How To Increase Your Pull Up Numbers Today!!

If you're one of the many people frustrated because you've hit a sticking point with your pull ups/chin ups, if can't seem to increase the amount of reps you perform, then I've got some suggestions for you! There are a number of ways to go about improving your chin up / pull up reps but today we'll look at four different ways that just might help you in your quest!

Switch Up Your Grip: Try palms facing towards your body (chin ups) and palms facing away from your body (pull ups). Try narrow grips (hands close together) , regular grips (shoulder width for chin ups, just outside the shoulder for pull ups), and wide grips (neutral grip for chin ups, way outside shoulder width for pull ups. By mixing your grips you'll put a greater emphasis on different muscle groups that my be neglected during your regular pull up or chin up workouts. It will also help you break out of the "same old, same old" of your basic workout routine.

Try Drop Sets: Drop sets are a great way to perform a high number of repetitions that you wouldn't normally be able to perform in a straight set. And example of a drop set would be to do 10 chin ups on your first set, rest 30 seconds, then perform 9 chin ups on your second set, rest 30 seconds, then 8 on the third set. Continue in this fashion until you hit 1 or 2 reps. If you were to perform this drop set as described you would have pumped out 55 chin ups in total!

Embedded Pauses: Adding embedded pauses to your chin ups and pull ups is an excellent way to eliminate any weakness you may have in a certain area of the pulling or lowering phase of the exercise. If you're weak in any area of the pull up or chin up than it could result in a lower number of reps than you're truly capable of performing. Try performing your pull ups/chin ups with a 3-5 second pause at the top, eye level, 3/4 of the way down, and full hang of positions of the exercise. Think of your pull up as an elevator stopping at 4 floors on the way down.

Practice, Practice: Remember, that sometimes all you need is to treat your training as practice to increase your reps. Try performing the "greasing the groove" method. This would involve performing a few pull ups/chin ups multiple times throughout the day, not during your actual workout, and not any where near your maximum amount of reps. If you were to do 6 chins in the morning, at lunch, in the evening, and before bet that would add up to 24 chins during the day and some quality practice without maxing yourself out at all!

Just remember that with practice and dedication you can reach your goals regardless of what they might happen to be.

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The Easiest Way To Achieve The Muscle Up!

 A little while ago I made a post on here about getting your first muscle up on rings. It was pretty detailed and included a great video as well. However, I did forget to mention one very important method of helping you achieve the muscle up on rings. Using a resistance band to help assist you through your muscle up is excellent way to work towards performing your first muscle up!

 I've found this method to be one of the best ways to progress towards performing a "no kip" muscle up. The use of the band helps reduce the percentage of your own body weight that you're actually lifting. I used simple yoga/pilates bands that you can pick up from a local Wal-Mart, they come in three different levels of tension strength. Simple use the band with the heaviest tension at first, and then move to the medium and light tension bands as you become stronger.

 Check out the video above for a detailed instructions on how to use resistance bands to aid you on your quest to performing your first muscle up!

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How To Gain 30lbs Of Muscle With Body Weight Workouts!

"How do I gain muscle fast and without gaining too much body fat?" , that's easily on of the most common questions asked by young men (and some women) to any fitness expert in the world. Regardless of where you live, if you're a fitness expert you've been asked that question in one form or another. This subject has been covered countless times in magazines, online articles, videos, books, and just about any other form of media know to man. Yet, people keep asking the same question time and time again. Opinions vary from person to person , from expert to expert, but some things remain constant.

- You need to eat, A LOT!

- You need to lift heavy

- You need to rest

- You need to avoid too much cardio

There's also a strange stigma attached to both body weight training and primal/paleo diets being unable to build any significant muscle mass. So, with this in mind I decided to take it upon myself to experiment and see just how much muscle mass I could put on following these rules and without deviating from my "primal diet" too much (other than allowing for dairy) and using a body weight based workout program. I needed to see just how much mass you can build using the foundation that I have built Jungle Fit upon. So starting early June 2011 and running through to the end of Sept 2011 I followed my program and the results were surprising to say the least.

By following an intense body weight based program, upping my calorie intake of my primal diet a lot, adding around 1L of milk a day, extra protein powder, and some sweet potato, my body weight shot up from 145lbs to 180lbs!

That's a 35lb weight gain in around 3-4 months! I out grew all my clothes, I had to buy all new shirts because my back, arms, and shoulders were too large, and my pants went up only one size from a 30 to 32. Not too bad for a 35 lb weight gain!

In the video above I've talked about it in a little more detail and displayed pictures as for the change. In the future if you guys want me to go into greater detail on the subject then please leave comments on youtube or this blog and I'll provide workouts, meal plans, or even create an ebook detailing everything involved.

So long story short, anyone who says you can't gain muscle mass or impressive strength from body weight training is completely misinformed.

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The "Immortals Workout"

The internet is buzzing with talk about what kind of workouts the actors in the upcoming "Immortals" movie did to achieve their lean physiques. It's not rocket science, they eat clean and worked out like dogs for hours each day. When they weren't in the gym they were on set training fight sequences, so all in all it ended up being around 6-8 hours of physical work per day! Now granted only around 2-3 of that may have been from actual planned gym time with a trainer, but still it's a insane amount of work!

Now, it's completely possible to achieve a lean and athletic body without killing yourself for hours on end in the gym. Remember these guys had a dead line to meet and had to look a specific way. Not to mention lighting, shading, and after effects help you look your best when on film. For most people a clean, paleo/primal diet, coupled with heavy lifting, and high intensity total body workouts will do the trick. Best of all these workouts don't have to be hours on end ... heck, they don't even have to be 30 mins!

I've put together a small sample of a workout that will help you build lean muscle and promote athletic development and you can perform it in about 30 mins or less. Remember that if you can't perform a specific technique to use a progression that is slightly less difficult. I've outlined a ton in the ebook "The Body Weight Solution" as well as on the Jungle Fit YouTube channel. Hope you guys enjoy the workout, let me know what you think!

- Tim

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Tired of not getting results? Looking for expert advice and coaching? Try Jungle Fit Online Personal Training and work with Jungle Fit founder Timothy Bell personally. 

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The Fast 50 Workout!!

The "Fast 50 Workout" is something I came up with the other day when looking to get a solid, well rounded, total body workout in a short period of time. It involves only 3 exercises but smashes every muscle in the body through large movements and full ranges of motion. If your looking for a fast and intense workout that can be completed in very little time, then this one should peak your interest. It also involves only one piece of equipment "The Jungle Gym", it's one of my favourite pieces of equipment and has multiple uses within your strength and conditioning routine.

The whole workout is made up of suspended tuck knee push ups, low body weight rows, and assisted pistol squats. You start the workout with suspended tuck knee push ups. The goal is to perform 50 suspended tuck knee push ups in total. You do as many as possible until you fail out, then move to your rows and perform as many rows as you did push ups, then move to the assisted pistol squats and perform 10 per leg alternating legs each time. Then without any rest move onto the tuck knee push ups again etc.

Again, you want to perform 50 total suspended tuck knee push ups, so in the first round lets say you hit 20 push ups, then you would perform 20 rows, and 10 single leg squats per leg. Then lets say in the second round you performed 5 push ups, then you would perform 5 rows, and 10 single leg squats per leg. So in those two rounds you've performed 25 reps of push ups, so you're half way there. All you have to do is try to complete the workout as fast as possible with perfect form.

I hope you guys enjoy this workout, let me know how it goes in the comments below!

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Jungle Fit Online Personal Training 

Tired of not getting results? Looking for expert advice and coaching? Try Jungle Fit Online Personal Training and let an expert do the work for you! Work with Jungle Fit founder Timothy Bell personally!. 

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Crush Your Core With L-Sits!

The first function of your abdominals and “core” is to help stabilize your body/spine and ensure that you don’t break over back wards or spin all the way around during movement. There are numerous techniques and exercises that may be used to help strengthen your core/abs and today we’re going to be discussing one of my favorite ones, the L-Sit.

The L-Sit (or half lever) is a technique that is used predominantly in the sport of gymnastics, and I have borrowed to incorporate into my own (and clients) strength training and strength conditioning routines. The L-Sit helps strengthen the abdominal muscles, hip flexors, and absolutely crushes the “core”. On top of this, unlike many other “core” or abdominal exercises the L-sit places a tone of tension and demand on the triceps, shoulders, forearms, and quads, making this a truly total body and high tension technique. The L-Sit is an intermediate technique, so it’s important to be very comfortable with basic exercises such as push ups, planks, side planks, and dips (just to name a few) before attempting the L-Sit. The L-Sit is also a key exercise to master before moving on to more difficult techniques such as the front lever and human flag, two techniques that are covered in my upcoming e-book “Jungle Fit Advanced Body Weight Exercises”. As with any body weight exercise it takes time, practice, and the correct progressions to help you achieve your goal of performing your first real L-Sit. Let’s take a look at some progressions that I like to use in in my EBooks and  Jungle Fit Body Weight Training Method.

Tuck Knee Raises/Holds: To perform tuck knee raises simply set up your parallel bars or Lebert Equalizer about forearm length apart. Now grip the bars as you would to perform dips, press down into the bars and raise yourself off the ground, bend from your knees and raise your knees up towards your chest, then slowly lower them back down to the starting position. Go for a set number of repetitions or for a set period of time. Another great technique to help you progress towards L-Sits are tuck knee holds. To perform these simply raise your knees towards your chest as you would during the tuck knee raises except this time stop once your thighs are parallel to the floor. Hold that position for as long as possible. During both techniques try to keep your back straight and attempt to keep your hips/butt from poking backwards. Once you’ve become fairly confident with both of these techniques you can move onto performing single leg extended L-Sits.

Single Leg Extended L-Sits: An great technique to practice and become comfortable holding once tuck knee holds have become too easy is the single leg extended L-Sit. To perform this set yourself up the same way as you would for your tuck knee holds, only this time extend one leg as far as you can without compromising your form. It’s natural for most people to be unable to extend there leg fully at first, but over time you’ll be able to extend the leg a little further until you’re holding a single leg extended L-Sit with a fully extended leg. Hold for as long as you can, be sure to switch extended legs on each set. Once this has become far too easy, then it will be time to attempt the full L-Sit hold.

The L-Sit: The L-Sit is set up no different from the single leg extended or tuck knee hold, the only difference is that you’ll have both legs fully extended. The goal is to have your legs completely parallel to the ground and have your body actually look just like a floating letter “L”. Attempt to keep your back straight, toes pointed, and knees completely extended. This is an intermediate technique that can take some time to master and feel fully confident while holding, so take your time and treat your training as practice. Before you know it you’ll be holding your first full L-Sit and looking to bigger and badder techniques!

- Tim

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The Lebert Equalizer

One of the most portable and versatile pieces of fitness equipment ever made!

Great for a ton of body weight exercises such as dip, rows, push ups, hurdles and gymnastics movements!

Check it out by click this writing! 

Is Your Child Too Young To Workout?

A question I'm asked a lot and I'm sure is on a few of my readers minds, is my child too young to start working out. The answer is simple ... but complicated at the same time, no your child is not too young to start working out, however it's how they workout and how they perceive the activity. You also need to ask yourself, why is it that you feel your child needs an increase in physical activity.

Most children receive plenty of physical activity (or should) while at school and after school with friends and family. I don't know if you've noticed but most children even take every day activities such as getting on the bus or shopping as an excuse to run, jump, climb, and pretend to be ninjas! Just think about how much a small child runs around our big, big adult sized world all day long. Imagine having to walk or run double/triple the distance to work every single day, or having to actually climb up on to the couch and back down again multiple times per day! I'm sure if this were the case, most adults would be in much better "functional" shape out of sheer necessity. Furthermore, children have excellent flexibility and mobility due to their soft, young, developing joints ... so there's really almost no need to attempt to improve upon that area of your child's health. If you want to see an example on this, just watch a small child next time they want to pick something up that they see on the ground. I can almost guarantee that they will perform a perfect full range squat (ass to heels) and be able to not only balance there, but stand right back up without batting an eye lash. This is something most 20 year old's have trouble with!

So why would you want to introduce your child to a fitness program? Simple, they won't always be a child. That's right, we all (even you) once started out as that small child who ran around, climbed, jumped, rolled, and bent all day long. However, over time for one reason or another most people stop moving and lose all that mobility, flexibility, energy, and strength! But this doesn't have to be the case with your child. By introducing your child to a health and fitness program at a young age you can actually help them sustain this level of fitness forever. Here are my tips to help you and your child not only form a bond, but stay in excellent shape.

1. Make the workouts appear FUN ... make them play time!

If something is not fun, we wont want to do it ... period! So when you're working out with your child please don't think of it as a "workout". Make it fun by turning the workout into a game, contest, or sport. Not only will this appeal more to your child, but it will also instill a healthy sense of competition.

2. Keep the workouts short and sweet.

It can be tough to keep children occupied and interested for a long period of time, so keep the activity short and sweet. Kids love to run, so why not run short sets of sprints at the park with the dog or set up a makeshift obstacle course for them to run through 3 times with out rest against mom or dad?

3. Body Weight is best!

Body weight exercises are safe and can be done, anywhere, any time, by anyone ... even kids! Most martial arts experts and gymnasts begin their training at a very young age using body weight techniques only. I can't think of better examples than those to prove how body weight training is sustainable for your entire life, and will help you maintain the supple joints of childhood while building tremendous strength well into adulthood. It's all a matter of progressing the exercises safely, something I cover extensively in my Body Weight Training Specialist Certifications as well as my book "The Body Weight Solution".

4. Get outside

Most kids (and adults) spend too much time indoors with school, home work, video games, T.V., and the internet. Getting them outside and back into our natural environment will help set a feeling of freedom and prime them for some physical activity. Try heading to the park, take them to a local jungle gym and let them play or workout with you. You would be amazed at what you can do on a simple jungle gym!

5. Get them into some sort of physical activity or sport.

When I was young all I wanted to do was learn martial arts. I was lucky enough that my family found a great school and I was able to become a student. Some children might like gymnastics, dance, hockey, football, soccer, or just working out ... it doesn't matter as long as it's physical and gets them moving!

... So there you have it, those are just 5 tips to help you and your child bond together and improve their future health through fitness. Remember to keep it fun and exciting for them, they'll be getting an excellent workout whether they know it or not!

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* Just a reminder to all that the next Jungle Fit "Body Weight Specialist Certification" will be held in Kingston ON, Canada at the Jungle Fit studio October 22nd, 2011. I hope to see you all there, you can register at www.Jungle-Fit.com

The "Warrior Conditioning Workout" DVD!

This summer I shot my first fitness DVD, it will be released this fall (Fall 2011) and will be available for purchase through my website www.Jungle-Fit.com! It was one heck of an experience, and took a lot more time, effort, and planning than I originally thought. But, in the end I'm beyond happy with the product and I'm confident that the content is better than 99% of the other fitness DVDs on the market, and the over all look and feel is simply AMAZING!

The DVD is titled the "Warrior Conditioning Workout" , and I named it that for a good reason. After months of testing out dozens of workouts on myself and my very sore but excellent clients, it all came down to this one workout. I wanted a workout that would not only improve the trainee's flexibility, mobility, functional strength, and conditioning but also one that would do what everyone wants ... make you look damn good! I wanted people to feel like a warrior at the end of each workout, I wanted them to feel like when it was all over they just got out of a fight ... and better yet I wanted them to feel like a one person army! I can honestly say that this workout hit the nail on the head.

The "Warrior" is comprised of only body weight exercises, meaning you need very little to no equipment to actually perform the workout. It's also broken down into three stages of difficulty, there's a beginner, intermediate, and "Warrior" (advanced) workout. So regardless of your age, sex, fitness level, or access to equipment, you too can work towards building your own fitness level and body to a "Warrior" status! The DVD breaks down over 40 exercises into acute detail so that you can feel confident that you're performing each and every exercise correctly with razor sharp precision. It's almost like having me right there working on the techniques with you! Unlike a lot of other fitness DVD's that are shot from one solid angle, we shot the "Warrior Workout" from multiple angles so that you always see whats happening and have a clear idea how each technique should be performed. The exercises are hand picked by myself and include some of my absolute favourite techniques for improving body composition, shedding body fat, and improving in all aspects of movement. The finishing exercise at the end of the workout is a killer combination of techniques rolled into one excellent sequence that I personally, love to hate! The "Warrior Conditioning Workout" is the perfect DVD for anyone who's looking to deepen their understanding of body weight training and spice up their routine with some time tested and true exercises ... by time test and true I mean thousands of years old! The "Warrior Conditioning Workout" includes exercises that have been used by Indian wrestlers for thousands of years an pre date yoga! Many of the techniques have also be borrowed from various forms of martial arts such as Karate, Judo, Jujitsu, and Wrestling. Such forces as the Marines, Russian Spetsnaz, Spartans have also incorporated many of the techniques that have been included in the "Warrior Conditioning Workout"!

You don't have to be a warrior to look like one! If you're looking to challenge your fitness and take your body weight training to the next level then you need to grab yourself a copy of the Jungle Fit "Warrior Conditioning Workout"!

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Body Weight Specialist Certification!

Challenge your fitness and push your clients to new levels anywhere, anytime, with little to no equipment! The Jungle Fit Body Weight Specialist Certification will not only teach you how to effectively use your own body weight to achieve any fitness goal, but also how to demonstrate and teach your clients how to do the same! Come learn from Canada’s leading expert in the field of body weight strength and conditioning, Jungle Fit founder, and fitness author Timothy Bell.

Here’s Just A Few Of The Highlights Featured In The Jungle Fit Body Weight Specialist Certification:

- Learn how to efficiently progress yourself or clients through hundreds of body weight progressions for pulling, pressing, pushing, squatting and lunging techniques!

- Find out the simple split second changes that make an exercise easy enough for a grandmother to perform or challenging enough to make a gymnast sweat!

- How to use joint mobility as a superior form of warm up and means of preventing injuries

- Learn how to use your own body weight as a superior form of conditioning (Excellent for MMA, Rock Climbing, Parkour etc.)

- Experience how to correctly align your joints to reduce and eliminate common over use injuries

- Learn how to promote mobility/flexibility at the same time as improving strength conditioning

- Learn how to switch up your workouts and keep your clients interested by incorporating unique total body and animal inspired movements

- Gain a large array of body weight only techniques to use by themselves or combined with other forms of training (ex. Kettlebells)

- How to use selective tension to greatly increase strength and stability during various

- Learn how to build and progress programs for any fitness goal using only body weight!

- Everyone who attends the Jungle Fit Body Weight Specialist Certification receives a copy of the Jungle Fit Ebook “The Body Weight Solution”! A $20 value FREE!

Why Train Yourself Or Others With Body Weight Training? :

- All forms of sports and athletics at their very core involve mastering the ability to control your body’s every movement

- Body weight training is safe enough to train anyone of any fitness level. By making a few small changes you can make an exercise as hard or as easy as you like!

- When you gain excess body fat your instantly penalized by reducing the amount of repetitions you can perform

- When you lose excess body fat you’re rewarded by gaining the ability to perform more repetitions of an exercise

- Instantly lower your over head cost as a new trainer! Body weight training requires very little to no equipment and can be done safely and effectively in large groups.

- All body weight exercises demand core strength and tension, developing it more effectively than just about any other form of exercise

- Body weight training develops essential athletic attributes such as balance, mobility, agility, grace and stability

- Body weight training can be used to facilitate fat loss, increase strength, gain muscle, or increase athletic conditioning.

- Body weight exercises can be easily combined with free weights to develop a unique and well rounded fitness program.

Jungle Fit strives to be the leader in body weight strength and conditioning, providing only the most up to date and proven methods of body weight training. If you’re a trainer looking to improve the quality of your services or just a fitness enthusiast looking to take your own training to new levels, then you can’t afford to miss out on the Jungle Fit Body Weight Specialist Certification! If you’re ready to learn how to take your own training and your clients to a whole new level, then we look forward to seeing you at the Jungle Fit Body Weight Specialist Certification!

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Tom Hardy Inspired Bane Workout!

It's that time again! There's another super hero movie in the making, and this time it's a BIG one! Next summer "The Dark Knight Rises" will open up in theatres everywhere, and one of the featured stars went through quite the body transformation. Tom Hardy, the man who will portray the villain "Bane" had to put on roughly 20lbs of muscle in a rather short amount of time. So being the comic nerd that I happen to be I decided to create a body weight only workout inspired by Tom Hardy's transformation to play Bane. This workout is designed to build muscle and increase strength, when things get to easy just add some extra weight by using a dip belt, weight vest, or perhaps a book bag! Hope you all enjoy!

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How To Do A Muscle Up On Rings!! The Tutorial!!

The muscle up is one of my favourite exercises, maybe because it combines two of my other favourites the dip and the pull up! The muscle up is one of the best upper body exercises you can possibly do, it hits just about every single muscle in your upper body. It also combines both pulling and pushing movements, making it a balanced exercise. Today we'll be talking about how to perform a muscle up on a set of rings (Muscle ups can also be performed on a bar as I have written about in the past).

Getting Stronger: First things first, you need to get very comfortable performing both chin ups/pull ups and dips on the rings. You're dips should be deep and you should be capable of performing pull ups/chin ups high enough to touch your chest to the rings. Once you can perform multiple reps with control and tight form, you can move onto muscle up progressions.

False Grip: Before you attempt your progressions you need to be familiar with a false grip on rings. The false grip will allow you to transition from your pull up into your dip. To perform the false grip on the rings, curl your hands in towards in the inside of your fore arms, then grip the rings and allow your the side of your wrists and hands to rest on the rings. Then hang from this position, it may take time to get comfortable holding this grip. See the video above for visual.

Progressions: Once your performing multiple pull ups and dips it will be time to try some progressions to help you achieve the muscle up on rings! A few that I used for myself and also use for my clients are, jumping muscle ups, knees to feet muscle ups, and negatives. Jumping muscle ups are performed by setting the rings just above head height, gripping them in a false grip, and giving a light hop up to help perform the muscle up. Knees to feet muscle ups are performed by lowering the rings to shoulder height and gripping the rings in a false grip, then kneeling down and sitting on your feet. From that position you pull up, and transition into the dip phase by allowing your legs to support your slightly, then finally finishing with a full dip. Negatives are performed by jumping up into the fully extended dip position and then slowly lowering down to the dead hang pull up position. All of these are excellent progressions to help you become comfortable with the muscle up and help you on the path towards performing the full muscle up on rings. Try combining them together.

The Muscle Up On Rings: Now that all the progressions have become a little too easy, it's time to try the muscle up on rings! Remember, keep your elbows tight to the body and don't let them flair out, a kick is ok to help you transition, over time you'll need less of a kick to transition to the dip. Remember to pull to your chest, and get a slight lean back. Most importantly, give it some time ... the muscle up will come and you don't want to rush it and risk injury.

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How To Do The Splits Tutorial!!

Learning how to perform the splits can take a long time depending on your current fitness level, mobility, and state of flexibility. However, it's a great stretch to add your arsenal of techniques and it's just plain impressive!

Start Slow:

Start off by warming up with some basic joint mobility to get the blood flowing and your muscles warm. Then build a base level of flexibility by regularly performing basic stretches such as groin stretches, hip and quad stretches, sit and reach stretches etc. Hold each stretch multiple times in what ever order you choose for 30sec - 1min. Once you feel comfortable with these and no longer find them challenging or intense, you'll be ready to move onto the next stage!

Attempting the Splits Stretch:

Most people will not even be able to lower themselves far enough to place their hands on the ground at first. In order to work towards this I would suggest placing your hands on a bench or chair, lower yourself to the point of tension but not pain and hold for 30sec - 1min. Repeat as many times as you like. Slowly over time you'll be able to lower yourself to the point where you can place your hands on the ground and you'll be only a few inches away from performing the full splits.

Reaching The Full Splits:

Being able to perform the splits takes time, practice, and dedication. It's not the easiest accomplishment and may take months or even years in some cases. Ease into it slowly, take your time and never push through pain! Once you're able to perform the splits you can start to get creative and link it into other exercises such as hand stands and other gymnastic holds.

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How To Do Handstand Push Ups!! The Tutorial!!

Handstand push ups are an excellent test of upper body pressing strength. They're functional, challenging, and fun! However they're not the easiest exercise for most people to accomplish, and most people can't just flip upside down and start banging out a set of them. So lets look at how you too can work towards adding the handstand push up into your array of exercises.

Get Comfortable with Push Ups:

Getting comfortable with basic push ups is an absolute must! This means mastering the push up to the point where its no longer a challenge to you what so ever. You might also want to try Hindu push ups and dive bomber push ups like I've outlined in "The Body Weight Solution". Once you have these down, then you're ready to move to the next step!

Master Pike Push Ups:

Pike push ups are an excellent way to accustom your body to the pressures of handstand push ups. Try starting them with your feet on the ground at first, get comfortable with these and practice them until they're no longer a challenge for multiple reps. Once this has been accomplished try pike push ups with your feet elevated on a bench, bar, or ball.

Time To Go Upside Down:

You'll want to get comfortable holding your own body weight for long periods of time when upside down. So practice holding your hand stands for 1min each while up against the wall. Once you're able to hold your hand stand for at least 1min and you're performing multiple reps of feet elevated pike push ups, you'll be ready to try out the hand stand push up!

Tips:

The hand stand push up is no easy feat, try to keep your feet together as much as possible, control your body weight throughout the entire movement, and don't forget to breath! Come up slowly, a lot of blood will rush to your head and you don't want to get light headed or worse. Take your time, it's all about practice.

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Dips: How To Progress, Achieve, and Challenge!!

Dips, along with pull ups and push ups, are one of my favourite exercises! The dip is an awesome exercise for targeting your upper body with an emphasis on the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Full body weight dips are an excellent exercise to master if you intend to strengthen and build muscle in the upper body or if you're looking to progress to more advanced upper body exercises. The dip (along with the pull up) is one of the "gate keepers" to actually being able to perform the ever elusive muscle up or weighted dips!

There are many schools of thought on how to progress towards performing the dip, in the video above I'll share with you the way that I have found most effective with my clients. It's much safer on the shoulders than a lot of other approaches and allows everyone to get a feel for full dips right from the get go!

The method I have detailed in the video involves using resistance bands laid across your dip bars, in this case my Lebert Equalizer is being used. You place your knee on the resistance band and as you lower your self through the movement the band will actually assist you by reducing the amount of body weight you have to push. It's very effective and so simple! Try it out, let me know what you think in the comments below!

- Tim

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Check out Jungle Fit's selection of functional fitness equipment.

They're all designed to be fun, versatile, and complement any training program!

The Ultimate Upper Body Workout!

Today I thought I would post for you what I like to use as one of my fall back workouts. I like to call it my "Upper Body Blast Workout". When I perform this workout, I use a dip belt or weight vest for some of the movements like the chins or dips at the beginning, but as the workout progresses I eventually lose the vest! The whole workout is only upper body focused, so for those of you looking to build some more strength endurance and muscle mass this one is for you!! If you're finding the workout a little too advanced, then no worries! Just use progressions that are more suited to your fitness level, such as assisted chins instead of regular chins, or knee push ups instead of ring push ups etc. I've outlined plenty of other options in "The Body Weight Solution" and in "The Silverback Program" so be sure to review them! If you don't have a set of dip bars two chairs will do or two benches. Try out the workout, let me know what you think in the comment section below! Until next time, take care!

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The Grinder Workout!

Here's A little workout I like to call the grinder! Give it a try and I'm sure you'll find the name is well suited!

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Captain America Workout!

Check it out this fun and challenging bodyweight workout inspired by Chris Evans and the new movie "Captain America: The First Avenger". It might not actually make you a super hero, but you might feel like one!

- Tim

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Explosive Body Weight Conditioning!

Here's a great body weight only explosive conditioning workout. This one is very intense and a little advanced, so if you're new to training take it easy. If you're not quite ready to perform plyo push ups, lunges, or full burpees then just use regular push ups or lunges to start. For help with burpees just check out this blog post with a video on burpee progressions! If you don't have an Equalizer Total Body Strengthening System (the yellow bars in the video) then you can use gym rings for the rows, and lay down tires/sticks/agility ladder for the hurdles. This workout is great for boosting your conditioning to a new level, it's very athletic and very taxing on your metabolic pathways. Try to get through each circuit as fast as possible using correct technique. No rest between the exercises! Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments below!

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1st Outdoor Workout Of 2011!

All right!! Spring is FINALLY here and I plan on making the most of the nice weather! You all know that I'm big fan of body weight training and outdoor workouts using "unconventional" equipment, so it's not surprising that I LOVE working out on jungle gym equipment.

Jungle gym's provide a whole host of options for an amazing workout! Regardless of the set up you can usually find some sort of bars to perform dips, pull ups, and muscle ups or benches to use for box jumps, step ups, or to place your feet on during elevated push ups. I could go on forever about the fun that can be had with working out on playground equipment ... but I just don't have all the time in the day. So enjoy the video clip, I'll have more out soon including detailed workouts to try at your park!

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The #1 Easiest Tip For Permanent Fat Loss!

A lot of people hate to exercise, they hate the gym, but they know they need to get into shape and change their lives. So here's a little clip for all of you, here's one of my #1 tips for changing your life and how you can drop body fat and stay in shape for life ... without even thinking about it!

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Front Lever Practice!

So before my morning workout I thought I would work a little bit on my front levers. I'm still not fully able to hold a full front lever for very long at all. So in the video you will see me working on straddle front levers. A straddle front lever is the same as regular one only your legs are spread apart making the movement a little easier. I must admit, my form is not perfect but it's still a work in progress. The front lever is a very tough technique to master and it will come in time. So enjoy the video and post comments if you like!

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How To Do The Human Flag!

The human flag. It's one of the most impressive demonstrations of total body tension, control, and strength anyone can ever perform. The human flag involves holding onto a vertical pole and supporting your body weight completely horizontal with only your hands touching the pole. It takes time and dedication to work up to performing this advanced exercise, but with practice and attention to detail you too might be able to perform this exciting technique!

In the video above I have outlined progressions towards performing the human flag along with exercises that will help condition your body and aid you in your quest to perform this illusive technique! In the upcoming March issue of the FREE Jungle Fit Online Magazine I will have a much larger article covering the human flag ... so stay tuned! Until then, enjoy the video tutorial!

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Around The World Workout!

I've always thought that the best exercises are the ones that improve your body/fitness on multiple levels. A technique will improve functional strength, mobility, and coordination/balance is far superior for real life fitness (in most situations) than a technique that only focuses on one aspect. So with this being said, I thought I would put together a workout that combines some of my favourite exercises for improving your strength, mobility, balance, and conditioning. I like to call this workout the "Around The World Workout".

Around the world techniques usually involve moving your body weight in a circular motion, like you're going "around the world". There are a lot of exercises that this technique can be applied to, however they tend to be a little advanced. There are multiple ways to progress towards performing the techniques used in the "Around The World Workout", most of which I've talked about before on the blog as well as outlined in the "Body Weight Solution" ebook.

The workout consists of 3 exercises, the around the world pull up, around the world push ups, and around the world squats. Around the world pull ups are an excellent upper body strength conditioning exercise, if you're a grappler or climber than these will greatly enhance your performance due to the unique shifting of your weight from side to side. Around the world push ups are excellent for improving strength imbalances you may have in one arm, something that is difficult to improve by only performing regular push ups. Around the world squats are an outstanding way to improve your flexibility, knee/hip mobility, and single leg pushing strength. On top of all that, each exercise is a fun new way to challenge yourself and improve multiple aspects of your fitness!

Check out the video above to see each technique and how the workout is put together. Enjoy your trip around the world!

- Timothy Bell PTS

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How To Perform The 1 Arm Push Up!

The one arm push up is an excellent upper body exercise. It works the whole upper body and places it under an extreme amount of tension. The one arm push up is an exercise that is truly a minimalist strength exercise that can be performed anywhere at any time with no equipment. It takes time and hard work to progress towards performing the one arm push up, but there are a few techniques and progressions to help get you there faster! Here's a quick video tutorial of how to progress towards performing a One Arm Push Up ... Enjoy!!

Building Explosive Strength With Body Weight

The ability to move/lift something heavy in a very short amount of time. That's the most basic way to describe explosive strength. The most common ways to train explosive strength is through the use of Olympic barbells, kettlebells, and dumbells, using techniques such as the snatch, clean, push press, etc. But what if you have no access to these tools or just prefer using your own body weight?

Well never fear, there's a solution! It's call plyometric training and it can be applied to just about any body weight exercise. Plyometric is a fancy name for jump training, or explosively coming out of contact with the ground. Plyometrics are a more advanced form of body weight training and can put a whole lot of stress on your joints, muscles, and surrounding tissue ... so it's best to build up towards performing these advanced movements by first mastering the basics. For example, a plyometric push up would be a clapping push up (or the triple clapping one in the video above), but before performing the clapping push up you'll want to master the regular push up and a few others such as the ones demonstrated in "The Body Weight Solution".

Plyometrics are excellent for improving sport performance, explosive strength, and improving functions of the nervous system. So if you're looking to improve your fitness level and gain some explosive strength, perhaps you'll want to give some of the following exercises a try!

- Jump Squats

- Jump Split Lunges

- Clapping Push Ups (Triple Clap Shown Above)

- Burpees (click here for a video)

- Explosive Rows

- Even running is a prolonged plyometric exercise

Remember to work up towards these techniques and build the structural security your muscles and tissue need to withstand the rigors of plyometric training. It will take time, but it's well worth the reward that plyometrics will bring you!

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100lb Chin Up, Heavy Dips! Silverback Style!

For the past while now I've been focusing my workouts on body weight exercises with added weight. Here's a video detailing some of the progress I have made with my weighted chin ups and dips. If you're interested in boosting your strength and want to build it with some different exercises than the standard squat, dead lift, and bench press, then you might want to pay close attention to the youtube channel and this blog!

I'm currently finishing up my second book titled "The Silver Back Program". It will be an entire book dedicated to helping you achieve animal style strength through some body weight only techniques as well as weighted body weight techniques. The book will include progressions, full colour photos, step by step instruction, and an entire program to help you become CRAZY STRONG! I'll write more about it in upcoming blogs, until then enjoy the video!

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Body Weight Complex For Extreme Results!

If you're pressed for time and need a great workout with little to no equipment, why not try a body weight complex? It's a very effective form of training that smokes just about every muscle in your body when done correctly! I have a much more detailed article about them coming up in the January Issue of the FREE Jungle Fit Magazine! It will also include a workout involving the complex shown below! Enjoy!!

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Green Lantern Workout!

So as you all might very well know ... I'm kind of a comic book nerd! So needless to say I'm more than a little pumped for the upcoming "Green Lantern" movie starring Ryan Reynolds. So to help get everyone else excited I've created this Green Lantern inspired workout! Enjoy!!

Ab & Stability Ball Exercises That Don't Suck!

Stability balls are a pretty fun tool to change up your workouts and challenge yourself to new levels of fitness. It's sort of funny how such a simple piece of equipment has so many uses and can do everything from rehabilitate the elderly, to enhance the conditioning of an MMA fighter. The main function that the ball is designed for is strengthening your core and abdominal wall. Now if you're like most people, you probably feel more than a little stupid performing the basic exercises demonstrated on the poster located on your gym wall! Well have no fear!! I've put together a short video demonstrating a few of my favourite stability ball exercises along with a few others that don't include the ball. Each one will challenge your core/abdominal strength in unique and functional ways. If at first you have trouble performing these exercises, there are plenty of progressions and body weight exercises to help you build the strength to perform them, for more info click here!

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