In 0 Excuses Fitness, my other writings and I believe (specifically) the book on PUSHUPS ... I wrotte about control.
Sorry, Mastery.
MASTERY of an exercise is something even the greats willr eadily admit to that it’s nigh on impossible to achieve!
Lets take the humble fingertip pushup, by itself an ASS kicker for most people.
Bruce Lee used to pump out hundreds of these on two fingers, and sets of 50 on the thumb all day long.
Whew.
And even HE would tell you there is ALWAYS more!
For instance, what about a legs elevated pushup done that way?
OR a handstand? Not even the pushup, just the handstand!
Or any of the other variants I teach you in Pushup Central.
Same thing for pull-ups, squats, dips, and what not
(Dips being a great exercise I’ve addressed in Shoulders like Boulders, but I might put out a course someday specifically on dips).
(And on ONE arm workouts – Charles – yes – that is on the way!)
Now, CONTROL.
How much CONTROL do you have over your exercises is key to improvement, and the road to mastery or as close as you’ll get – and superior health, strength and fitness.
The exercises in “Isometric Training” (my latest book on it) do a fine, fine job of addressing this!
Let me tell you, if you get up into my favorite “after climb” stretch I mention in the book, you’ll feel them legs QUIVERING.
Your thighs. Back. Sides. Portions of the body you did NOT know existed, hehe.
While throwing the leg up in just that pose, when I started, I’d “bang it up there” and bang it down with a “thud” onthe cement.
This hurt, but it helped me get better.
But really.
REAL control is when you can simply “glide” that leg up effortlessly, and stay in the stretch – and getting out of it, you do so in control, and calmly and loosely!
THIS, my friend is the real key to isometric benefits (or benefits from said training) and the feel great feeling you get from STRETCHING!
No surprise I’v eincluded both in the same book!
And THIS is something most people, despite being great at pull-ups etc need to work upon. I should know – I used to be the same way!
Strong as heck, but inflexible in certain regards ...
When I do this now, I just “do it” . I dont aim for the foot to bang up there, or records.
It just glides up there!
And thats the only reason I’d advocate you to do Tai Chi etc workouts if you know how to do ‘em.
Pretty much useless for cage fights and real world fighting and we’ve covered that before, but its great for FLEXIBILITY, I WILL give you that!
And so it goes.
On another note, I just looked at an old document from school (a certificate of sorts) which claims I “inculcated good moral value and a secular outlook” amongst other interesting garbage.
The second. Yes.
First?
You be the judge, hehe.
Best,
Rahul Mookerjee
PS – Pick up the book on isometric training HERE.
PS #2 – Did also get to check out my old “Taekwondo” certificate back from when I did it. Musty and dusty, but it’s there, hehe. Yours truly was at “green belt” level then (I believe thats one level above rookie, hehe). Pity I didnt continue and had no incentive to do so!