Charles Atlas coined the term “dynamic tension” and his studies on the topic revolutionized the physical culture era of the early 20th century. He attributed much of his strength and physical development to dynamic tension training.

Watching Bruce Lee movies and reading about Charles Atlas made me think about something my martial arts mentor taught me: slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Dynamic tension has been shown to improve muscle control and strength, but could it also be a secret key to speed development? 

Training dynamic tension will build speed and athleticism. [Photo courtesy of Pixabay]

Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast

For my answers, I looked to a time before either Bruce Lee or Charles Atlas were even a thought: the era of ancient martial arts. The Shaolin monks have a training classic from many years ago called the Yijin Jing (literally the “Muscle/Tendon Change Classic”) that contains eighteen exercises intended to develop speed, strength, mobility, endurance, and balance. The Shaolin monks have certainly developed all these qualities from their training.

Reading about the exercises, I realized that they are fundamentally dynamic tension exercises. One of the instructions for how to perform the exercises is “Movements are slow but full and tensed, face and body shows relaxed attitude.” That’s the core of dynamic tension training – slow, but tensed and deliberate movements. How could this possibly relate to speed training?

The goal of plyometric training is often for SPP (specific physical preparation), meaning that someone will explosively train a specific movement to increase speed through nerve and fast twitch muscle development. The problem is, SPP often fails to account for the health of the tendons. Training that emphasizes such explosive movement usually relies on momentum, and the torque on the connective tissues from momentum training often does more harm than good.

Furthermore, when training such momentum and speed, it can be even more difficult to truly master the technique, because continuous repetition at high speed is mistaken for smoothness.

Dynamic tension training requires slow movement, which is likely why many people believe that it isn’t the key to speed training, but that would come from a misunderstanding of muscle development. Intensity is what determines the development of your muscle, not speed.

• Slow twitch fibers are used for endurance, and recover quickly. This would include the muscles in your neck or lower back, for instance.
• Fast twitch fibers are responsible for quick and powerful muscular contractions, like the muscles in your quadriceps. They produce more force, but are quicker to fatigue than slow twitch fibers.
• Intermediate fibers possess the qualities of both slow twitch and fast twitch fibers.

If your training is not intense enough to require your fast twitch muscles to fatigue, your slow twitch muscle fibers, which recover quicker, will develop more and take on the work load. If training is slow but has tremendous intensity, it will still develop fast twitch muscle fibers. Slow but intense movement will depend on your own muscle control development. And therein lies the key to the smoothness – muscle control.

What people sometimes attribute to not having enough fast twitch muscle fibers is actually awkward or slower speed and movement. More often than not, the issue is muscle memory. If you constantly perform a movement, your nervous system remembers the movement to make it more efficient and reduce the amount of muscle fibers recruited to perform it.

Walk Your Way Strong

Performing slow dynamic tension exercises can help your nerves and muscles get used to performing the movements you want to train, and builds incredible speed when you perform the same movements without the tension.

When you are exercising to develop speed of technique, or maybe just doing some grease-the-groove training, try adding some dynamic tension to your movements. One way I find I can easily train it is by walking – simply walking while tensing the muscles in my legs has helped their overall strength and speed develop.

My personal favorite walk to couple with dynamic tension is duck walking, which is essentially walking in a low squat position. Tensing the muscles in your legs as you walk makes you very attentive to your movements, as you could easily lose balance if you move too quickly. Slow, deliberate steps while flexing will strengthen your thighs as well as your calves and tibialis (a muscle that more often than not is neglected).

For an advanced variation, stomp instead of walking, and tense your muscles right before your foot stomps the ground. Flexing your legs will help the shock transfer to your muscles and tendons rather than just your joints. This is a training technique that is fundamental to Bajiquan martial arts practice, called zhenjiao (stomping foot). Trained progressively and consistently, your legs will become rock solid, your joints will work like springs, and the power output of your legs will be optimal.

Slow Down to Speed Up

In my last article there is a video of Sensei Shinyu Gushi performing the sanchin kata with hard dynamic tension. He is well into his 70’s in the video, yet his physique and speed, even with the tension, displays a level of physical mastery and muscle control not often seen.

The dynamic tension I’ve performed with my upper body, along with isometric training, has developed the explosive strength I need to perform strength feats like bending horseshoes or railroad spikes. But furthermore, it has allowed me to apply sharper technique to all things I apply it to: basketball, football, martial arts, and bodyweight training, etc.

And above all else, know this: slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

Become a student of strength:

Lessons In Fitness and Life from Bruce Lee

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Strength Without Contraptions

This ability has been embodied by generations of kung fu practitioners, Indian martial artists, and physical culturists. One name that rises above the rest in terms of movement culture is none other than Charles Atlas, the father of dynamic tension as we know it. Of course, Atlas did not invent the ability to voluntarily tense your muscles through a range of movement, but his courses highlighted a lack in our ability to train ourselves to peak fitness levels without apparatus.

This raw, animal strength is acquired through the natural tension developed through movement. Animals, including non-predators such as deer and squirrels, develop an incredible physical ability by moving through tension. Atlas applied this principle to his own training, and used it to create his famous workouts that improved the ability to master tension through movement.

Mobility Is More Than Flexibility

There is a quote that is becoming quite popular in martial arts circles: “If you can’t do it slow, you can’t do it fast.” Tension mastery is paramount in the physical conditioning of many martial artists, and being able to perform complex movements with control is like having internal resistance bands. You develop incredible mobility as your training develops.

Note that mobility and flexibility are not the same. Flexibility does not account for your ability to produce force in a given range of motion. Dynamic tension for mobility training enables your muscles to produce incredible power throughout your trained motions. Slow, focused training makes the peripheral nervous system highly efficient at quick bursts of muscle contractions.

Mastering dynamic tension allows you to train against your own muscular tension.

For this reason, I address dynamic tension training the way I would address training in a gravity chamber. If you entered a room where the gravity was perpetually higher than outside, your muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and breathing would all be under duress. However, once you left the room, you’d feel more powerful, even though the gravity outside is what you’ve been used to all your life.

Similarly, moving through space under your own muscular tension is like placing yourself in a gravity chamber every time you train. Eventually, you’ll be much more conditioned for “the outside.” This applies especially well to active workout recovery and rehabilitating injured sinews. Tendon and ligament injuries are often the biggest blocks to mobility training. An old shoulder, back, or hip injury can cause major impediments to fluid movement. However, the movement and force of dynamic tension aids blood flow to those injured areas. Because you control your own tension as opposed to using an external apparatus, you lessen your chances of suffering injury, and increase your strength and range of motion for the injured area.

Healing Through Dynamic Tension

A strong example of the potential for dynamic tension to aid healing was shown in a study on the effect of dynamic tension¹ on peripheral nerve repair for a transected nerve. It is often thought that nerve repair operations have to be tension-free in order to be successful. Tension can sometimes hamper regeneration and impair blood supply to the nerves, thus leaving surgeons hesitant to apply tension to a nerve gap to close it.

This dogma was put to the test when a dynamic tension device was used on the transected nerve to reduce the nerve gap, and produced a “favorable functional outcome” in the surgery. This saved time and allowed for a smooth recovery comparable to a more expensive and potentially riskier nerve graft. 

What Does Dynamic Tension Look Like?

Below is a video of Sensei Shinyu Gushi (in his seventies at the time of filming) that demonstrates a ferocious example of lifelong dynamic tension training. Focus less on the specific movements, and more on the muscular, diaphragmatic, and sinew tension that is shown throughout these movements.

Improve the Mind-Muscle Connection

As you practice this style of movement, you develop neurological adaptations, strengthen your connective tissues, and improve your muscle control, or the mind-muscle connection. Apply these foundations to your own training, and share the results in the comments below.

More on Constructive Movement

• The Essence of an Athlete: How Portal Helps McGregor Win
• Increase Your Fast-Twitch Potential With Isometrics
• How to Prime Your Body for a Bigger Squat
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. McDonald MD, David S, and Michael SG Bell MD FRCSC. “Peripheral nerve gap repair facilitated by a dynamic tension device.” Canadian Journal of Plastic Surgery (2010 Spring) 18(1): e17–e19.

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 1 courtesy of Jarell Lindsey.

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Developing Speed

There are a lot of components to speed when it comes to training the human body, but here are three of the main factors:

1. Your fast-twitch muscle fibers.
2. Your weight. Bruce Lee’s speed training would be a very different game than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s.
3. Your body’s ability to handle torque. This is one of one of the most critical aspects of speed training, and one that isometric exercises can develop while many other training approaches cannot.

Muscle Fibers

While there are many different fiber types, there are three main muscle fibers:

1. Slow Twitch – Used mainly for endurance, as with your neck or your core muscles
2. Intermediate – These have the qualities of both slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers
3. Fast Twitch – These are responsible for quick muscle contractions like for punching or sprinting.

“When you are performing a movement with incredible momentum, your muscles are only doing some of the work – kinetic energy does most of it.”

In fact, fast-twitch muscle fibers can contract ten times faster than slow-twitch fibers. This is the kind of muscle that you really want to develop to train speed – and it’s likely that you’re doing it so, so wrong.

How to Train Fast-Twitch Muscles

If you want to train fast-twitch muscles, you have to move fast, right? No, you don’t. In fact, you can increase your injury risk in doing that. Being fast-twitch muscle only means that it’s the fastest to fire and the fastest to fatigue. Trying to build that by moving fast works your momentum much more than your actual muscle.

The difference in which muscle fibers you build comes not from your training speed, but your training intensity. If you do an isometric exercise that involves holding a half-full cup of water out at arm’s length for four hours a day, you’ll develop lots of slow-twitch muscle because the intensity over time is low.

If, instead, you tried to do a shoulder raise on that same arm at maximal intensity for a fraction of the time, like seven to twelve seconds, you would fatigue the fast-twitch muscle fibers (and even all the muscle fibers) much more quickly. Intensity is key to your speed training, not the speed of the movement itself.

Increasing Your Movement Speed

It may seem counterintuitive, but trying to increase the speed of your movement is the reason that isometric exercises can be better than plyometric exercises for speed. The idea for both plyometric and maximal isometric exercises is that you explode out from the beginning of the exercise.

The difference with a maximal isometric exercise is that you explode with intensity, but you don’t actually move, like trying to push against a brick wall with all your might. Plyometric training involves you exploding into a movement, like explosive jumps or explosive clapping push ups.

“The reason that isometric exercises are much better in the long run for joint and tendon health in speed development is torque.”

Different studies argue back and forth on whether isometrics or plyometrics are overall better for muscle speed, but it is irrefutable that isometric exercises are immensely better for the joints and tendons. While isometrics progressively build upon the strength of the tendons and ligaments, plyometrics tear and inflame the joints you look to train.

Old-time strongman Alexander Zass attributed the strength benefits he got from isometric training not just to his muscle strength, but also to the incredible development of the tendons in his body. This gave him the power to do things like bend steel bars. In fact, this same approach to training has given me the tendon and nerve power to do things like roll a Teflon-coated frying pan with my hands.

Isometric Versus Plyometric Exercise

A 2007 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research on the effects of plyometric versus isometric exercise on force development concluded:

Plyometric training has been shown to place large stresses on the body, which can lead to a potential for injury, whereas explosive isometric training has been shown here to provide similar benefits to that of plyometric training with respect to the measured variables, but with reduced impact forces, and would therefore provide a useful adjunct for athletic training programs within a 6-week time frame.

The reason that isometric exercises are much better in the long run for joint and tendon health in speed development is torque. When you are performing a movement with incredible momentum, your muscles are only doing some of the work – kinetic energy does most of it. It’s like pushing a boulder down a hill. A powerful force is needed to get the boulder moving, but the momentum drives the rest.

With all that momentum, you also need something of great force to stop that “boulder.” For the human body, that means using our joints, tendons, and ligaments. And the greater your mass, the stronger effect that momentum has on your joints and the higher the impact your structural integrity has to deal with.

In contrast, isometric exercises for speed limit the use of repetitive movements, channel constructive impact force, and decrease the overall chance of injury on the body’s structure. So, here are two isometric speed drills you can use that are incredible for boosting sprinting or punching speed. And you don’t even necessarily need any equipment to do them.

The ability to produce large amounts of stationary force directly relates to your potential for explosive power.

Isometric Sled Drill

1. Grab a weight sled and load it up with as much weight as you can.
2. Have a partner grab the opposite side of the sled.
3. Your goal is to push the sled with all your might while your partner applies force from the other side to ensure the sled doesn’t actually move.
4. Apply force for 7-12 seconds for a total of 8 times, as quickly as you can. Take a short break if you need to in order to complete all 8 reps, but the quicker you get it all done, the more beneficial the exercise. The whole set should take under 3 minutes.

Because this exercise incorporates multiple muscle groups, your nervous system will get a massive impact. The lower you can lunge into the weight and the more you can get your hips, glutes, and calves into the movement, the more I’ve found it transfers powerfully to sprinting.

“The difference with a maximal isometric exercise is that you explode with intensity, but you don’t actually move, like trying to push against a brick wall with all your might. “

If you don’t have access to a weight sled, try the same thing with a wall (note: the more grip on the bottom of your shoes, the better).

The Wall Punch Drill

I enjoy this punch-training drill because it incorporates scapular strength. With seventeen different muscles connected to the scapula, the overall tendon strength benefit you can get from doing this exercise can transfer to a number of pushing movements.

Scapular strength is something that most people – especially desk workers – need to develop. 

All you need is a wall.

1. Put your fist on the wall as if you were starting a punch, but with your elbow perpendicular to your torso, out to the side of your body. Think of throwing a big ol’ haymaker.
2. Apply force to the wall as if you were trying to punch through it for 7-12 seconds.
3. Step back a bit so you are mid-punch and do the same thing.
4. Repeat with your arm fully extended in punch position.
5. Start all over again with your fist on the wall as if you were starting a punch, but do this with your elbows tight to your body, as if you were squeezing a magazine between your arm and rib cage.
6. Apply max pressure with your arm in this position for 7-12 seconds, then step back and do the same mid extension and full extension.
7. Do all the same steps with the opposite arm.

This movement is more isolated and targets a smaller muscle group, so you will not need to do eight reps of each, just one. By practicing this exercise, both the speed and strength of your motion will improve.

Check out these related articles:

• Isometric Training – What It is and How to Do It Correctly
• Working at a Stand Still – How to Do Isometric Training
• Alexander Zass Teaches Us About Isometrics
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. “Torque and Training Overeight Clients.” IDEA Health and Fitness Association. 2005. Accessed June 8, 2015.
2. Burgess, KE, MJ Connick, P. Graham-Smith, and SJ Pearson. “Plyometric vs. Isometric Training Influences on Tendon Properties and Muscle Output.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2007 Aug; 21(3):986-9.

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of RX’d Photography.

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When it comes to exercise, people love to pick sides on what is better. Today, I’ll be looking at two different styles of exercise, isometrics and weight training, and seeing which side comes out on top.

Isometrics

Isometrics is largely unknown in comparison to weight training. This is a style of static exercise that involves either holding a position (historically related to martial arts stances) or resisting against an immovable weight (pushing or pulling a metal railing that won’t move). In the world of fitness, isometrics are generally used by Pilates trainers, physical therapists, and lifters.

And in my opinion, most of these people use isometrics incorrectly:

Pilates usually caters to a female audience and often uses isometric exercises with the mindset that it will exercise the body without building muscle bulk.

Thus, isometric exercises are often associated with pastel colored yoga mats and three-pound dumbbells. But many of you already know that females do not grow muscle the same way that males do, so I will save that argument.

Physical therapists use isometrics sparingly for patients with injuries. The isometric exercises are used to maintain muscle function until the patient has healed enough to return to weight training for proper rehabilitation. This is from an incomplete understanding of how isometric exercises function.

Finally, some lifters will use isometrics in the same way that partial training is used. When there are sticking points in their lifts, isometrics will help to strengthen the movement in that range of motion. Otherwise, isometric exercises are rarely seen.

All of these applications are viable, but they show only a moderate understanding of isometrics. Isometric exercise training has a few different applications, two of which are most important: muscle growth and connective tissue training.

Isometrics for Muscle Growth

You can develop muscle using isometric training, but doing so using isometric holds, such as doing a plank or holding a heavy weight until your muscle fatigues, is not the most ideal way. There are active and passive isometrics.

Active isometrics, which involve you exerting force to fatigue your muscle, will develop muscle and strength much quicker than passive isometrics, such as holds and stances.

You can make a hold active by adding tension, such as driving your feet into the ground during a wall sit, rather than just seeing how long you can hold the stance before your legs collapse. This is useful for more than just sticking points because isometric exercises can indeed aid the full range strength.

Think about it this way: when the brain tells a muscle to contract, it only activates certain motor neurons to contract the muscle, but the entire muscle contracts.

Since a heavier object requires more strength, the muscle fires more motor neurons to increase contractile strength, but the whole muscle still contracts. In order for isometric exercises to only strengthen the muscle in a certain range of motion, the muscle would have to contract in parts.

As long as you put forth an appropriate amount of strength, preferably maximal, into an isometric exercise, it can and will strengthen the muscle as a whole.

In fact, many performing strongmen use isometric exercises to develop the strength to bend metal wrenches and scroll pieces of steel with their hands.

Try wrapping two thick pieces of cloth or leather around a wrench and try with maximum force to bend it. You will fatigue your muscles quickly, but you will also find that with practice your hand strength will increase exponentially.

Thus, using maximum tension in isometrics will also save you time, as opposed to doing a hold for hours at a time.

Isometrics for Connective Tissue

In terms of physical therapy, the wrong aspect of isometrics is being viewed. Often, the injuries that require the most rehabilitation are tendon or ligament injuries.

These connective tissues have relatively low blood flow and take much longer to repair. Isometric exercises develop the strength of the tendons more than muscle strength.

So, for physical therapy, isometrics should be utilized more for their tendon strengthening aspect than their muscle maintenance potential. Isometrics are ideal for tendon injuries because there is tension of the tendon but no movement, so the tendon avoids strain.

It is best to do isometric exercises for tendons in the strongest range of the movement.

Someone with elbow tendonitis will want to perform isometric exercises with their arm almost fully extended to have the least possible strain on the tendon.

Bud Jeffries, the first man to squat a thousand pounds from the bottom position, suffered a knee injury while running years ago. Using isometric exercises, he repaired the injury and got back to doing things like 625lb Zercher squats.

Isometrics Versus Weight Training

Weight training emphasizes movement, muscle strength and size, neurological strength, and technique.

I have put technique last, but it is perhaps most important. I have heard attacks on the merits of weight lifting to the effect of, “Squats will hurt your knees,” or, “You can easily tear a muscle.”

You can avoid doing either of those things one of two ways: sitting at home watching television and engaging in no physical activity or using appropriate technique while lifting and knowing your body.

For instance, the squat works the glutes, abs, quadriceps, hamstrings, lower back, and more when done properly. Meaning they are done with the feet shoulder width apart, lifting with the hips instead of the knees, and with the butt back. When done incorrectly, the squat works just the quads, and the weight is lifted with the knees, increasing potential for injury.

Weight training can build incredible strength throughout the body. Doing lifts that emphasize the use of many large muscle groups can encourage muscle growth, often more than isometrics has been commonly shown to do. Furthermore, countless stories of weight loss, health benefits, and community have been attributed to weight lifting.

Is weight lifting better than isometrics? Could isometrics possibly be better than weight lifting? On both counts, no. Find a Shaolin monk who has done isometric exercises for years and can hold an easy two-hour horse stance.

There is an incredibly slim chance that he can squat 500lbs. On the contrary, find a powerlifter who can squat upwards of 500lbs, and he may have trouble holding a horse stance or plank for ten minutes.

Both methods of strength training should be incorporated for someone seeking full fitness. Rather than taking sides, a harmony between the two should be reached.

Just like the Tao symbol, yin and yang are in harmony, and there is a little of each side in both. Isometrics trains stability (connective tissue and nerves), but doing so can also give great benefit to movement.

Weight training develops movement (muscles and nerves), but can give rise to increased stability. Adopting both into your workout menu can make all the difference.

References:

1. Mercer, L. “Does Pilates Start With Isometric Movement?” The Nest. Accessed May 5, 2014.

2. Laskowski, M.D., Edward R. “Are Isometric Exercises A Good Way to Build Strength?” MayoClinic. Accessed May 5, 2014.

3. Bryant, J. “Obliterate Your Sticking Points.” T-Nation. Accessed May 5, 2014..

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Nicknamed “The Godhand” for his incredible striking power, Mas Oyama is the only man known to have completed a 300-man kumite, or spar, in three days. With his attacks, even if you blocked them, you’d suffer an injury. He himself was injured during the three-day kumite, but continued to fight nevertheless and was apparently prepared to fight a fourth day, but no one wished to answer his challenge.

Mas Oyama was a true modern warrior, but he didn’t begin as one. Mas Oyama learned his discipline and earned his strength by walking an arduous path in life, and ultimately became the legend he is because of it. Here are four tips taken from the life of Mas Oyama that can help you to become legendary in your own right, and become a powerhouse in your own training:

1. Commit 100%

Mas Oyama’s initial dream had nothing to do with karate; he wanted to be a pilot. He even traveled to Japan from his homeland in Korea to fly in WWII and commit to his dream. He began learning karate from the Shotokan karate founder Gichin Funakoshi and performed well at it, but still wished to fly planes for Japan.

When Japan lost the war, Mas Oyama lost his major purpose, but found another one in karate. Goju Ryu Master So suggested Oyama train in isolation for three years to dedicate himself to karate. At age 23, Oyama traveled to Mt. Minobu and committed to staying on the mountain until his training was complete. He was only able to stay fourteen months, but even so he was more powerful than his counterparts and won the Japanese National Martial Arts Championship for karate.

Oyama wouldn’t have made it that far if he didn’t commit to his goal. He was committed to his first goal, even though it didn’t pan out. He committed to his second and became a national champion. In an age where smartphones and computers pull our attention in many directions, it becomes more difficult to put such commitment into one task. The reality is that if you can’t truly commit to one task at a time, you aren’t putting in your best efforts. This doesn’t mean that you’ll have to love doing the task. Oyama needed letters from Master So to convince him to stay on the mountain when he was only six months in. You too might need a little extra motivation, but if you commit to your goal, even if you don’t complete it, you’ll be successful.

2. Show Your Best At Your Worst

Mas Oyama dedicated to his craft, and once he committed, he couldn’t back down even at his worst. After winning the championship, he returned to the mountains to finish his training and descended like a beast on the karate world. His power was immense and uncontested, but even he had moments of near fatal injury. Oyama fought 300 karate matches in three days, full-contact and non-stop fighting to the hundred. This means no breaks or breathers while fighting one hundred men each day. Even if you begin as a beast, the matches have to wear you down.

Oyama demonstrated his true worth by not only enduring these fights through injury, but also winning every fight. He had incredible strength, but his strongest ability was that he didn’t submit in the face of injury or fatigue. He could be his best even at his worst.

This brings me back to something my high school wrestling coach, Jack Conroy, told me at a meet: “Don’t let them see you tired.” This was motivating for me, and it was something that I took from Oyama’s life as well. Your competition may beat you up and down, but show them you’re determined to survive, to win.

3. Body, Mind, Spirit

Oyama trained on the mountain rigorously, twelve hours a day with no rest days. A training menu like this surpasses physical standards. You have to dig deep into your mental and spiritual powers to maintain such a regimen. Isolated on a mountain, there was no one there to judge Oyama or criticize him if he took a day off. Nevertheless, he pushed himself to train each day, which not only earned him the strength to match his nickname “the Godhand,” but also the mental and spiritual fortitude to be in society and maintain his philosophies and principles.

This is something that is underemphasized – physical training also trains your mind and spirit. When you dedicate yourself to getting that final rep or holding that contraction for just one more second, you build on your mental powers each time. You become more energetic and lively. You become more focused and open. You develop your body, mind, and spirit.

4. Simplify

There is a Japanese maxim for martial arts that states, “One strike, certain kill.” That is to say, when facing an opponent, you should be able to defeat them with your first strike. Oyama took this to heart in his training. Rather than developing his style to have impeccable technique, he simplified it for power. He believed that having the physical strength and power to deal one-hit defeats to your opponents was primary to footwork and techniques.

By simplifying his goals, Oyama was able to spend his time focused on honing his best weapon, which was his striking power. If Oyama punched you, you would have an injury whether you blocked or not. That was the goal of his training. It was this simple goal that allowed Oyama to end many of his kumites in mere seconds with one strike.

When in training, it is best to simplify. There will be new fitness programs every year as long as profit can be made, but unless these programs focus on the simple fundamentals of strength, they won’t give you the results you need. There were nearly as many fitness programs during the era of old-time strongmen, but they developed incredible strength nevertheless. Oyama had the most basic of equipment when on the mountain – he had nature. You don’t need complicated equipment or training to advance yourself. You just need intensity and commitment. You need to build yourself up in body, mind, and spirit. That way, even on your worst training days, you can perform like the best.

References:

1. “Sosai Masutatsu Oyama – Sosai’s History.” (accessed November 23, 2013).

2. “Sosai Masutatsu Oyama – 100 Man Kumite – The ultimate test of physical and mental perseverance.” (accessed November 23, 2013).

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