Book Summary: Convict Conditioning - How to Bust Free of All Weakness By Paul Wade

I like to exercise and I thought I was pretty good at it until I purchased this book. The focus of this program is strength and power using body weight old school Calisthenics. When you initially think of calisthenics you think of jumping jacks and side bends etc. This is not what we are talking about. Coach Wade talks about body weight exercises. If you are interested in true strength without injury then continue on. These are far superior to weight lifting and will preserve your body well into old age.Why is this important to me?Without health, you have nothing. Anything can be accomplished if you are healthy so you need to make it a priority.Some of the exercises that can be done are unbelievable:1. One arm pushups not in the triangle position. I am talking about doing a one arm push up with your feet together and your body straight like a regular full pushup.2. One legged full squat with a pause at the bottom. You would think this would blow out your knees but that is the
secret to this type of training. You are not just building muscle. You are building joint and tendon strength. This is the first book I have read that talks about that.3. One handed full pull ups. Think about this for a minute. You go to a pull up bar and grab it and pull yourself up with one arm.... This is true strength. These guys can do it ten times or more.4. Stand to Stand Bridge - This is probably easy for the gymnasts but for everybody else this is the lost exercise. They can stand and go backward into a bridge and then stand back up from that position. Having a healthy spin will add years and freedom to your life.5. One handed handstand pushup - This is the granddaddy of them all.6. The Leg Raise - True six pack absOne thing that really stands out is the synergy of joint-tendon and muscle strength. Isolated muscle work like weight lifting is actually counter intuitive. Whole body work is the key.One thing that sets this training apart is that you are working for po
wer and strength. If you do these exercises faster and with more reps then you are working on endurance and stamina but it will not increase your strength. The key to increasing strength is to make the exercises harder.One note here is the title of Convict Conditioning. Paul has done hard time in some really bad places thus he needed to training for sanity and survival. With that being said, don't hold this against him. The material in this book is second to none and is worth it if you are looking to gain REAL strength and power.We touched on the big 6 which 99.99% of the population cannot do. No worries because the book outlines the 10 Steps to get to the Master Step which is the holy grail of each exercise. Paul takes you through progressions that seem very easy to condition your body and build joint and tendon strength so you can progress from level 1 to level 10.One key aspect of some of these workouts is that you can finish them in less than 10 minutes and make gains. T
his is counterintuitive to most people who exercise. The work is intense but proper recover is critical.When you record your workout and schedule them accordingly then you will see gains which makes self-coaching much easier.If you are interested in true power and strength then this book is for you. If you compete in any combat or contact sports then you definitely need this book as well. Not only will it help you become steel it will also increase your flexibility. This is one hidden benefit of these exercises that isolated weight training does not give. In fact, benching and other type of weight training stiffens the body and hurts the joints.Do a YouTube search for Jim Bathurst. He is the person profiled in the book who does the exercises. You will see what this type of training can do for you.I hope you have found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days.One thing
you can take away from this book is START. If you are not exercising at all then you need to start now. Start small but do something because your health and energy depend on it.

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