Medieval Workout Methods

A lot of the stories about the English Knights present them as gallant, chivalrous “gentlemen” who spent a lot of time tooling around on horseback and rescuing beautiful damsels in distress in their spare time. But don’t be fooled by the fairytales though. In reality, the English Knights are actually considered to be one of the world’s ten or so great warrior cultures of all time. They were in fact, an elite fighting force highly skilled in the art of fighting.

They were so skilled in battle that even though they were highly outnumbered by the French in the battle of Agincourt, France (1415), they not only defeated the French but only lost 200 of their own men in the battle compared to more than 8,000 Frenchmen killed. Since these guys were obviously such expert fighters-just like the other warrior cultures we’ve discussed-that means that they must have had a really effective training program. Let’s take a look and see what we can learn from the English.

Like the Spartans, preparation for life as a knight began when boys were very young. Unlike the Spartans though, preparation for knighthood began at age five or six with the boys starting their training regimen using wooden swords. The purpose of these early training sessions would have not only been to develop skills and physical capabilities but to also establish a pattern of discipline. Anyone who trains and expects to see results knows that building mental discipline is equally as important building muscle. Without the discipline required for daily training you won’t see the results you want to see-the English knew that, so they started early.

When fighting, the English Knights typically wore plated armor and fought with weapons such as lances, swords, axes, hammers and maces. And although the English Knights are often shown fighting on horseback, in actual battles they usually fought on foot or in the trenches. You might think that because of the protective armor that the Knights could have been a little more lax in developing their fighting skills but you’d be wrong. Remember that a comparatively small group of Knights killed 8,000 Frenchmen, losing just 200 of their own men. Also, think about how heavy that armor would have been-and then don’t forget about the weapons they carried too.

Although the English Knights might have appeared to be all about chivalry and hanging out with royalty, these guys knew how to fight, and that required some seriously training. By the time the young Knights reached their early teens, they would have started with heavy training that lasted up until they were ready to retire their armor.

So again, like the other warrior cultures we covered, the English Knights would have trained hard with a focus on functionality and developing hybrid super muscle. In looking at their warrior culture and fighting style, it resembles sort of a hybrid that included developing the long-term, highly-focused discipline of the Spartans and the intense, hand-to-hand combat skills of some of the others.

We know that the Knights held tournaments where they played war games with one another to test their skills and keep themselves battle-ready. Television and movies always show them fighting on horseback but remember, that wasn’t reality-they actually would have been engaging in a lot of hand-to-hand combat while fully dressed in their battle armor. They wouldn’t have had any choice but to do it this way-otherwise, they would not have developed the hybrid muscle they needed to have the sustainable strength and power they needed to achieve victory on the battlefield.

And because the Knights often used a variety of very heavy weaponry, they also would have had plenty of mock battles using these as well. Again, they would have been dressed in their full battle armor. Lastly, in order to really build up their endurance, they also would have had to run, climb and do other “cardio” activities while wearing their armor and carrying their heavy weapons. History shows that their efforts paid off-not just for the English Knights, but for history’s other great warrior cultures as well.

Even though these warrior cultures developed independently of one another, they all had one thing in common-whether they or not they were consciously aware of what they were doing, these guys knew how to train to build super hybrid muscle. And even though some of the specifics of their individual training routines varied from one to another, the underlying principles they all subscribed to were the same.

How can we get Medieval in our own training? Personally I’m not against the gym. I love bench pressing, squatting and deadlifting and I’m not going to give that up to perform strictly hybrid cardio workouts by themselves. What I am doing is replacing boring ass traditional cardio (like the stationary bike and the treadmill) with some resistance conditioning so I can burn fat and build muscle at the same time.

Want to add some Medieval kick to your workouts and build some of your own hybrid muscle? How about filling a back pack with some sand, plates or even stones and going for a long hike in the woods?

Or you could get your hands on a weight vest and jump rope at the end of your regular workouts.

Got a tree in your backyard that needs to come down? Instead of using the chainsaw, how about you skip the elliptical machine for the week and get that tree chopped down with a good old fashioned axe. I guarantee you your abs will curse you for it.

Mike Westerdal is the President of Critical Bench, Inc. He earned his BS from Central CT State University and holds certification as a personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise. Westerdal also has experience coaching and playing professional football. His articles are published throughout the Web and in numerous weight lifting magazines. His personal best RAW bench press is 450 lbs. Mike can be contacted at his Web site www.criticalbench.com or by emailing mike@criticalbench.com. For more information on increasing your bench press read about the Critical Bench Program here.

The 100 Rep Giant

Nutrition and training expert John Parrillo is an innovator who has been on the cutting edge of bodybuilding for more than two decades. His ideas go against conventional wisdom and have been hailed as revolutionary by some and dismissed by others. Some people think he’s an exercise and nutrition genius who knows more about maximizing muscle growth and losing body fat than just about anyone else around, while others think he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. In any case, John was among the first to embrace the idea of Super Hybrid Muscle. In fact, he was really the first one to develop the first hybrid training system.

More than 15 years ago he caught on to the idea of Super Hybrid Muscle and began having his bodybuilders doing really high intensity cardio. John realized that by doing this, his guys were actually altering the composition of their muscle fibers. He called this form a resistance training the “100 rep extended set,” saying that it helped the body to construct more mitochondria-the muscles’ “cellular blast furnaces,” while also increasing muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles. As the cellular blast furnaces, mitochondria are extremely important to muscle because they’re the energy-supplying systems of the muscle cells.

Every muscle has a certain number of mitochondria-the more mitochondria in the muscle, the greater its potential for growth. So by forcing the body into creating more mitochondria, you’re setting the stage for big increases muscle strength, stamina and endurance. Ordinary muscle fibers are either built for strength or endurance-not really for both. By forcing the body to increase the number of mitochondria in the muscle cells, you’re also causing a metamorphosis that converts ordinary muscle fiber into Super Hybrid Muscle fiber. And not only that, but a human body loaded with mitochondria is far less likely to accumulate body fat than a body with fewer mitochondria.

While researching ways in which to reconfigure the composition of muscle fiber, John realized that the answer could be found in the past. Looking back, he realized that prolonged, intense physical effort causes a working muscle to build additional mitochondria, resulting in big gains in muscle strength and stamina. Part of this realization came from looking at railroad workers from the 1860s. These guys would lay track all day long using a 4-pound sledgehammer developing powerful arms, forearms and shoulders loaded with mitochondria, strength and endurance. But because their legs weren’t being exercised as intensely, they stayed the same.

So basically, John’s 100 Rep Giant Set training routine recreates this kind of super intense, prolonged workout.

Here’s how it works. You start by picking a single muscle group, doing 20 reps of an exercise, then launch right into 20 reps of the next exercise. Immediately after that, you do 20 reps of another exercise, followed by 2 more sets of 20 reps each of two different exercises. There is no rest allowed between the 20-rep sets. At the end of all this, you’ve done a total of 100 reps, almost sequentially. Now you can rest for no more than 1 minute before starting the whole cycle again, repeating it at least 2-3 times total.

That is one hell of a tough workout – especially when you realize that you’ve just done 200-300 reps for a single muscle. In a normal workout, even on a high rep day, most guys aren’t going to even hit 100 for a single muscle. The important thing to remember here is that the workout needs to be intense. You don’t want to be screwing around wasting time by not making it challenging. At the same time though, you don’t want to start out with a weight that’s too heavy because once you start, you need to commit to finishing with the same weight. No drop sets here.

You can do 100 Rep Giant Sets for any body part-you’re not limited to just certain muscle groups. You can also do it whether you use machines or free weights but you’ll always get the best results from free weights because they force each limb to carry its fair share of the total weight, requiring each muscle to perform equally, making free weights far better muscle-building tools than machines. You should do the 100 Rep Giant Sets once or twice a week, rotating body parts for about eight weeks.

If you tell most bodybuilders that you’re going to be doing 100-rep sets to build strength, stamina and size, they’re likely to ask if you’ve gone out of your flipping mind. Most hardcore bodybuilders reject this philosophy entirely because it runs directly contrary to the all-known logic – fewer repeats, bigger weights – equals bigger muscle growth.

Even though the path to getting there is a bit different, the underlying principle and ultimate goals of 100 Rep Giant Sets and Lean Hybrid Muscle training are the same. Both rely on grueling workouts that combine resistance training and cardio activities to force the body to increase the number of mitochondria to build Super Hybrid Muscle.

Mike Westerdal is the President of Critical Bench, Inc. He earned his BS from Central CT State University and holds certification as a personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise. Westerdal also has experience coaching and playing professional football. His articles are published throughout the Web and in numerous weight lifting magazines. His personal best RAW bench press is 450 lbs. Mike can be contacted at his Web site www.criticalbench.com or by emailing mike@criticalbench.com. For more information on increasing your bench press read about the Critical Bench Program here.

Burn Fat G-Flux Style And Build Hybrid Muscle

If you haven’t heard guys in the gym talking about G-Flux yet, I’m sure you will soon. What is G-Flux you ask? Although it sounds like it might be a hot new supplement, it’s not. G-Flux is actually a training and eating regimen that helps the body to burn fat while retaining-and even gaining-lean muscle mass. More accurately, G-Flux is actually the relationship between energy intake and energy expenditure. The concept of G-Flux was developed by Dr. John Berardi, a renowned human performance and nutrition expert.

You should already know that to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. In the process though, most guys wind up losing lean muscle mass too-not part of the plan. On the flip side, if you want to gain weight-and muscle-you need to take in more calories than you burn. The typical scenario here is that you also end up adding a few extra pounds of unwanted fat too. Ultimately, we end up living our lives on a perpetual “see-saw,” switching from one to another, but never really being satisfied with the results. I have to admit it sucks, in the past I’ve felt either lean and weak or strong and fat.

That’s where G-Flux comes in because it’s all about balance between input and output-and keeping it that way. But that’s not all-it also calls for you to increase your calorie intake a lot and to increase your activity level by the same degree. G-Flux presents a realistic strategy to do this without overtraining and without burning lean muscle mass. That’s the problem with a traditional “calorie deficit” approach to losing fat-you also lose muscle mass along the way.

G-Flux takes a “burn the f at” approach, meaning that your body is burning calories from fat, not from muscle. How does it accomplish this? That’s where the increased activity levels come in. And by increased activity levels, I don’t mean doing a few extra minutes on the treadmill or a couple of extra miles on the exercise bike. Your approach to increasing your activity level has to be targeted, tough and purposeful, with specific goals in mind. G-Flux has unlocked the secret to achieving the body’s ideal state of balance in terms of energy input and output.

If you think about it though, “unlocked,” is not really the right word here-”rediscovered” would be more appropriate. Why? Because maximum, sustained effort and varied workouts is at the heart of the G-Flux concept. That should sound familiar-think of the warrior cultures and how they trained. It’s the same concept and we already know from history that it works. You know that back then they weren’t worried about sticking to a 2,000 calorie a-day diet-they ate what they needed to eat and it was naturally balanced out by the strenuous activities that they engaged in on a daily basis.

So you might think, “What’s the difference if I’m eating 2,000 calories a day and burning 2,000 calories a day?” The answer is that there is a big difference. When you boost your caloric intake to say 3,000 a day-and simultaneously boost your caloric expenditure level to 3,000 calories a day, the body undergoes a metabolic shift. All of sudden-even though input and output are equal-you find that your body is burning more fat and gaining lean muscle mass, just like the ancient warriors.

Now, it’s a bit more complicated than that. You can’t just start stuffing your face with anything you want and jogging a couple of extra miles each day. The foods you eat have to be healthy-think lean proteins, complex carbs and healthy fats-and the activities that you’re engaging in have to intense. Again, look back to the warrior cultures and learn from them. You want to be doing the sort of “max effort conditioning” that these guys were doing every day.

The goal is to boost your metabolism as high as possible while simultaneously limiting fat storage. When the body achieves that state of “G-Flux” it increases the mitochondrial density of the muscles-super hybrid muscle, increases the total metabolism and makes the body far more efficient at processing fat. The end result being that you too, can have a warrior physique, just like our ancestors.

Sounds good to me! Eat more, train harder, build hybrid muscle and burn fat faster. What do you think?

Mike Westerdal is the President of Critical Bench, Inc. He earned his BS from Central CT State University and holds certification as a personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise. Westerdal also has experience coaching and playing professional football. His articles are published throughout the Web and in numerous weight lifting magazines. His personal best RAW bench press is 450 lbs. Mike can be contacted at his Web site www.criticalbench.com or by emailing mike@criticalbench.com. For more information on increasing your bench press read about the Critical Bench Program here.

A Huge Hybrid Muscle Upset!

Everyone knows that the ancient Roman warriors kicked ass. In fact, the growth of the Roman Empire was just about unstoppable for nearly 500 years. That is, up until 476 AD, when they found themselves fighting the Barbarians who invaded Rome from the Germanic region of Europe. And this time, it was the Barbarians who kicked ass, not the Romans. This was one of their biggest defeats that the Romans had ever suffered. And what made this trouncing particularly humiliating was that it was carried out by an army that wasn’t well-organized. Even more embarrassing for the Romans was the fact that this “rag-tag” army had almost no armor-and in fact, some of them wore nothing at all-and used a mismatched, hodgepodge of weaponry.

For the Barbarians though, this was their single-greatest victory ever, and even today, this battle stands as the defining moment in the unification of Germany. So, how did the Barbarians-who seemingly were nothing more than roving, disorganized, loose-knit bands of guys with a penchant for fighting-clobber the mighty Romans? Taking a look at both the way the Barbarians fought their battles and what they did to prepare for them, sheds some light on why they were a force not to be taken lightly.

First of all, you should know that the Barbarians-in reality, groups of small, semi-nomadic, warring tribes-basically pioneered the art of guerilla warfare. They honed their fighting skills by battling each other and favored hand-to-hand combat, surprise ambushes and fought without any rules. They had almost no armor or helmets and sometimes fought bare-chested or even naked. So while the Romans were well-disciplined fighters, they were fighting as part of an organized unit-in other words, if one fell, another took his place. In contrast, the Barbarians weren’t organized. It was more or less, every man for himself-and that’s they way they trained.

Whether it was by design or circumstance, the Barbarians were almost always in a perpetual state of training. Not only would each small tribe be almost constantly fighting another tribe, but just to keep on their toes, the guys within each tribe often fought each other. So essentially, even more so than other warrior cultures-all of which used weaponry to a greater degree than they did-the Barbarians relied on their physical capabilities to defeat their enemies.

Because of this, it was even more important for the Barbarians to continually strive to build super muscle or type III muscle, as well as increase mitochondrial density. So for them, their training activities would have focused on those things that included a high degree of resistance cardio.

The hand-to-hand combat sessions would have helped them to develop speed, accuracy, flexibility and strength. But in addition to this, they would have had to also build up their endurance levels so there would have been lots of running as well. But to really increase the mitochondrial density and build hybrid super muscle, they would have also spent a considerable amount of time running across distances carrying supplies and whatever weapons they might have been using at the time.

They would have also done quite a bit of slower-moving resistance cardio-still carrying all the great-as they moved from place to place. The Barbarians were semi-nomadic so they were almost always on the move and their attack mode was similar to what the Vikings used-rapid, surprise attacks.

Remember too that the Barbarians more or less pioneered guerilla warfare, which requires an incredible degree of flexibility, speed and versatility. Knowing this, we can be fairly certain that their training routines would not have included doing the same thing day-in and day-out. In order to develop and hone the fighting skills that they needed to defeat their enemies, they would have had to be constantly mixing things up from day-to-day. And again, like the other warrior cultures we’ve discussed, they weren’t exercising so that they could look good-they were focused on functionality.

The Barbarians definitely go down in history as one of the elite warrior cultures of all-time. Stay tuned as we explore how we can build the same Super Hybrid Muscle the Barbarians had by copying some of their training regiments. As you have definitely figured out by now it is going to involve strength building and resistance cardio or max effort conditioning. When it comes to building the “Warrior Physique” you’re going to need to train like a warrior and that involves stepping out of your comfort zone and performing activities that build muscle and burn fat at the same time like resistance cardio or conditioning.

Don’t worry, you won’t need to quit your gym to join in on some of these workouts, you just need to get creative.

Mike Westerdal is the President of Critical Bench, Inc. He earned his BS from Central CT State University and holds certification as a personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise. Westerdal also has experience coaching and playing professional football. His articles are published throughout the Web and in numerous weight lifting magazines. His personal best RAW bench press is 450 lbs. Mike can be contacted at his Web site www.criticalbench.com or by emailing mike@criticalbench.com. For more information on increasing your bench press read about the Critical Bench Program here.