Post: #1

What is movement? No one has completely defined it, but it is about expressing your body in a way you feel like expressing it. Then using everything at your disposal without being bound by dogmas like "I only do powerlifting".

In other words, just move and do what you really want.

I have been following this develop during the past few years and the current leader is undoubtedly Ido Portal with his movement which is mostly capoeira-gymnastics with tons of stuff from everywhere else. I love his work but it has become really new age, almost like a cult.





Tons of capoeira movement, hand balancing and gymnastic skills.

Then there are newcomers like Vahva Fitness, which is a wider mix of movement, weight training, bodybuilding and everything else. I was really impressed with this monkey movement video:





Pistol squats heavy 97lbs





I'm personally mixing some movement with traditional weight lifting (front squats, deadlifts) but also working on mobility and flexibility at the same time.

Anyone else doing something similar?

Post: #2

Weekly Circuit training some of it is a mixture of the workouts (monkey crawl & pistol squats) pictured above.

Boot camp style workout and I'm seeing results

Post: #3

(05-05-2016 11:29 AM)MY DETROIT PLAYAS Wrote:  Weekly Circuit training some of it is a mixture of the workouts (monkey crawl & pistol squats) pictured above.

Boot camp style workout and I'm seeing results

I've always wanted to be able to do pistols

Post: #4

(05-05-2016 12:46 PM)vinman Wrote:  

(05-05-2016 11:29 AM)MY DETROIT PLAYAS Wrote:  Weekly Circuit training some of it is a mixture of the workouts (monkey crawl & pistol squats) pictured above.

Boot camp style workout and I'm seeing results

I've always wanted to be able to do pistols

You may find they are closer than you think. If I remember correctly you are a reasonably strong chap. In which case it may be as much a case of finding a form that suits your levers. For example, I have long legs, and am tall, and I find it easier to do pistols with +50lbs than to do them unweighted.

Post: #5

(05-05-2016 01:23 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  

(05-05-2016 12:46 PM)vinman Wrote:  

(05-05-2016 11:29 AM)MY DETROIT PLAYAS Wrote:  Weekly Circuit training some of it is a mixture of the workouts (monkey crawl & pistol squats) pictured above.

Boot camp style workout and I'm seeing results

I've always wanted to be able to do pistols

You may find they are closer than you think. If I remember correctly you are a reasonably strong chap. In which case it may be as much a case of finding a form that suits your levers. For example, I have long legs, and am tall, and I find it easier to do pistols with +50lbs than to do them unweighted.

I have a friend that initially could only do them holding a kettlebell. He worked his way up to holding his foot as he did them. Challenge Accepted!

Post: #6

Pistols are not that hard if you have the strength and mobility to do them. I started off with pistols while holding on to something,and free standing pistols to a chair/box/etc then moved on to rolling deck squat pistols.

Don't do pistols before being able to squat your body weight on a barbell (arbitrary number. Just have some amount of strength first,and if you are unsure that's a good number) to prevent possible injury,and not have to deal with developing the necessary strength in such an unstable environment.

There might be some mobility deficits you need to address first; i don't really know what they are because i didn't have issues.

If you find it ridiculously hard then this could be a sign its dangerous for you to do them unweighted because of your leverages so you would want to hold a plate,dumbell,etc to act as a counter weight to make the movement possible and prevent you from doing them in a way that strains the connective tissue in your knee.

Post: #7

I'm not amazing at squating, around 1,5BW for reps, but the fist time I tried pistols I had no problem.

I think it takes more balance and mobility than strength... if you are an athletic guy instead of a stick you should be able to do a bunch of them once you get the technique that suits your body.. but I also have short legs, I guess that helps a lot.

But I agree, lot's of guys focus a lot on just weights. Weights are amazing but are only a part of the equation for a healthy body (as opposed to a body that just looks good but get's injured easily).

Post: #8

This is the sort of stuff I would do with my buddies in the gym for hours a day.

We'd hit up the adult gymnastics classes weekly, but it would soon devolve into who could flip over the highest shit or silly obstacle courses for parkour. It was always a good time and well worth the membership fees.

At the end of the week we would be in the bouldering gym, that we before we really got hooked onto bouldering and started going several times a week. There was one summer during college where I went climbing every day and when I returned to campus for wrestling practice the guys were shocked at just how ripped my back had gotten. Expecting me to say that I had spent my time in the gym, they were surprised to hear it was a rock gym.

The Vahva fitness video looks exactly like how my buddies and I warm up when we meet to train. It's also how I would have my students warm up before I'd let the start climbing.

Are you doing compound lifts? I was into liftin a bit after getting back but I am slowly shifting away from the traditional lifting and doing some more unconventional type stuff.

I assume you're looking for things like this






Things like this are also amazing for the body.

Post: #9

Climbing will get you the greatest forearms of the universe too.

Post: #10

(05-05-2016 01:23 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  

(05-05-2016 12:46 PM)vinman Wrote:  

(05-05-2016 11:29 AM)MY DETROIT PLAYAS Wrote:  Weekly Circuit training some of it is a mixture of the workouts (monkey crawl & pistol squats) pictured above.

Boot camp style workout and I'm seeing results

I've always wanted to be able to do pistols

You may find they are closer than you think. If I remember correctly you are a reasonably strong chap. In which case it may be as much a case of finding a form that suits your levers. For example, I have long legs, and am tall, and I find it easier to do pistols with +50lbs than to do them unweighted.

50 pound weighted pistols are pretty good.

When I started I would hold a few books at arms length and do one rep on each leg, alternating.

Every now and then I still do assisted pistols, where you do pistols between two chairs or by holding the edge of a door frame. It's cheating but nobody is keeping score. Pretty easy way to get sets of 10-20 too.

Post: #11

I'm completely blown away by this guy