Prisoner's Fitness: Exercise is a belief, a way of life

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Prisoner's Fitness by Paul Weide

Author Paul Weed spent 19 years in America's harshest prisons, where he gradually unearthed one of the oldest fitness methods, a long-lost philosophy of power in commercial society, and thus became one of the strongest people on earth — allowing him to survive with dignity.

After his release from prison, he put together this set of skills and made them public – the most precious gift he has ever given us.

This is not a book that teaches you to practice "cute muscles", but a book that teaches you to practice the strength you can use, the strength of the limit, the power of survival.

Selected excerpts

1. Push-ups are the best upper body exercises, which can not only enhance our body strength, create strong muscles, form strong tendons, but also allow the thrust muscles of the upper body to work in harmony with the abdomen, lower back and lower body.

2. The most important push-up exercise should still be done slowly, after 2 seconds to the lowest point, insist on 1 second, and then use 2 seconds to return to the highest point, and then immediately lower the body.

3. Anyone has the potential for self-redemption, no matter where they are.

4. For all my students, I recommend practicing rhythms for 2 seconds, 2 seconds up, and 1 second pause in the end pose. You should maintain this speed in all series, at least to the fifth type.

5. A large amount of exercise that lasts for a long time will create physical strength and endurance, but it will not build muscle and strength. The real development of muscle and strength depends on high intensity rather than long hours of training. Quality is higher than quantity, which is the meaning of strength.

6. Remember that when doing pull-ups, the body should never be completely relaxed and thoroughly stretched at the lowest point of the action, because this will shift the pressure from the muscles to the ligaments that connect the joints, which is not good.

7. Exercise is a belief, a way of life.

8. The most effective way to warm up is to practice what action, just warm up with the low-difficulty version of this action, and do 2 to 4 sets of high-frequency, increasingly difficult exercises.

9. The primary purpose of the human body's evolution over millions of years is to be able to make its body move flexibly, rather than lifting heavier and heavier foreign objects in the same posture day after day.

10. True strength comes from the hips and legs, not the upper body and arms. As long as we are not floating in mid-air or sitting with our legs off the ground, all the movements of our upper limbs depend on the power transmitted by our legs. Upper body strength is important in many sports, but without a strong lower body as a foundation, upper body strength is useless.