We’re all about self-improvement here at Return Of Kings. A man should always be seeking to improve himself in some fashion, and when he has achieved one goal, he should move onto the next one. In short, never rest on your laurels.
Combining this desire for self improvement with the masculine independence and minimalist lifestyle that other writers on this fine website should inculcate in you a desire to improve yourself while being thrifty and relatively solitary. As this article deals with fitness, you know what I’m going to say: personal trainers, or at the very least, the ones at your average commercial gym, should be avoided at all costs. And while most long-term fitness enthusiasts and professionals will likely either train by themselves or have one of the few trainers that knows what he’s doing, most of us have to train alone, especially beginners who have naught but common sense to light his path. But there is another option: books
Yes, books, that simple yet elegant method of transferring knowledge directly to its viewer. There are certainly plenty of books out there pertaining to the various fields of fitness and athletics. But the question remains: how effective is a book in physical training?
As an avid reader of fitness-related tomes (and many others, but that’s neither here nor there), I own many of these books. And I feel that their effectiveness can be judged by grouping them based on “genre”.
Weight Lifting and Calisthenics
When I first started getting into physical culture as a young teenager, I turned to the nearby commercial gym, as most tyros tend to. In that commercial gym, I quickly found myself being attached to a well-meaning jackass who gave me a machine-heavy program that, according to him, would “develop strength, size and endurance.” And like most naive young men, I followed him, developing none of those things, but lining the trainer’s pockets.
Eventually, realizing that I had been lied to, I embarked on a search for enlightenment, coming to the various corners of the internet that deal in such interests. One of the first things that I came across were books that I have repeatedly referred to in these pages, and still consider to be some of the best writing on general fitness out there—the works of men such as Paul Wade and Pavel Tsatsouline. Upon reading books such as Power to the People and the Convict Condidtioning series, and using a bit of common sense, I deduced that these books were superior than the typical tomes on fitness that the commercial gyms would sell at the counter for a few reasons:
One, they advocated a physical philosophy of simplicity and “purity”. Rather than advocating a julienne of exercises; their routines were efficient and targeted all muscles of the body. Two, the credentials of the men were a cut above the average writer: as a maximum security convict and a Spetsnaz veteran (respectively), I knew that these men needed to train their muscles to fighting trim for purposes of survival, rather than “doing curls for the girls”. And third, they referred to the strongmen of old like Maxick and Eugen Sandow, “standing on the shoulders of giants” and opening my eyes to the wider world of fitness writing, much of which I have further consumed.
In general, I would argue that writing on weightlifting and calisthenics are the most effective books on fitness, as these are solitary activities, and the books are typically written by one man speaking to another man. Thus, the techniques there in are written to be easily understood and practiced by the user without a partner.
Martial Arts
As I have repeatedly stated on this website, martial arts in general should be taken with a massive grain of salt—while I’m not so stupid as to say “there’s no point in training any sort of refined fighting style because of adrenaline” (and yes I have seen this boneheaded argument made), I have also spent a substantial amount of time debunking the overly flowery and outright fictitious martial arts styles that many hack authors and film-makers propagate, on my own website as well as my Youtube and Dailymotion channels. Sadly, thanks to martial arts being more or less an unregulated market in the United States, any clown has the full legal right to proclaim himself a “master”.
With that being said, some martial arts books are effective, thoroughly explaining the proper mechanics of a move and/or explaining proper situations in how to use them. While I have a background in “proper” study, I have also utilized books to teach aspects of martial arts that I was not formally taught—such as grappling. And again, I sought out accomplished and legitimate fighters that were decorated in their field: men like Farmer Burns (Lessons in Catch Wrestling and Physical Culture) and Masao Takahashi (Mastering Judo) wrote detailed and efficient books for fighting “in the clinch”, and I have also used Dr. Sang Kim’s books on Taekwondo such as Complete Kicking for learning some of the more exotic kicks that my own background didn’t teach me. And of course I practiced on resisting opponents, some of whom had been wrestlers themselves and thus could shore up my technique.
The most important thing to bear in mind when using a martial arts book is that you MUST practice these techniques against a bag/dummy at the VERY least, and preferably with a sparring partner that will put up a fight. And while this is also the case for any book on physical culture, I would argue that it’s the most important for martial arts—namely because martial arts techniques are, by definition, used in panic situations. In contrast, weightlifting is almost always done in a state of relative calmness—not counting the fake screaming idiots use to “pump themselves up”.
Mindset/Meditation/Etc
Books such as the Kundalini Meditation Manual by Yogi Bhajan, which I have only recently started to use, are simultaneously the most simple and most complicated books on self-improvement to use. They are simple because in very basic terms the advice they give is basically “think really hard about something”, but it is precisely that abstractness that can make them difficult-meditation is a nebulous concept for the best of us to grasp immediately, and in some ways changing one’s mindset and behavior is the most difficult thing anybody can do.
While I admittedly do not have the depth of knowledge in these that I do with the other two topics, I would say that these are hard to grasp but easy to practice once they have been “grokked” in the words of Anthony Burgess: After all, every second of every day of your life will involve you utilizing your mindset. And thus, its difficulty lies in the original understanding.
Conclusion
Looking at these three broad “genres” of male self-improvement books, we can see that they differ greatly in content, but, speaking from a position of experience, I can safely say that to a great extent they are effective, and they can teach you new things, but only if you get one of the relatively few books that aren’t written by armchair alpha males, and only if you diligently practice the information contained within them.
Read More: 4 Effective Fighting Techniques That Every Man Should Know
The first book I ever picked up on anything fitness related was Bill Starr’s “The Strongest Shall Survive”.
Its essentially a handbook for training the American football player. Some of the information didn’t seem solid, as I think it was printed some 30 years before I picked it up. But its an excellent book, that gives you a baseline in almost anything fitness related, especially if you wish to build a powerful physique (even for goals unrelated to sports).
Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength” is great, too. But its more tailored towards lifting mechanics and building a baseline.
There are better programs for intermediate and experienced lifters. But these two are the only books I recommend to beginners. They taught me how to do strength training correctly, by avoiding injuries and time wasting. Also, that getting stronger doesn’t necessarily mean stiffer. I didn’t realize how important an entire planned regimen was, or how seriously this should be taken initially.
I’m reading a book on meditation now. Good article, fam. There is a good deal of poison out there.
As a Sikh, I must point out that Yogi Bhajan (real name Harbhajan “Singh” Puri) was a complete fraud and you should be highly suspicious of anything written by him.
He simply mixed together Sikh, Hindu and Tantric ideas and created a synthetic “Kundalini Yoga” and sold it to gullible hippies in the 70’s in America when the fascination with Eastern mysticism was at its peak.
In such, he created his own cult called “3HO” (Happy, Healthy, Holy), his inner circle has been convicted of numerous crimes including wire fraud and racketeering.
There’s an entire youtube channel where his cult is exposed by prominent ex-members.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQDV5etGNZ9AnZ-3PnLklzw/videos
Whereas I think everyone can definitely benefit by including meditation in their lives, one should be very careful and assess the credibility of the authors of such books, especially anything written either by Yogi Bhajan or 3HO.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of fake “Gurus”, “God-men” and hucksters in the sphere of meditation.
Thank you for the tip. I’m new to meditation, and just as I teach the audience about what I am knowledgeable in, I am always willing to learn from others. And as I debunk fake martial artists, I thank you again for tipping me off to what is apparently a fake guru.
After 5 years I decided to leave my old work and it changed my life… I started doing work from home, for a company I stumbled upon online, several hrs every day, and I make much more than i did on my old work… My pay-check for last month was for Nine thousand dollars… Superb thing about it is the more free time i got for my kids… http://chilp.it/728813e
Great article, but there are far better resources and books on meditation out there
These are great, practical primers:
http://www.nytimes.com/well/guides/how-to-meditate
http://drewscanlon.com/meditation-for-beginners/
From novice to advanced, this should take you at least a year to read, and far longer to work through:
Full Catastrophe Living – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness (In Plain English) – Henepola Gunaratana
Waking Up – Sam Harris
The Mind Illuminated- by John Yeats, PHD
Wake Up to Your Life – Ken McLeod*
*this one restructured the way I live my live in a big way, it deeply unsettled me the first time I tried to read it, so I left it, but always ended up coming back to it because of curiosity. His writing style is tops. Also recommend his podcasts: unfetteredmind.org. Disclaimer: most modern meditation books reverse engineer Buddhist practices then present them in a secular, scientific/medical context. Which is fine. This guy goes straight to the source material and translates it into comprehensible language, which is extremely rare to find in a modern Western meditation teacher because it’s so difficult to do.
There are 3 main factors to start a meditation practice: consistency is more important than duration, read all the books you can find- the more highly recommended the better, find a local group to practice with once a week-and shop around, every group is different.
Always a cool insight Larsen. Thanks for this one. If I could make a request: I would love to see an article of practical advice for posture (like you last posture article) but with specific reference to people who sit in sedentary desk jobs all day. I recently ordered an exercise ball to use instead of my desk chair when possible, but I would imagine that there are stretches that would be useful to people who are forced to sit all day…..especially in light of new studies which show that sitting 8 hours a day is just as dangerous as smoking
I work a desk job myself, and I get up every hour and so and stretch, walk around a bit. Is that not an option?
Im interested in this topic as well, if Larsen decided to write an Article about it, I would greatly appreciate it. Other than that I can recommend height adjustable desks and also this article http://mikaelsyding.com/back-pain/
Yes…I do that too. I also use Jim stoppani’s 30/60 rule. For each 30 minutes of sitting i get in 60 seconds of HIIT cardio or circuit training (so usually about 15-18 minutes tacked on at end of workout) but I still feel that sitting is just killing me
Sith Lord Donnie Rumsfeld stands at his desk all day. Hes gotta be pushing 90 by now
I was thinking about getting one of those standing desk things. They look a little silly but if they help …
As well as getting up every so often I have used a so-called ‘posture kneeling chair’ for years and I find it helps, of course YMMV.
Considering a stand up desk one of these days…
I put in a request for one today. A lot of good stuff from doctors, people I know, guys on here and stuff I read online. The one I ordered has a hinge so I can raise and lower. I will google posture kneeling chair.
One thing you could try; after a long period of sitting, stand up and simultaneously flex your glutes and biceps at the same time. Another great trick I learned from my chiropractor; before you stand up, flex your abs as hard as you can for 10 seconds before you stand up. I believe stretching has the greatest benefit after a workout. Sure it feels good any time of the day but I don’t think there’s a large benefit from stretching when your body is relaxed. I’ve read the importance of stretching before a workout is sort of a myth. Stretch AFTER a workout. I’m a firm believer in this. The flexing exercises I described work well because you’re activating your support muscles. When you sit, they are very relaxed and turned to mush. Another great way to activate your support muscles; in the morning, take a cold/colder shower, as cold as you can tolerate and flex these muscles. 10 seconds as hard as you can, relax and repeat. Worth a try.
I will def give these a try. WRT cold shower. At the end of my shower I usually go with ice cold water for a few minutes both to wake me tf up and also to close my pours after the hot steamy shower.
Ha! Also take a look at athletes performance.com. I used to reference this site quite a bit back when I was a personal trainer. I learned quite a bit. I’ve read a lot of Mark Verstegens books as well. I believe he’s the head trainer at the athletes performance center in Tempe AZ. You should find some really good information regarding core strength, mobility, body efficiency, flexibility and injury prevention.
You mentioned HIIT training. I’m a fan as well. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of biking. My legs are really strong and mobile right now. I’ve also lost a more fat from strengthening larger muscle groups, ex. legs.
Yeah, one of my developers has one and he swears by them…
the kneeling chair is a funny looking thing, but it kinda forces you to adopt a back-friendly position and having used one for years I wouldn’t go back!
I love bike riding. I am trying to enjoy the last bits of it before it gets too cold now. I have really thick quads from years and years of deadlifting and squats. I too think that the best way to shred fat is to build large muscle groups. My current diet and training plan is pretty intense and I am eating more than I have in years (also a lot of white rice for the first itme in forever — I almost felt like a trench coat wearing pervert buying a girlie mag when I was in the grocery store buying white rice). The link you sent me didn’t work. It went to a space holder. Maybe a .net or .org?
There was a great workout released through men’s health (which I usually think is total shit) called the Spartacus Workout (There is now Spartacus 2 and 3 but they are just pile on because of the poularit of the first). It is essentially a 15 minute circuit which they recommend performing 3 times for 45 minute work out. It is a super fat burner. I don’t do it as a primary workout but I will do one time through the circuit as part of the 30/60. Of all the stuff you mention I think flexibility is my absolute weakest area.
A strict diet of Children’s Blood gives him his longevity and stamina…
Athletesperformance.com
I should eat more rice. Right now I eat mostly fruit and salmon. I buy bags of frozen salmon fillets. Good protein and omega 3, helps me feel full. I’m pretty lean at 235 lbs but if I’m not careful I can blow up to 255. Don’t want that. I love my bike. I have a Specialized Roll. It’s actually a cruiser bike with a larger more comfortable seat.
I am eating almost no fruit. I am on the front end of a program that is pretty rough though at the same time simple.
I have 1/2 grapefruit and 32 oz of water first thing in the morning (5 am)
then I do 1 hour of cardio at 160 HR 530-630
Meal 1 I have 4 egg whites and 2 whole eggs, 2 slices of low sodium deli turkey and a low fat baby bell cheese on flat bread
Meal 2 I have 8 ounces lean protein and 1 cup white rice
Meal 3 I have 2 scoops protein powder with two tablespoons of almond butter
Meal 4 I have 6 oz lean protein and 1 cup green veg
Then I do my weight lifting which takes about 2 hours. I am doing 2 3 day splits. So CHest/Back Arms/Shoulders Legs and then repeat with sunday as my rest day
Meal 5 I have 8 oz lean protein, 1 cup green veg and 1/2 cup white rice
Drink 2 gallons of wter a day and supplement with fish oil, multi vitamin, BCAA and creatine.
I am one week in and already noticing a difference. All my weight lifting is done rep range of 20 now. So I will do one major lift 5×20 (bench, dead or OH Press) and then 6 supersets of opposites each superset being 4×20
Also, I love specialized bikes. They are so nice. I actually just have a 6KU fixed gear. It sits like a race bike, cost about 25 bucks, rides pretty smooth and I don’t care if it gets dinged up. Here in the city there isn’t a lot of hills and I use the bike mostly as a commuter or for weekend rides in central park but I don’t think I could actually take it on a serious ride.
That is very regimented. I need to try almond butter. Never had it. As I’m sure you know almonds are very good for you. Another thing I’m really into right now is fresh squeezed lemon juice. Tons of health benefits. I feel great when I drink my lemon juice all day. It was a little rough at first but now, it’s not bad at all. Obviously you can dilute it with water or the other way around, haha. Sometimes I’ll just cut two lemons real quick, squeeze em and take a shot for a snack. Lemons at Costco are $7 a bag. I go through them like crazy. Half the grocery store price. My diet; Lemons, fish, fruit (mostly strawberries, blueberries and pineapple), salads (kale, beans, carrots, flax seed, chia seed and broccoli cole slaw). I also sample all the protein bars from Whole Foods and bring them to work for snacks.
My workout right now is pretty simple. Lots of squat, deadlift and bench. Bi’s tri’s. It gets a little complex when I go to the stretching are afterwards where I’ll try a bunch of different yoga stretches, stability training and yoga headstands (haha, yep, I’m that guy).
I am sure that you are checking your protein bars to make sure they aren’t using soy protein. I have found some pretty good recipes to make them. I like almond butter. It has 170 cal with 120 cal from fat as opposed to the PB which is 220 cal with 170 from fat. My wholefoods has a section for fresh ground nut butters (with a hilarious sign that reads “NUTBUTTERS” in big letters. There is a grinder filled with almonds and you press the button and it fresh grinds them.
I too have picked up those frozen fish filet bags at whole foods especially when they are on sale. A great deal. My program now is incredibly regimented. I do well with regimen it fits my personality to have strict structure. I will only do this for about 12 weeks total and then take a month off.
This new program adds a lot of isolation and drops the weight significantly. It is more a body building program than a power lifting one. But the injuries I have sustained to my back and the fact that I am only now recovering have me avoiding heavy weights. At first I started to just do my normal power lifting routine, but if you aren’t going to lift heavy then traditional power lifting routines are just a waste of time. I consulted a professional IFBB coach who set me up with this new program. I have never done a body building program before so I am excited. Soemthing new is always kind of cool.
I like yoga stretches and take a hot yoga class once a month and, if I had the time, I would take at least one yoga class per week. I used to do headstand pushups. I haven’t tried one in a while. I am currently out of shape (for me) due to the last few months of inactivity because of injury. Even out of shape, however, it isn’t too bad. At 6 foot I was 201 pounds this morning. I usually am at 195 at bulk and 180-185 when I do my lean cut (oddly enough, I look bigger at 185 than I do now at 201 because of the muscle). I have been taking a lot of detailed notes and photos. If I have a lot of success and don’t reinjure myself I may jot up an article about post injury weightlifting.
Arnold, Dave, Larry, Reg, would be proud of you… in fact any Golden Ager would…
Nice programme Mr Knee, very nice…
I thought you were winter bulking, but this baby will lean you out very nicely indeed!
Big yes to an article on post injury lifting!
The RoK community deserves it, you gotta do it man…
Lets see if I make it through my 12 week program without reinjuring myself first. Then I will consider it. I am going with a pretty drastic plan which has just as much chance of landing me back in the hospital than working but I believe in it and am going full steam ahead.
I “summer bulked” because of injury. So really I wanted to get my leanness back. I should be done in January at which point I will take a nice beach vacation and then come and do a short bulk (6 weeks) before starting a summer cut program.
Yeah, I am using a lot of golden age theory.
Wow.. journalistic integrity…. most people just write the fucking article whether they know a damn thing about the subject or not!
Not quite integrity…more like integritish…if it was genuine integrity I would be doing weekly updates with progress pictures and notes for better or for worse. I will publish a true account of success but I really would rather keep the ups and downs private until I have a finished product.
Integritish is good enough for me, maybe even ingretrity.. it’s all good…
I tried a hot yoga class one time. I liked it but I never went back. When I read your posts, I think, “I wonder if this guys real name is Patrick Bateman.” https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28ee94b800cff6aba22434c69ddd033e8ace05b6e8ca972646b187fb1efddb72.jpg
I am from the culture that Bateman was a critique of but I get the comparison
“I believe stretching has the greatest benefit after a workout”
Word.
I call those “maintenance stretches”. They take little time to be performed, keep muscles from shortening after exertion and help in chasing away myofascial points.
“I don’t think there’s a large benefit
from stretching when your body is relaxed”
Mainly aimed at increasing flexibility.
“take a cold/colder shower, as cold as you can tolerate and flex these muscles”
Worthwhile suggestion.
The cold water will help flexing the muscles. There are methodologies formulated around this phenomenon.
I see. One thing I’ve been doing lately; after heavy squats and deadlift, visit the stretch station, put my heel up, leg extended and push down nice and hard driving downward through the glute and hammy. Ten seconds at a time, alternating.
Sounds good.
Just make sure you don’t feel any discomfort or pulling sensations in the joints.
Glutes are major players in both movements and few people realize the importance of stretching them properly.
lolknee, from what I infer you spend a lot of time doing computer related job, am I right?
If so, any suggestions to deal with eye fatigue and general strain?
Nah, I can barely use a computer at all. I do read a lot but I’ve never had eye strain issues…always had good specs….that said, I don’t spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen
Ok. If I feel a pulling sensation, it’s usually in the MCL. Perhaps I should position my knee in such a way to avoid this.
Stretching with a fully extended leg often makes the knee prone to this.
A slight kink does the trick for me.
Putting pressure on the ligaments while stretching is definitely a bad idea.
I see, thanks anyway.
I couldn’t post the full comment, my net went down or something.
I meant that putting pressure on the ligaments while stretching is generally a bad idea.
Sprains, tears and degenrative conditions at the drop of a hat.
You can check the prognosis of Joint Hypermobility for further horror.
It’s better than hitting your kneecap with a stone but its effectiveness will come largely determined by the time you spend sitting down, the posture and both the stretches and the way you perform them afterwards.
Totally my work keeps me moving and can be downright gruelling at times which keeps my bad back and an old whiplash injury at bay. It’s those times like tax season and pver the holidays where I sit for hours aday that I feel like becomming a cripple..sore back, neck headaches..etc..
Office work is a killer no doubt in my mind…
Get a standing desk. Job. Done.
Checking hamstring flexibility would be a good idea, it tends to be an issue in such cases.
Certain postural changes can ameliorate the condition, while specific stretches can solve it completely.
I am working on hamstring flexibility in yoga. Flexibility has always been an issue for me. It isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great. I ordered the standing desk too….people seem to say very good things about that.
Then you have already taken action, which is good!
Many popular yoga systems out there offer useful hamstring stretches, much better than the harmful standing toe touch.
Due to the usual 90º angle the legs adopt while sitting as per the Western common use, the hamstrings take the worst part by shortening unduly. Working on their flexibility is a must when one’s job requires sitting for a prolonged time.
As for the standing desk, it usually helps with lower back issues, even with upper back ones by simply changing posture. All these issues tend to go hand in hand.
But it’s good to bear in mind that people working at jobs which require them standing for hours on end develop their own share of problems: knees, varicose veins…
Like anything, it takes a balanced approach.
Yes, I found a good yoga place near me where the voodoo has been stripped clean and it is treated as stretching and exercises. The place has a sister joint which does hot yoga which I do once a month or so and find very good and have found the stretching and yoga very helpful.
Yes on the balanced approach too. The standing desk that my office got me is actually something that goes on top of the desk and lifts and retracts back. There is also a gel pad on the floor. Since I do my cardio in the morning (an hour of HIIT fasted) when I come in I usually sit. After lunch I raise to standing until about, well, now, an hour before I leave and then go back to sitting. It has helped a great deal with general, as well as gym pain.
Not as effective as Kratom.
…what? That’s still a thing here, right?
I guess it depends what you want to achieve and your age. Regardless of age, eat real food. I myself don’t care to try to get big since I don’t need any more tendinitis but want to be toned enough with some muscle to eat what I want and fit enough to do some outdoor activities.
Keep in mind that most Fitness Books are written for the General population, even books claiming to inform you of “Secret” training methods or “Insane, Hardcore” workouts that will take you to the “Next Level”, still must be written in a manner that is acceptable and Safe Training advice for the General population.
And now, for something different…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a6dd639a99343704bcbe2cc5d64fda8a130efe6075d7df5097857ad164123e0.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c3251be468675ac79194b1a91659d9cc9cff1dd3a0929ea7fd66dc6d18317cd.jpg
Fetichist!
o come on….you can’t even SEE the shoes I made her wear!
A little light entertainment to bring some levity; nice.
Very little…heh. Thanks.
Just a smidgen-much as how I tease the girlies and then proceed to rock their world 😉
Show ’em how it’s done, nephew!
I like to think of it as a brutal ballet-lordosis behaviour and all that jolly good fun.
Have a simple look at all the different activities that can be done. Each has it’s own strengths and weaknesses.
Context matters. Very rarely one thing suits everybody.
“Context matters. Very rarely one thing suits everybody.”
This.
Either boredom or necessity eventually force us to change our approach to training from time to time.
Would recommend Ross Enamait’s ‘Never Gymless’ as a good companion piece after one has built fundamental strength from Convict Conditioning. Similar zero bullshit vibe to getting fit with minimal external resources.
“armchair alpha males”
Now bare in mind that I am only joking:
https://pioneerwoman.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/godfather1.jpg
How effective are books on *anything*…. any book attempting to achieve anything outside of the purely intellectual sphere encounters the problem of being the menu, and you need the meal.
None of which is to say you haven’t done a great job Larsen, since, as usual, you have. I especially agree with your rating of convict conditioning…. one can question the supposed ‘story’ behind the book, but there is no doubting that in terms of callisthenics it covers the ‘big six’ and covers them well!
Weight lifting is a really tricky one – I have never found the books in the genre satisfying in that they cannot cover everything, and if they do (for example Bill Pearl’s ‘Keys to the Inner Universe’ they suffer from bloat almost to the point of being unreadable! Indeed the best thing to to with Pearl’s monstrosity is to lift it!
For insight into the mind of a winner in lifting, their is no better than Arnold’s ‘Education of a Bodybuilder’. For day-to-day inspiration you can’t beat Dave Draper’s ‘Brother Iron, Sister Steel’ and it’s companion ‘Iron’ volumes…
Lifting theory has never been adequately covered in one volume… not sure it could be! Mike Menzer’s work covers the ultra-low volume/high intensity training philosophically and technically, but not sure what a corresponding work on high-volume(German) training might be… maybe the works of Charles Poliquin.
Martial Arts books routinely degenerate into either a photo album or a work of (frankly minor and unimpressive) philosophy.
In terms of mindset I’m surprised you started by jumping in the esoteric end… would probably rather suggest works in the area of NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis… maybe even stoop to the popular end of that market with Tony Robbins (be prepared for cheese!), and you can even throw in our very own Mike Cernovich and his ‘Gorilla Mindset’ and MAGA work, which would very much resonate with most of the men here…
Still a great article, and most certainly your premise that RoK is all about Self-Development is most welcome!
Books are very effective. I throw a bunch of heavy ass books in a backpack and I perform weighted push ups. The GAINZ man, the gainz !
“any book attempting to achieve anything outside of the purely
intellectual sphere encounters the problem of being the menu, and you
need the meal”
Bravo!
I think I haven’t seen it better put into metaphor.
Books are very effective because they are quite heavy compared to digital ink thrown around fitness forum boards. The goal is to continue to add books, preferably tomes such as outdated volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica, to your bench and squats. More volumes = more gains. I’m pretty sure I read that in a fitness book somewhere.
I can bench 20 volumes now. But my goal is to bench 40 by end of winter. Real men bench at least 30 volumes.
The challenge is finding a barbell setup to mount books rather than plates. I think I’ll invent one and make a hundred zillion dollars with which I’ll purchase more Muscle Milk, which scientifically grows muscle. I think I read that in a fitness book as well.
That made me laugh so hard.
Magazines often are bad because the have to come up with new articles every month whether or not something has fundamentally changed in our understanding of fitness. ill also say knowing wrestling means I dont fear anyone in a barfight.
Now that is the truth (I am talking about the magazines though also agree with the wrestling /bar fighting)
A magazine like men’s health needs to get out every month and sell copies because magazines are not in the business of selling magazines to make money, they are in the business of selling advertising to make money. This means they only care about selling magazines to the degree that it gives them numbers which allow them to demand higher rates for ads. This is why I mention the Spartacus workout above. When they published that circuit training workout it was great. IT was a super effective, fat burning circuit work out which could be done with very minimal equipment and really had a lot of benefits. A lot of people really liked it. So they made Spartacus 2 and Spartacus 3 and 300 work out and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
they never mentioned the 300 guys were on steroids, no wait…I meant whey protein 🙂
they have you change you routine every damn week whereas all you need is a pull up bar.
This.
I did the sphincter workout also coined the “Brokeback mountain” workout and gained 10 lbs of lean mass ! squeez, relax, squeez, relax, repeat.
I love me some Farmer Burns-the shooters of the early to mid 20th century were some of the absolute scariest people to ever live. Great Gama, Frank Gotch, Georg Hackenschmidt, Lou Thesz, Billy Riley, Billy Robinson, Ed Lewis, Joe Stecher, were all absolute animals and I have nothing but insane respect for them. Not forgetting Ad Santel who destroyed judokas for fun including the Kodokan and beat the piss out of Count Koma/Mitsuyo Maeda who then tutored the Gracies.
Some catch wrestling with Aikido and a bit of Krav Maga and you will be a killer if the situation calls for it.
But you wouldn’t want to wrestle in a combat situation though right?
Not necessarily but if you can get them down to the ground and know how to avoid being taken down yourself through wrestling and knowing counter holds etc. you can neutralise them pretty quickly. So you get them in a choke hold or something like that and squeeze the life out of them-if you hit the ground you’re effectively as good as dead.
I guess my point is that in a wrestling match you have only one opponent whereas in combat you may have several. In this case, grappling with an attacker on the ground or standing generally goes against the principles of unarmed combat.
Absolutely. So you get in quick, snap an arm and continue. It’s more about knowing how to inflict insane amounts of pain efficiently and brutally to neutralise as many as you can if you have no other option-i.e. no escape etc.
That topic is as hot in the MA world as it was when considered for the first time.
If you’re interested in old timey wrasslin and style vs. style fights, Cagesideseats has an article series about the early history of MMA/mixed martial arts styles and style vs. style fights during the Belle Epoque.
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/12/1/3669774/the-forgotten-golden-age-of-mma-part-i-the-golden-age-of-wrestling/in/3477185
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/12/8/3669792/the-forgotten-golden-age-of-mma-part-two-the-rise-of-judo-dawn-of-new-age-john-nash/in/3477185
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/12/15/3669800/the-forgotten-golden-age-of-mma-part-3-sherlock-holmes-les-apaches/in/3477185
http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/12/22/3669814/the-forgotten-golden-age-of-mma-part-iv-ultimate-fighting-of-the/in/3477185
Thanks for those. I appreciate it.
Welcome and np.
“Some catch wrestling with Aikido and a bit of Krav Maga and you will be a killer if the situation calls for it.”
A peculiar combination if I ever saw one.
Could you elaborate on it?
Sure. Effectively it’s where you learn to use others’ force against them and can apply a devastating hold to neutralise them quickly. They throw a punch you take them over and then snap the arm and so on.
Thank you, that’s an interesting take.
I think that with books you will run into the same problem as you will when selecting trainers or martial arts. Separating the good stuff from the junk.
In this you have to use your best judgment.
For myself, I have found that far and away good instructors have had the biggest impact on my improvement.
Yes, he says no personal trainers, then recommends martial arts. I don’t know if that is something you can learn on your own by reading books.
You can get tips from books (I got some great tips from Tao of Jeet Kune Do) but learning it? Impossible.
So true.
For someone who writes on the internet and has a YouTube channel, it seems suspect there’s not a single picture of your awesome physique. If somebody is gonna tell me what to do and how to fell and look great, I want to see results.
“I have also utilized books to teach aspects of martial arts that I was not formally taught”
In between reading and practicing against opponents,you’re missing the critical step of having good teacher teach you those moves, learning their correct and proper application from a teacher outside a book. A book will just not be able to teach you as well as proper teacher and someone in the art that knows what they’re doing.
“learning some of the more exotic kicks that my own background didn’t teach me.”
And learning ‘exotic’ moves is even more of a reason to have a teacher. If someone doesn’t have a background in an art, and especially if they can’t even preform the basics before the more difficult aspects of the style; they definitely can’t properly learn anything harder in the art; nevermind again not having a teacher and never being taught properly.
Aspiring weightlifters: go buy starting strength.
I think books can offer very valuable fitness information. My first introduction to the correct way to lift to build muscle was from a book. Before that, I didn’t know shit from shinola when it came to working out properly. When I studied to become and ACE certified personal trainer, a lot of what I learned had been talked about in that original book. I’m not saying books are the be all and end all, but they definitely offer a good start.