Elbow lever in the park

One of the great things about body weight exercises is they can be done virtually anywhere and need almost no equipment.  Elbow lever is a great body weight exercise, and can be done in playgrounds, parks, etc. 

Elbow lever using a pumpkin (for some reason Australian playgrounds sometimes have fake pumpkins)

Elbow lever off a...um...what is that thing?  

Elbow lever off a tiny stop sign - this thing was a bit wobbly so he didn't get all that straight

Desert strength training

Recently we took a trip to the desert.  While we were there we stayed in a house that was dug underground.  Many people live in dug out houses out there due to the intense heat.  

Not surprisingly, they had no gyms out there.  

One of the benefits of body weight exercises is they can be done anywhere and do not need a gym.  

The following picture we went to a look out for sunset.  My son decided to do elbow lever off a fence.  It started to creak and crack so he didn't do this for long.  He did straighten up, but I didn't get a decent photo before he had to stop because we were worried the fence would collapse.  

While the land may look very flat, and for the most part it was, there was actually a bit of a cliff to the left of the barricade.  

Back from the lookout there were some large rocks that had been placed to prevent cars driving up to the lookout.  

Much to the amazement of onlookers, my son did elbow lever using these rocks.  He held elbow lever for some time.  It is easy, because he is strong.  While he is skinny, he is stronger than he looks and can probably do a lot of physical things you can't do because he trains properly.  

While it has nothing to do with strength training exercise, below is a photo of one of the few trees that grew out there in the desert.  This tree was about two meters tall, gnarled from the desert winds, far older than it looked, and must have incredible strength to be able to survive out there.  

This little tree is a true representation of Prochnost'.

Tree in the desert

Fitness park equipment

Recently we went on holiday.  While we were travelling we found a park with playground and fitness equipment.  They had heaps of things that my son wanted to use.  I took a few photos as I found it amusing.  

They had a stationary bike, peddling was too easy so my son used it for elbow lever.

Stationary Bike

They had dip bars, my son used these for dips and then elbow lever.

More elbow lever

There were push up bars that were intended to make push ups easier, these were good for elbow lever.  

Elbow lever on push up bars

An inclined bench was used for elbow lever.

Elbow lever off an inclined bench

He had another try at the stationary bike as it was so much fun.  Normally exercise bikes are used by fat people to sit and peddle slowly while pretending that they are exercising.  I can't imagine many thin people ever use them, and I wouldn't think anyone would use them for elbow lever.  

How else would you use a stationary bike?

As well as all this there was a playground.  There was a thing in the playground that spins.  My son used it for elbow lever.  It was difficult and scary as the thing was spinning.  Apparently his legs acted like a sail and they caught the wind.  It was terrifying to watch.  

spinning elbow lever

The park was almost empty when I took these photos.  We went back to it later and it was full of people.  

Much to the delight of onlookers, my son did more elbow lever off the equipment, and did a lot of pull ups using their pull up bar.  I don't think these people had ever seen a strict pull up.  

A few of the young men attempted to do a pull up after watching my son, but none of them were strong enough.  

Human flag for kids

Today's human flag is proudly brought to you by my son.   

My son doing human flag

While his form is not perfect yet, he is training, and he is making great progress.  

While I am very impressed by what he can do, and while it is even more impressive that so few adults in this country will ever be able to do the human flag, I am mostly proud of him for putting in the work.

I am very proud of him for putting in the effort, I am proud of him for sticking at it for so long, I am proud of him for keeping this up even when it was hard and when he wasn't in the mood, and I am proud that even though he knew how difficult this would be he still decided to train towards it.  

While I helped him train, the biggest improvement he makes is when he gets a spare moment through the day and goes down to the monkey bars to put in a few minutes of training.  Training multiple times a day is the best way to improve.

Anyone can shift a heavy weight, anyone can 'work out', but not everyone has what it takes to train long enough and hard enough to be able to do this.  I am proud of him, and he is proud of himself.

We hope this inspires you to do some strength training.  

First 30 day challenge

After my success in completing the 100 push ups 30 day challenge, my son wanted to do his own 30-day exercise challenge.  

My son wanted to build strength.  The best way to do this for a thin person (or for anyone else) is to choose a strength building exercise, decide on some minimums, and meet those minimums every day for at least thirty days.  The more time you put in the better, but decent improvements can be seen after thirty days.

I asked him to decide on an exercise and a daily minimum.  He can exceed these minimums if he wishes, and he had to reach those minimums each and every day for 30 days.  

Being young I did not want him to do too much, I did not want him to get an overuse injury, so I made sure it was something I thought he could do reasonably easily.

My son decided on a minimum of 20 strict pull ups per day.  I figured he would safely be able to achieve this number.  This amount of exercise was not completed in one session, it was spread across the entire day, every day for thirty consecutive days.  

This isn't western style training, this is prochnost' style training, and it works.  

Spoiler alert: pull ups are hard. 

Before the Challenge

At the start of his challenge my son was struggling to do 3 or 4 strict pull ups in a set.  He probably could have done a few more pull ups with sloppy form, but he could only do 3 to 4 with good form.

For the first few days reaching 20 pull ups over the day was killing him, partly because it is a lot, and partly because he needed to do a lot of sets throughout the day when you are only doing at most 2 or 3 pullups per set!

Pull ups, even when it's cold 

Thirty Day Challenges are Grueling

It was rainy on the second day of his challenge, and he had no choice but to go and do his minimums in the rain.  That wasn't heaps of fun.  

A couple of days in to the challenge he was tired and wanted to have a rest day.  He wanted to have a day off and just do more the following day.  Unfortunately it doesn't work that way with these challenges.  You have to reach your minimums each and every day, and you have to do them using proper form.  For these challenges to work you must be consistent.  This isn't western style training, this is different, this actually works. 

Other days he was tired, or not in the mood, or it was cold, or it was hot, or doing pull ups was the last thing he felt like doing.  To quote Pavel Tsatsouline "the Soviet training programs doesn't care about your feelings and neither should you".  My son still pushed through and got it done.  

My son had to reach his minimums every day.  So he persevered even when he didn't feel like it, and he did 20 pull ups minimum every day.  He never went until failure, but he got stronger and his numbers did increase significantly over the course of the thirty days.

Pull ups in the heat

Half Way There

After 15 days he was often doing sets of 8 to 10 pull ups, which is very impressive considering where he started!  This wasn't his maximum, he didn't even know how many he could do in one set because I didn't want him to train to failure.  He could do sets of however many he wanted, but had to stop once his form started to get sloppy.  

Sloppy form does not build strength, sloppy form often leads to injury, once his form degraded he had to stop and rest.  If his technique was starting to fail he would stop, if he felt tired he would stop, if he felt pain he was to stop immediately.  

The progress he made by doing multiple small sets every single day is just incredible.  This was far more efficient than the feel the burn, get pumped, no pain no gain, push to failure, no limits, type of workout nonsense that is far too common in western strength training.  Had he been training until failure he would not have made this kind of progress.

Other than once before the beginning of his challenge, and once after the challenge had ended, he was not striving to reach his maximum.  

Strict pull ups - they do get easier

Results of the challenge:  

My son successfully completed his challenge doing multiple sets of small numbers.  

Thirty days doing a minimum of twenty pull ups per day meant he completed a minimum of 600 pull ups that month.  Given the number of times he exceeded his minimums his total number over the thirty days would have been substantially higher!  

After the end of the challenge I asked him to do his maximum.  To his surprise, his maximum increased from a respectable 4 before his challenge to a whopping 15 at the end of the challenge.  Once again he probably could have done a few more pull ups with sloppy form, but he could only do 15 with good form.

That is a massive increase from just 30 days of doing sets of small numbers, stopping if he felt tired, never feeling the burn, not hurting the following day, and never ever training until failure.  You don't see this kind of progress in western style strength training.  

I wish I knew more about prochnost' strength training when I was young.  It is far more efficient and far more suitable for skinny people than any form of western strength training.  Had I trained like this when I was younger I would have been vastly stronger from putting in the same amount of (or less) effort.  

Over the thirty days of his challenge, my son completed more pull ups than most people in this country will complete in their entire lives.  He did this without ever doing more than ten in a row.  

Hopefully my son's success (and incredible progress) will inspire you to give something like this a try.  Decide on an exercise that you can do at home, set a daily minimum, write this down so you can't cheat, then reach or exceed this minimum every day for thirty days.    

Give it a try, you have everything to gain and nothing (other than fat, illness, and weakness) to lose.  Be stronger.

Strength training at Floriade

A few months ago we went to Canberra.  Being spring in Canberra we took the kids to Floriade.  For those who don't know, Floriade is a spring flowering bulb festival that is held in the capital city of Australia each year.  I have only been a handful of times, and Floriade seems to have less flowers and more market stalls each time, but I digress...

When I am around, my kids seem to take every opportunity to demonstrate incredible feats of strength.  Not surprisingly the kids took this opportunity at Floriade to demonstrate their strength.   

It was cold, noisy, and my kids didn't perform at their best, but they still did really well!  

Benches are great for elbow lever

My son found a painted 'Floriade' sign and found a place in front of it where he could do elbow lever.  

Only his hands are touching the ground.  It kind of looked like he was falling into a hole!

Elbow lever - as easy as falling in a hole...

Once he starts he is there for a looong time

I love these next shots, they show how long he stayed up and how he really isn't bothered by people watching (or buggies driving past).

Step 1: begin elbow lever

Then the cart is in view

The cart is crawling along slower than walking pace

He is still holding elbow lever

Still holding - remember to breathe

Finally the buggy had driven past and he could relax

I can't remember if these are the same benches as above, or different ones a little further along the path.  My kids did a lot of strength exercises at Floriade, I only took photos of some of them.

It doesn't really matter, a lovely walk in the park among spring flowers is the perfect time for quiet exhibition of incredible strength!

I am super proud of my kids and impressed by how strong they are.  

Elbow lever looks great off park benches

It's too bad there is a bin in the background

True strength is light as a feather

One thing that people forget is that no matter how strong you are, if you try hard you will eventually fall.  That's ok, just make sure you are prepared to fall, and fall safely.  

Falling doesn't mean that you are weak, falling doesn't mean that you failed, it only means that you are trying hard.  If my son gave up early he would never fall.  He would also never progress.  

Fall, but fall safely.  Safely falling can be a good thing.  

Falling is inevitable (unless you aren't trying hard enough)

My daughter is also very good at these strength exercises.  She wasn't really in the mood on this day so didn't do them as much as my son.  

That's ok by me, I am incredibly impressed by her.

Elbow lever at Floriade

I wish the bins were not in the background

This is far too easy for her!

As well as benches, my kids found some poles.  These are far harder to use, and they are thin and were wobbly.  It takes a lot of strength to be able to do such things using a pole like this.

Both my son and my daughter did strength exercises off these poles.  My younger son's hands and feet can be seen on the left as he also tried to get involved.

Floriade strength exercises

Don't pretend this isn't impressive

You may notice that there are no photos of me attempting to do anything impressive like this at Floriade.  There is a very good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with me being the one holding the camera.  The reason is: I am not strong enough.

I was training to do elbow lever, and bent arm planche.  I started to be able to do them again.  While I was not as good at them as my kids are, I started being able to do them again.  

Then I got hurt and lost condition.  I am no longer strong enough to do elbow lever very well, and am not currently able to do bent arm planche.  

I will do more training and hopefully be strong enough one day to be able to keep up with my kids again.  

If you are unable to do these exercises you should do strength training.  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным).  Don't ever 'work out', that is inefficient, if you are to be strong you must 'train' and you must train often.  These exercises build whole body strength, they build functional strength, they help you be better able to do other everyday things, and they help you be less prone to both injury and illness. 

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: You can be anything you want...but you must be strong first. 

My Five Year Old is Stronger Than You

I have been doing prochnost' strength training for a while and have been getting a lot stronger.  Prochnost training is a great training system for skinny people (who lack the genetic ability to bulk up significantly) who want to get strong and be more capable.  Western training focusses on aesthetics, while prochnost' training focusses on building functional strength.

My kids have seen me training, and they often join in.  My kids are very strong, and are able to do many impressive feats of strength.  I love how humble they are.  They think everyone can do the things they can do, but very few other kids or even adults are as strong as my kids.

My five year old often feels like he is missing out when he watches his siblings do incredible things.  I didn't want him to feel bad so let him do some balancing on my push up bars.  

This is probably the skinniest five year old you will ever see, yet he can lift himself up and hold in this L-sit for an extraordinary amount of time.  This is great exercise for strengthening his shoulders as well as building his core strength.  He is doing this for fun and he is gaining great benefits.

I am a little jealous because he can hold this for longer than I can!  I don't know a lot of adults who can do 'L Sit' at all, let alone hold it longer than my five year old.  I am jealous of him, but also very proud.

Five year old doing 'L-sit' 

He giggles when he starts to wobble

As well as that he is trying to copy his siblings by doing various other holds and things.  He can't quite do what they can do, but he is only five and he is getting stronger every day.  

I am really proud of what he can do.  I sure wasn't doing this at his age!

Strength training for a five year old should be fun

My five year old is still a bit young to do any push ups, or at least I don't want him to do very many push ups yet.  I don't want him to do them and get injured, or not be able to do them and feel like he is worthless.

He watches me and his siblings do push ups and wants to join in.  He also watches us train to do elbow lever, and straight arm planch, and he feels left out.  I don't want him to feel left out just because he is still little so I try to find ways that he can feel included.

To help him feel included he holds onto push up bars with straight arms and someone holding his feet.  This is not push ups, it is a static hold.  For a skinny five year old this is pretty impressive.

Five year old building strength and having fun

  

This is helping him feel included, but it is also building strength and paving the way for him to do some of the more impressive exercises once he is ready.  I don't see any point in pushing things when he isn't ready.  At the moment he just needs to feel confident and important, he is also developing an enjoyment of strength exercises.  Exercise has been normalised for my kids, they find exercise fun. 

Do you train with your kids?  If you do you should be very careful not to over do it physically or you risk injuring the growth plates in their bones.  If you are not careful in the way you word things you may body shame them or make them feel inferior, which is the last thing you want as it will stop them from wanting to exercise.  Training for kids should be fun, they should be set up to succeed, and they should always have the option to stop when they have had enough.  

In this way they tend to reach their potential a lot faster because they enjoy this and actually want to train.  As they get older they should see exercise as normal and fun, and should never join the hoards of overweight and obese people that are so common in our country.  As they get older they will always be healthy and strong.

I hope that seeing a skinny five year old who can do this will help inspire someone to do some strength training.  Don't aim to be the strongest person in the world, because you will fail at that.  Don't aim to get shredded, because most people who aim for that fail due to lack of time and motivation.  Train to get stronger than you currently are.  Strength has a purpose, aesthetics does not.

Aim to be stronger than you currently are, be more!  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным)!