Grind Style Calisthenics
Text Copyright 2019 Matthew J. Schifferle
All Rights Reserved
ISBN- 9781080754236
The information provided in this book is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. This book is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, to diagnose or treat any medical condition. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical problem, consult your own physician. The publisher and author are not responsible for any specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision and are not liable for any damages or negative consequences from any treatment, action, application or preparation, to any person reading or following the information in this book. References are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute endorsement of any websites or other sources. Readers should be aware that the websites listed in this book may change.
Cover photo and design by Chris Clemens at Thinkprilgrim.com
Dedicated to Paul Wade, Al & Danny Kavadlo, John Bruney, and John Du Cane.
Thank you for generously sharing your wisdom, knowledge and experience to inspire us all.
Table of Contents
How a 20-Year Long Quest Lead Me to the Promised Land of Grind Style Calisthenics
Grind Style Calisthenics may very well be the simplest and easiest way for you to build strength and muscle.
Period.
I know that's a tall claim to make, and I didn't write it out of any false hype or salesmanship. I wrote it because Grind Style Calisthenics (GSC) may be the best way to eliminate the guess work from building an impressive physique through bodyweight training. After reading this book, you will no longer be distracted by trends that tempt you to program hop from one routine to the next; nor will you waste hours of your time hoping to achieve results through blind luck. Every chapter contains information that will empower you with the clarity and confidence to know exactly what to do, in every workout, to get the results you want.
What makes the Grind Style Calisthenics program so effective?
GSC is not another workout program or progressive calisthenics system. There are already enough of those in the world as it is. Instead, GSC is a collection of simple, yet very powerful, tools that will teach you how to progressively control your own body. The more neuromuscular control you develop, the more youll unleash your inhibited potential and make every rep, set, and workout more effective for building muscle and strength.
Who the heck am I?
My name is Matt Schifferle, and Ive been studying the art and science of physical training for over 20 years. Ive practiced a wide variety of disciplines, from martial arts to kettlebells and Ive never been lacking in the discipline and motivation department. Yet, despite my best efforts, progress used to be an elusive and random occurrence. It didnt matter how much I learned or how hard I worked; making progress was always hit or miss.
After years of trying to sift through all of the conflicting fitness information, and trying to work myself to death, I came to the profound realization; that neither hard work nor endless education were the path to success.
This simple realization inspired me to search for the ultimate answers in fitness. My quest has lead me down many rabbit holes, and I still continue to share my enlightening discoveries through my YouTube Videos and Podcast at the RedDeltaProject.com
One of my most empowering discoveries was that training success, towards any goal, boils down to the creation, and manipulation, of muscle tension. Everything from lowering your handicap in golf, to running a marathon depends entirely on how well you can use your own muscles. Of course, this same lesson also applies to developing strength and building muscle as well.
Its taken me over 20 years to learn and prepare the information in the next several chapters and its my sincere hope that this book will help you accomplish amazing things for the next 20 years and beyond.
Be fit live free,
Chapter 1
The Body Transforming Laws of Muscle Tension
Muscle tension is the active ingredient in your workouts and its responsible for the results you want. So if you want to get bigger and stronger, or get rid of joint pain, your ability to produce and control muscle tension is the path to those results. Since it's so important, let's get right down to what tension is, what it is not, and the natural laws that give you the power to control it.
Tension Law #1
Its all in your head
Muscle tension is the product of your neuromuscular system. That very term neuromuscular highlights the origin of tension and how you control it. When your muscles contract, they are responding to an electrical signal they are receiving from your nervous system. The origin of that signal is your brain.
It's crucially important to understand the origin of muscle tension because it gives you the power to control your tension at the source. Without this essential awareness, your ability to produce, and control, muscle tension is left up to chance and hit-or-miss workouts.
You can feel this process in action right now. As you're reading this sentence take a moment and flex a muscle, any muscle in your body. You don't even have to contract it very hard, just tense it up and hold that tension for a few moments.
Take a second and feel that muscle contracting. Note the sensation and savor it like a connoisseur. Now let it relax and release the tension. I know it's a simple exercise but observe that there was nothing external (other than these instructions) that made your muscle contract. There wasn't a fancy weight machine or heavy piece of equipment, that made your muscle turn on. You weren't practicing a sport or exercise technique either. You make the conscious choice to put tension into that muscle and hold it there for a few seconds. I also didn't tell you which muscle to contract; that part was up to you. It was a completely conscious choice on your part to help you understand that all of the instructions in this book are dealing with the deliberate pro-active use of creating and producing muscle tension.
The bottom line is that you cannot make any muscular gains without first working toward a stronger visualization of your training first.
Tension law #2
Producing muscle tension is a learned skill
It took me a long time to understand this lesson after years of sub-par workouts. I always wondered, why would a set of squats make my quads burn one workout, but then I would hardly feel those same muscles working during the next workout? Sometimes, an exercise could feel very different from one set to the next or even change over a few reps.
It was always a mystery until a fellow trainer gave me a simple exercise to help me with some chronic knee pain I was experiencing. As it turned out, I had poor tension control in my hamstrings, and he gave me a simple isometric technique to make my hamstrings stronger.
At first, it didn't feel like the exercise was doing anything at all. Even so, it was a simple exercise, and I could do it any time I was standing so I got in the habit of practicing it throughout the day. It took about three weeks of daily practice before I started to notice a slight tingling in my hamstrings. After another few weeks that tingling had grown into a full on burn. After a couple of months, I started to notice I was using my hamstrings more when I would stand up out of a chair or climb a flight of stairs. As my tension control improved the stress on my knees disappeared.
