I love picking up heavy things. But am also a huge fan of bodyweight exercises. Bodyweight training is far more versatile than most people give it credit for.
Throw in some implements and they make for some of the toughest and funnest movements out there.
What’s your favourite unorthodox bodyweight exercise?
Mobility > flexibility.
As a grappler there’s no point being able to get into a extreme range of motion if you can’t generate any tension there.
Here’s a little compilation of some fun hip mobility work. Most of these are not regular parts of my training, they’re tests I will do once in a while for fun. The training I do for it is simply training with as full a range of motion as I can.
I keep telling people!
You don’t need anything fancy to get stronger.
I wanted to get some wrist work done and the thing that seems most appropriate where I was. If you understand the movements, you can find solutions everywhere.
My first time playing with Chinese stone locks.
These are training tools dating back likely over 1000 years, and involve swinging, flipping catching.
Caught up with @kiba_berlin who makes these excellent replicas and got a chance to throw them around. I will definitely be picking up some myself!
You can look up at the stars and marvel. Or you can pull out a telescope and start measuring light-years.
Intellect is valid, but not really required to enjoy the night sky.
Jiu-jitsu is the same. You can intellectualise it forever. But, you don't have to.
It was a true pleasure to finally sit down with @raspberry_ape for a good chat.
Comment STARS and I'll send you the full conversation.
And drop a đź’Ş if you want to see him start Arm Wrestling.
Something tells me he may be interested, especially if we can get @jujimufu as a super match...
This is South metope 1, taken from the side of the Parthenon in Athens and displayed in the Acropolis museum.
The Parthenon, built over 2500 years ago, is a colossal structure, considered the pinnacle of Ancient Greek architecture. Along the south side are 32 relief statues depicting events of the Centauromachy; a battle between the Lapith tribe of humans and the Centaurs. Caused by the Centaurs getting drunk at the Lapith kings wedding and trying to abduct the bride. It serves as an allegorical story of civilisation over barbarism.
What will stick out in this image to anyone who grapples is that this is quite obvious a guillotine choke/front headlock. Whilst to some this may just amuse, to me this image has always spoken deeper. When we grapple we are engaging in a deeply human experience dating thousands of years into our past.
What is perhaps more fascinating is that there is no direct lineage. The guillotine as a “technique” was not passed down from master to student from Ancient Greece to today. These positions are inherent to the human body, they emerge organically. Wipe the collective knowledge and memory of all humans, have them grapple, and they will once again discover the guillotine, alongside many other fundamental grappling positions.
If you want to go even deeper; with this statue in particular, it’s the centaur, the representation of the uncivilised, the chaotic, the natural world, that is performing the technique.
Whilst we’ll never know if it was intentional, to me this says one thing: Grappling is natural, it lives within us all.
Furthermore, never let “order” take that away.
7 weeks of travel down. Far East leg done. 15 gyms. 13 flights.
Koh Samui > Bali > Perth > Sydney > Tasmania > New Zealand > Kuala Lumpur > Penang > Singapore.
Feeling truly grateful to experience the full spectrum of human connection. Catching up with friends I haven’t seen in more than a decade, spending time with close friends I don’t get to see often, deepening friendships with people I knew a little, and building relationships with people I’ve never met before.
Don’t believe the internet, the world isn’t as bad as they’re making out. Find the good.
Next leg: Europe.
Whilst in Australia it was awesome to catch and learn from the Aussie grip guy himself @josephhodgson6
Not only an absolute beast, but one of the truly great minds in grip.
It will have to wait til I’m home, but I’m looking forward to training for the inch again.
