horse s**t.
Your body is capable of much more than you give it credit for. Thos guys I saw in E Africa are proof. They were at it 7 days a week, every week. They certainly weren't eating 3000 calories a day. They worked all day, woke up very early and there were no rest days. They were fit, big and healthy.
Just my opinion
Also eating twice a day help. Those guys only eat twice a day in the morning and in the evening. That helps the body stays in a lower fat percentage and raises the testosterone.
That's true I come from East Africa Kenya. The people here who are construction workers and cart pullers are well ripped and mascular.
@@alisajjad4591 You are so stupid and mis informed. Have you ever been to east Africa before uttering such nonsense. Stop giving Africa a bad picture which you have been continuously been fed by the media. Don't believe everything thing you are told by the media...
@@alisajjad4591 you are wrong, african genetics are very good for muscle growth. It's well known. Especially the ones who ended up in America. I'm 6'2 and 220lbs with a 6 pack. Working scaffolding which is a laborious job has me ripped
@Ghost Face exactly. I don't think people with a 2nd or 3rd world income are gonna be buying anavar to get buff lol
For me it was a mixture of internal and external motivating factors. On one hand I was driven to be in better shape than everyone around me, on the other the environment was dangerous enough to keep me serious about it. The workouts were bodyweight variations of the things mike mentzer taught, a lot of short range reps most with full range super slow reps, even static holds. On top of that I would do super high reps. 200 pushups straight at the end of a workout. Just pushing yourself harder than the next man. I had 17 inch arms and a 49 inch chest just from pushups. Very little body fat.
Strict sleeping regiment, nutrition, and workout routine.
Consistency is key, and you don't have to go to prison for it.
3 hots and a cot, prison is the best fitness routine.
That last part made me chuckle.
I switched from weight training decades ago. The main reason being lost time from travel to and from the gym, and the wait time for equipment. I’ve incorporated high rep training over the years. But over time, and age related slower recovery time, I’ve discovered that proper form and varied time under tension will create benefits and body composition change.
You need steroid to recover at your age. Obviously your balls gave up
Just got the book you mentioned. Enjoyed your talk. I had a triple bypass and 60 years old and need to get back into shape. Keep going young man.
About the diet: I went to prison in Louisiana. They served beans & rice every day. And most of the time, twice daily. Bc beans & rice are cheap, have a lot of protein, carbs & are very filling. Plus, working out all the time.
Was everyone there peeled AF? I bet they were 😂
What did your workouts look like if you don’t mind me asking
you're the 2nd person i've heard mention all they had was beans in prison and this is proof you don't need that much protein- esp if you are male at least b/c while beans are "high" in protein for a vegetable...they are not a high protein food. They are a high carbohydrate food. Clearly if put under the right amount of stress the body will build muscle without needing 125g protein per day.
Please do an interview with a prisoner as a follow up video. I bet they'd love to talk about workouts!
Yes especially the ones with a murderous history!
Or commit a crime and get inside lol
23and1
@@bartlebob or just ask to be inside as an experiment for a few months, don´t need to commit an actual crime hahaha
I want to know how they get adequate amount of protein in prison??
I'm a Certified Personal Trainer.... I was in Texas Prison Roberson Unit back in 98' ...We ate everything ramens, links, anything to survive. High reps until failure ...our preworkout was coffee, coke, peppermint stick...my body was in the best shape of my life..
but sets??????
@@pantelossiap he said high reps.
@@pantelossiap as many as you can, thats how many
@@survivalistor6195 im my opinion that's how a work out should be like. Just go until you're burned out. Rest and do more. Personally, I've discovered counting out sets limits my desire to push further. I thinks sets are best for controlled group workouts.
But can you get big without enough protein?
You should also take into consideration that inmates have something that many of us on the outside do not have--recovery time. From what I've seen on television prisoners have plenty of time to relax and recover from their workout. I imagine it's probably also easier to be disciplined where the diet is concerned. No running out for McDonald's, pizza or Chinese take out.
Commissary has a lot of junk food available for the inmates, so, the diet can be an issue if you eat too many chips and honey buns. lol
Wrong
Calories make you fat
NOT McDonald’s specifically
You can eat McDonald’s every day and be in shape
It’s the CALORIES
Not the food specifically
@@HateTheIRS facts! I’m walking back from McDonald’s as I read this ironically and i just so happen to look the best I have in years. I eat it 4-5x a week and go gym everyday. It’s about the calories 100%.
@@HateTheIRS the idea is that mcdonald's meals generally have high calories and thus can make you fat. Also they're packed with gmo and hormones that may or may not hinder you in gaining muscle as well as promote fat gain.
@@Caaro99 you realize people can count calories?
Also, GMO’s are not bad for you.
Bro, you are a GMO. Ask your parents how they made you.
Hormones, idk anything about tbh. Burgers taste good so I don’t care
Agreed. When I got my best shape, I was doing as follows : 30 jump and jacks, 30 regular push ups (warm up).
Then every single reps of the following series of push ups where made in decreased, which means I was going down slowly counting 1,2,3,4 and pushing up hard on 5. (10x regular grip, 10x wide grip (real wide grip), 10x grip as low and close as possible from my hips and finishing always with 12 diamond push ups) I was doing this 3 times and finished always with "active 360 rotation plank", cannot really explain that one and 2x 120 swimmer kicks abs . After 1 month, I was doing sets of 20 and then at the mid second month I was doing sets of 25.
One very important component is that I was, and still always do, timing my rest using an timing app, in order to always have the same rest time. I think it is even more important than the sets themselves, cause if you are a bit out of energy one day you can still do the same intensity without disturbing your muscle and nervous system metabolism. If you take random rests between sets, your metabolism will never really adapt, which mean far less progression.
On the third month I also did a 30 days with sugar only from half a banana a day and one cheat meal on rest day. One my rest day, I was swimming non stop and at 75-80% of my maximum speed for about 30 minuts. Eveveryone was shocked of my physic and girls......my Godness lmao. Now I still in a very good shape but due to a double injury from ice hockey and swimming I have some left shoulder issue.
When you're in a prison, time stands still. When you have so much time for yourself, you tend to do something about it. Also it would benefit for you survival inside the prison. So its the perfect time to build your body the least. Out here in the world meanwhile, we pamper ourselves as more and more of an era passes by.
The guards smuggle in roids.
How does this comment have anything to do with the video?
How about they just don't go to jail? How about that? No one ever thought of that 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@alexwymore umm did you actually watch this video..?
@@Nick-up6xi yeah the video was about nutrition and rep ranges, asking useful questions. Nobody was wondering if people had extra time on their hands in prison.
The only way to build muscles is progressive overload. In prison, they push to their limits everyday. There are many way to get progressive overload. Increase weights, increase Set+rep, increase time under tension, increase intensity. Look at these guys do calisthenics who try to beat the timer 50 pullup-100pushup in under 5 minutes, they do high volume+ high intensity workout. That will build muscles
people fear overtraining. to achieve this one must pass out wake up work out more pass out. wake repeat.
Not to mention the fact that steroids aren't exactly hard to come by in prison.
@@raygengamer8440 apparently you've never overtrained. I have, there is no pushing thru, it gets worse week by week eventually you can't eat or sleep more than 2-4 hours at a time, then you start getting sick.
@Pedro Right. According to someone who says he did 1000 push ups that weren't even part of his main workout. I'll trust you on that one. I mean, nothing says "trust me" like a 12 year prison sentence.
@@patrciaclemons8183 for most people it’s hard to over train if you eat right and sleep 8 hours. What exercise were you doing?
Coming from someone who spent 3 years in prison and got in the best shape of my life while being down and also my biggest I can say you can get huge from just calisthenics. High reps and lots of volume, the most important thing though is consistency and also getting enough sleep.
How much is enough sleep?
@@kaysmith8992 i think 6 to 8 hours is enough but it can be different for different people. When trying to get bigger the more the better.
@@Joshthetruthseeker I used to get 7 only, trying to get 8-10.
How often were your workouts? Daily or every other day?
@@markgroves4167 I worked out daily taking maybe one day a week off. Knowing what I do now I was probably overtraining at times and could have had similar results training 4 to 5 days a week.
During my time in the military all I did was calisthenics and I benched for the first time during that time. Maxed out at 245lbs with a 170lbs body weight. All I would do was push ups and dips for chest/tri. Max strict push ups was 108 reps in 2 minutes
Thats bad
I mostly did jump rope, heavy bag, speed bag with some dumbbell and bench press work in my 20s. I did a bench of 250lb with a body weight of 155lb.
@@williamwilson6499 only?
@@mryellow9655 damn bud who hurt you
@@vallano8970 and you
This is such a great realization. Sometimes I wanna do high-reps for 2 hours, sometimes I wanna go caveman and lift something heavy for a little bit. This motivates me to push even harder in calisthenics to see what's possible. Thank you for this one!
ruclips.net/video/lbb4xwYj19g/видео.html
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
When I worked in prison the classic Calisthenics outdoor workout has been 10 pullups and 10 pushups, for as many rounds as possible in 60 minutes.
How much rest between rounds. Thanks
@@Snowlys normally they would just walk one round around the court before the next set
I was a distance runner throughout high school. And while I wasn’t particularly muscular in terms of my upper body. All that running (50 miles per week) put a ton of muscle on my legs.
High reps absolutely work! It doesn’t equate to explosive strength. But it helps give you amazing endurance when done properly. You’re less likely to get injured. And I believe you’re more consistently able to release feel good endorphins as well.
Holy shit 50miles per week 😵
You are more likely to get injured by repetion.
I often get asked how I got calves so large and, matter of fact it has very little to do with resistance training but rather high elevation ascent/descent (up and down is like a total leg workout), switchbacks shifting terrain high speed hiking (not climbing but picking out a moderate to hard trail and booking it)
If you live in a place that's flat, then a gym treadmill can closely approximate with its electronic settings (close, but not quite the same)
You can wear a weight vest too if you want; but the point is to - while enjoying the peaceful meditative scenery - move quickly (and safely, with proper footwear); the shiftin terrains help engage muscles for complete adaptation of the legs
That would explain why Mo Farah has huge legs like logs....
In that case, all those kenyan runners legs should look like a pro body builder !
I agree. I love long hard workouts. When I first started all I knew was working to failure. Now I work to failure and push higher weight which ends up going to failure with lower reps if I'm going for strength. Right now the goal is 100lbs for 100reps unbroken preferably for all of the main barbell movements. Think of it this way. The human body is very lazy and with adapt and overcome so it doesn't have to work that hard. If you push it to or above your current limit, your body will adapt so that it's not as hard next time. You just need the mindset to go to failure.
I was in the Marines and although we did lift weights, a lot of that was shed off in the field through long range endurance exercise and weekend drinking. What was left behind was solid lean muscle from calisthenics. I believe this because that’s what we pack on in bootcamp and on a daily basis. All the guys I know since that come back from training all have the same thick, lean, solid physics. You can do a lot with calisthenics for sure. And throw some swimming or surfing on top of that and you become a god.
Sempre Fi.. 0313
@@MaxUtter Senper Fi brother.
3/8 Sniper Platoon.
6312 #poglife 💪 😂
@@phettywappharmaceuticalsll8842 oorah!
I’m about to re adopt my calisthenics and running from some selection training years ago to get back in shape. Best body I ever had.
During the lockdown when all the gyms were closed I worked out daily at home. I have a really nice doorway pull-up bar that is actually elevated and I did use some dumbbells and I have two weighted vests. A lot of basic movements and high-volume and I found that I was leaner and more athletic. When I do calisthenics it's more of the weighted calisthenics. Even now that the gyms are open I still make sure that I incorporate calisthenics into my routine. Excellent video! Thanks
They get testosterone 💉 in the butt all night long
@@christopherbueno1580 and how do they smuggle in vials and needles for all, smart-ass?
@@tm5267 in their pants duh. ..(front part) lol
@@christopherbueno1580 Funny man, clearly TM just ain't getting the joke..either that or he's trolling you 😶
Amazing point. What changed my thoughts on this originally was seeing gymnasts and the superior upper body strength they have to be able to perform especially the rings
Before I went to prison i never worked out but always wanted to be shredded!
When i got to prison, working out all the time was just a time-killer very mind-numbing when your alone but focus came easier!
Calisthenics have been one of the best types of workouts I've ever done! I've been doing a military style fitness plan and it helped me not only achieve muscle tone, but also I performed very well at some activities I did recently for the first time: wakeboarding, aerial silks, and horseback riding. I do use dumbbells for adding resistance to legs and core.
ruclips.net/video/lbb4xwYj19g/видео.html
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
When I was 22, I did 50 pushups every time I finished a chapter of the book I was reading. When I went to the bathroom, I did 25 pullups on the door frame on the way in and 25 on the way out, and did sets of 25 dips in the corner of the kitchen counter. I also had a small weight bench with the cement weights with the plastic shells, nothing fancy. I did sets of 30 bench press with only about 120 lbs. I did that for about 9 months before I moved from that apt and fell out of practice. That was the biggest I ever got in my life, even bigger than when I had an Olympic weight set. Actually, I injured myself going high weight low reps with that set, when I got into my 30. These days I don't worry about how big I get. I just make sure to do something every day and keep it mostly body weight or functional exercises like picking up 5 gallon jugs of water and other stuff around the house. Anymore, I focus on longevity aiming to stay fit for life.
On the way into the bathroom?
Do you have a great body?
Same here. When I was 17 I did dips pull-ups and push ups and was bigger then ever in my life and I’m now a grown man (and “big”). People used to think I was on steroids but it was only from those 3
@@walexander8378 Yes, the frame of the door was an older building that had just enough to grab onto. Couldn't do it with modern molding, but you could put a door gym in the bathroom doorway. I have done that and do pullups or skin the cat or just hang, each and every time you go into the bathroom.
@@BluBlu111 I am 50 years old now, so I will never have the body I had in my 20s, but I still keep in shape. One of the things that I have realized throughout my fitness career is that everyone has to live in the body they have. Some people naturally have big pecs or big biceps or big back, legs whatever. I always wanted bigger traps, but that is not the body I have. Some would say that I have a great body. Others would say that I am skinny. Mostly, I work to keep fit without injury. After injuring myself, and fighting arthritic knees and tendinitis, I wouldn't say that I have a great body, but it is hanging in there :)
I did 7 years in TDOC (Tennessee not Texas) and I was big into exercise and lifting while in there. Diet is a big issue in there since the food they give you is generally terrible, but honestly it doesn't seem to matter quite as much as people think. We had access to things like tuna packs on commissary (items you could buy once a week with money sent from the outside or with the job you had) and if you work in the kitchen or know someone that does you can get your protein in. Some places even let you buy whey protein. Commissary is big business so they want to stock the things we wanted.
For me personally besides the two years I worked in the kitchen I was pretty much always hungry. My pay was usually around 50-70 dollars a month and not only did I not have anyone sending me money on the outside like most people did the only things I allowed myself to buy was a bag of coffee a week, vitamins and good hygiene products. The rest of that money I saved for when I got out since I knew I was going to be pretty much on my own. The last year I was in I was "trustee" status and at an annex where I had access to a halfway decent pile of weights at all times except for "count time" and in between 9pm and 5am. My natural frame is 5"10 155-160 and they ran a weight lifting contest right before I got out. That weight put me in with guys around 200lbs and I just can't lift as much as them, so I actually cut about 7 lbs to get into the smaller class. Even with shitty food and not much of it I managed a 315 bench, 425 squat and 385 deadlift. That's just from training the hell out of those lifts twice a day (mot every day same lift of course) and hitting the "ab wheel" along with a few other basic lifts. I wasn't exactly new to weight lifting and exercise either as I'd been doing it pretty much my whole life, but all you really need is the will to put in the time. I also ran across some freaky strong dudes in there. Guys that would slap 405 on the bench and rep it like it was 135 and toss so much weight on a deadlift it literally bent the bar. There were also dudes that were just built like that. Guys that didn't even really work out that were apparently jacked from birth or something.
I'm sure someone else has already mentioned it but it's a high pressure environment. You're in there with men that when they say "IDGaF" they actually mean it, so it's a good idea to be ready at all times. That probably tends to up your test quite a bit from constantly being in fight or flight mode without the flight, because you don't have wings and there's nowhere to run.
Thanks for sharing. It's true, testosterone rises in fight ir flight environment.
Diet is for not that important. But the fitness gurus have to have something to sell. Training plan, exercise selection, diet plan ect.
Hope you have you life back on track, all the best 👍
Interesting post. Thanks.
TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) is what it's called here in Texas. ^_^ Calories and protein are both very important, there was an inmate they interviewed here awhile back, he would buy off other inmates lunches by trading away junk food since they wanted it more than regular food. The inmate stated that the other inmates didn't realize is that the food they were served was actually somewhat healthy, akin almost to a school meal in that is was balanced nutritionally. He was in amazing shape, with an impressive, defined upper body and a decent core as well.
@@AnANas00-x3p “diet isn’t that important, testosterone rises in fight or flight environment “ should we all just go to hostile environments to lift or jail haha. Ffs diet might not matter how you’re thinking it but it matters gain or loss so you either need to be in caloric deficit or caloric loading. Depending on your goal or just go lift in Afghanistan
@@TheSquad4life sure you should eat, but it's not about chicken breast and broccoli like fitness gurus are preaching.
Aside from the water bags they'll use for curls, upright rows etc., the exercises they do (calisthenics) are closed chain. So you can really put as much force as you want into the exercise. You usually don't see the bigger inmates slowly easing into the excentric phase of the movement. They blast out of the bottom, but keep the negatives smooth. And if you're training like this and keeping your session sense, you can absolutely grow, even if you're already muscular. Obviously you can add weight to things, but what I'm saying is with a closed chain exercise, you don't necessarily need to because the force applied gives the body stimulus via added mechanical resistance.
Absolutely agree with your assessment. I had participated in competitive bodybuilding as a teenager in the early 80’s . For the last 15 years I’ve done strictly body weight work outs with tremendous results. Also incorporate boxing and sprints as well. Many years ago I purchased the book Convict Conditioning also and prior to that a book by Matt Furery called Combat Conditioning. Both excellent illustrations on the subject. Thanks for the good info!
They get testosterone 💉 in the butt all night long..
@@christopherbueno1580 I know right free testosterone
I have been following a workout routine largely based on the big 6 mentioned in Convict Conditioning for 2 years now. Has been working quite well for me.
Some also swallow it 😅
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⬆️ Overdosing on fetnyol in Prison
😂 😆 it’s too funny!!
I was recently released from federal prison after doing 12 years. I spent half my time in a prison in Pennsylvania that had no weights, and the second half in a prison in New Jersey that still had a weight room. The convicts in Pennsylvania did pullups, dips, burpees, and pushups every day Monday through Friday with Saturday and Sunday off. In New Jersey they lifted weights following traditional exercise and split routines.
The convicts in Pennsylvania were far and above the most ripped and muscular group of men as a whole that I have ever seen anywhere, in or out of prison. Many of these men did 20 or more straight supersets of pullups and dips every day Monday through Friday. Their reps were constantly sets of 20. Many of them had been doing this for 10 years or even 20 years straight. Many of them were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. A few old OGs were in their 70s, and I saw one Greek OG in his 80s.
I had spent decades training in the traditional way before my federal prison bit, and I had completed the better part of a Physical Education degree with an option in Exercise Physiology before that as well. Everything these men in Pennsylvania did defied traditional training theories, and I used to tell them that. They just laughed at me and kept doing what they were doing and looking like Greek gods. I was never able to get in the condition they were in, probably because I continued to follow traditional training theories
@convict life God bless 🙏
Stay strong 💪
What surprised you most after getting out?
@@nighthawk244 Learning how to use smartphones.
How much my mother had aged.
How people take small problems too seriously.
How much I enjoyed the simple pleasures of life
Could you give me some examples of routines? Please.
@@alvarojimenez655 It's pretty basic. Pullups supersetted with dips. Bodyweight squats. Burpees. Pushups. Situps. Every day for some people. Every other day for others
I remember doing 6 months in jail back when I was 19. I went in weighing 125 and came home 155. I started with 200 pushups a day and went all the way up to 1,000 Plus other work outs within a month. I worked in the kitchen so I was able to eat alot more than other inmates so that also helped me gain weight. Some years I work out some I don't but I always know how to get back in shape 💪
That's dope bro! Did you also take advantage of the time by reading a lot or playing chess or was working out your main focus?
@@JM1675 Didn't do much reading but I did work in the kitchen 5 days a week so I was able to eat a little better than most inmates. I did cut hair for fun and would draw pictures for extra snacks and stuff lol. Staying busy is the best way to pass the time
What did you eat at prison?
Did you do anything for your legs? Or only pushups?
30 lbs in 6 months seems impossible
Reminds me of my uncle. He's the strongest dude I know. Goes to the gym 3 times a week without any lifting plan. Just does whatever lifts he feels like doing at whatever weights. Sometimes he'll bench 135lbs sometimes he'll bench 275lbs. Does a lot of work on machines as well. So why is he jacked? Because he's been going 3x a week for 25 YEARS NO EXCUSES and he ALWAYS does the last set of each exercise to failure. So even if he benches something puny like 115lbs he'll still induce muscle/strength growth by going to failure on the last set. Consistency is absolutely the key.
How strong is he exactly? Please tell me more about his strength and training plan .
I'm 50kg 5ft8 skinny dude and only did bodyweight exercises coz I'm broke .
I once was able to do a clean pushup with my nephew on my back who weighed in between ( 20 - 30 kg ) I was so happy that day 😅😅😅
Great video, I was in the best shape of my life when I worked in construction I know its different to calisthenics but body weight and light weights (blocks and bricks) repeated hundreds of times a day I was buff and ripped kinda the same, I will definetly be adding body weight exercises to my day a few sets during the day, again great videos keep up the good work
I used to by a gymnast and when I tell you the kids that were higher level than me looked like aliens, I’m not kidding. Ripped 8 packs and insane bicep development. I stopped and picked up the gym years later in high school and everyone I saw looked unimpressive to be honest. There was a massive emphasis on long rest periods. The gymnasts I used to train with worked out for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night!! Go figure.
Did he train the same muscles twice a day ?
Gymnasts are fucking BEASTS
yeah male gymnasts usually have the best bicep development. Mainly from being under constant tension and flexion.
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
@@amj76425 Keep your imaginary friends to yourself
This is 100% true in my experience. I was working unilateral progressions for a few years then just decided to do 3 sets of 3 basic exercises, six days a week. Exercises: Push Up movement, Leg lowering ab movement, a Squat, Hindu squat or similar. My chest and shoulders blew right up and I dropped body fat, despite not really changing diet. Consistency is key.
but what about your back biceps shoulders etc
@@Code0866 with those muscle groups you’d need a pull up bar
Really appreciate you actually showing the study instead of just requiring us to take your word on it. I mean I probably still would have because of your arguments. But it’s not something many on this platform are willing to do.
"How do prisoners get so big"
There's this special mineral that's very prevalent in prison known as "vitamin don't-take-my-cheeks".
You get enough of that vitamin in your system and you just naturally become swole.
@Dawud Hafzhad Hes point was that people worked out so they wouldnt get hurt. Cant say the word, its not allowed on this platform.
@Dawud Hafzhad "vitamin don't-take-my-cheeks"
@Dawud Hafzhad basically he saying men have to get swole and strong so they don’t get there ass ripped open.
I’ve only been to jail for a few months (not prison) but when I was in there, the big guys that worked out would buy people’s plates and only eat the meat and vegetables, they’d also buy these 1 scoop protein powder pouches from commissary. It’s basically doing whatever it takes, them dudes are VERY strong mentally as well.
That's dedication right there.
Jail and prison is the same thing numbnuts
@@AH-hz5xc actually jail is a correctional facility, prison is a state facility. Where I’m from jail is provincial, prison is federal. Can your small brain comprehend that?
@@AH-hz5xc wrong. Numbnuts
@@AH-hz5xc Jail = temporary short term stay. Jail could be in a police station. Prison = long term stay. Dedicated building for such. Stop criticizing people unless you truly know.
I guess the take away from this is that training to failure it where it is at. Whatever you do, just keep on doing it until you feel really spent and then do another two plus reps. It actually makes sense.
I was 180lbs sitting on my ass behind a computer with a 36" waist. Went back into the military, PT'd Mon, Wed basically every exercise you can think of just using your body, not a single weight and never in a gym. Did this twice a day, Fri morning was run day, a couple miles. Just doing this routine by the time I was 28 yrs old, 5'10" and went up to 223lbs and had a 30" waist. It made me a believer in body weight exercises.
How long was this period from out of shape to ripped?
High Sodium content keeping those muscles hydrated, lots of carbs with enough protein and high testosterone levels from a survival nessicity
Plus the obvious workout regimen
High sodium ?
A Man from Prison said no Sodium to be vascular ... And it Worked on me ... I also kept my Swells too
Exercise obviously.
Otherwise would just be obese.
John, sorry, but you are a little right, but also wrong. The fact is all those steroids those inmates take. Yes, they get steroids as well as other drugs. There are more drugs in prison than out of prison. Some former prisoners and a prison guard I dated (a woman :) ) who works at a max security prison told me that.
@@seanknight9808 doesnt go for all prison obviously ..
@@seanknight9808 no you're wrong maybe in other countries but they're popping vitamins amino acid and eating alot. Lots of pull-ups and burpees. Quit story telling especially if you haven't been locked up..
I feel like as long as you consistently keep pushing yourself to the limit with good diet and sleep, you’ll achieve gains. Plain and simple.
+ steroids
@@strzaaolo2966 there's always a lazy bum who thinks that anyone who's even remotely in shape takes steroids smh.
Hi Ryan, in regards to nutrition you might have watched Forks Over Knives. It connects lower protein diets to health as it relates to cancers and all-cause mortality. Your question is about getting Big and Muscular, and I don't know specifically about that and what the diet is prison is. But when it comes to health that is something you might find worth looking into, and find some clues for the question about big and muscular.
Im so happy that your channel grows day after day
i remember when you had only 50 k and seeing how much your channel have grown shows how much effort you are putting in these video thank you very much!
Thank you so much!!
Yesterday I was at the gym. I've tried everything and I'm not at all big but yesterday I realized that I ca get results with lower weight as long as I increase the reps. It's all about getting the "right feeling" in the muscles.
Damn right brotha
however you get the burn that isnt just a premature cramp from too much weight coupled with dehydration
Big ramy is 300 0ounds of muscle and lifts weight that natural bodybuilders can but super slow. Pounds calorie from anything
"Right Feeling" = "Pump"
its about the volume
I always thought about that, but at some point people called me crazy lost. Im a swimmer/freediver and PTrainer too. The time of my life that I expirienced best body shape and hypertrophy combination was when I spent most time connected with calisthenics. Even in my breaks at work, co-workers were not ashamed of having a cigarete. I didnt feel ashamed of doing push ups and squats while they were doing the oposite. which means we should be doing calisthenics where ever we move in the social world, the same way people have a big burger or cigarete, or a beer, or nuggets to attent againts their health. just meditating. gracias brother for confirmation.
The answer is that they don't do anything all day.
No work, no cooking, no repairs on the house, no homework with the kids, nada.
They sleep half the day and lift out of boredom.
Bring back work farms, and we'll see how jacked the felons are when they are as tired at the end of the day as we are.
Tell me you know nothing about prison without telling me
A friend of mine was in prison here in the U.K for 2 years. During the last 18 months of his sentence he was able to get into great shape, due to good behaviour privileges and being a role model inmate, he was able to go to the gym 7 days a week for 2 hours at a time. He said the consistency and training frequency was what really made the difference. He thinks due to the bare minimum of food portions they would receive, he would've been eating at maintenance or even a slight deficit. A lot of hard gainer/leaner guys would spend most of their "canteen shop" allowance on the highest fat/sugar treats possible just to get the extra calories in, but my friend used his to buy protein powder from the shop, so that did help get his macros up.
But ultimately, even with a less than desirable diet and macros, the training consistency really transformed his physique and he came out looking like Thor. I guess not having access to "cheat days" and binge eating also contributed.
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
We'd eat breaks consisting of Ramen noodles, TUNA and a lot of it !! Oatmeal and peanut butter also.
Awesome, that's exactly what I've been lately. When I switched from the usual ranges and dropped ego weight lifting for super high reps, I got the most hypertrophy in my life. Suits me better mentally also, rather than struggling with super heavy stuff I can go long and do clean work. But honestly we're all so different I think it just varies from one person to another. Just try both and choose your favorite
What does your workout look like?
@@joshuajay2886 I do push-pull-rest-push-pull-rest-rest (no leg day, playing soccer is enough). 5 exercices, 4 sets x 15-20 reps. My workouts are way shorter than with my previous 3x8 series and I still get much more total TUT (time under tension, which proved to be the key for me)
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel💪
i used to do 700 push ups a night. sets of 70. in an hour. when i was in college. the goal was to get up to sets of 100, to make it a 1000 a night. sit ups in between sets.
I've been doing calisthenics for like 1 month, quite consistently and already can see changes. I feel really solid too
Great vid. I’m a huge fan of time under tension, static hold workouts. Rep range is whatever you can handle for that particular exercise with the load. Also, sprints and full body movements. Bear crawls, get ups….
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
@@amj76425
Blood pump from Jesus? May the gains be with you.
You actually hit a great point with this video because I was incarcerated in my late 30's and for 6 months I did nothing but calisthenics workouts 5 days sometimes 6 for 2 hours a day and I never been in better physical physique and haven't been able to repeat that and this time around I've been going to the gym for the same amount of time of course not putting in not as much time for the workouts but calisthenics in my opinion just get you there in a very effective challenging way
What were your calisthenics workouts in prison?
@@folksurvival Mondays I would do Burpees 5 pump to 15 pumps (push Ups) 10 sets each, Tuesday I would do 50 downs regular these are push Ups counting down from 50 all the way to 1. Wednesday I would do the deck of cards doubling or tripling the count on each number for example 2s become 4 or 6 depends on the day, and doing 30 crunches every 5 sets, Thursday I would do incline and decline push Ups 10 sets each of 25 followed by 15 dips followed by 15 pull ups. Friday would do Cardio and I would do just core. Rest Saturday and Sunday.
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
Shadow Boxing, Sprinting on the track, sprinting in place, split squats, jump squats, burpees, pull ups, dip bars, and lots of push ups/mountain climbers.
No doubt about it! I got into doing burpees for about six months-maybe four or five times per week for 20-30 minutes. I definitely saw some pec and shoulder development and as a bonus my wind capacity went way up! I gotta get back to them.
Get jailed
Get that 💰
Interesting research, but it aligns with what I have experienced in my training. It’s always preached that anything over 15-20 reps becomes endurance and cardio work. But I’ve experienced the greatest size gains in the high two ranges, especially when it comes to getting that coveted “pump”
It makes sense that you get good gains in these rep ranges. Pump is just a blood flow and blood is filled with nurtrients for our muscles, so better pump = more growth. I always do one heavy ecercise in the beginnig (6-8 reps) to mobilise all muscle strands and then 2-3 more lighter exercise to increase the blood flow!
Maybe because good form is harder to maintain when you're working with a weight you can only lift 5x vs a weight you get 20 reps from.
My time in prison (4 years) revolved less around diet, and more around committing and being consistent in your workouts. Always dedicating an hour and a half a day around calisthenics, (basketball, jogging and pull ups). While dedicating the remaining 2 hours to lifting. Alternating push & pulls, light and heavy, never working the same muscle group twice in a day, and never repeating the same workout routine every week.
Keeping your body guessing, and not allowing it to fall into a particular routine keeps soreness and injury at bay.
I was lucky to be placed in a minimum security camp that allowed 3 1/2 hours a day I could work out with free weights a track and 2 basketball courts, indoor and outdoor. I ate a high carb diet, protein was not really available due to prisoners getting so big without the need for a high protein diet. So unless you ate peanut butter with oatmeal, or cans of tuna which are outrageously expensive, you weren't getting much protein due to the almost exclusive soy diet the state has almost all prisoners on depending on diabetes, allergies, religion and vegetarian or vegan preferences.
For anyone wanting to do calisthenics, stick to the basics. Push ups, pull ups, squats, dips, jogging, and skipping rope if you want. Remember all of those things have different variations that you can use to confuse the muscles and stimulate growth. Us Africans no matter where you were born have a strong dna to build muscle mass. Use it
“Diet” might not matter but caloric deficit or loading does. Simply put ,burn more to lose more fat than you intake, eat up and burn less to gain or fatten up.
Soy is very high in protein though.
@@stminggol8438 soy also lowers your testosterone count so I would avoid it at all costs that's why when you buy good protein supplements you want to make sure that it's organic from animal protein
@@joblessmike2423 that's true for regular soy which is the standard in the west. Fermented soy is totally different and actually a very bioavailable protein source. But fully fermented soy is really just available from Korea, all others say its fermented but in reality only partially if at app
I was probably at my absolute PEAK muscle mass at around the age of 12-14 years old when I was a competitive gymnast, practicing those compulsory floor routines, uneven parallel bars, power vaulting, and balance beam, plus just the general tumbling passes you do to warm up before you begin performing those routines.
As a competitive, compulsory gymnast (private club, not related to school), you are working out for...at least...2 hours every day...after a full day of school and whatever sports you're competing in at your school, plus several hours on Saturday, either at your own gym or competing in a meet at another gym. During that same 3-year span, I was also a competitive sprinter (anchor leg, sprint and 800-meter relay), and jumper (high jump, long jump, triple jump) on the Varsity track team, freshman year. Plus, as a 14-year-old freshman, I played varsity girl basketball, even though I was only 5'5" and I was the starting jumper because of my incredible verticle jump (playing with the junior and senior girls). Thus, that included lifting weight throughout the school year, both upper and lower body, and a variety of sprints, and other school-sanctioned torture methods, that often left us hanging on the chain link fence around the track with dry heaves. lol
I quit gymnastics at age 15...kept up the varsity track and varsity basketball, along with all the weight lifting and off-season training (plus cheerleading), and then private gymnastics classes twice a week for fun (not competition). The only thing I removed from the equation: the daily training for competitive gymnastics. Guess what: I went from wearing a size 9 jeans down to wearing a size 3, but still had a solid vertical jump, despite my muscular legs getting much thinner.
Nothing has ever given me the combination of strength, power, and muscle tone that 5-6 days a week of gymnastics did, and it was a JOY: a true labor of love.
...not training as a competitive sprinter and jumper
...not training for basketball
...not even daily training for cheerleading, which contained quite a bit of power tumbling and lifting other humans, almost my same size
...not snowboarding (two season passes...one weekday pass, one week-end pass)
...not rollerblading (not in Manhattan where I first learned, or on the strand along the beaches of LA)
...not scuba diving and snorkeling
...not surfing
...not even teaching yoga
(and I was teaching yoga, while rollerblading, snowboarding, and scuba diving/snorkeling regularly...only surfing sporadically in HI)
So, for me, it was competitive gymnastics that made me the strongest...gave me the best vertical jump...and created the best core strength and overall body strength, compared to every other sport or athletic activity I competed in during my lifetime.
CRITICAL OVERSIGHT: motivation in prison to *not become prey* in a strictly predator-prey environment
You really fail to recognize how CRITICAL it is to keep up not only an impressive physical strength when living amongst predators...but to also physically DEMONSTRATE that overt strength, agility, and power...so the predators in the yard can SEE THAT STRENGTH.
Sociopaths love nothing more than to take a strong, confident person and tear them down until they are nothing.
Violent sexual predators don't suddenly become non-violent, and lose their overt drive to rape just because they are in prison. Rapists do NOT stop raping until they either...
1) lose their physical strength to overpower someone (they are all about power and control over others)
2) die
3) have a drastic shift in endocrine function that severely increases their estrogen while decreasing their progesterone and testosterone, and even then...they will NEVER lose their predatory brain that is constantly sizing others up for "weakness". They will prey on others in a different way (psychological abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse read: a variety of explotation)
In prison, you have 2 choices....
Predator/Competitive Predator (read: predators see you as another predator and their competition...so they don't fck with you)
Prey
Most in the US & UK prison population suffer from all-or-nothing thinking, aka black-and-white thinking. There is little to no grey area for them. Thus, they think in extremes...predator...prey.
THAT is all the motivation most prisoners need to stay in prime physical shape. They don't want to get raped by the serial rapists and other sexual predators and sociopaths in the gen pop.
Oh, and here is something else you should know...
psychopaths
sociopaths
malignant narcissists
narcissists
borderlines
read: the people who make up both male and female prison populations in the US & UK (the world over, actually)
They have no strong sexual orientation...instead, they see opportunities...so male, female, teen, child, mentally ill, just about any age...can be sexually arousing for them. There is no "gay for the stay". They are sexual omnivores, by and large.
They may have a sexual preference...but the are all sexually flexible, some are overtly bisexual, and sociopaths and psychopaths and try-sexual predators who are more aroused by power and control over someone than what the rest of us consider sexually appealing.
Then you have those who can only be aroused...or climax...by forcing themselves on others, and seeing them in extreme pain (the sadists).
This is what I mean...by the motivation to remain in peak physical condition. Unless you understand these fundamentals, you are missing KEY FACTORS to keep those workouts up. This is the reality in a predator-prey.
Let me say this again in case you miss the SALIENT POINT: avoiding the appearance of weakness is EVERYTHING
Predators SCAN every environment they are in, naturally...without a 2nd thought...for the most vulnerable. Facts. Harsh realities.
It's crazy how muscular the shoulders on those little Olympic gymnast girls can get! I agree that fear is probably a big part of it for prisoners.
That's too much for a youtube comment
Well done, finally a RUclips comment that is well reasoned and well written. It probably is to much for the average you tube viewer. Congratulations 🎉
When I joined the U.S. Army, almost straight out of highschool, I was 5ft 11 in inches and 145 lbs. In an 8 week period of basic training, where we ran several miles every morning, and did an insane amount of nothing but pushups and situps, (no weight benches in sight), I swelled up to 180 lbs. That's 35 pounds I gained in an 8 week period, while doing more exercise, and in better shape then Id been in my whole life. We were worked to the point of collapse every day, for the first two weeks until we got into shape. I remember going to the chow hall and eating more then I'd ever eaten in my life, yet getting up from the table still feeling hungry.
Did you learn this at Mira Costa?
I’ve definitely done a prison workout. It totally works. High reps. And twice a day.
I did 5 years in prison and that was all we did was 1000s of push-ups 1000s of pull ups and 1000s of squats I went in there 160ish to dam near 200 solid so he’s right bout what he’s talking bout ☝🏿🤲🏿💪🏿💯
Gangsta
How did you train to get to the point where you could do 1000 reps for each exercise?
@@ap6722 just keep doing the exercise that’s the whole point
What was your diet like? Asking for @Minus the gym cuz idk how you missed this question 4:55
@@ap6722 it's pretty easy , especially if you have been doing it for awhile on a consistent basis, your body adjusts , I my self am over 50 years old and I've been doing 1000 pushups every day since I was 15 years old , and being over 50 now I still do the same routine without any problems, and I've got big shoulders chest arms ,the key is to have a routine goodluck
On top of the hard work some of them put in, I think genetics play a big role on how swole or shredded they get.
Loved it. Subscribed. Thanks!
The harder you train the better results you get! Keep grinding y’all, the basics really do work, you just have to put in a lot of effort to get a lot of results!
Not true. The smarter you train
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
I’ve moved away from gymnastics style calisthenics too and am more interested in basic high reps workout
check out iron wolf...he is the master of high reps cal.
@@exit281 I’ve watched a bit but I feel like he’s not trying to achieve failure but prefers to do something more cardio like. I’m going to rewatch some of of his videos. I prefer a more controlled style of high reps calisthenics where push ups for example are done in high volume but with control. He’s doing them more military cheating style
@@zwip778 What do you mean by "controlled style" and "military cheating style"?
After you master the basics which probably takes you for 10+ years, you can also move on to advance exercises and do high reps on them. I've seen a guy who does 100 planche push ups and another guy who does 148 planche push ups in 1 hour, and they're JACKED.
@@exit281 I'd say he's good with pushing and squats, but his pulling form is bad. He uses momentum a lot
Thanks for the video Ryan. High reps definitely work but it’s also takes a much bigger toll on your joints. So if you want to reduce injuries (and also training time) it’s much more effective to go with harder exercises and lower rep range (or same exercises but perform them much slower so time under tension is equivalent but with less joint stress). Just my two cents..
The 6-12 rep range is the best IMO and a great medium.
After 12 yrs my body feels like it wants to fall apart do to high reps 1000 n push ups n dips per day
@@sparklestransport8904 do you have lots of joint pain ?
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1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the gospel
I think I now understand why they say spending more than 1 hr on workouts reduces testosterone. It is not actually because of the time spent but the fact it can take a huge toll on your joints and this increases inflammatory markers in the body that the body produces cortisol to counter thereby reducing testosterone
please continue to explore these ideas, you are onto to something. experience has show me that hypertrophy has a direct relationship to the muscle have "time under tension'. calethenics, in particular the 'prison style burpee' is the 'red pill of fitness'. look at guys like iron wolf, burpees king to name a few.
I know a couple guys that have been inside and they said they bought tins of Tuna with their weekly allowance to get extra protein. Can't speak for all prisoners but I assume this is fairly common?
Yes an other prisoner stories tell how Milk would be exchanged for weed an tobacco.
That and boiled eggs.
Milk, Boiled Eggs, Chicken on special days are all traded for weed, tobacco, meth, heroin, other junk food like cookies, chips, chocolates, you name it. The swole guys would trade to get more and more protein. Peanut butter was a also another source of protein.
I have been doing cal esthetics for a couple of years and I am 60. Everyone has been telling how big I have gotten. No gym. I typically go to failure 8-12 reps depending on the exercise. So I agree with you. Just work to failure. And I just do pull ups, dips and push ups. But I use rings: Rings are the game changer
What is Rings?
@@daffaaristo5933 Gimnastic rings
I have a hypothesis that hypertrophy is a combination of fascial remodeling and blood flow. And where strength is about neural signal volume and tissue load capacity.
In other words if you want to change the volume of your muscles you need to pump the full of blood and remodel the fascia by activating the muscles at full blood volume. Thus re-modeling the fascia. But if you want strength then you need to recruit signals to fire for specific loads so you get full signal for those ranges of motion.
You my friend are ahead of the game, congrats.
Makes sense
Interesting theory. Ty and cheers.
So do a few min on the spot cardio/breathing exercises to get blood pumping and then a workout to activate the muscles and make them grow.. and focus on muscle control while doing workout as well as practicing breathing to get lots of air to gain energy from? Or just do some tai chi and yoga and then maybe a workout??
@@JonahWoods the idea is to get blood specifically into the muscles that you're wanting to grow and the easiest way to do that is through direct stimulation. In other words if you're looking for larger triceps and chest a push-up is a perfect exercise for that. The issue isn't what exercises good the issue is how do you differentiate strength from size. One of the things that I've learned from looking at a lot of the bodybuilder workouts is they are more set oriented. My current understanding based upon my hypothesis is it is not the reps that matter but the sets that matter and the frequency of rest in between. Think about it like this if you were wanting to get really good at sprinting from just a off the block Sprint every time you start firing those muscles off of the block after the first time off of the block your resources are less your muscles are having to recruit more resources and that takes recovery time. So your first time off of the block is going to be the fastest and every time off of it after will be slower if you don't allow enough time for recovery. But if you came off the block tested your time and then 20 minutes later came off of the block again and tested your time again your times would be similar and potentially faster.
This hypothesis basically says we want to capitalize on the fact that the body wants to recover by sending blood inflammation is natural and the inflammation is going to go to the point where the tissues need the resources. But you also have to allow enough time for the resources to get there so the next time you do work the tissues are already flooded with blood and thus causing tissue expansion. This happens because the next time you do work the tissue that is flooded with blood is now going to press against the boundaries of what it's capable of holding while you're doing your next set of work.
So what I don't know is do you actually have to go through range of motion to get there in other words can this be done with isometrics? How many reps are enough reps in order to cause the blood flow effect? Bodybuilders generally tend to use three to five sets is three really enough would more get you there faster?
What I do know is doing specific reps and sets you're going to have a diminishing return especially if you're not waiting enough time for recovery so eventually you just can't do anymore. I also know that there's a diminishing return if your rest time is too long because the blood that rushes to the area for the next load will get rerouted to other parts of the body.
I used to be really into calisthenics, I would mostly do push ups, pull ups, chin ups and planks. I was really tone back then it works.
Another thing worth mentioning is sleep. Prisoners probably get a better nights rest. On the outside ,especially if you live in a major city, there is a lot of ambient light and background noise which interferes with your sleeping pattern. In cells during lights out, there is none of that. A deep sleep beyond the REM phase triggers growth hormones naturally.
Actually it's pretty loud, antique ventilation systems, security doors clanging anytime staff has to move around, (and you can hear those from a long way away), and a couple of time a night guards shine alight on you to make sure you're still there
Where i was, jail, prison light constantly in your face. Never completely dark. Not sure but pretty sure for CO'S safety.
My experience with high rep calisthenic exercises and workouts this from the military. What I found is you won’t get “massive”. But you will certainly be fit and look it. Of course you might be able to pack on more mass if you don’t do things like 10 mile rucks and 6 mile runs a couple times a week.
We did do a lot of heavy weight insurance training such as Rucking. So if you cut out some of that you probably would get a lot bigger.
*Genetics at the end of the day.*
Some guys get swole from lifting 200lb.
Some guys are skinny and tiny when lifting 300lb.
You cant get big if you dont have the genetics.
Strength and genetics are not the same.
Also diet.
Anyone can get big if they work hard enough.
@@killtheZOG nope. Dont come at me w lowiq bs kiddo
When you're natural you have to do both body weight and iron, body weight you can bulid muscle density and a good base and iron will put on the size iron hits a different muscle fiber from body weight. Plus natural swole looks better than steroid swole. When you are steroid swole your muscles look like hard rubber.
@@ThePresentation010 it’s not low iq bs. Everyone’s muscles grow, to the same extent though no, but someone skinny can still get bigger.
You are correct when you say what we've been told about rep ranges and hypertrophy are definitely not true, and in fact all sorts of fitness RUclipsrs I think either intentionally or by omission include inaccurate and sometimes false information to keep you coming back
I've accumulated 10 years in penal systems in the USA. And yes the book Convict Conditioning, which I read upon my last bit, confirmed what I already knew to be true. Calisthenics was the best route. High intensity Calisthenics was what I consistently did. Yet I was the same size as John Rambo in Rambo 3. I combined my Oklahoma high school wrestling conditioning along with some of Hershel Walker and Mike Tysons routines and combined them to make it my own. I promise you prayer( through Jesus Christ ) along with fierce grit and determination to a 1.5- 2 hour routine 5 - 6 days a week you will get in the best shape of your life. My main routine outside of pull-ups and upside down push ups or handstand push ups was a pushup / shoulder press/ box squat/ fly( motion)/ twists/ im)) kettle bell( motion)--pyramid combo 1-20 up and down. Do that 5 days a week plus pull ups guaranteed success!!!!!
What did you do?
Most def, appreciate the detail. I can't wait
@@rajeshkurichiopalli3051 yo thank the man and keep it pushing
I bet if you took jesus out you would have had the exact same results
@@ryanharvey3984 Probably not. In jail, Jesus sometimes is all that kept you sane. All I had to do in there was read the Bible and work out.
I liked a lot this video! Thank you!
I think that big volume of reps is not the same than reps to failure. Possibly when we do the greasing the groove strategy we do more reps through day.
I hope that you'll upload more videos about old school calisthenics, they are very practical!
I worked out 5 consecutive hours every day, no set limit, no counting reps, just kept going as intensely and as long as i could go, rest a minute or 2 max, and went again...back workout alone was 1,000 reps, (when i did count reps) no less than 120 lbs, on pulldowns, max 250, twice per week...weights, ( began each workout with 45 mins on ellipical), mass amounts of food, everything, crap carbs, but as much protein as i could hook up with. I was big and ripped. Tracked every carb i could consume and burn. A BIG 172 lbs, AT 5'7", maxing a 455 lb bench.
That's insane. If your honest. You could probably break some records in your area. That's impressive for your weight.
@@corysturgis6660 I've been out 4 years, am nothing close to that now. I bought a functional trainer to inspire myself again....work 12 hour days and have eaten like shit...i burned myself out before i was released. My mind shut down any motivation i had. I had to FORCE myself to work out just 2 hours at the end, and i had nowhere close to the drive and intensity as before...my heart just wasn't in it anymore...don't know what happened to it, what can i say? I must have worked out all of the anger, i suppose.
I heard the half rep range is key to adding volume as well.
I have also noticed the most drummers have big arms. If you’re using a certain muscle group you will see gains. I doubt professional drummers do 3 days a week in the gym doing bicep curls and dips. Their arms are big because they use them everyday
Let's keep prisons aside for a moment. All the 6 exercises you mentioned like pull ups, push ups, dips, squats, lunges & leg raises are all compound exercises that create uniform & explosive growth in the major as well as the minor muscles of the targeted body part. The development creates more strength and that allows more overall size & growth. It's a self feeding cycle. The minor muscles have a huge part in lifting some of the load along with the targeted major muscles. So this growth can possibly happen in a prison or in a gym or even at home. The solitude of a prison cell would definitely help though. This is my take.
The best shape of my life was doing high reps. 1000 pushups on knuckles every day I was ripped and strong. I'm getting back to doing high reps again. Low reps aren't cutting it for me.
Good video! I have been training on and off for over 30 years and wondered the same thing. 5 years ago I started working as a guard and I've witnessed first hand the workouts and diets. One phenomenon not discussed is that when you put men together to live natural testosterone often gets increased naturally. Prison diets are horrible high sodium high carb lots of pasta grits and rice. Protein mostly comes from tuna, and smoked meats like summer sausage. Workouts are done twice a day and often get broken down like this.
"Card challenge" body weight exercises usually pushups bench dips or bodyweight squats, done solo or with a partner alternating with a deck of playing cards using one or more exercises almost no rest, pick a card and knock out the number of reps that coincide with the number.
"The Wheel" its basically circuit training done in either push pull splits or as a full body where you walk or jog to the next station. For example as many push-ups as you can do by rep or to failure then go to the next station usually pull ups (they call "bar") or dips or bodyweight squats and repeat.
Another variation of these set extender workouts is lifting weights, say dumbbell or barbell bench press switching on and off with a partner and then immediately doing pushup tank emptiers or doing pushups while their partner does dumbell drop sets and alternating between sets. Lots of variations including lifting one side at a time and alternating between all. Most prisoners have pretty small legs they work mostly on beach muscles, but I've seen brutal leg routines that follow a similar protocol alternating barbell squats with a partner then doing walking lunges the length of the gym and back or non-stop bodyweight squats after lifting. Delts are done with rack runners dumbbell presses or lateral raises. Muscles look bigger when the person is lean prisoners often look huge because all the bodyweight exercises basically become like cardio conditioning and makes them lean and strong. Hope this helps
thank you
@@gaberoyalll Something I forgot to mention is that according to many of the prisoners themselves, the main reason they can get yoked so quickly, is because they had either never worked out at all or already been in great shape before. Weather it was lifting or working a physical job like construction on the outside or achieving a body transformation during a previous bid.
At any rate, the consistency of working out and eating as well as being limited by the amount of drugs and alcohol they are all factors. Loved the video, again thanks for posting and hope this helps with your research.
Just found your channel and it's what I have been looking for.
Thank you.
After the lockdowns of the pandemic, everyone can probably understand this. When you have nothing to do other than train, eat and rest, it's quite easy to bulk. You have all the physical ingredients and the right mindset since there's nothing else to live for! I gained 10kg of mostly solid muscle during 4 months of lockdown.
Can't really compare working out in prison to working out in lockdown. They are totally different.
On the contrary, most people watch Netflix because they have no motivation to work out. I have a different mindset and haven’t stopped working out but we are the exception. So, most people cannot relate to your post, shamefully enough.
Same bro I went from 60kg to 70kg in lockdown. I was 16, so it was a bit easier, but still an impressive transformation. Now I had lost a couple kg after an injury, but I'm back on track and aiming for an ultimate objective of 80kg. It might seem like a lot, but I'm 6'2". Stay safe guys.
Not if you have a job that is necessary and you still work
@@Snowlys Guess you will have to take my word for it then