Ouch!

Yours truly, the 20,000 plus word “pounder” in one sitting is writing lesser than 500 words at one time now. Lesser than 100 actually!

Before he stops, raises and lowers his arms, and takes a break.

Because his right shoulder is SCREAMING in agony . . . . in a good way!

Yes, that is how sore I am through my shoulders and traps after today’s workout!

And yes, while pull-ups were on the list and so were many other things, what really did it was a slight change in grip.

Close grip.

Ultra close.

Thumbs touching each other.

And from that position I did various advanced versions of pull-ups, and let me tell you, that’s some shoulder work bar NONE.

Combine that with handstand pushups, and you’ll literally be off to the races my friend – – in more ways than one!

And as I sit here, sweating even an hour after the workout (or more than an hour), I feel compelled to share my workout with you today.

This is just the pulling part of it.

Which was preceded by 2500 jumps and succeeded by a 100 pushups and 40 dips.

55 pull-ups.

Except they weren’t normal pull-ups.

They were done on EXTRA thick bars. ONE of them, actually.

Some were doing hammer style with one hand over the other.

But the real scorcher was the CLOSE GRIP pull-ups, and something else.

Something that is very functional indeed, and something most people cannot do, and something I haven’t as yet included in my books.

That being ROPE work.

Actually, in my case, CHAIN work.

I hung off the chains of a swing set (two of them) and did pull-ups that way.

And while the initial set felt easy, the latter sets felt anything BUT.

Believe me, while this here email contains tips on grips, that LAST part is something you might want to focus upon when talking about GRIP. Or trying to build yours!

Or trying to get better at pull-ups.

And believe you me, ropes and chains lend themselves to a great workout overall – not just when it comes to pull-ups.

As do gymnastic rings.

They tax your body in ways different to doing them the “normal” way and while I ain’t (as yet) prepared to say they’re better either way, trust me when I say that rope work is some of the most functional work you can do – and some of the best upper body work you can do.

Just look at the military where rope climbing and doing so well is a pre-requisite for just about anything.

Or martial artists. Or gymnasts.

And so forth.

They ALL include this sort of training in their routines and so should you!

Be prepared for some extra sore forearms, traps and shoulders as well if you do so!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – And if you do pull-ups the way I teach you in the ADVANCED course, and combine it with the above – whoa! Watch out, as you’ll be needing new shirts likely every few weeks if you keep it up! ?

So, I was doing some idle browsing on the Internet. Business related, of course, and what came up first was . . . yes, you guessed it.

Good ole China!

China and the US have been in the news a lot, and we’re all aware of my views on China in that (or any related) regard.

But the BBC article I read said something interesting, and something that is, or SHOULD be basic common sense to all involved, and has been for me for years (and yet, not always!).

What do I mean?

Well, the bio warfare that the Chinese willingly and knowingly unleashed upon the world has and will have many consequences, most of which people globally still don’t believe (or don’t “want to believe”).

Deep down inside they know whats happening, and what might happen, but they don’t want to acknowledge it . . .

Hope springs eternal as it were in the human breast, and while that is never ever a bad thing, it DOES need to be mixed with more than a modicum of REALITY.

Mix in hope with what is going on out there in the REAL world, and THEN you’re off to the races, my friend. Otherwise, you might as well just be building castles in the air.

Anyway, where was I?

Ah. The BBC link I was reading.

Has a fantastic headline for one “Breaking up is never easy”

And . . . here is the quote I was referring to

It taught them a valuable lesson that depending on one country all the time for everything is bad for business.

And this rang so true that I immediately had to DROP everything I was doing and write to you about it.

It’s always a bad option to not have a backup plan.

True, as Napoleon Hill once said, the ONLY way to achieve real success whatever it is you really, really want is to burn ANY AND ALL bridges first.

Or during the process of getting wherever it is that you want to be.

You cannot have any backups – or excuses.

No “if this doesn’t work”. You HAVE To make it work!

But on that note, he was referring to the GOAL and sticking to it. Not necessarily how you get there!

And yours truly has been guilty of violating above advice more than a couple of times.

Web hosting, for one.

You on this list know about the travails I’ve been having (before I finally switched over to the latest host I have now – – in the good ole US of A and they’re the best ever!) when it comes to site downtime etc.

All in the past now, but what those few months taught me (and really, based upon how the last web host responded to me etc when there were issues – and indeed, the new hosts (all of them) were all SHOCKED when I told them of the same as in “you shouldn’t have to go through anything like that with a web host, Rahul!” – I should have known this before and acted accordingly) was this.

That relying on just ONE option is a bad idea.

And right now, I’ve got my sites sitting on multiple hosts.

Fitness sites on one host.

The others on another host.

And YET more on . . . yet another host!

And I’m glad to say that after the very stringent (and sometimes annoying probably!) vetting process I’ve put these guys through, they ALL Came out with flying colors, and I couldn’t be happier at this point.

And yet . . .

Always have MORE than one option in your kitty my friend!

And the same thing holds true for fitness.

If pull-ups are your go to upper body exercise, well, guess what.

GREAT!

They’re one of the best exercises you can do, period!

What if you’re confined to your house though with no pull-up bar or place to hang from?

Or, if you’re in a house like mine when I was growing up where someone installed a chinning bar, but there was NEVER any push for the kids to actually hang on them. If anything, all that happened on that bar was my Dad hanging there once to “show us how it was done” and flopping down with a huge “aaaah!” after a second or so.

And that was that.

The only usage that happened after that was after I grew up, and got into fitness myself.

Parents can really, really screw up a kids development. We all know about toxic relationships and just how demoralizing and demotivating that can be, but what I’ve mentioned about parents is even worse.

Anyway, that’s a topic this list is well versed with, and one I’ve written about a lot, so I’m not going to get into that here. Suffice it to say though that my own daughter has the exact opposite example to follow in terms of fitness!

But, again.

Always a bad idea just to have ONE option in that kitty!

If you’re like I was back in the day, and count upon that hill climb to get into and stay in shape – GREAT.

I cannot recommend hills highly enough.

But what if you’re forced to move to an area where you can neither climb hills regularly, or worse, don’t even have enough room to SPRINT?

It’s then that pushups and squats will save your ass from lard ass’dom, my friend, and on that note, I’m out.

Just remember.

Always good to have more options at your beck and call – and that holds true for any and ALL endavors!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Here is where you can grab the one fitness system which will give you plenty of options to work out, and then some!

PS #2 -Don’t forget to grab Pushup Central while you’re at it – a course that is really garnering rave reviews, and flying out the door as we speak (and picking up speed monthly too!).

Was chatting with my buddy, him from the Marines and as he said “Good morning” to me, I was fixing to reply “Good afternoon!”

Hey, yours truly is the sort that prefers to rise at 12 noon (sometimes later) . . . hehe.

Of course, he DID rise at 530 AM this morning, and then again 630. But that’s a different story!

Anyway, as I replied to him, I said this.

Another day, another dollar.

Which is one of my favorite sayings, and indeed what I have on my tagline on my WeChat account and many others.

And then . . .

“Damn! I should say another day, another rescue act, the way things are now!”

And it’s true my friend.

I’ve written about 2020 being the year of the survivor, haven’t I?

YES.

And it’s damn true.

2018 was one of those years for me where just about everything that could go wrong apparently DID from many angles, and I’ve written about that before.

And 2020 is another one of those years it seems . . .

. . . Plenty going on, and “if it can go wrong, it seems to be” is the mantra these days around here.

From crashed computers (twice) (which shouldn’t crash at all given this laptop was bought brand new in 2018) to water machines that mysteriously stop working, to coffee machines where kettles end up cracking at the most inopportune moments . . . UGH.

Anyway, I digress.

Charless Mitchell, a long term customer wrote back to me a while ago, and said this (amongst other things).

“I know the way you train, and it’s anything BUT easy! I’m glad to buy your new book, and any others you put out. Lots of people think they don’t need to be in shape because “it will never be needed”, but trust me, it WILL be needed, and when that time comes, they better be ready and most aren’t!”

Now, mea culpa in that I haven’t a) included the entire quote verbatim (computer crashed, and so did email, and given I did not have a backup . . . ) and b) I paraphrased.

But (and he had more to say on this, of course) the point stands.

When you’re called upon to execute your version of a rescue act, WHAT and HOW will you able to do it?

If the world erupts in conflict and basic necessities become luxuries as they are in many nations, HOW will you react?

When it’s “man to man”, one trying to take the others lives . . . and not necessarily with “el weapono” – ARE you going to be in shape and fit enough to do what is needed and get her done?

These, and many other questions are things I’ve always thought about, and most haven’t. Most have also called me an idiot (and many more lovely names as well) for repeating this sort of “forward” thought.

But given what is going on globally, SURVIVAL is a skill you better bone up on my friend, an FAST.

And physical fitness, and being in SHAPE is an absolute pre-requisite to SURVIVING, and how!

On that note, don’t forget to grab the BEST damned home based fitness system out there. 15 minutes a day and no more – and I don’t think I can make it any more convinent than THAT, can I now?

And if you’re looking for advanced stuff, feel free to shelve through our products page here and pick up something that suits you.

And that’s that for me. Back later!

Best

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Here is a course you absolutely must check out: https://0excusesfitness.com/pushup-central/

Was a great, great workout today; the first part of it more so than the other!

Actually, not really.

The second part consisted of a GRIP workout with pull-ups, done on an extra thick bar, and by the time I was done, the blood was roaring in my forearms, and I could barely even move my fingers.

And it felt GREAT. Just GREAT!

I can’t type properly even now, but that second part of the workout is something I do quite often, almost daily, and these days I’m using an extra thick (and extra high) bar.

I’ll often do my regular pull-ups on the regular chinning bar out there, and then go on to the thick ones for monkey bar moves and TIMED holds.

All very simple, with one subtle change from what I do normally, and given the impact its having on them forearms, wow. Just WOW!

Tip right there for you by the way! ?

Anyway . . . .

What was the 5 x 500 you ask?

Well, it was rope jumps.

5 sets of 500, and believe it or not, I got ALL the sets done in 3 minutes each, give or take.

I’ve got no idea if that’s good going, but I bet it is!

15 minutes, maybe 17 with some rest.

And 2500 jumps done, bang bang.

And lest you think that is the only sort of thing you can do in terms of 500, think again.

Years ago, I had a goal to bang out 500 pushups per day, or damn near for the year.

I’ve often said that you should try and get 500 Hindu squats done without stopping (or very brief pauses if even that) in LESS than 15 minutes.

12, 13 minutes . . . you’re doing GREAT!

And if you’re talking rope jumping, well, then it’s about the same time frame for 5 times the reps. Not because jumping rope is “easier” but because the thighs are taxed mucho heavily in the squat, and therefore (along with the shoulders and upper body), you’ll need to keep the reps “lower” on that one.

As if 500 is low! Hehe.

Anyway, I tell you all this not to toot my own horn, but to tell you this: what may seem daunting to you at the outset really ain’t.

LOTS of people, including folks that workout regularly write back and tell me “the mere thought of 500 scares ‘em”.

And if we get to 1000 – 1500 – or 2500?

Holy moly!

Well, I’m here to tell you it ain’t that scary.

And I’m here to tell you something I’ve said many times before.

Eat a bear, but a bite at a time.

2500 can break down into 5 sets of 500 with a minute rest in between each set (or less).

500 squats can break down into 100 each done in less than 3 minutes. Or 250 x 2 as I like to do!

100 pushups can (when you’re starting out) break down into 10x 10.

Get the picture?

You focus on the overall goal, sure, but when you start to actually DO, you’re in the here and now, and in the REP you’re doing NOW.

Not the 500^th rep.

The rep NOW.

And if you segment your workouts this way, you’ll be nigh amazed at the progress you make within a very short while!

Anyway, that’s it for me. I’m out. Back soon!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Be sure to pick up Animal Kingdom Workouts, the latest offering from 0 Excuses Fitness HQ’S!

The kids out there in the park this afternoon were looking at me with THAT look in their eyes.

Eyes as round as saucers, and they weren’t even that young.

Young enough. Perhaps 10 or so but not that young not to “know”, and yet . . .

I was the only one crazy enough to workout in the outdoors today apparently (well, one of the crazy ones I’d say) in the blazing heat and humidity and I was doing thick bar work.

And pull-ups, and dips.

A fantastic combo, and a lot of that has been mentioned in the books on pull-ups.

And of course the Gorilla Grip series.

Thick bars are one of the keys and hidden secrets to getting a CRUSHING grip VERY FAST and those massive, SHREDDED forearms you’re after.

Not to mention the “unnatural pull to your grip”.

And as I worked out today, the kids were shaking their heads as if to say “what the heck is he up to!”

I was looking like I was in agony, and from a certain angle, I probably was!

As if I was straining.

About to bust an aneurysm (or whatever they call it!).

And all of this while hanging on to a THICK, thick bar with legs fully extended, inches off the ground.

And what was I doing?

Well, pull-ups for one, but I was doing something that will REALLY fry the grip and get your pull-up numbers shooting through the roof in very little time at all.

No pun intended!

That being, to CRUSH the bar.

Or try to.

And it’s something you too should do in every workout, or any workout where you do pull-ups, or grip work.

Remember, I’ve always told you to do pull-ups on thick bars.

Not the regular pull-up bars.

Those are great to start with and get good at pull-ups, but while you work on those, incorporate thick bar work into your training as  well on the side.

And keep at it.

And really, really try and SQUEEZE the THICK bars as you train.

Imagine the bar is an orange or plasticine or whatever gets it done that you’re CRUSHING.

Squeeze accordingly.

Obviously the bar won’t break or even bend, but you’ll be getting a heck of an isometric workout as you do these!

And that, my friends, for those that want it, is just ONE of the exercises I’ll mention in Isometric workouts – – when I finally do get going on it again. For those in the know, my computer crashed and along with it so did the half done book, so in true Shantaram style, I’ll have to start all over again.

That’s for another day tho.

For now, I’m back to watching a re-run of the Expendables.

Stallone sure does look good in that movie, and those forearms – – and traps – – well – – enough said!

As Stallone famously once said and as I keep saying.

If you really want to look huge, work the forearms and traps – and legs – HARD, HARD, HARD!

And on that note, I’m out. Back soon!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Pull-ups done right will truly make you look like the human version of a silverback gorilla my friend, and most of us reading this would want that, eh? Pick up the two DEFINITIVE courses on pull-ups HERE – and right HERE.

As the pressure starts to mount big time on the Chinese Communist Party with the USA really stepping up the heat now (as it should!) the implosion I’ve been talking about has started to happen.

And people are FINALLY starting to buy into the September “watershed month” that I have been going on about for months now.

Make no mistake about it folks.

September will be a MONTH OF RECKONING in many regards globally, for MANY countries, if not the GLOBE.

This was nigh on obvious to me when China first started spreading the COVID-19 globally. Of course, the China tom tommers and liberals and even people whose opinion I respect didn’t believe me, branding me a loony.

And now, as events race on by until the “deadline”, I have people messaging me on Facebook and commenting on my Twitter posts etc saying the same damned thing.

HA!

I still remember Charles once telling me (NOT the customer Charles, the other one!) “there are no prizes for being right”.

Well, my dear Charles, are there any for being WRONG?

It’s amazing the length the China tom tommers will go to stick their heads in the sand and pretend “all is well” when it obviously isn’t!

But that ain’t the point of me saying this.

The point is, that the ONE Leader in China who I greatly admired, and who I’ve written about before had this to say about China in the 1980’s.

Hide your strength, bide your time.

And if ole Deng (Deng Xiaoping a famously astute and PRAGMATIC leader!) were alive today he’d be DISGUSTED at what has been going on in China even since Xi Jinping took power.

Not just disgusted.

I believe the old man would call for a purge, and rightly so.

Deng was NEVER an advocate of wars etc between nations. Or bullying others. Or . . .

(And YES, the man wasn’t perfect. NO, I don’t support Tinamen! But these things have to be looked at in the overall perspective).

Deng’s real vision was to build China into a REAL first world country – – but IN TIME.

And by rushing the process as the Chinese are doing in a haphaward and chaotic manner, they’ve just shot themselves in the foot.

The world was willing to work with china for years, and indeed DID (unfortunately).

And NOW??

If they had simply continued down Deng’s path, reforming themselves and becoming even more of an economic giant, then believe me, we wouldn’t HAVE conflict.

Democracy, human rights etc all would have come in good time – IF The country was developing (truly) along the lines that Deng intended it to be, as opposed to the gap between the rich and poor being wider than the Pacific right about now in China . . .

If some people get rich, it’s a good thing, said ole Deng (NOT the “to get rich is glorious” that is often attributed to him).

As things teeter on a precipice, and the world look ever more ready to erupt in full scale conflict, either economically or militarily, and as the COVID-19 rages on, I cannot help but think of China . . .

. . . A country I first went to in 2004, and a country that I REALLY HOPED all through the years would change.

A country with good people, and yet, people that are too scared to say anything against the repression of the CCP.

A country where I’ve made money, and continue to do so.

A country where . . . I’ve had more good experiences than many other places in the world.

And yet, a country I call out routinely, because at the end of the day, what is right is RIGHT, and what is wrong is WRONG.

And what China is or has been doing for the past 5 or 6 years (and especially post 2018) is just plain damn wrong.

It must be stopped.

And it WILL BE VERY SOON.

And the point again, is this.

Don’t rush things, my friend.

Let things happen.

Live in the flow.

In terms of fitness, don’t “rush” to lose that weight all at once, as it won’t happen.

Build a good fitness regimen. Do something daily. Everyday.

If you’re looking to get to 100 pull-ups per workout, get there, but gradually. NOT “all at once!”

Everything needs to take a natural course, and such is the case with life – and fitness as well!

And that’s that for now. Back soon!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Here is where you can get on the 0 Excuses Fitness System, truly the BEST damn fitness system out there on the PLANET:https://0excusesfitness.com/0excusesfitnessystem

Tai Chi Fai Chi. Kung Fu Hung Hoo.

Hoo! Haaa! Hung!

My little girl loves to say these things while doing her version of the above two, and it’s so cute!

But cuteness aside (and the kung FU aside, which is anything but hilarious to be honest) lets talk fighting now.

Or self defense.

Or martial arts.

And let me tell you, while yours truly once believed that there was something to these “mystical oriental arts of fighting” that the so called gurus and champs promote, I quickly found out I was very wrong.

I thought that a good kung fu guy, for one, could take apart a boxer pretty quickly. After all, a REAL martial artist probably could (but yeah, we’re not getting into if boxing and wrestling are forms of martials arts themselves, and I believe they are to an extent!).

Anyway . . . I was WRONG.

And since this myth seems to be all prevalent across the Internet and even some otherwise smart dudes I talk to, let me clear it up once and for all.

Tai Chi, Fai Chi, and Kung Fu are not only some of the useless fighting arts out there, but also DANGEROUS to rely upon in a real fight, either in the ring or on the street.

Why?

Well, tons of reasons. But I’ll give you a few.

One being the airy fairy “open nature” of these movements, especially in terms of the upper body.

“Elbows in” is what you hear al the time from boxers, wrestlers and REAL martial artists, and rightfully so my friend. Not only does this give you great punching power for one, it also makes it far easier for you to bring your elbows down for instance, to protect them kidneys, ribs, and your sides in general.

Compare that to the seemingly “loose” punches thrown in the above two martial arts.

Second, the feet.

I don’t know why, but MOST of what I see in tai chi etc seems to be “exploding from a base” as opposed to being on your toes, and the latter to me is absolutely VITAL to any form of real self defense against a trained fighter.

My buddy Vincent once caught me on this while we were shadow boxing.

“On the toes, Rahul!” I can still hear him say. “Come on!”

(And this is a REAL fighter we’re talking here, from the Marines no less!)

And third?

Well, there are so many reasons again, but the third is that those kicks, for one are very easy to GRAB and take down.

And as my buddy from the Marines sagely and rightly told me, “Once you take him down, you’ve got him, especially with that GRIP of yours!”

(Unless he’s trained ji jitsu, or a wrestler, or . . . you get my drift!)

Want more reasons?

Well, the FOURTH reason I’ll give you is Google, and  guy named “Xu Xiaodong”

Lots of you reading this won’t believe me anyway, which is fine.

But the fact is that a Chinese mid level MMA guy (which probably makes him a little lower than that is American MMA) publicly once came out and debunked this myth as well (a few years back).

And he didn’t just talk.

He BACKED his talk up action.

IN the ring

He not only challenged the myth I am, but he issued an open challenge to all the Tai Chi masters (high level dudes at that) in his country (the mainland, of course, so you that claim “I’m a China hater” – well – think again!).

And he took them ALL on, and defeated them so easily it was like watching a baby fight him.

Literally.

In fact, the videos show him literally with his hands down, letting the tai chi morons beat upon him for ages, and then . . . POW!

Out of the blue, he’d just knock ‘em out.

(some of these guys actually called the cops on him before the fight. So much for their fighting skills!)

(Don’t believe me? https://www.scmp.com/sport/martial-arts/mixed-martial-arts/article/3085218/chinese-mma-fighter-xu-xiaodong-mocks-tai-chi – go here!).

And this is a low level MMA guy (still a bad ass though!).

And a guy that regretfully, but not entirely unexpectedly got death threats from a lot of Chinese for “denigrating their culture”.

Got his websites etc blocked by the CCP.

Had to go into hiding, quite literally!

All for saying it is like it is . . . . anyway, but as you on this list know, that’s the CCP for ya!

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take a level 4 boxers against a level 7 or 8 tai chi guy ANYDAY my friend.

Or a level 2 ji jitsu guy against a level 9 “kung fu shung hu” dude.

Sure, at the highest levels anything is dangerous and against an entirely untrained guy, these arts have merit. If he can’t box at all, for instance!

But in most cases, if the guy knows even a little something about fighting, then he’ll take the tai chi guy to the cleaners pronto and then some.

Tai Chi, although the Chinese wont admit it came from an ancient Indian (South Indian) martial art, and THAT was effective, especially when done with weapons as they still do in Kerala.

But the bastardized version of it? Nah. No way, Jose.

Now, the other side of the equation you ask  . . .

In terms of exercise . . .

. . . it’s not bad at all.

Especially not for a change.

And it’s great for overall flexibility etc, especially the kicks and that. I did Tae Kwon do in high school, and while even THAT is better than Tai Chi (but yet NOT a really effective fighting art unless at the very highest levels) the kicks and exercises are GREAT.

Not just for beginners, but you advanced guys out there as well!

And ditto for boxers, wrasslers etc (for a change especially!).

But is it better than a regular pushup – pull-up workout system?

Or a regular rope jumping routine?

Hell no my friend.

And it certainly isn’t better than the 0 Excuses Fitness System either, which taxes your body in so many ways you can’t even begin to imagine right now.

Wanna know more on that?

Well, click on over HERE my friend.

I’ll be waiting . . . to welcome ya aboard!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Make sure too, to grab the ONE and only EXHAUSTIVE course out there on Pushups there is right HERE –  Pushup CEntral. And yes, there is NO other course out there as exhaustive as this. IF there is, I challenge you to FIND IT!

Alrighty!

A great, great topic today and one you SHOULD read even if you aren’t afflicted with what I mention above, and also a longer than usual dispatch – – here goes!!

And emphasis on the word “TRULY”, my friend.

When I say your knees are truly not in the condition to do Hindu squats, for instance, I mean there is a REAL problem.

Not soreness.

Not just muscle cramps.

Certainly not just laziness and “ouch! I Can’t walk for days after doing a 100 of these!”

(the last is funny, but believe me, yours truly has been there. Yours truly that hikes hills like nothing else! Hehe).

(And there is another exercise which will give you or MAY give you the same impact, but we’ll cover that later).

Anyway, in 2017 I met one of my best buddies Vincent.

You guys on the list know him already!

A wrecking machine of a man, ex-Marine (Force Recon) and definitely a FORCE to be reckoned with even though he is retired now.

Shoulders like Boulders, a kung fu like grip (as he once said I had) and much, much more!

And REAL Strength that comes from having been in the trenches day in and day out.

We were discussing 0 Excuses Fitness shortly after we met, of course, and he mentioned that his back was too shot to do bridges.

And that he wasn’t too sure about the squats either . . .

Now, for what it’s worth, Hindu squats are usually, for MOST People, the #1 remedy for “shot knees”.

Weak ligaments. Creaky tendons. Weak thighs, or even hips. And so forth. Actually, the entire core and lower body . . .

. . .MOST people with knee pain report it having gone away after a month or so of getting GOOD at these.

And feeling a heck of a lot better too overall! Even those that just do a 100 per week, for instance.

They are truly one of the most rejuvenative exercise ever there has been for the knees – for MOST people.

Ditto for bridging and BACK pain, and lower back pain specifically.

Or upper back soreness, or stiffness. Or that wonky MID-BACK area which you often “pull”. OR, the upper chest.

And definitely the NECK area – that bull neck you need to build! (I’ve not written a lot about neck training in the recent past, but I plan on CHANGING that).

And entire body, actually.

For me its been pull-ups, but bridging is something I recommend even to people that can do pull-ups, as a bridge works you in ways you’ve never likely felt before if you do it right.

And its far better than repeated visits to the chiro for one. Trust me on that one!

Core strength, stability, flexibility.

Ah but wait. You were talking knee pain, I hear you say.

Yes. I was.

And I’m not rambling here for a change, hehe.

A few months after meeting Vincent, we had the conversation about bridging and I recommended it, but he wasn’t “sure” about it.

“How do you know it won’t worsen things”, he asked.

I told him what I am telling you guys here now, but he was still a bit doubtful, and given his back is truly shot with all the injuries he had, I let it go there.

And a month later, as we were meeting up for a beer drink up (out!) I saw he was holding his back.

As we picked up our beers at the neighboring Mei Yi Jia, he had to this to say, ruefully and apologetically (And it was funny, hehe).

“Rahul, I’m sorry, but I Gotta make you the beast of burden today!”

And the issue was that he had pulled his back. He wasn’t even able to bend down and pick up a beer, it was that bad, so MAYBE bridging wouldn’t help him (maybe; I still think it would, but for the vast majority of folks out there, YES, it will!).

Anyway, earlier on that year I “met” (through email and on this list) a man who truly KNOWS a thing or two about training

A man that makes NO excuses, and “gets her done” no matter what!!

A retired cop, and a man that likely served with PRIDE, DIGINITY and HONOR (hats off Sir!) and a man that is a huge 0 Excuses Fitness fan.

Charles Mitchell, he is (you guys know him too! ?) and I first met him when he replied to an email I sent about sprints.

I don’t know if I remember what he said exactly, and don’t have the email with me now (computer crash).

But I think it was along the lines of “he wished he could do sprints, but the knees were too shot”.

Now, this man used to do a 100 Hindu squats daily. And he no doubt knew that this was one of the best ways to rid himself of knee pain.

But although he soldiered on and got good at them – DAMN good at that, he found his pain was increasing.

And so he stopped doing ‘em, but the pain never went away.

(Note – This is REAL pain I’m referring to!)

And he was asking me today about something unrelated, and a gadget of all things, which despite my dislike of gadgets I’m definitely going to look into and provide feedback on. Always have an open mind my friend!

Anyway, I asked him if he was doing the squats in proper FORM, as poor FORM is usually why knees and lower back etc starts hurting after a while of you doing these my friend.

Get the form right, and the pain SHOULD go away effortlessly.

And since he was asking about isometrics, I gave him a wonderful exercise to do indeed in this regard.

The wall chair, that I wrote about before in an email or so prior to this – an exercise that will not just make your thighs quiver like a maple leaf in the Toronto breeze within a few seconds (even those of you that are used to heavy leg work and Hindu squats!) of doing ‘em.

And an exercise which because of the position, strengthens the tendons, ligaments and supporting musculature beyond belief, my friend.

And that brings me to my second point. Imbalances.

I’ve spoken about imbalances being a prime cause of pain and weakness too. Never neglect the weakest link as the saying goes. Often times weak thighs can be traced back to under developed hamstrings.

Often times, back pain can be traced back to more than just the back.

Ditto for elbow, shoulder and other aches and pains . . .

And the other exercise I’d recommend for anyone in Charles’s position would be the Asian Squat.

Something I’ve spoken about before in the “Challenge” emails I sent y’all months ago.

And no, I ain’t being racist when I use the term “Asian”.

That’s just how they sit there, and it’s an immensely healthy position for EVEYRONE, albeit a one which even yours truly took some getting used to.

And apart from all the numerous benefits this position has which I’ve covered in emails prior to this, THIS position also strengthens the lower body beyond belief (especially hips, connective tissues etc).

Simply get in position and HOLD.

For time.

And you’ll notice you’re getting a workout by doing just that if you’re not used to it.

Now, I can’t promise this will cure the knee pain overnight, but I can tell you this – isometrics are a very powerful way to workout – and strengthen the entire body my friend.

And there are literally tons and tons of ways to do isometrics. I had about 26 exercises ready to go for the book I was working upon on that, but of course, the laptop crashed Shantaram style, hehe.

Round #2 it is then!

And that’s that for now. I’ll be back soon!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Here is where you can learn the RIGHT way to do Hindu squats and get the form down PAT –https://0excusesfitness.com/0excusesfitnessystem